Film in the Fridge

what to do when you love a quilt?

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:57:32 +0000

Make another. Just like it.

Ok, so this isn’t actually an exact copy (though I’ve been known to do that from time to time… like the Munki Munki twin quilts, or any of the 6 or 7 baby wonderland quilts…), but that doesn’t mean that I won’t do an exact copy sometime in the future! I really loved making my Flying Farfalle quilt, so once it was off the design wall, I immediately set to work making another version.

This time I decided to go with all solids – mainly because my solid scrap bin is really overflowing, and this seemed like a good way to use some of them up. I decided to try squares instead of rectangles on this version and used Kona Coal for the background fabric. I love the dark coal paired with other bright solids. For a little extra fun, I used a little white to create a little border between the colored triangles and the gray background. I ran out of Kona Coal though, so this is on hold until then…

liberty of london

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:49:02 +0000

I have a tiny little collection of Liberty of London fabric scraps. I’ve been collecting them for a while, figuring at some point I might have enough for a quilt. On occasion I tell Morgan that we should go to London, just so I can visit the store (he doesn’t agree).

So of course it makes me excited that it’s soon to be available at Target. I have high hopes for the collection – hoping that there will be some pieces in the line that can be re-purposed for quilting…

So, March 14th. I’ll see you at Target!

(anyone else planning on going?)

hooked on hexagons

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:49:21 +0000

I knew I would be. I don’t know why I put it off for so long.

So I caught the hexagon bug, and badly (and it seems I’m not the only one!).

It started innocently enough – I just figured I’d try one or two to see what the fuss was about. I always loved looking at all the beautiful hexagon projects on Flickr, and in my mind I knew that it was something I’d eventually get around to trying, but I had convinced myself that I didn’t like handsewing and consequently wouldn’t like these.

So anyway, needing a bit of entertainment (and a little fabric fix while I was going to be away from my machine) I cut up a bunch of fabric and took it with me to California. And now I can’t stop – I’m working on hexagons in a few sizes, flea market fancy hexagons, and hexagons to match a quilt… plus, (not pictured) hexagons in Echino and also Little Folks voile!

I don’t know what they’ll turn into, if anything, but they sure are fun to make. If you haven’t tried them yet, you might want to! Below are a few posts I looked at before starting -

The Sometimes Crafter – two posts about sewing hexagons here and here.

Posie Gets Cozy – Hexagon Piecing

Here you can print out your desired size hexagon templates (or you can purchase them already cut here).

And lastly, in the right sidebar on this page, you’ll see a listing of what size squares of fabric you’ll need for the various hexagon sizes. (I think this is what convinced me to start making these – the realization that I could just cut out squares of fabric rather than having to cut out hexagonal shapes!)

But don’t say I didn’t warn you!

moonlight in the trees

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:55:09 +0000

I hope you’re not tired of Anna Maria Horner’s Little Folks yet! (I’m not!)

I started this one right after I finished the first version in the playground palette. I cut all the squares, and then I must have gotten distracted by other things, because it sat for a while, until one day when I found myself (Morgan) vacuuming around it, and figured it was time to sew those squares together.

And I’m glad I did, because I think the moonlight palette is really lovely. The blues and purples are not colors I typically use, but they work together so nicely here, and with that little bit of brown… just perfect! (Anna Maria sure knows her stuff!)

Once again, this is just a simple patchwork squares quilt, using squares that are 3 1/2″. I like the smaller sized squares for these fabrics, since the prints are a smaller scale as well.

Oh, and look at me using the correct pins for the job! A huge thank you to Anna Maria herself, who was so sweet to send along curved safety pins after seeing I was using straight pins. (thank you, thank you, thank you! these certainly do make the job easier!!)

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Little Folks voile fabrics purchased from Hawthorne Threads. Dobby dots and voile solids purchased from Fabricworm.

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and I present to you… the flying farfalle quilt!

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:27:53 +0000

So… I love most all of my quilts, but I really love this one. I’m not sure what it is – it’s a really simple design, but there’s something about it that makes me smile when I see it. Part of it could also be the name – I still laugh when I say it, especially since I’m still not quite sure how ‘farfalle’ is actually pronounced. (And everyone I ask seems to say it differently, so I may never know!)

Anyway, you may recall that I made this quilt so that I could use up some of the Little Folks scraps left over from my voile string quilt. I just couldn’t bear to see those fabulous fabrics go to waste, so this design was perfect, since it only uses up tiny little scraps.

It took me a while to decide how to quilt it. I decided that I didn’t want any quilting lines to go through the printed fabric bits, so I ended up with this straight line quilting on the diagonal. This worked to outline each of the farfalles (what is the plural of ‘farfalle’ anyway?!), highlighting each one in its own little diamond. I love it.

I knew I wanted gray for the backing, since I really love how gray looks with all these colorful bits. I was practically out of my favorite Kona Coal, so I went with a Kona medium gray, with a bit of the coal as a strip on the side.

