the {let's spread the joy with liberty 'cause my name is on the *pass* list(!)} GIVEAWAY

What can I say that hasn't already been captured in the title of this post?  Not much.  So instead, I'll share with you another glimpse of my excursion into London the other day...

...and a few purchases therefrom.

That's right.  Liberty of London is in {the house}.

...And soon, a surprise sampling of these luscious lawns could be in your house, too.  Am I crazy to part with even the teensiest morsel of these?  Perhaps.  Or maybe I'm just that plain happy that I won't be sitting for any more bar exams in the foreseeable future.  So rather than stingily safeguarding this recently-acquired stash, I've opted to share some of the {tana lawn} wealth with one of you.

Interested in the details? There are three ways to put your name in the proverbial {hat}*:
1.  Leave a comment on this post.  Preferably describing your favorite quilting color scheme, but any comment will do.  
2.  Leave a second, separate comment if you are a follower (old or new!).  Just tell me how you follow.  Feedly? Bloglovin'?  Email?  Psssst.... the last two are on the sidebar ;)
3.  Spread the word.  Then leave another (no. 3) comment letting me know your communicative channel of choice:  Facebook?  Twitter?  Pinterest?  A shout from the rooftops?

*International friends welcome {and I think quite appropriately so.}  But no matter where you reside, if you're a no-reply blogger, please please {please!} do yourself a favor and include your email address in your comment!

The giveaway will close in roughly one week's time {midnight EST on Saturday, October 5}, when random.org will kindly inform me which one of your addresses to pen on a petite parcel-ful of liberty.

Thanks for visiting.  The best of British to you ;)

star light, star bright, which thread to use tonight?

Okay, so by "a few more days" clearly I meant one night :)  Which is fitting considering what I've been working on...

What can I say, the garbage cans really bring out the blues, no? ;)

Enter another Encyclopedia find ;)  If anyone's interested in the block pattern, I'll be updating the INDEX with it (and a few other items) as soon as I've finished (1) fancying it up and (2) writing tutorial instructions for Lynne of Lily's Quilts.

But in the meantime, my dearest thread aficionado-consultants... the quilting question remains:  match twinkle twinkle with "iron grey" Gutermann, or stick with an off-white Aurifil?

I suppose now's as good a time as any to mention I'm thinking parallel straight lines on a diagonal (you know, in a tasteful sort of way).  So once again, any and all thoughts are welcome (and much appreciated!)

Linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced.  For real this time. :)

twinkle twinkle, little star

First off, thank you so much to everyone for your beautiful words about project 1x1.  I'm pretty excited about that one.

...This one too. ;)  In fact, this {mystery} block has been on my wishlist for ages.  So far it has not disappointed.  Of course you'll have to take my word on that, as I want to hold off on showing the block design until the top is fully assembled.  Not because I'm sworn to secrecy {I think we all know I'm not that cool} but because I've been tweaking little details here and there and and figure y'know, what's a few more days?

So in the meantime, here are some sneaks of earlier stages...

Hint:  The stars in the top row are leftovers... bonus!

Now for the big question... quilt with black thread* or an off-white?(!)

*Up until recently I've been sewing exclusively with Aurifil, but I never thought to order any grays/blacks (truth be told, this is my first time using such dark fabric as a background).  So let's just say I had to dust off my good ol' Gutermann stash for this one.  Of course if you all think lighter thread is the way to go, I have a lifetime supply plenty of Aurifil to turn to ;)

Thoughts?

Edited to clarify:  Linking up {this post over here} with Lee of freshly pieced.

one by one {1x1}

When it comes to daily doses of color-coordinated inspiration, I'm a huge fan of sites like fresh hues, design seeds, and color collective.  But sometimes it's an image itself, and not the palette it produces, that really moves me.  That's what happened when I first stumbled upon the photostream over at 10x10, finding one striking photograph,

after another,

after another.

Needless to say, the images—and what they represent—left a lasting impression.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the organization and its documentary, Girl Rising, "10x10 is a global campaign to educate and empower girls – working to create a ripple effect that will transform communities for generations."  The philosophy?  Educate girls and you will change the world.

So from time to time, I'll be compiling 10x10 colorstories and posting them to the new 1x1 tab.  My end goal is to design+sell quilts inspired by these individuals and donate the sales to the cause.  In the interim, I hope to see them resurface around the interwebs and inspire others in our little community.

Even if it's just one person at a time.

