Film in the Fridge » scraps

the thing about string quilts…

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:41:51 +0000

I had big plans to make a queen sized string quilt using 5 1/2″ squares.

It didn’t happen.

The thing about string quilts is that I love looking at them (and I’ve made quite a few!), but if I’m going to be honest, they can be a bit tedious to make. Back in July, I asked you if I was crazy to attempt it, and I think that most all of you said I was not. Though I’m thinking now that someone should have! My original plan was to make 10 blocks a day, which would have given me enough blocks in about a month and a half. Well, by the end of August, I was only at 85… clearly this wasn’t going so well. I set them aside until just recently, when I finally was forced to realize that there was no way I was ever going to have enough for a queen sized quilt.

So I sewed together what I had. And you know what? I think this size is perfect. Just what I wanted. (or at least that’s what I’m telling myself!)

The tutorial for string blocks can be found here, in case you’re interested!

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!

___

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!!

patchwork napkins!

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:13:56 +0000

Well that was a quick break, right?

Actually, this is just a quick post to let you know that I have a new tutorial for patchwork napkins available. It’s posted today on Sew Mama Sew, so if you haven’t already been over there, head on over and take a look! Be sure to check out all the other wonderful scrap projects as well!

And now, back to my break!

(a huge thank you to everyone who commented on yesterday’s post – I really appreciate the support!)

am I crazy?

admin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:19:34 +0000

maybe… (ok, probably!)

I just couldn’t stop myself from starting another string quilt.

It was all these tiny scraps that made me do it.

9 patch quilt a long

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:43:35 +0000

I finally made all 70 9 patches! I think I’m a bit behind (amandajean‘s beautiful quilt is already quilted and gifted!) but that’s ok…

I’d never made 9 patches before, and I found them kind of fun. I don’t think I’d ever want to do 70 all at once, but a few every couple of days was manageable!

I have most of the top put together, and I’m hoping to get the rest finished over the weekend.

Almost all the fabrics were from my scrap bin, though still it doesn’t seem to have made a dent. And consequently I’ll be working on putting together some more scrap bags for the shop!

in which one quilt becomes four…

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:46:58 +0000

So this is perhaps a sad story (well, sad for me, anyway), but with a happy ending, so all is well…

I started this quilt to use up some scraps. The inspiration was the back strip of scraps on the abstract quilt. I decided I’d like an entire quilt with strips of scraps alternating with white. I cut a ton of scraps and got it all sewn together…

And here’s where the sorta sad part came in… everything looked good until I went to square the top up. No matter how I tried, it never appeared to be straight and square. I kept trimming the sides, and it still looked crooked (and not in a good, wonky kind of way!). Even when it measured correctly, it was definitely still off. Perhaps it was just an optical illusion, but whatever it was, I just couldn’t go ahead with it. And I don’t even generally have a problem with things being perfectly straight! (imagine what my brother (or anyone else with OCD tendencies) would think!)

So instead I chopped it into four pieces. And while I’m sad that it won’t be a quilt I’ll be able to use, it does make for four very cute baby quilts. Perhaps the perfect stroller quilt? (or maybe even a nice wall hanging!)

Cute, cute, cute (and cute!)

Each quilt measures about 25″ x 35″ and each one has a variety of all of my very favorite fabrics (lots of flea market fancy in there!). They’re each backed with a different fun printed fabric with a coordinating binding.

I stippled two of them, and I quilted the other two with random straight and curved lines.

For sale here! Sold – thanks everyone!

in progress.

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:03:14 +0000

I don’t have much to show today, since I seem to have fallen back into a bad habit of starting new projects before finishing the last. I’ll show you what’s in the works though -

I’ve been working on a scrappy quilt, again inspired by another quilt back. My scraps are once again out of control and I had hoped this would help, but so far I haven’t noticed it really making a dent. (is it possible that they multiply at night?)

And then, since I kept seeing such lovely half hexagon quilts, I had to get in on the fun. This one will be a baby quilt, with hexagons made out of Far Far Away fabrics.

I also have the second abstract quilt ready to be quilted, but before I can do so I have to figure out how to use my new machine…

The name alone intimidates me. The GrandQuilter. I don’t think I really need anything so grand. Maybe they could have just called it the Quilter.

