a new favorite – a quilt with Far Far Away II

Posted on June 8, 2010

far-far-away2-quilt3

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Heather Ross’s new line, Far Far Away II, mainly because I always adore everything she designs, and this time the prints are on a linen/cotton blend which is really beautiful. I managed to snag a FQ bundle of this new line just before it was available in stores (now available at Superbuzzy & Fabricworm, and soon to be available everywhere) and spent quite a few days admiring the prints and trying to think of a good way to show them off in a quilt. (I love mixing and matching fabric lines, but lately I’ve also become quite fond of making a quilt out of a whole fabric line (unfortunately this one is missing the Sleeping Beauty in Plum). It’s sort of my way of having a visual reminder of one of my favorite lines… though I suppose a photo of the fabric stack would work too… anyway, I digress…)

So, back to the quilt. I tried out a couple things without too much success. I think my main problem was that half of these prints are a larger scale and since I only had a small amount of each, I didn’t have the luxury of fussy cutting the designs. In the end I gave up trying to cut them perfectly, and decided that I’d actually be quite happy just seeing different portions of each design.

far-far-away2-quilt

The design came about as I was admiring my latest Flea Market Fancy quilt. So as I was looking at it, and thinking about how much I really do love the string quilt design (possibly too much, I admit) I started thinking about how I could replace the white squares with the Far Far Away prints and use a corresponding solid for the sashing — a reverse of the FMF quilt, if you will. (Of course, at this point it’s no longer a string quilt, but I still look at it and think of a string quilt.)

far-far-away2-quilt2

So here it is. And can I tell you how much I absolutely love it? More than I even imagined. Initially I thought this would end up being baby sized and consequently would probably end up in the shop, but instead it’s ended up being a pretty nice throw size and now I don’t think I’ll be able to part with it!

__

Notes:

Blocks are cut on the bias -  5.75″ square

Sashing is Kona Snow

Currently it measures about 58″ x 72″

Oh, and the feel of the fabric? Very much like Echino. I think it’s perfectly appropriate for a quilt!

Posted in Posts about Quilts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 39 Comments

a flea market fancy lattice quilt

Posted on June 7, 2010

This quilt is a marriage of two loves – string quilts and Flea Market Fancy. It’s also one that I’ve wanted to make for ages… ever since my first string quilt. I think I might have been under the impression that it was too easy, so I never bothered, but you know what? Sometimes you want a nice easy project. Instant gratification is a good thing from time to time, right?

FMF-queen2

(please ignore all the piles of mess! clearly I did not pick up before taking these photos!)

I decided to cut into my Flea Market Fancy stash for a queen sized quilt for our bed. I used the same string quilt method but rather than using the white strip through the center of each block, I used a wider strip of one of the FMF prints. Then I bordered each strip with solid white.

I really love this simple, clean look and the way it really highlights the FMF prints. The other nice part is that it didn’t use a ton of flea market fancy, while still giving the look of a flea market fancy quilt.

FMF-queen

I’d really like to do some straight line quilting on it – to add a bit of a pattern to those solid white squares – though I’m totally afraid of how long it might take! I made up a baby version just so I could test it out (same pattern, but slightly smaller starting block size).

FMF-baby

And it turns out that I do love the quilting, but it really took some time, even on this baby sized quilt.  I’m not sure if I have the patience to do the same sort of quilting on a queen/king sized quilt!

FMF-baby-back

Anyway, the back of this one is a nice solid green, with a hint of the lattice pattern (or maybe an “x marks the spot”). I really love the pattern the quilting creates on the back!

FMF-baby-binding

Now that I see this one done, I really want to get that larger one done! (though to be honest, the thought of all that work makes me want to set it aside and work on something else instead!) Hope I’m not the only one daunted by quilts of that size!

Posted in [search] String Quilts, 2010 Finished Quilts, Finished Quilts, Posts about Quilts, Quilts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 80 Comments

winners!

Posted on June 4, 2010

Wow, that was fun! Thank you so much for making my 2 year blogging anniversary a special one. I truly appreciate each and every one of your comments and it was great to hear from those of you who don’t typically comment!

And once again, I want to extend a huge thank you to my wonderful sponsors for making this a much better giveaway than I could have ever done on my own!

What are we waiting for? How about those winners!

Screen shot 2010-06-04 at 9.37.44 AM

Wow, that’s a long list! I started at the top of the list and picked one of the prizes out of a hat for each of the winners. I’ll just post the first name and the prize here (to save myself a little time!), so hopefully if there’s any confusion, you’ll go back and check the comments from the giveaway post. They’re numbered over there, so you can check the corresponding comment to see if it was you!

#994 – Joslynn – Marimekko scrap bag from Nido

#1231 – Sam E. – Tufted Tweets FQ bundle from Laurie Wisbrun

#137 – Steph @ Everyday York – $20 gift certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics

#410 – Shelly – Circa 50 FQ bundle from Fabricworm

#1159 – DebbieKL – $20 gift certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics

#1032 – Adrienne – Tufted Tweets FQ bundle from Laurie Wisbrun

#199 – Michelle – pincushion from Sewing on the Edge

#1286 – Chloe R – Emma Day bag pattern + 2 yards fabric from Fresh Squeezed Fabrics

#1 – Jeni – Flea Market Fancy fat eighth bundle from me

#230 – Larissa – $20 gift certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics

#1293 – Kayli – $25 gift certificate from Blueberry Buckle

#1313 – rafael’s mum – $20 gift certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics

#669 – ellesquare – ROYGBIV FQ Kona solid bundle from Canton Village Quilt Works

#1447 – Tanya – 1 yard Nani Iro fabric from Nido

#1480 – Barbara -  Hope Valley FQ bundle from Hawthorne Threads

#515- Felicity – Liberated Quiltmaking II from Mad About Patchwork

#560 – Holly – Momo Freebird FQ bundle from Fabric Shoppe

#1103 – Herta – $20 gift certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics

#1142 – Kristin – Donkeys in Wellies 1/2 yard bundle from Laurie Wisbrun

#893 – ebethsha – $25 gift certificate from Blueberry Buckle

#98 – Nadine – Marimekko scrap bag from Nido

And that’s not it! There’s one bonus winner as well, since Laurie generously sent along one of her new journals.

jounal

This lovely journal will go to #715, Norma!

If you see your name, please send me an email at ashley@filminthefridge.com with your mailing address. It would be great if you’d put the prize that you won in the subject so I can try to keep it all straight!

Thanks to everyone who played along!

(oh, and p.s — please excuse my technical difficulties – looks like this got posted before I finished it, so some of you may see it twice in your reader!)

Posted in Giveaway! | Tagged , , | 26 Comments