There’s a little strip of the dobby dots in raspberry, which looks so fabulous with the gray, and a little pieced section where I ran out of gray.

I’m definitely in love, and I think this one’s a keeper!

Previous post about this quilt can be found here

Fabrics used: Ikea white sheet, Anna Maria Horner Little Folks voile scraps, Kona Coal & Medium Gray for backing, with extra pieces of Little Folks voile.

Measures: 58″ x 64″ (I think!)

a colorful (and slightly wonky) string quilt top

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:39:52 +0000

Thank you. Truly. You all are so nice, and left such sweet comments about my grandfather. I really appreciate it.

I haven’t really been doing much sewing this week, though I do have photos of the Anna Maria Horner voile string top that I sewed together last week.

It’s made out of most of the prints from her Little Folks line, which I’m really quite taken with. The colors, the prints, the feel of it – I just love it! (I’m even thinking about ordering a little more just to make sure I don’t run out!)

I made 10″ string blocks (tutorial here), but instead of keeping the strings completely straight, I went for a wonky look. It’s not super wonky — just enough to give it a little extra something something.

Still working on a backing, but hopefully I’ll get something figured out soon because I’m looking forward to seeing this one finished!

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:48:54 +0000

My grandfather passed away this weekend. I don’t think I can fully express what a caring, generous, hardworking, and wonderful man he was, so instead I’ll simply tell you how much he will be missed. Very very very much.

the start of the flying farfalle quilt

admin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:04:11 +0000

This one is named as such because Morgan thinks it looks like flying pieces of bowtie pasta. I think that makes it sound a bit circus-like, but so be it. I like the circus, and I really like this quilt, so I guess all’s well.

The small colored fabric triangles are the scraps from my Anna Maria Horner voile string quilt. I couldn’t bear to throw them out, and you all had great suggestions about what I could do with them. Many of you voted for Amanda Jean’s ticker tape quilt, which is definitely on my list, but not for these scraps. Instead, I went with this design, which I spotted in Gwen Marston’s Liberated Quiltmaking II book. The book simply shows a photo of a finished quilt, though I’m led to believe that there’s more information about the block (called the Exquisite block) in her first book, Liberated Quiltmaking (which unfortunately no longer seems to be available for a decent price…).

I love this design for its simplicity, for the way it uses up scraps I can’t bear to throw away, and also for the speed in which it all comes together!

The solid white fabric in this one is an Ikea twin sheet. Amanda Jean posted about this idea here, and one very lovely reader offered to pick me up a sheet when she last visited Ikea (no Ikeas in VT… ) (Lisa, you’re the best!) I really loved using the sheet as the white solid. As Amanda Jean says, you get about 4.5 yards of fabric for under $5, which makes it the cheapest white I’ve used yet. It’s a nice creamy white color and after washing, it has a bit of texture, which I kind of like. I’ve read lots of places that you shouldn’t use sheets for quilting, but I thought it worked out quite well. I guess it’s a matter of personal preference! So if you’re looking for white fabric, you just might want to try this out and see what you think!

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A huge thank you to everyone who commented with great suggestions on things to do and see around San Diego! I’ve never been, so I really appreciate all the suggestions – thank you, thank you!!

spotted squares quilt… in a twin size

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:51:44 +0000

You might recall that I had a request to recreate my original Spotted Squares quilt in a twin sized version. It’s taken a little while to get this finished (twin sized quilts are larger than I realized!), but I’m pleased to say that it’s finally done!

There are a total of 108 blocks in this quilt, and the printed fabrics are each some form of a polka dot (a very loose interpretation of a polka dot, just to make it a bit more interesting!). I’ve always loved this design, and I think this quilt is another winner… and it’s fun to see it in a larger version!

For the backing, I went with a lovely shade of blue – a Moda Bella solid in Mist, to be exact – and I added in fun strip of blocks outlined in white.

The binding is Kona Coal, with a tiny pieced section using Amy Butler’s Sunspots in green. I really love the dark binding – I think it makes the colors on the front really pop, and of course I just love how it looks with the solid blue backing.

After washing, it shrunk down to a near perfect twin sized quilt – measuring about 65″ x 87″ or so. It’s all packaged up and it’s been mailed off to meet it’s new owner, a little girl just moving into her big girl bed. I certainly hope she will love it for years to come!

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Previous post about this quilt can be found here.

Blocks are 8.25″ square. I did 9 blocks across by 12 blocks, for a total of 108 blocks. This worked out to a nearly perfect twin sized quilt.

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Unrelated, but maybe you can help?… I’ll be going out to California soon (San Diego area) and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for cool places to visit (or maybe great fabric shops I shouldn’t pass up!). I’d also love to take some time to drive along the coast and maybe see a few other cities/towns… anyone know of any great spots or cool places to stay? Thanks!!

happy heart day

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:12:50 +0000