Birthday Quilt - girl version

I'm making a couple more signature blocks for some 6 year olds and a 9 year old who will celebrate their birthdays in September.

By the time you are nine, you don't really want a birthday party anymore.  I find that rather sobering.  This whole growing up thing is happening at lightening speed.

The girl version is out of Liberty of London fabric and it needs to go in the mail so I always try to do that one first.  They don't take long really.  With a bit of traffic and a sweet DH behind the wheel I can finish the stitching of one on the ride to San Francisco.

One down, two to go.

A Guide To Quilting and Knitting in Toronto Canada: The Amazing, The Very Nice, and The Elusive

After spending a couple of brief hours exploring the city of Toronto last weekend, I fell in love with the city.

It's one of those places that I have been to several times, but never really got to experience.  I'm sure you can imagine there is a difference between these two things.

My exploration time was very limited, but I learned a lot and can provide some thoughts on what to put on your short list should you find yourself in the beautiful city of Toronto.


1.  The Amazing: A clear stand out

The Workroom:

It's not easy to pick a favorite, and I'm very biased to my own personal taste, but if you can only visit one shop in Toronto it has to be The Workroom.

The shop was teaming with busy quilters taking a double wedding ring class.  I was impressed off the bat with such a difficult quilt pattern and so many eager quilters getting down to business.

They have a policy that they will cut any fabric in the shop in a fat quarter for you (including Liberty of London!) so I picked up a couple of fat quarters.  Their Liberty selection is not huge, but the bolts they do have are beautiful.  They have a really nice selection of Japanese Daiwabo taupe fabrics which are not generally easy to find.  Although I have a zillion taupe fabrics already I had to get just a couple more small pieces.

The collection of mini scissors is also to die for.  They are tiny,  friendly for air travel, and come in all different styles.  Just adorable. 

I have long wanted to get my hands on some sparkle floss from Japan, and could not find it when I was there on my last trip.  Not to worry, The Workroom carries it!!

They have an impressive collection of Canadian-made items including patters by Victory Patterns and Wiksten, and a hand screen printed stuffed animal/embroidery kits by kiriki.

The only bad part about The Workroom was having to leave it!  I am already wondering when my next trip will be.  Some additional photos below.  Please do not miss this incredible, beautiful, and friendly shop!

Note the top image is a photo of the vast fat quarter collection they have for you to choose from. 

I met the lovely Workroom owner, Karyn.  I'm on the left, she's on the right.

 

A view of the bolts of fabric.

Liberty of London fabrics on the left

One the the book shelf areas - Japanese quilting and embroidery books, Daiwabo fabrics

2.  The Very Nice:  Other shops you won't want to miss


The Knit Cafe:

The Knit Cafe was certainly the most friendly of the knitting shops had the pleasure of visiting.  Some locals were there knitting away and the yarn selection was stellar.

They had more Madelintosh yarn than I have ever seen in one place.  My LYS sells out of it almost immediately upon arrival.  I was standing in front of it all wishing I had more space in my bag.

I ended up purchasing a sock yarn ball from a local dyer, Hand Maiden in a green colorway called Casbah.

I met Kristin who is very passionate about yarn and celebrating her 10th year as the owner of The Knit Cafe.  I'm on the right, Kristin is on the left.

Lettuce Knit:Another nice stop was knitting shop Lettuce Knit

I would rate their weekend parking situation as almost impossible; however, their yarn selection excellent.  There were more Canadian brands here than I had ever seen.  The shop itself is not huge, but it very full and well organized.

I picked up some beautiful hand made ceramic buttons and a ball of self stripe yarn by Canadian dyer Rain City Knits in a blue and orange colorway.



3.  The Elusive:  If you can get into these places, you're slicker than I am

Finery Hand KnittingI was interested in this shop after reading about it on Yelp, but I wandered around the mall that it was supposed to be in and I never did find it.  A lot of the signs were in Chinese so I was a little hard pressed to figure it out.  Bummer, it might have been cool

Americo Original

It would have been fun to visit this shop too, but although they were supposed to be open on Saturdays, they were closed with a sign that said they would not be in that day.  I had to drown my sorrow by walking into a bead shop two doors to the right of it called Bling Bling.  That was actually a cool find.  Sorry Americo...I missed you.

