Love Liberty Local

I am lucky living where I do.  Its a pretty little city, a short drive from the beach and has the bonus of a friend selling Liberty so should I ever run short, I am only minutes away from a carefully curated supply!  

Jo, aka 'A Life in Lists' has been running her Etsy shop for some years now and her choice of prints is sublime, just the right mix of new and traditional.  It can be a fine line with Liberty between edgy digital prints and old lady chic and Jo is definitely on the right side of this.  She is becoming a part time sponsor here, a new occasional position for small businesses, and has 10% discount up for grabs for my blog readers  with the code VERYKERRY10 (expires 15th December) and she ships worldwide.   Having had the pleasure of seeing all the stock in person in Jo's sewing room I shall take you round her virtual shop, starting with charm packs.  The 'Random' pack is a great place to begin, a quality street, bit of everything selection of 36 x 5" squares:

She also has a beautiful low volume pack which contains many of my favourite quieter prints.  This one literally makes me sigh:

She has a similar but more masculine and modern grey/blue charm pack. 

See what I mean about her stock choices!  If you see anything you like in a small cut that you have suddenly decided you must have more of for clothing or quilting or whatever , let Jo know and she just might be able to get hold of it for you.  I see prints in her shop that I don't see in elsewhere!

If a charm pack is not enough for you, there is the bundle option, 8 fat eighth cuts of your choice, (there is also a 4 option and a mega 18 colour wheel option:

I think my favourite classic print is this green Betsy.  I've used it in my Diamond Ring Quilt (post on that coming very soon) and as a trim on clothing.  The colours are beautiful, I am always drawn to those aqua and green tones, and this is the right level of ditsy floral for me. 

Equally stunning in grey, Betsy

 There are prints aimed at children, small scale cute motifs with huge appeal to children and grown up 40 something women too.  This is called 'Cars', you'd never have guessed right?

Hello Kitty, another Liberty favourite for children and adults.  I saw a toddler child in one of my classes with this fabric as her coat lining!

Or this in Hello Kitty in navy (I have some of this secreted away…)

This is a larger scale print from the annual art range- different 'personalties' designing for Liberty, this is Ornithology by Edwyn Collins from Autumn/Winter 2011.

More art prints, 'Philippa' by Grayson Perry- lots of little bicycles and this print is named after Grayson's wife.  I've made a tunic from this print, great for clothing.

A more recent collaboration is with Jamie Oliver and Rachael Pedder-Smith, this print is called 'Truly Scrumptious' also available on a dark navy background. 

This is one of their more unusual prints with huge amounts of detail which in my head works for quilting and clothing and is a long way from the traditional designs. 'Flora Bo D'

And here are some of Jo's prints in action with Oakshott's Impressions and Quilter's linen in grey: my just finished Liberty Diamond Ring quilt.

Oakshott Liberty Love

Months back, Oakshott fabrics were kind enough to send me a stack of Impressions, a set of 16 colours all shot with a white warp (vertical) thread and I immediately knew my plan, starting with some Liberty lawn from Jo's shop- she lives close by so I got personal delivery.

The next part of my plan was Alexia Abegg's Green Bee Diamond Ring Quilt Pattern available here.   I remember seeing this pattern in multiple photographs a few quilt markets ago and I knew it was perfect for this- big cuts of fabric that will allow the prints and the colours to shine. Liberty and Oakshott are a similar weight so this marriage is a happy one.  The Liberty is more densely woven but they play together very nicely. The background fabric is one of my favourites: Kaufman Quilter's linen in grey which has an etched crosshatch linen style pattern on it but is soft quilting cotton, very quiet but it says just enough.

There are a few practical things to over come in the pattern- drawing a massive quarter circle to start with.  I used my Dura-bac board which is a large gridded piece of cardboard- v useful for pinning and in this case securing a drawing pin.  I bought this at a bootsale many years ago and I see them in charity shops from time to time.

The design looks like it would make perfect paper piecing but the scale is too large so instead I traced all the diamond pattern pieces on to freezer paper including seam allowances.  Because the diamond will form a circle you need to piece with a high degree of accuracy so each seam corner point is marked on the pattern and I then use a pin and fabric pencil to transfer it to the reverse of each piece of fabric.

You can see the pencil dot marked with the arrow below.

Once these points are pinned each I work my way round the diamond in order taking care not to stretch or distort the long diagonal bias edges.

When each diamond is complete I spray and press felt.  Earth Friendly starch it flattens and stabilises the fabric rather than producing a crispy shirt collar effect.   The smell is gentle and natural- I am very sensitive to fragrance of any kind.  I found it invaluable when Lynne and I were sewing up our 500 blocks for the book and I now class it as essential equipment, a bottle lasts ages.

I have just returned to this project after months away and I am around halfway round the ring.  If you are on instagram I have been posting these with the tag #diamondringquilt.

Matching the Oakshotts with my various bits of Liberty lawn is a happy task. I need to get a wriggle on, I am planning this as a Christmas present.

Whilst this project is on the way, I am planning my next with a bundle of Italy which has a silver grey warp.  I saw these at retreat when Michael and the Oakshott team set up the stall for the Saturday night market.  I am thinking something with a simple block and lots of light prints, Ohio Star is my block of choice and I have a pack of Denyse Schmidt charms that are shouting me- just need to make a sample to check on sizing and scale.  You can see the silvery threads peeping through the Oakshott colours below.

Thankyou to Oakshott, you know how to make me very happy!