Film in the Fridge » lightning bugs

goldfish squared baby quilts

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 11:59:06 +0000

I showed you a few of these goldfish blocks recently and now I’m happy to show you the quilts they ended up in!

This Heather Ross goldfish fabric lends itself so well to fussy cutting, and I knew I wanted to use them as the centers of each block. So I cut them up into single goldfish and pairs of goldfish, framed each with a thin border and then surrounded that with other fun prints and solids.

Originally I wasn’t sure about adding the Kona Stone into the mix, but after using it in the twin strip quilts, I loved it so much that I wanted to use it in these twin quilts as well. I ended up using the same design I used for my munki martians quilt and my munki in the middle twin quilts (I must have a thing for twin quilts!), framing each individual block with white and sashing them in the Kona Stone. I love how the blocks pop off the neutral background.

I kept the backs pretty simple – more Kona Stone with a little pieced section to add a bit of fun -

I quilted it on the diagonal with double straight lines and since I loved them so much, used the same stripey bindings as on the previous quilts.

They each measure 33 1/2″ x 36 1/2″ and are listed in the shop!

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Oh, and of course (it goes without saying!) thanks so much for all the nice comments about my new table! I’ve been using it for a few days now and I must say that having this much space on a tabletop is fun, though I have to keep reminding myself that just because the space is there doesn’t mean I should fill it up!

To answer a few questions – the blue wall color in the den is Overcast by Glidden. The butterfly and crab framed paper art in this post was made following this tutorial. I don’t yet have a chair to use while sewing at the new table, but I’m thinking I’ll probably get a couple backless stools so that I can put them under the table when not in use. And speaking of sewing, my main machine is a Pfaff Expressions 2036. I also have a Pfaff Grand Quilter which I keep upstairs. Answers to other FAQs can be found in the FAQ discussion thread over in the FITF flickr group. (Did I get them all?!)

stripey bindings

admin — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:37:30 +0000

make me happy!

Especially knowing they’ll be attached to a couple cute little baby quilts!

Now, before you say anything, let me reassure you that I’m not always this prepared. In fact, I almost never make my binding ahead of time (though I always wish I did!). Most of the time I don’t know what I want to use for binding until the very end, but this time I was definitely feeling the stripes (or the squiggly stripes, as the case may be).

(orange squiggly stripe is Sweet Pea by Jackie Shapiro, and the brown stripe is by Lecien)

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I still haven’t heard back from one of the winners of the Tufted Tweets giveaway. Kate, if you’re out there, send me an email or leave a comment here. If I don’t hear back from you by Sunday night, I’ll pick a new winner on Monday.

you can’t go wrong with goldfish, right?

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:20:53 +0000

By far my favorite go-to print for a baby boy quilt. (I don’t know what I’ll do when I run out!)

The latest -

Simple brown and blue prints, with the goldfish as the star. I love it already.

a black friday heather ross giveaway

admin — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:08:43 +0000

We took part in the Black Friday madness one year – heading out at some really early hour. If I recall, it was snowing and sleeting, and quite cold. For whatever reason, we headed to Home Depot, where we bought a flashlight and a shop vac. Maybe they were really great deals, or maybe there were really limited quantities of these items. Probably not though. Something tells me that we could have gotten those deals at any time that day. Or any day, even.

There was something kind of fun about searching for a deal at some crazy early hour, but since then I’ve decided to stick to finding deals online instead. While wearing slippers and sweatpants. And drinking coffee.

Speaking of, here are a couple sales I’ll probably be taking advantage of -

Pink Chalk Fabrics – Kathy’s having a Pink Friday sale. You can head over to her shop to see what’s on sale. There’s also free shipping if you spend $50 or more (I’m always sucked in by free shipping!).

Fabricworm – 15% off orders over $100 with coupon code thanks150ff, good until 11/30. (And for those who asked, I hear that Cynthia will be getting Denyse Schmidt’s Hope Valley in her shop midweek next week.)

Anyway, it doesn’t stop me from wanting to hear stories of those who do head out early to find deals on Black Friday. So perhaps a giveaway will entice you to tell those stories…. how about you leave a comment here to be entered to win – Do you go out shopping on Black Friday? Have you found great deals? Do you wait in line for hours to be the first in the store? If you do not, or if you live somewhere where today is just another Friday, then of course feel free to leave me a comment about anything!