What I did on my summer vacation: a visit Purl Soho's warehouse AKA Liberty of London Central

Purl Soho, the beautiful store, is a treat that only those on the island of Manhattan are privileged enough to enjoy.

Clever Californians know the secret of their warehouse located in Tustin.

I stop in there when I can, but the hours are pretty limited (M-F) and they close quite early.

This summer, our vacation was in So Cal with our family, swimming, eating my DH's famous BBQ, and collecting sea glass on the beach.



We had a run over to the Purl Soho warehouse and of course I found a few things.  3 small pieces of Liberty of London fabric found their way home with me, and also some Nani Iro fabrics, just for fun.  Hard to resist them.

Of course the highlight of the vacation was time spent with family, but I will confess that going to Purl was my second favorite thing we did.

Liberty of London Napkins

Liberty of London fabric has become a life-long passion of mine.  Collecting it, quilting with it, getting to touch it on a daily basis.  It's all so soft and delicious.  Like the cashmere of cotton fabrics.

We were running low on cloth napkins, and I had an extra yard of this Liberty of London vintage aircraft fabric.

A sin to create napkins out of it?  Perhaps.

Although, eating breakfast with such softness and beauty...is it really a crime?

These napkins were made from 18" square fabric.  A nice size for a napkin I think.  Maybe the perfect size.

Does your Liberty of London fabric have a higher calling than mine?

Let me know, but while you're at it...pass the ketchup please.

Liberty of London quilt fabric: Lifestyle

When I heard that Liberty of London was coming out with a line of fabric specifically for quilters (over at Diary of a Quilter), I got pretty excited.

When I learned that Purl Soho was having an anniversary sale with 20% off everything, I figured it was a good time to pick up a few small pieces on sale.

The fabric is branded as their "Lifestyle" line, and is indeed in quilting weight.  Off the bat it was quite funny to feel their fabrics in anything besides the silky light base that I am used to, but I think it will be fun and interesting to work with.  

The base they used is quilting weight, but we all know there are various levels of quality in quilt fabric.  I found their fabric to be of high quality, with very clear designs.  Each piece had several colors used (more colors is more expensive to produce of course).  

In the deep recesses of my heart I was hoping that it would be really affordable when I first learned they were creating it...somewhere around $10-$12 per yard.  At Purl, it is $18.40/yd, which I'm sure is the going rate.  

Still it's half the cost of their original base, but my dreams of buying yards and yards of it have shifted to...how about a doll quilt?

See their latest line of super fine (old school) fabrics here:  Tana Lawn.  For me, I think the new fabric is cool, but my love affair with the original is far from over.

 

Modern Objects: Block 2 teaser and OMG Liberty of London

If you loved the first Modern Object block.... the next one isn't far off.

Again, a partner blog will be hosting the link to the free pattern.  

I'm using Oakshott fabrics since they have bold modern colors and lend themselves well to the clean lines of the modern objects.

Check out the photos you can find of how people use Oakshott:  Beautiful.

On the topic of Liberty of London fabric:

I was reading about the recent events at Quilt Market over at Monkey Do blog.

It seems that they will be introducing a quilting weight fabric that is more affordable (applause!!)  but still has that incredible look that they are famous for.

It's called Liberty of London Lifestyle Fabrics.  I am too excited for words.  Anybody who has bought Liberty of London fabrics for around $36 USD / yard...should be excited to know this new line will probably cost a little less than half as much.

Does that mean I can buy twice as much of it?

Liberty of London Fabric...just a little more

Have you tried eating Sushi made out of laser cut seaweed (nori)?

The shapes the cut it in look exactly like Sashiko.

I have to figure out how to get some of this.  Too fun.

Am I avoiding a confession that I picked up a little more Liberty of London fabric from Purl Soho?  Ok, maybe, but hard to hide that fact with that glorious photo up above.

