Film in the Fridge » 2009 Finished Quilts

babies and their quilts

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:36:26 +0000

One of the best parts of making baby quilts is getting to see a picture of the baby with their new quilt. These two sweet little girls were born last year to family friends and I had the opportunity to make them each a crib sized quilt and a coordinating doll quilt.

The doll quilt seemed to be the perfect size for each of them when they were first born -

This little doll quilt was done in colors to match her nursery, and coordinates with this larger quilt

(these two quilts were sent out in a hurry, and I completely forgot to snap a few pics of my own before I mailed them!)

For the second little one, they were waiting to find out if it would be a girl or a boy, so this quilt was done in a more gender neutral color scheme. The doll quilt is a little coin quilt in shades of orange, green and brown-

And the larger coordinating quilt is the predecessor to the Animal Sherbet Squares quilt. It’s done in the same fabrics as the mini coin quilt, with a variety of block sizes and random block placement.

For the backing, I did one larger strip of all the fabrics

I had fun making these, especially knowing that they were going to these two cute little girls. I hope they’ll be enjoyed for a long time to come!

a series of Hope Valley quilts

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:20:51 +0000

Remember the quilt blocks I made using Denyse Schmidt’s purple and orange Hope Valley fabrics? I ended up with 16 blocks, and at first, figured I’d just use them all to make one largish lap quilt, as usual. As I kept looking at them though, I kept coming back to this idea I had of a series of smaller quilts, all using the same fabrics but in different combinations. I couldn’t get it out of my mind, so here you have it!

I used 4 of my Hope Valley quilt blocks for each quilt, and then did a slightly different arrangement for each one, changing up the placement of the blocks, the borders, the background colors, and also the quilting.

My favorite part, which you can’t see too closely here, is the addition of tiny squares somewhere on the quilt front which I used as a type of labeling system to signify the order in which they were made. You can see the 1 little square in the quilt on the far right, which was the first of the series. Love it!

The backs are all pieced, using up the remaining printed and solid fabrics, and each quilt is bound with one of the purple Hope Valley prints.

And indeed, I just love them, each and every one (but you probably already knew that, right?!)

I’ll post a closer look at each one over the next couple of days!

Whit finally gets a quilt!

admin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:18:28 +0000

I hope you all had wonderful Christmases with friends and family! We spent a fun Christmas Eve with lots of family -

(cute cousins!)

(my sister and I in unintentionally matching outfits)

Speaking of my sister, in order to create a little less stress for the holidays, we now just pick one family member to buy for, and this year I had my sister. (you might remember I had my brother last year). Anyway, strangely enough, even with all the quilting I do, my sister still was without a handmade quilt!

Whitney definitely hears way more about fabric and quilts than she’d probably like to, but being the sweet sister she is, she always acts interested and is always one of the first to exclaim over each new quilt I make. And while she doesn’t have any interest in sewing or quilting, she does have very definite opinions on fabric, designers, and quilts. So I knew that any quilt I made for her would have to include Anna Maria Horner’s Good Folks. In the end, I opted to use the entire line — why add in anything extra when they already look so beautiful together?!

Now, I won’t lie. I did wait until the last minute to make this quilt, though hopefully that doesn’t diminish the amount of thought that went into it. I’m just a procrastinator… I can’t help it. Since my time was limited (and since my sister was often at our house!) I went for a simple design, cutting the fabrics into 8″ squares. I love a simple quilt made up of squares, and it worked well with this fabric line, allowing you to really see the beautiful designs of each print. To add a little extra something something, I decided to add in a few corresponding solids – making a few blocks with solid centers/printed borders and some with printed centers/solid borders.

I don’t have a picture of the back, but it was predominately my favorite (and also my sister’s favorite, luckily!) Kona Coal, with a nice wide patchwork strip of the Good Folks fabrics. Since Whit seems to have an aversion to any quilt that’s overly quilted (“ack, not soft enough!”) I went with my favorite straight line quilting – one line running diagonally through the blocks in one direction, with a double quilting line running diagonally in the other direction.