{#girlsareheroes}

p.s. Much thanks to Anne of Play Crafts for her brilliantly helpful (and increasingly intuitive!) Palette Builder.

p.p.s.  To the extent anyone has noticed my absence—there's a reason I saved this for the end, faithful reader(s?)!—I just started a new job and am erring on the side of a little less time in front of the sewing machine (...for the time being).  In the meantime, 1x1 {read:  one by one} is meant to sate some of my creative energy, and spark yours. 

I hope you find it does.  And please, spread the word.

-- Sarah

on {washing} oakshotts

It's been a while since I last laid my hands on my very first oakshott bundle.  Mostly because I was scared to mess with its shimmery perfection.  (Can you blame me?) Having since received a second bundle in the mail courtesy of Lynne, I realized I needed to get comfortable working with this majestic material.  And fast (!)

Being a devout member of Camp Pre-wash, I decided to try my hand at washing the ruby bundle after reading this reassuring post.  The result?  Brand new-looking 'shott cottons.  With a bit of throwback fringe...

On the positive side, the oakshotts really do look new (hallelujah!).  And as an added bonus, now I know exactly what color thread has been interwoven in each of the reds ;)

The not-so-positive?  All that fraying took about an inch off the width of each piece (they now measure ~8" wide rather than 9-ish").  I'm no mathematician (or am I?!), but that makes for quite a bit more than the otherwise expected 5% shrink rate.

So what am I taking away from this?  Next time, I'm going to see if I can't get by with a little water spritz, steam, and a fresh press to help with the pre-shrinking process.  Here's a little preview of what's on the ironing board...

Wish me luck!

So, do you have any advice for working with Oakshotts?

Linking up with Molli @ Lee's :)

once upon a time... {in a forest}

How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof! In such places standing alone on the mountaintop, it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make — leaves and moss like the marmots and the birds, or tents or piled stone — we all dwell in a house of one room — the world with the firmament for its roof -- and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track. 

John Muir,  John of the Mountains:  The Unpublished Journals of John Muir (1938)

...And wilderness week is finally winding down ;)  {Not a moment too soon!}

Short story short, I stumbled across this quote by self-proclaimed "poetico-trampo-geologist-botanist and ornithologist-naturalist etc. etc. !!!!" John Muir while perusing outdoors-inspired prose the other week.  And fell in love.  And decided to incorporate it into this quilt.

Short story long, I always wanted my muted forest to feel like a storytime quilt, but otherwise I had absolutely no idea how to go about assembly or quilting (and that was assuming my machine could manage the wicked thick seams to begin with!).  Once I abandoned the original Ringle/Kerr "Once upon a time" layout concept, I decided to preserve the narrative spirit of that design by using some sort of "text quilting."  

I quilted the letters (helvetica neue black condensed) using Aurifil 2000 (blocks+borders were pieced using 2024).

Alas, how quickly it occurred to me that I had no idea what that text should say.  I suppose I could've composed an original tale, but {fortunately} I first consulted google and found someone (read:  a legend) who captured my sentiments better than I ever could have hoped to.  

Those black+white striped stamen (I think that's what they are?) might be my favorite detail.

To me, Mr. Muir's words deeply resonate with my philosopher-environmentalist soul.

But I know they're not for everyone.

(When I read this to my dad, he paused for a moment before responding, "Well what the heck is that about?"  ...We're alike in too many ways to count, he and I, but really, sometimes I'm more like the orange that fell from an apple tree.)

I cut 12" triangles from some leftover strip-pieced sections used to "frame" each block, and paired them with my go-to organic bamboo goodness.
...Then I realized I had omitted the final border from my calculations and added some opal owl grain in violet ;)

So if you, too, are less than moved by the message, I hope you'll still enjoy the imagery:  a camp of forest creatures surrounded by one glorious {stitched} starry sky for a roof:

The end. ;)

Edited to note:  I've moved the pre-quilting close-ups here and have updated the remainder of this post with new photographs.

blah blah forest blah blah

Evidently it's "Forest Week" here at the house of {no} hats ;)  After picking up the Forest QAL project in April and setting it aside until August, I'm elated to have something to show after hours (...upon hours) of sewing these twelve impossibly "intermediately" difficult blocks:

Ta da!

P.S. The colors are slightly more saturated than they appear in the photo, I just didn't want to mess with color correction at the moment (...Now if only there were a magical FMQ fairy in this "ethereal" forest to quilt this for me!)

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday ;)