FITF: Film in the Fridge | modern quilts, clothing, fabric, and photos

2014 Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition

Posted on May 28, 2014

I was really excited to participate in the Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition this year. I love their fabrics, and have bought many a trimmings pack over the past several years. This year they added a quilt category, so of course I couldn’t resist making something to enter! I showed you a photo of the packet I received, along with the solids I thought I’d pair with them.

I thought about a design for a while – my goal was to keep those trimmings pieces as large as possible and as usual, I wanted to create as large a quilt as possible, all while still keeping those trimmings pieces as the focus.

This design was the perfect answer! You may recall my original quilt in this design made for Valentine’s Day a year or two back (inspired by wainscoting seen on an old episode of the Real World… sad, yes, but I suppose you never know where you’ll find your inspiration!). I always wanted to make another, and think it was a perfect answer for my trimmings.

I used the trimmings as the center of several of my blocks, paired with a coordinating solid. Rather than trimming any of the pieces, I kept them exactly as I received them, so this design really does use almost the entire trimmings packet (I only trimmed just a bit off of each of the two pieces used in the binding!). I kept these blocks grouped together – off centered a bit – and then surrounded them by blocks made up of all solids.

The quilting is a fun concentric circle design, centered over the Umbrella Prints section (hopefully to draw your eye to those great prints!), then filled in around the edges with partial concentric circles.

I didn’t have enough of any one solid for the backing, so again decided to just use up what I had, piecing together all those larger pieces I had left over. I added in the one purple block that I didn’t feel fit in on the front, and then pieced the remaining two brown/black prints into the binding.

This quilt measures about 55″ square.

The competition ends on the 30th, and then you’ll have a chance to repin your favorites from June 1 – 5th (Australian time).

a quilt for baby eva

Posted on May 27, 2014

My cousin had a baby girl a couple months ago and of course that called for a baby quilt! I always love a simple patchwork quilt, and arranging squares into this plus design is a favorite way to showcase great fabrics.

While I’m usually all about the pink, I decided to go less girly on this one, using lots of prints from the pretty line Meadow, by Leah Duncan. Those greens, yellows and oranges make me happy and perfectly fit the season.

I loved your backing suggestions, and almost ordered up some of the green Lizzy House pearl bracelet print, but in the end decided to be good and use up what I had.

The quilt measures about 45″ wide, so a bit wider than your standard fabric, which meant that I had to do a bit of piecing to make my stripes long enough. I was annoyed initially to have made more work for myself, but now I’m pleased it worked out that way – I’m always happy to be able to use up all the extras (I haven’t been so good at using up my scraps lately, so I like it when a quilt doesn’t create too many scraps!)

My sewing machine is under the weather, so I haven’t been able to do much sewing, but I made up for it this weekend when my mom loaned me her machine. Since I only had the machine for the weekend, I opted for some simple straight lines on the sides of each seam. It’s simple, but I really love the way it looks, and even more, I love how soft it keeps the quilt.

I went dark with the binding – there are a few prints in there that have a bit of navy, and I really like the contrast. I went digging into my solid stash for something, and happened to come across this dark (navy? charcoal?) sketch print, and I think it’s quite perfect!

I certainly hope that Eva will get lots of use out of this one!

Posted in [search] Charm Quilts, baby, Posts about Quilts, Quilts | Tagged art gallery fabrics, baby quilt, handmade, leah duncan, meadow, plus quilt, quilt | 14 Comments

cotton + steel

Posted on May 21, 2014

(Rashida Coleman-Hale’s Moonlit & Melody Miller’s Mustang)

I’ve wanted to attend Quilt Market since I started sewing, and now, all these years later, I finally got the chance. It was fun and overwhelming and inspiring, all at the same time. I met so many wonderful people, and even though it would have been nice to have more time to talk, even the little snippets of conversations provided a little picture of many of the people I’ve followed online for so long (many pics in my Instagram feed if you’re interested!).

I didn’t do the best job checking out all the booths, but did find myself visiting the Cotton + Steel booth quite a number of times. The ladies of Cotton + Steel truly outdid themselves. It was so fun to see all the excitement surrounding these new lines – 5! plus a great selection of basics, arriving this summer.

I only managed to snag two bundles during Sample Spree, but even with just two lines, I’ve been able to spend quite a bit of time arranging and rearranging these fat quarters into fun little bundles.

I love how the colors in each line coordinate, and when you add in the line of basics…there are just so many possibilities for pulling together your favorites.

This aqua, navy and yellowy-green combo is a favorite, so I decided to see what else in my stash might coordinate. Perhaps these?

Then I did the same with these pinks and corals.

I realized after the fact that this resembles the colors in the quilt I’m currently working on, as well as the second version of my In Flight quilt I made a few months ago. I’m predictable, I suppose!

Anyway, I look forward to adding the other collections (and basics!) to my collection come July. You too? You can pre order these collections now at Westwood Acres or Pink Castle Fabrics.