They also have a solid green fabric on sale right now in my younger son's favorite color.  Almost an evil color actually.

Do you collect Liberty of London fabric?  Could you pick a favorite?  What do you to to catalog it?  Have you ever accidentally bought the same fabric twice?  I am not sure if I've done that with Liberty (thank goodness, due to the price tag).

Roll in a Day Photo Project

I mentioned that for this 2nd round of "Roll in a Day" - a photography project where you shoot an entire roll of film in one day and post all the photos, even the bad ones - I decided to join in on the fun.

I loaded my camera with some Illford HP5Plus and ran around clicking photos.

We went all over town that day, as we usually do on the weekends.  Check out a slide show here that includes all the photos I took, even the bad ones. 

The shot above is one of my favorites of the day.  DH with our older son.  They look very much alike those two.

Other photographer participants have started posting their projects to the Roll in a Day flickr group. 

While bouncing around on flickr I noticed a group of quilters in love with Liberty of London fabrics.  You know I had to join that group right away.

I also did a flickr search for the word "scanography" where people put all sorts of things on their flatbed scanners to create images.  At times, this includes their own faces!  Some beautiful things here though.

Did you notice that Purl Soho got more Liberty prints in?  I have not ordered any yet but this one called Red Willow Rose is making me think hard about that.  

Quilting Videos: Yoko Saito vs. Liberty of London

Would You Rather see a video by Yoko Saito about hand quilting, or a video about all the amazing artists that design fabric for Liberty of London?

I couldn't decide, so I watched (and loved) both:

Does anybody out there already have Yoko Saito's book called Floral Bouquet Quilt?  (I think that's the title anyhow...)  Check out this cute video of her on her site talking about some patterns in the book and watch as she demo's her method of hand quilting.  She doesn't use a hoop which I think is very interesting. 

In the Liberty of London video you can hear a bit about how the designers work as they create these amazing (*warning* and addicting) fabrics.

Have you tried the Quilter's Dream batt in wool?  I love their cotton bats, so low loft, so easy to quilt through.  I'm really interested to check out this stuff.  It looks a bit like it might be on the thick side though...hard to tell from a photo, but there is one up on Purl Soho.

The above blossoms were hanging over my side of the fence in my yard.  That makes them my property, right?  Considering they are now in my kitchen...they certainly are!  Let's hear it for the sakura.

Liberty of London - in Japanese!

I could not resist this book when I was at Kinokuniya the other day.

ISBN978-4-7966-7826-1: It came with a little plastic bag with handles. I think it would be good for small projects. It was a bit on the plastic stinky side though, so I am going to air it out first!

Photos include swatches of current fabrics, photos of models wearing garments made of their fabrics, and stories about the fabric designers.

Brian Wildsmith designed a fabric for Liberty that includes old airplanes. Oh, I need to figure out how to get some of that. If you have seen it around, let me know.

My love of Liberty of London Fabrics has lead me to collect them over the years. I have lots of little bits and pieces now and I am almost to take a deep breath and introduce them to my scissors.

Have you ever made a quilt out of their fabric, or sewn up something? I would love to see your photos!

Purl Soho in Orange County, and finally meeting MariRob

So much to catch up on!

When I was in Orange County several weeks ago, I stopped in at the Purl Soho warehouse since I was lucky enough to be there on a week day. (M-F only! Bummer.)

There were lots of friendly folks there to help you with fabric and yarn (danger, this place is so much fun!) but I didn't realize I would meet a fellow blogger.

It turned out that working there on that day was Mari of Marirob blog. Her blog is just beautiful - stunning photos, awesome crafts, and she's a guest blogger for Purl Soho's blog The Purl Bee from time to time as well.

She has the most beautiful baby girl that I think I've ever seen. This baby immediately captured my heart. I had a hard time tearing myself away from looking at how adorable she is in order to buy some fabric, but with Liberty of London fabrics at 40% off...I eventually got down to the business of shopping.

If you are ever in Orange County, California on a week day this place is a must stop. My favorite store in So. Cal.