And she really seemed to love it! This may not be the most flattering photo (sorry Whit!), but I think it accurately portrays her reaction…

I think she’s pretty happy with it…

Thanks Whit, for being so supportive of my totally obsessive hobby! I hope you enjoy your quilt for many years to come!

echino patchwork quilt #3

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:07:18 +0000

Tired of these quilts yet? I’m not!

More Echino goodness, this time with several of the newer prints (the green peacock one is my favorite!). For this quilt I went with the prints with greens, mustard yellow, turquoise and a little pink, plus several great solids in those same shades.

I did the same quilting on this one as in the purple patchwork quilt. I really like the simplicity of it, and the minimal quilting keeps the quilt nice and soft!

For the backing I used two of the pink solids, with a strip of one of the Echino prints, and the binding is a darker rose colored solid.

I believe this one measures the same as the first, about 34″ x 43“, but I’m not home to check, so I can’t be perfectly positive. As with the last, it’s also listed in the shop, should anyone need a little gift…

purple patchwork… with panthers, pigs and polka dots!

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:36:19 +0000

Another patchwork square quilt!

Again, I’ve used a number of wonderful Etsuko Furuya prints – this time in shades of purple, turquoise and green, and I’ve added in several solids in shades of those colors.

I loved this one from the moment I put these fabrics together, and it just got better as I cut them into squares and mixed them all up. There’s something about the purple, aqua and this shade of limey green that really draws me in… which is kind of weird, since I’m not usually a purple person. In fact, my stash of purple fabrics is nearly nonexistent, but now I’m thinking I really should do something about that!

For the back, I went with a little more purple! Two solids in different shades, with a touch of the Echino dots in purple.

I bound it in a third shade of purple (Raisin… yet another fabulous solid!)

I love to try out various quilting patterns on these quilts, so this time I went for double straight lines on the diagonal. I shifted it a bit so the quilting lines were offset from the diagonals of the squares. As usual, my description of this is probably lacking, but you can probably see what I’m talking about in the first photo in this post.

This one measures 37″ x 40″, and makes for a fresh and modern baby quilt. Or I can totally picture it as a fabulous quilt for hanging out with a baby on the floor. Or even as a wall hanging… fun, right? It’s listed in the shop!

animal sherbet squares quilt

admin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:50:38 +0000

I’m excited to show you this quilt… mainly because these fabrics are just so fantastically fun!

You may have seen them before – they’re designed by the insanely talented and creative Laurie Wisbrun of Scarlet Fig. I’ve been a long time admirer of Laurie’s fabric designs – I was immediately in love with her original design, birds on chairs. And since then I’ve watched as she’s added many new colors and new prints to her expanding line (many of which are available in her Etsy shop).

Laurie recently got some very exciting news – several of her designs have been licensed by Kaufman fabrics and will be printed and available in 2010. She writes “my first collection with them will feature some of my patterns with birdies, couches and chairs. I’ll be selling those for another month or so and then Kaufman will pick up distribution next spring. Some designs will be carried by Kaufman and some will be retired. So if there’s one that you are interested in, let me know and I’ll make sure you can get some!”

The Animal Sherbet prints, as used in this quilt, will be available through her shop for another few months. There’s a possibility that Kaufman will add these prints as well, but for now, if there are any you have your eye on, let her know! She’s offering a special for anyone who finds her shop through my blog. For the next two weeks, you will receive 15% off your order – just make sure you make a note that you found her through my blog and she’ll issue a refund for 15% off your fabric.

Anyway, back to the quilt… Needless to say, I was thrilled when she contacted me about making a quilt for her out of her animal sherbet line. These prints are so fabulous — sherbet colored elephants, giraffes and rhinos, along with some wonderful corresponding stripes and dots.

We briefly discussed design ideas and sizes, but if you know me, you know that I don’t follow direction well. Luckily, Laurie also said that she’s a fan of surprises… so here you go Laurie – your big surprise!

