Liberty of London Field Study

Welcome to another installment of our European field trip. This is our eagerly anticipated visit to Liberty of London, the company famed for its designer Tana Lawn fabric. The store is housed in the original medieval timbered building in the heart of London’s Regent Street shopping district. We had to have a picture of the amazing floral display filling the the store front.The main floor is mostly stationary, accessories and such, but upstairs is where you will find the cotton lawn fabrics with a hand like silk. This fabric comes in so many lovely colors and prints and is comparatively expensive ($40 and up per yard), but it is hard to resist. Decidedly the best way to get a good variety without breaking the bank is to purchase a package of 50 precut hexagons (complete with papers for piecing) and a lovely package of remnants.

Sometimes we just have to spread them out and admire them! One interesting difference we noticed was that the papers they use are very thin and not the almost cardstock we are used to for English paper piecing. The hexagons were hand sewn around the papers and pressed in the usual fashion. Arranged on an ivory background and blanket stitched and quilted by machine, they made a striking dresser scarf.