something old...

Because who can pass up this challenge?

T-minus 40 days and counting!  So tell me, will you be DWR'ing by December 1st, too?  Who's with me?!

;)

back to linking up with Lee!

freshly cut lawn

And the liberty goes to... #64 Alyce(!), who will soon be receiving this roygbiv spread of 28 tana lawn prints:

Most pieces measure around 5"x10", so think of it as 50+ charm squares headed your way (nearly 1m by weight  {including best press} in all, but who's keeping track? <<<ahem>>>).

The lucky lady mentioned she was digging navy+teal+coral at the moment, so I initially set out to add a few of those notes from my collection. (Clearly) I wound up with a more complete spectrum.  ...Because who doesn't love a little liberty rainbow?  ;)

Hope you enjoy them, and can't wait to see these resurface in your work, friend!  I've got a similar scheme up my sleeve, now if only I could find the time to take it from the sketching+starching phase to the cutting+sewing stage!  #cantcomplainnowthatIhaveajobtosponsormycreativeendeavors

Happy Tuesday!

daydreams and 'shott{ing} stars

For anyone feeling a twinge of déjà vu, it's probably because you've already seen the other half of this quilt...

Or maybe it's because I staged a similarly-sashed quilt on the same split-rail fence.  ...Either way, it might be familiar :) 

This double-sided design is based on a traditional quilt block (BB #3713) named for the fourth brightest star in the sky:  Arcturus.  When I first saw the thumbnail in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia, it was love at first sight.  So I tabbed the page and added it to my ever-increasing wishlist of all things quilty.  (And let's not forget the INDEX list!)

(...No joke about the tabs.  I mean c'mon, how else would I remember all of this INDEX-worthy material?)

Somewhere between then and now, I became fixated on this idea of a day+night design honoring this magical block.  So naturally when I saw that Lynne of Lily's Quilts was calling for proposals for the "midnight" or "dusk" oakshott packs as part of her monthly Made With Oakshott feature, I knew just what to pitch.  Of course at the time I assumed I'd use the 'shott cottons as either the "day" or "night" sky, depending upon which one showed up on my doorstep.  But once I had them in hand, I knew they were destined for more than just the background.

Rather fortuitously, I managed to get my hands of some elusive "twinkle twinkle" while the special delivery—courtesy of Michael Oakshott himself—was en route.  Imagine my delight when the oakshott bundle {shot with blues} turned out to be a near-perfect match to the starry hues in the Constellations print...

Shall we say the stars aligned?  I think so ;)  So I turned to my newly acquired copy of EQ7 and started drawing twinkling midnight skies (no doubt inspired by this lovely spread). 

When the time came to pick fabrics for the daytime sky, I kept going back to this lofty idea of daydreaming, which—to me—involves lots of sketching and thinking and writing and traveling (...and tea).  So text-y, map-y, teatime fabrics it would be!

As for quilting, I opted for closely-spaced diagonal lines that shoot across the stars.  (Because I tilted the blocks on the "nighttime" side, I knew the quilting pattern would match up no matter which side I quilted).

P.S.  A big shout out to everyone who chimed in on the thread color for the nighttime top (let's just say when pretty much all your quilty friends tell you to use grey thread, use grey thread!  Done and done.)

Interesting enough, I just stumbled upon Alison Glass's new "Color Plus" pattern, which incorporates similar skinny sashing with bursts of graded color. The bigger coincidence? Both designs hit the interwebs the same day. I'd say something about great minds..., but I'm not sure I can compare to the creative genius behind the sun print phenomenon :)

And that's that :)  Oh, and I wrote my (drum roll please!) first ever tutorial, which Lynne has kindly posted for everyone to see.  (And judge.  But hey, who's worrying about that? {me!})

Now if you haven't already, head on over to Lynne's for everything you need to know (and more!) about how to sew your own Arcturus-filled firmament :)

...Couldn't help myself ;)  Besides, ever since my order of Lizzy House's twinkle twinkle came in the other month, I've been saving these matching pants for this very occasion.  Because who wouldn't?  :D

Thanks for stopping by!  If you too love traditional designs, be sure to visit the INDEX tab and keep your eyes peeled for lots {and lots!} of "new" (read:  very old) pattern (re)releases over the coming months :)  (And always feel free to drop me a line with potential INDEX candidates if you know of a block that doesn't already have an online pattern;  I'll be more than happy to look into it and see what we can come up with!)

one fish, two fish. blue fish, do.fish.

Okay okay, you got me:  technically they're birds (three little birds, to be precise).  My mind just immediately goes to the sea every time I see Julie of 627handwork's Block Rock'n Marley block.

September was my first month up as quilter for the do.good Believe Circle.  And believe you me, I had big plans for my big debut all year.  And then I pitched said big plans to Lynne of Lily's Quilts for her Made With Oakshott feature.  As Lynne kindly picked said idea in August—and yours truly has a thing about not repeating projects—, I was back at square one for my September do.good design.  (Oy!  ...And also, score! Mad {mad} love for oakshotts over here).

So when September 1 snuck up out of the blue (I think I was in the thick of the forest at the time), I turned to a block I'd had my eye on for ages:  Marley.  As for colors, I asked my bee-mates to—and I quote—"channel our inner Cath and go with scrappy grays and blues (blue birds on a gray background)."  I have to say, sometimes often I can be a bit of a Sebastian-the-crab (as in, "You want something done, you've got to do it yourself.")  So I am being 100 percent honest when I say I could not be more thrilled to see my bee-mates not-so-rasta renditions of Julie's brilliant block pop up in our flickr group:

Ben     Big Mama Quilts     Debora     Nicole

The best part?  That's only half of what's on the way.  (...No pressure to the other half of the Circle ;D).

Anyway, I'm up again in January and this whole "Omigah-I-can-think-of-a-million-and-one-projects-on-my-own-wishlist-but-get-writer's-quilter's-block-when-it-comes-to-group-project-ideas" has me wondering just how to approach this design dilemma next time around.

So to all you veteran bee-members, tell me this:  What's your design philosophy for bees?*

*Do you treat your "to do's" and the bee-wishlist as one and the same?  Maintain two separate lists?  Are particular blocks more bee-friendly? (Apologies in advance to anyone in Believe who has an aversion to paper-piecing). Or do you throw convention to the wind and just cruise along wherever your creative spirit takes you?  (asks Sebastian).  I'm thinking of borrowing inspiration from my own project wishlist (let's be real:  it's just going to keep expanding anyways), but I'm quite curious to hear how others manage it.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!  Much appreciated.  ;)

wip wednesday

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.