Monday is all about fabric - #47 - Liberty Society + a bit about the Modern Sewcialites BOM and my word of the year

Let’s sip tea and get comfy

Hey fabric lovers!

I’m drinking cinnamon tea this morning, the same as every morning. Saturday’s mail brought in the newest Liberty Society bundle and it’s all about the blues. Let’s dig in!

Find all Monday posts here.

Product Spotlight

Sashiko is a beautiful and simple style of Japanese hand embroidery. Sashiko needles by Olympus are perfect for beginner and advanced sashiko stitchers alike. The pack includes two different size needles. The longer 2.5″ needles is ideal suited for stitching straight lines, while the shorter 2″ needle works well for stitching curves. These needles also feature a large eye that makes threading cotton sashiko thread a breeze.

PRODUCT DETAILS:
:: Includes 2 Sashiko needles measuring 2.5″ and 2″ in length (6cm and 5cm)
:: Made in Japan by Olympus
:: Feature a large eye for easy threading

Purchase needles here.

Today’s fabric picks

Liberty Society is a monthly subscription club. You receive 10 prints every month. The club is designed to help you build your Liberty stash economically. Ready more details about Liberty Society here. Lust over all things Liberty here.

I don’t have the names of the individual prints this month. Sorry!! But I think we can all agree that they are LOVELY.

This one is my favorite. You can’t tell in my picture, but those little floral blooms are made up of the smallest cross stitch x. It’s just so pretty!

I also really like this blue leafy print. That might be my favorite shade of blue. Is it cornflower blue? Also, the darkest blue, I really like that one!

All of these are going to go very nicely into my stash, I think I was a bit short on blue.

I’m still working on that quilt I mentioned in my last Liberty post. I finished all my blocks, I just need to get the quilt top completed and start moving forward. Why is so hard to complete something when it is for ourselves?

I have started another Liberty project though…..

I’m sure that you know Stephanie from Modern Society and listen to her absolutely wonderful podcast. This year she has started a club/group/community called ‘Modern Sewcialites’. There is a membership fee, but it gives you access to lots more goodies, like extra podcasts, a facebook group, bonus content, and the Story block of the month. Read the details to see if this would be a good fit for you here.

The block for January is supposed to be your ‘word of the year’. If you haven’t heard about choosing a word for the year, I learned about it from ‘Elise gets Crafty’ here.

The idea is to choose a word for the year and it needs to be personal or meaningful to you and it would kinda incorporate your goals or things you want to do/feel this year. I’m not giving this whole concept it’s due. It’s a beautiful idea and I’m excited to take part in it. You should definitely learn more about it from Elise.

I’ve chose the word ‘breathe’, for a couple of reasons. I tend to act and make decisions too quickly without thinking things through. If I could take a moment and breathe, I feel I’d make better decisions.

Also, I have a habit of locking myself in my sewing room (the basement) and letting the hours burn away while I sew. As much as I enjoy that, I feel like I should stop and get outside more and just breathe. I’ll do really good at that for a spell and then the next thing you know I’m in my basement and the sky has already darkened once more and I’ve gone three days without stepping outside. Yes, I’m quite the homebody!

Last year I started doing yoga and I felt such a great return from it. My body felt better physically and I also found that my spirits were lifted with every session. I did very well during the first half of 2017 with this being an every weekday routine, but by Fall, I was skipping days and now I’m skipping several days, sometimes even a week and I can feel everything started to go to “meh” again. Yoga is all about breathing.

Lately, my love for slow stitching has grown even more and I want to make more time for that even if that means I produce less quilts. When I stop and add some hand stitching to whatever I’m working on it feels like stopping to breathe for just a moment before rushing off to my next chain piecing session.

Details about this block

I didn’t have a piece of fabric in my Liberty prints big enough for this block according to Stephanie’s dimensions, so I pieced two pieces together. I really am pleased with that though.

If you’ve been watching my IG stories, you’ve watched this come together. Here’s what I did:

I printed out my word on regular copy paper. I sat at a glass table (a casserole dish will work for this too), turned the flashlight of my phone on and put it underneath the table, placed my paper with my word on top of the glass and then placed my fabric on top of that. This lit up the word on the paper so that I could trace it easily. I used this marker for tracing (it disappears with water).

My letters were pretty thick and I knew I wanted to do a satin stitch and fill them in. Instead of embroidery floss, I’m using Perle cotton thread #8 and my sashiko needle.

If you’ve been following this blog for a bit, then you know I discovered this needle last Fall and have decided it can be used for all the things that it is NOT supposed to be used for. I use it for hand quilting and I used it for my letters on this embroidery.

It’s a super long and thick needle with a very large eye. My letters are raised off the fabric quite a bit. I feel like if I’d have used a regular embroidery needle, then this whole thing would have taken longer and my stitches wouldn’t have been so bulky.

Support a small shop

I’ve been receiving the Liberty Society club bundles now since early spring 2017 and I’m so happy to be a member of this club. I love these beautiful florals arriving at my door each month. Visit Ava and Neve here.

Have you ever chosen a word of the year before? Did you this year? I’d love to hear more about how this concept worked or is working for you. Tell me in the comments below.

Also, let me know if you too have joined Modern Sewcialites. I’m excited about this new community and want to get to know more quilt makers.