I’ll select two winners this time and each winner will win two fat quarters of fabric. I’ve selected a few of my very favorite out of print Heather Ross fabrics from her Lightning Bugs line – goldfish, banana seat bikes, VWs… I love them all! I’ll let the first person selected have their pick of two, and then the second winner will win the remaining two fat quarters. Sound good? Let the commenting begin!

(oh, I’ll select the winners on Monday morning)

Comments are now closed. I’ll select a winner soon!

thank you! (and a little giveaway!)

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:54:07 +0000

Thank you for all the sweet comments on my last quilt… or, actually, thank you for all your great comments on all my quilts! I love hearing from you, and while I typically don’t have the time to respond to everyone, please know that I read and enjoy each and every one!

And now I think a little giveaway is in order. I’ve missed a few recent milestones – 200 posts (about 45 posts ago), and also 1 year of blogging – that came and went back in early June… so it’s high time! I’ve already done this giveaway once before, but I know there are a lot of people looking for this fabric so I’m going ahead with it again (sorry for the lack of originality!)

Up for grabs today – 2 fat quarters of Heather Ross’s VW fabric. It’s so adorable! And even if you don’t sew, it’s pretty cute to just look at!

Please just leave a comment on this post to be entered… it doesn’t have to be anything specific, but maybe something a little more than just ‘please enter me’ I enjoy hearing from you… so maybe tell me what you’re working on, or tell me about a project that you have in mind but that you haven’t had time to start yet (I have a ton of those!), or anything really! I’ll pick a winner on Thursday morning.

Edit: Comments are now closed. I’ll pick a winner shortly!

two baby quilts and a scrap winner!

admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:24:54 +0000

Remember these simple quilts? I made them to use up some extra batting, and also to give me a chance to try some loopy quilting. I’ve always admired the look, and was up for trying something different. Turns out it’s harder than it looks!

For the pink strip quilt I did simple loops in each of the strips, varying the size of the loops based on the width of the strip.

On the blue strip quilt I tried out the loopy figure 8 pattern, as seen on many of the quilts in Denyse Schmidt’s book. Mine does not have quite that perfect figure 8 look, but I’m pleased with it regardless. Imperfectly perfect, let’s say…

And the trip through the washer and dryer gave them that lovely crinkled look!

Oh yes, the winner… my oh my, I was so happy to hear from so many of you! Thanks for all the comments. Sounds like we’ll be seeing some beautiful things made of Heather Ross’s new fabric.

(I was also pleased to hear that I’m not the only one waiting until the very last minute to get taxes done… at least I’m not alone! Although I beg of you — please remind me not to do this next year!!)

So, the random number generator picked our winner — #197, which is AmandaJean. I’ve actually been reading AmandaJean’s fabulous blog since I started sewing about a year ago, and I’m sure most of you read it as well. (if you don’t, you should definitely check it out!) Maybe some of these small scraps will work for one of her small projects!

And since so many people commented and seemed genuinely interested in these scraps, I’ve picked a second winner… #17, Ariel. I hadn’t visited her blog before, but I’m glad I’ve found it – looks like she’s made some great quilts using some of my favorite fabrics. I think I’ll have a few more scraps once I finish the back, so she’ll get a little package of those scraps.

Thanks everyone!

Yes, more baby quilts!

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:52:59 +0000

This really only came about due to some excess batting… After cutting batting for a few ‘throw’ sized quilts, I was left with strips of batting about 38″ wide. Not wide enough for most quilts I make, but certainly appropriate for a baby quilt. I didn’t want it to go to waste, nor did I want to have to store these pieces, so I decided to make a couple really simple baby quilts.

I love a simple strip quilt, and I was reminded of that after making a backing for my scattered mini blocks quilt this weekend. I pulled out a bunch of my favorite fabrics (and yes, you’ll recognize the color schemes – nothing new there!) and cut strips in a variety of widths. I sewed them together and cut to the size of my batting.

I think I’m going to use them to try out some different quilting – I’ve always loved the loopy quilting shown on a lot of Denyse Schmidt’s quilts in her book, and this might be a good way to test it out!