This design is of course inspired by Kaffe Fasset’s Jewel Squares quilt. I just love the mix of different sized squares. However, I certainly didn’t have the time for an entire quilt of squares! So instead I decided to do these smaller groupings of squares, surrounded by a sea of white. I wanted something that would really show off these prints, and I think the various sized squares do that nicely. It also gave me the opportunity to add in a lot of my favorite solids!

The back makes me laugh a bit… you won’t find it as funny, but we actually originally discussed a simple charm square quilt as a possible design, so the back reflects a bit of that — a design which certainly would have been easier and also much faster!

I really like the addition of a little of the solid green on the front of the quilt, so I decided to use it on the back as well. (didn’t I tell you you’d be seeing this great Kona Artichoke again and again?!) The binding is the stripe from this line, which really works perfectly. I always love stripes for binding!

It’s washed and dried and looks oh so cozy. It measures approximately 52″ x 67″, which I think is a great size for a throw. And as much as I wanted to curl up with it on the couch, I refrained, and instead it’s on its way to Laurie. Thank you so much for letting me play with your gorgeous fabrics, Laurie! I hope you love your new quilt!!

hope valley baby zig zag

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:49:20 +0000

You knew I wouldn’t be able to resist immediately using some of the new Hope Valley in a quilt, didn’t you?

I used three of the prints to make up this cute little zig zag quilt, pairing those three prints with several solids – a few Amy Butler solids, and some Kona solids I had in my stash. These particular colors aren’t my usual go to colors – I’m usually drawn more to the brighter, more vibrant colors – but I’m really liking the more muted, vintage feel that this new line has. (I’m enjoying it so much that I’m already working on a second quilt with these fabrics!)

The back is primarily a lovely Amy Butler solid, with a little pieced section at the top (I love that yellow print!).

I quilted it simply, just following the zig zags 1/4″ from each seam, and used the yellow solid for the binding. It measures about 32″ x 37″ and is now for sale in the shop! Sold! Thanks so much Tiff!

an echino patchwork quilt

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:39:37 +0000

Don’t you just love patchwork squares? I do, and I have a hard time keeping myself from cutting all my fabrics into squares and recombining them into a variety of patchwork square quilts. As I type this, I’m staring across the table at a pile of newly cut squares for a second echino patchwork quilt. Tell me if I get too repetitive and boring, ok?

Continue reading an echino patchwork quilt

munki in the middle, version 2 (a & b)

admin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:25:04 +0000

So this is a tale of two quilts… twin quilts, actually. But to be perfectly honest, it’s not so much a tale as it is me just showing you a bunch of photos of my newest love. And yes, I totally love this quilt. So much so that I had to make it a twin. The first one was intended for the shop, but then I fell in love, and so the second one was then destined for the shop, but now they seem so happy together… and yikes, this is why we have no room in our house!

Continue reading munki in the middle, version 2 (a & b)

the big and the little (or, won’t she ever get tired of momo wonderland?)

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:53:08 +0000

I warned you about these repeat quilts. I’m going to show you anyway, even though they’re similar to nearly exact replicas of quilts I’ve already shown here, so you can feel free to skip it… (I’m almost boring myself with how many times I’ve made this same quilt!)

However, despite the number of times I’ve made it, I still just can’t get enough of it. Each time I pull one from the dryer, I fall in love with it once again. I made three more — baby wonderland versions 4, 5, & 6 I think? — but don’t worry, I’ll only show these two photos. I think you get the idea.

And then, because I just couldn’t stop, I decided to make a larger version, using a layer cake this time. And you know what, I love this one too!

For the backing I used the same brown solid that I used for the binding of the baby quilt, along with a couple strips of the Wonderland fabrics. I quilted this one with straight lines as well, though instead of squares, I opted for a rectangular pattern on the diagonal.

It’s big (54″ x 64″), and just as cozy and soft as the baby quilts, and would make a super quilt to snuggle under on the couch. Perhaps a nice matching set? Who knows. I do know that it’s for sale in the shop, along with baby wonderland 6, should anyone be interested .