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

a Friday giveaway, thanks to Lady Belle Fabric

Posted on June 19, 2015

Happy Friday to you! Today I have a great giveaway for you, thanks to one of my sponsors, Lady Belle Fabric. You might remember my earlier post about their shop, but if not, let me give you a quick introduction!

This great online shop is owned and operated by husband and wife, Rob and Brooke Becker. They offer a great variety of modern fabrics, offered by the yard and by a variety of bundle sizes – fat eighth, fat quarter, half yard, as well as loads of precuts.

Their site is easy to navigate, which is so important when shopping for fabric! It’s easy to shop by designer, manufacturer, or by type of bundle.

Today Rob and Brooke are generously giving away a beautiful 34 fat quarter bundle of the Cotton + Steel basics. These are some of my favorite basics, and I think I add at least one to every fabric pull!

Good news! This giveaway is open to all! To enter, please leave one comment here. If you’d like, maybe you’d tell me your favorite summer activity. ~~I’ll select a winner on Sunday evening and will update this post.~~

Update! We have a winner! Good old Random.org selected comment #150, Pam S. who said “Swoon! What a wonderful collection of fabric! Thanks for the giveaway Ashley and Lady Belle! This summer I am teaching summer school, sewing with my granddaughter, and going to a Rolling Stones concert!” Congrats, Pam!

I hope you’ll take a minute to browse the lovely fabrics at Lady Belle Fabric. As a bonus, right now you’ll find a great sale going on with most bundles marked down by 15%, as well as sale yardage starting at just $3/half yard. Use code FITF to receive free shipping on orders over $50! Code expires at the end of the day on Monday, June 22nd.

You can follow Lady Belle Fabric on Instagram @becker1210 and on Facebook as Lady Belle Fabric.

Thanks, Rob and Brooke, for a great giveaway!

Posted in Fabric, Giveaway! | Tagged cotton + steel, fabric giveaway, Giveaway!, lady belle fabric | 617 Comments

just a bit of patchwork…

Posted on June 18, 2015

Well, well! Every year around this time I start exclaiming because it’s suddenly green and pretty outside – perfect for taking photos of quilts, but then I find myself without any quilts to photograph because it’s too nice outside to be inside sewing… I have to keep reminding myself that there will be time for quilting again, and until then, I’ve been satisfying myself with little bits of simple patchwork. I’ve made a number of these kinds of baby quilts, and luckily I never seem to tire of them. I love the mix of solids and Liberty prints, and it’s always fun to be able to find a few other prints that coordinate (sometimes I feel it can be hard to pair Liberty with any other prints).

I finished this one up with a great Nani Iro double gauze print on the back. I almost couldn’t believe how well it paired with all those prints on the front (you’ll have to take my word for it though, as it seems I failed to get a photo!). It’s quilted with simple straight lines on either side of all the seams, and finished up with a fun striped binding. I think I say this every time, but I sure wish it was more adult-sized!

I have fabrics picked out for another one in another set of colors, but I’m also feeling tempted to make another all Liberty patchwork quilt… I can’t quite pull the trigger though, as I realize that two bed sized Liberty patchwork quilts might not be necessary!

Posted in [search] Charm Quilts, baby, Fabric, Posts about Quilts, Quilts | Tagged baby quilt, cloud 9 cirrus solids, double gauze, handmade, liberty of london, nani iro, patchwork | 7 Comments

painted paddles

Posted on June 4, 2015

I’m so happy to have this one finished! It seems it was a long time coming, so I’m extra excited to see it completed. The blocks were inspired by an image of a painted oar, and I thoroughly enjoyed pairing colors and coming up with other designs that fit this nautical look.

I’m reminded how much I love quilts made out of solids (in fact, I keep thinking about another quilt to use up some of my solid scraps, so maybe that’ll be up soon!). These solids are the Hawthorne Hues from Hawthorne Threads.

Anyway, I made up a stack of blocks, then it took me forever to decide on fabric for sashing. I ultimately went with Carolyn Friedlander’s black crosshatch, which was one of my first options (isn’t that always the way?). I’m pleased with the decision – I didn’t really want to add in another solid, but I love that this gives the look of a solid from afar, but adds extra interest as you get closer.

I used one of my other sashing options for a majority of the backing (a floral Lotta Jansdotter print), along with a pieced strip made out of the leftover solids.

Things didn’t get easier/faster once I had the quilt top and backing finished. I got it sandwiched and ready, but then couldn’t decide on quilting. I drew lines for some diagonal quilting, then added lines for something else, and then thought I should change it all up and tried to draw lines for a vertical quilting design. After it all, I had no idea what lines I was meant to follow, so set it aside rather than try to figure it out. My sewing machine needs a trip to the sewing machine doctor (it sews fine, but starts to make an awful noise after any amount of quilting…probably not good). Luckily my mom has the same machine, which I borrowed in order to quilt my Umbrella Prints Trimmings quilt. Before returning it, I took the opportunity to get one additional quilt quilted. I picked the darkest quilting lines to follow (what a way to decide, right?!), which gave me this diagonal grid.

Being forced to just go for it kept me from second guessing the quilting, which is good, because as I said, I’m really happy that it’s finally finished!