And, unrelated, but must be mentioned – I received my order of Heather Ross’s new fabric, Far Far Away… I don’t even know what to say – it’s gorgeous! I have no plans for it, I just knew I had to have it. I think I’ll just sit and stare at it for a while. I bought some from Kathy at Pink Chalk Fabrics and some from Cynthia at Fabricworm. I think they both still have a bit left, so if you’re looking, you may want to try there. I’m not sure I can pick a favorite, though I am loving the green and blue colorway (although I’m really dying to have a bit in all the colors and all patterns – you know I’m a fabric hoarder!)

“Sea”gull baby boy quilt

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:26:58 +0000

(Ok, I’m running out of creative names, forgive me!)

I think this might be the first boy quilt I’ve made, and I love it! This one matches the Fuchsia Seas quilt, but uses blues, oranges and browns. Again, it’s mainly Heather Ross prints, from both the Mendocino and Lightning Bugs lines (I even convinced myself to cut into some of my goldfish fabric!). I do love how the lines can be mixed and matched.

For the back, I happened to find some yardage of this seagull print, which is from the Heather Ross Lightning Bugs line. There’s a section of pieced strips from what I had cut off the blocks on the front, and a fun polka dot binding. As with the girl version, this one is free motion quilted and is soft and crinkly… just perfect!

A few of you asked about measurements for this quilt, so here you go!

This baby quilt used 30 blocks, 15 solid white blocks and 15 patterned blocks. Each block is 7.5″ x 10.5″. For this quilt, I used 6 blocks for each row, with a total of 5 rows. The small center white rectangle in the center of each patterned block measures 2.5″ wide. The length varies, since I was going for a random look, but in the past I’ve done them all 2.5″ x 4″. The resulting quilt, after washing, measures 39″ x 46.5″.

The white fabric is a cotton sateen that I buy at Joann’s. I use it for almost all my quilts.

Like the other, this one may be for sale, or I might decide to just keep it on hand should I need a baby gift in the future! (Sarah? Kim?)

a baby neapolitan quilt

admin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:45:42 +0000

You may recall that the zig zag baby quilt was the first one I actually finished. It’s still one of my favorites, so I decided to do another, this time incorporating pink. I added in some orange and brown prints, and the resulting quilt really reminds me of neapolitan ice cream.

I’ve been trying to be better at actually using some of my favorite fabrics, so in this one you’ll see some of the Heather Ross bicycles I’ve been saving, as well as the light pink floral print.

As with my first, I quilted this very simply, following the zig zag lines. I did a straight stitch 1/4″ away from each zig zag, and I (still) like the pattern on the back. (I say still, because I think I said the very same thing about the first quilt!)

Since I still don’t know anyone having a baby, I think this one might end up for sale… providing I can part with it!

My quest for out of print fabrics

ashley — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:55:29 +0000

There is something about out of print fabrics that makes me a little crazy (this is starting to be a common theme, isn’t it?!). I don’t know what it is, perhaps it’s a bit of a game – the hunt for something that is now of a limited quantity. Whatever it is, as soon as a fabric line I like is out of print, suddenly it becomes imperative that I stock up and hoard it.

Since I only started looking at fabric a year ago, I feel I missed out on a lot of good ones. As you know, I’ve long been in love with Denyse Schmidt’s Flea Market Fancy, and I also am enamored with Heather Ross’s Lightning Bugs, especially the goldfish, vw’s and gnomes. Let’s see, I also missed out on Erin Michael’s Uptown line. I’ve found a few, but I really wish I had some of the paint-by-number birds. I love the new deer prints, but there’s just something about those birds! I am also on a quest to find the retro ovals from Sandy Klop’s Peas & Carrots. I have a bit in red and blue, and I just found some in black (it arrived today, yeah!).

Anyway, the point of my story is that I probably spend far too long in my quest, though sometimes it does pay off. These are a few of my recent acquisitions – the aforementioned black ovals, some old Anna Maria Horner Bohemian prints, a bit of the Heather Ross goldfish prints… and some of my all time favorite Flea Market Fancy prints. Thanks for that must go to Katie Jean, who mentioned she was looking for these prints as well. Thanks to her post, we both got some of the FMF prints we wanted… thanks Kristine!

Now I just need to find some time so I can sew something out of all these fabulous prints (oh, and I have to get over my fear of cutting into them!)

Be sure to check back this week… I’m thinking a little giveaway might be in order. Fabric, perhaps?