In any case, I have a manual to read. And then I should probably start practicing. Apparently it’s capable of 1600 stitches a minute, which just makes me fear for my fingers. I’m nothing if not clumsy… case in point? Just this morning I managed to dump my morning coffee right down the front of my shirt… not the outside mind you, but right down under my shirt – between my shirt and skin. Lovely! (luckily I like it with A LOT of milk, so it was only warm, not scalding!)

Anyway, hope the weather’s great where you are, and I hope everyone has a great 4th of July!

sunday with my seam ripper

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:48:35 +0000

Do you have days like those? I was so productive on Saturday and got a couple quilt backs sewn up, and some quilt sandwiches made. We had a rainy and gray weekend, so I thought I’d see if I could get a couple quilted, and maybe even one completely finished by the end of the weekend. No such luck.

I started in on the scrappy borders quilt (temporary name only – I don’t like the sound of that one!) and thought that maybe instead of stippling, I’d go for concentric squares inside each block. It started out well enough, but after doing a few of them, I realized that the adhesive wasn’t doing its job and the center of the quilt was going to end up with a lot of puckers if I kept going.

Unfortunately, I like this quilt a lot, and I couldn’t bear to see it ruined, so out came the seam ripper. And as you all know, what takes only half an hour to sew, takes about 3 hours to rip out! And to top it off, I managed to snag the top of the quilt and make a little hole.

I’m not letting it get the best of me though. I got it all ripped out and patched up, remade the quilt sandwich, and got it quilted by the end of the night. And it looks good. If I hadn’t told you, I don’t think anyone would realize how trying this was!

Oh, and little peek at the back. I’ve had the book Material Obsession for a while now and ever since I saw the photo on the cover I knew that I wanted a quilt with a lot of this green Flea Market Fancy on the back. This scrap quilt seemed like a perfect choice!

I’m off to pick a binding…

scattered mini blocks

admin — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:11:05 +0000

I started making these mini blocks a while back. I originally made them way back here for the back of this quilt (nope, it still hasn’t been quilted!) I enjoy making them because they’re easy to make, they use up a lot of scraps, and you don’t need to put too much thought into it. I typically scatter my scraps on the table and then just piece them on the fly. Once ironed, I cut them to 4″ blocks… 4″ because I like all things mini!

My intention was to make an entire quilt using these blocks, but when I started laying them out, I wasn’t loving it. So instead I stacked them up and set them aside. One day I was looking at them though, and thought that it might be interesting if I sewed them together as if the pile had fallen over and scattered (strange description – does that make any sense?)

So here’s the finished quilt top of scattered mini blocks. I tried not to think too much about placement – just kind of dropping them and then filling in with white. I really did want a random look (though of course it’s not totally random – I did move some around a bit to even out the colors and create enough balance).

I’m really really happy with the way it turned out! The mini blocks are really cute, and I used a lot of scraps so there’s a lot of variety in the prints. I won’t have time to quilt it before we leave, but at least I’ll have something to look forward to upon our return!

things i’m working on…

admin — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:50:05 +0000

Mostly making a mess -

You know how I love digging through my scraps! I’m considering another scrap quilt, but this is as far as I’ve gotten, so who knows…

And then there’s this quilt, which really should have been done ages ago. I’ve definitely been procrastinating with this one. This is actually the start of the back of the quilt. (is it strange to do the back before you do the front?)

This picture is probably a bit distracting since I’m building it on top of another completed quilt. Does anyone else do this? I typically construct the backs of my quilts on top of the fronts, so I have an idea of the size I need. I don’t really like to measure, so I find this technique works perfectly for me.

Since I don’t have a completed top for this one, I’m using my Bits of Color quilt as my size guide. I like the finished size of that quilt.

Anyway… the center will be white, and I’ll do a white border surrounding the zig zag rectangle. Now I just need to actually get sewing…

The free time I had for sewing is now replaced with wedding planning. We are planning a wedding in Florida in early March, and let me tell you, trying to plan while in Vermont is a bit challenging. I’ll be heading to Florida this weekend in order to finalize some plans (and to get away from the -10 degree weather we have here currently!). I think we’re doing ok now – ask me in a month though and my answer will probably be different! There are many more plans to be made, including plans for a honeymoon… (anyone with suggestions on interesting honeymoon locations is welcome to comment!) Since we’ll be in Florida, we were thinking somewhere in the Caribbean, but who knows…