Liberty Love

Oh Liberty of London Tana Lawn, can I count all the ways I love thee?

Not to be all cheesy, but I really can't tell you enough how smitten I am. I won't pretend I've been growing a huge stash of this for years and now I'm finally bringing myself to cut into it. Besides some yardage I acquired last year, I just started piecing my collection of some smaller cuts together for the quilt I started dreaming of, based on this gorgeous one by the ridiculously talented Aneela.

So this stuff is not cheap. OK, it's crazy expensive. My birthday was last month and my sweet mom  bought me an order of lots of different pieces from Etsy (Alicecaroline was the seller, she was great to work with but unfortunately her shop is closed now until August for her maternity leave). The rest I got through Ebay. 

Not that I needed to start any more projects, but I knew that if I didn't cut into right away I would just start hoarding it all. I really can't explain to you how luxurious and sturdy this fabric is. It is my perfect idea of weight and texture. I adore Anna Maria Horner's new Little Folks line for the same reason, but tana lawn doesn't have that same slipperiness the voile has that made it frustrating for me to work with.

So I started chopping up some charms, 

and I've made pretty good progress on these hexagons already - about 80 I think! I want this quilt to be big!!! I'm hand piecing so it will be pretty slow-going (who am I kidding, all my quilts are slow-going!) but I hope to finish it by summer's end. 

Last night was a lovely evening spent in bed; Lucy sleeping soundly, Mark on his way home from a NYC business trip, Norman at my feet, the new episode of Lost on the tube, a glass of our new red blend in my hand and surrounded by a growing mass of colorful, soft Liberty loveliness.

As if that wasn't good enough, Mark arrived home safely around midnight with a fun surprise for me from the best fabric shop I've never been to, Purl Soho. Some more Liberty to add into the quilt and some super kawaii Cinderella and Peter Pan prints to join my japanese fairytale collection. I have the best  husband ever.

Moral of the story: yes the Liberty is expensive, but so worth it. Besides Etsy and Ebay, True Up did a recent post of some sellers you can find it from. And if anyone is interested, I'm going to post some prints in the Designer Swappy on Flickr to trade for 5 inch charms. If you have any great sources for Liberty, especially stateside, please share!