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

patchwork love letters

Posted on February 13, 2012

I’m so excited to show you this finished quilt. It’s a simple design, these patchwork squares, but I’m always so happy with them when they’re finished.

I’m quite in love with the color combo on this one – some neutral Essex linens, aquas, greens, browns and a bit of greenish yellow, all picked to coordinate with the fabulous Melody Miller typewriter print that I wanted to feature.

These are 6″ squares, because the Melody Miller print is perfect for fussy cutting squares of that size. I’m particularly happy that you don’t lose any of the typewriters when fussy cutting – I managed to cut all of the typewriter squares in this quilt from a half yard of fabric.

I decided to quilt it with those same circles that I showed on my Brrr! mini quilt. I like the idea of a circle within each patchwork square, and I think the circles are perfect here, what with all the polka dots, the Laurie Wisbrun Modern Whimsy circle print and even the circular typewriter keys.

I drew each circle with a washable marker, tracing the top of a small cereal bowl (it would have been perfect if the bowl had been just a bit bigger, but I was a little too impatient to find something the exact right size…). I sewed each row in a figure 8 pattern using my walking foot. It was slow going on a quilt this size, but I’m really happy with how it turned out.

For a little extra interest, and because my box of Anna Maria Horner pearl cottons paired so well with these colors, I added a bit of hand stitching randomly throughout the quilt. Just a little something to make me smile when I’m snuggled underneath this one!

The backing is some Essex linen, along with some Kona Stone (when I ran out of the Essex!) and a few other strips and chunks of fabrics left over.Â I particularly love that little strip of love letters!

(overly bright iphone photo!)

And how about a little behind-the-scenes photo of my favorite quilt holder-upper?! Morgan certainly deserves extra thanks for this one, since finding a location I deemed appropriate took quite a bit of driving, and then it required him to stand out in the 10 degree weather…

Anyway, this quilt has already been getting some use, most recently as the backdrop for Max’s 10 month photos… 10 months already!

Welcome, Marmalade Fabrics (+ a giveaway!)

Posted on February 10, 2012

Please help me welcome Marmalade Fabrics as a new sponsor! Tammy has a wonderful online shop filled with all your favorites – lots of great prints and a super selection of coordinating solids. Tammy, the owner and creative mind behind Marmalade Fabrics, describes herself as: “obsessed with fabric; passionate about quilting; a working mom of two active & rowdy boys; wife to creative & talented husband; lover of art, music & all shades of orange; a down-to-earth Kansas girl; and most of all, content with life.”

My favorite things about Marmalade Fabrics are the super fast shipping (and especially the fact that Tammy offers free shipping for orders over $50 in the US!), a really great selection of prints and solids, and the ability to order a variety of cuts (often I really only need a fat quarter, and it’s so nice to be able to order that way). Oh, and I just realized she has a fun rewards program. You earn $10 in free fabric for every $100 you spend (and who couldn’t go for some free fabric?!)

I placed an order recently and was very pleased with how quickly it arrived and how nicely it was packaged. I stocked up on a few additional Lotta Jansdotter Echo prints, some of the new Essex linen colors (this one is my new favorite!), and some Moda Cross Weaves (just because they’re pretty!).

Tammy has generously offered up a layer cake of Malka Dubrawsky’s A Stitch in Color. To enter, please leave just one comment here. If you’d like, you might mention your current favorite fabric line, or maybe a fabric line you’re most looking forward to. I’ll select a winner sometime Sunday afternoon and I’ll update this post to announce the winner.

Updated: Comments are now closed! ~~Winner to be announced shortly…Â~~ Random.org selected a low number this time, #23, Jennifer, who said

February 10, 2012 at 6:47 am

I love Malkaâ€™s style and fabrics. Iâ€™m also really excited for the rerelease of Flea Market Fancy, Thanks for the chance to win!!

Congrats Jennifer! I’m sending you an email! Thanks to everyone who entered!!

Have a happy weekend!

Posted in Fabric, Giveaway! | Tagged Giveaway!, marmalade fabrics, sponsored post | 442 Comments

baby taali quilt

Posted on February 8, 2012

Remember in my last post how I said I went with a smaller size on this one so it’d be easier to finish? Well then I decided to quilt it with about a bazillion straight lines, so easy and quick it was not… four nap times and one trip to the store for Morgan and Max, while I hurried to quilt the last of these lines!

I was excited to see this one finished. It’s made up of a great line by Monaluna, Taali, along with some additional coordinating prints and a few solids. I really like this color combo, and of course, I’m quite fond of these wonky cross/plus blocks (still trying to find time to finish my Liberty cross blocks!)

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to quilt it, but then I read this post by Angela (part of a weekly series of posts on deciding what to quilt) where she talked about leaving some areas unquilted. It reminded me of a mini quilt I made a while back where I left an unquilted zig zag in the white space. I decided to try it again on this quilt, so I drew out a big wonky plus over the entire quilt and then I densely quilted each of the four quarters.

It’s not really that obvious, and probably would have worked better if I had made it a bit wider (and if I had used a plain solid backing!), but I like it. It’s subtle, but adds a bit of extra interest. Can you see it in that photo above? Maybe it’s a bit too subtle…

Since there’s a lot of white on the front, I decided to use big sections of the prints on the back. I like seeing big portions of these fun Monaluna prints, especially those sheep!