Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Quilt Design Wall Wannabe

Quilt Wall Quilt Wall

So I've been wanting make my own quilt wall for awhile now, then I saw Heather's post about her quilt wall and every time I went into Home Depot, I forgot what that pink board was called. Also, I didn't know if I would be able to find room for such a big 'wall' in my house.

Quilt Wall

SO, yesterday I was at Hobby Lobby and saw these big pieces of foamcore, Aha moment. Measuring 32 x 40 inches, the perfect size for my sewing area!

I brought it up, cut a piece of quilt batting to fit it and used a regular stapler to attach it to the board. I had to remove some framed art on the wall but I then just hammered the board directly into the drywall, oops. Hey, nice thing about owning your own home, you can do whatever you want.

I can actually stand pretty far away from it as well, the room is very long. I put my quilt bee squares up to try it out, pretty groovy!

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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Fabric Geekery: Liberty of London and Little Folks Voile

Liberty and Little Folks Liberty of London fabric

Yesterday I made a substantial investment. I purchased two yards of Liberty of London cotton lawn from my favorite local shop; Fancy Tiger but YIKERS, it's pricey! Worth a trip across the pond just to get a reasonable price.

The design I picked is called Yoshie, in charcoal. It also is sold in a cherry red color. It was designed by graphic designer Yoshie Watanabe.

Liberty of London fabric

Anyway, brought it home and pre-washed it, along with my Anna Maria Horner Little Folks voile yardage, which has such a similar hand. The Liberty is more densely woven and of course, the designs are iconic, though the one I bought yesterday is modern. But the weight of the fabric is so similar. I really LOVE the AMH voile and hope she and other designers continue to use it.

It washes so well, makes me want to only use these high thread count fabrics in the future. Normally when I wash quilting cotton, I have to remove it from the dryer and spend a substantial amount of time pulling the fabric apart that have become intwined in one another due to the frayed edges. Yes, I know you can pink the raw edges to avoid this but I'm too lazy. Anyway, I spend a long time cutting off the frays before drying it so they don't get tangled up again in the dryer. The Liberty and voile fabrics hardly fray at all, they are a dream to wash.

And on the topic of Liberty fabrics.... I made my first Liberty blouse back in the 80s when I lived in St. Louis. I still remember picking out the expensive fabric off a roll at a fabric shop that sold high end fabrics. I have no idea where the shirt is now but I used the scraps in a quilt and took a photo. It wasn't as tightly woven as the Tana lawn, you can kind of see that from the photo:

Liberty of London fabric

And lastly, I actually found a scrap of Liberty of London fabric at at thrift shop once! I used it to decorate a linen pillow cover. Now if I could only find an entire roll at the thrift shop, that would be nice. Stranger things have happened, but usually when you're not expecting them.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Rooftops Fabric Alteration

Urban Home Swap

Oh my. I hit a record number of views and comments on this teeny weeny project I started for the {Urban} HOME Goods Swap! I feel like the credit really should go more to Lara Cameron of Ink and Spindle because she created the fabric, I just sewed on bits of color. (and um, it's on SALE) In my next life, I think I will come back as an Australian fabric designer, they turn out the most amazing designs!