Frivols 3 Finished, and Frivols 4, and (oh, boy!): Mad for Solids 2018 Final Four

March 31, 2018September 6, 2018 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

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Thank you to all who are participating in the Mad for Solids 2018 game, and thank you very much for your votes. I’m happy to announce that I’ve made it into the Final Four of this quilty March Madness. The penultimate vote in this process is today at 6 p.m. CDT, and if you wish to vote for my bundle, or vote for the bundle of your choice, please head here to cast your votes:

• Paintbrush Studios Blog
• Paintbrush Studios on Instagram
• Paintbrush Studios on Facebook

The Championship Game (love these terms) will begin Sunday night 6 p.m. CDT, and according to the Paintbrush Studio website:

We’re now down to just four color palettes, and the voting won’t get any easier! We’ve also raised the stakes! Everyone who votes in the Championship Game (starts Sunday at 6 pm CDT) will have a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of the winning palette. But even if you don’t win, you can still play with these colorful combinations!

After we announce the Champion on Monday, we’ll be selling fat quarter bundles of the four Painter’s Palette Solids color palettes that made it to the Final Four. Any of these Final Four palettes can be yours! Watch for more details Monday.

I was happy to see that, as I really love a lot of the bundles that quilters have put together. I promised another border, and it will come soon, but the fabric (I ordered more from Pineapple Fabrics) is on its way.

As fun as all this is, it’s time to go back to our regularly scheduled show, now in progress.

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Frivols 3_1

And that regular show I’m working on is sewing my way through my series of Frivols tins. I finished up what I started about a month ago, when sewing on Frivols #3, with fabrics from Betsy Chutchian’s line titled “Eliza’s Indigo.”

Frivols_3_7 — What I did in between the last filled-up tin photo and the above quilt picture.

Frivols 3_2

I ditch-stiched in-between the squares, then quilted circles around the inner squares. Really imaginative, but hey–I always remember that quote I printed at the top of all my syllabi when I taught college English to incoming freshman: The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good. And in this case, The Done.

The back is a tea towel from Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee that my son brought back to me from his trip to London. The title is Betsy’s Quilt, borrowing not only from the name of the designer, but also from a childhood nickname of mine, and since I’m also named Elizabeth, I thought it was fitting. I came in from photographing it and set in on the kitchen table, which is next to our family room. Sometimes small quilts can hang around like this, adding a nice touch to the same old same old.

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This is the third Frivols I’ve finished, so that means I’m one-fourth of the way through my year-long quest to Make the Frivols. So I don’t completely bore you with my attempt to clear out those tins of their fabrics and finish them up, I’m combining Finish #3 with Start #4.

Frivols4_1 Frivols4_1a

Tin #4 is a collection by Brenda Riddle, titled Windermere, and there on the end you see the definition of Frivol: a quilt packed into a fanciful limited edition tin. Although you can still buy them on Amazon. Maybe I should stop sewing these up and just re-sell them? I suppose I could, but I follow Mary Poppins advice: “A job once begun is a job half done.” I’m pressing forward.

Frivols4_1b

Yeah, it only took me three tins to realize that I should look at the bottom of the tin for relevant info, such as additional fabrics and how big the quilt will be. I’m using Paintbrush Studio Solids in white from Pineapple Fabrics for my background. I ~~think I should buy~~ bought a bolt of this stuff. It’s really so great to sew with.

Frivols4_2 Frivols4_2b

The tins always have these things:

roll of 7″ squares
make-it card, with instructions
cardboard “frame” for the stuff inside
an extra…and this tin’s extra was two skeins of embroidery floss that accent the quilt’s colors. Maybe I should take the hint and plan on some hand-stitching? That is to be determined, as this quilt is bigger than the others, measuring about 50″ square when finished.

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All pieces cut. Now to start sewing. Thank you all!

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Frivols Quilts

Frivols 2

February 1, 2018January 31, 2018 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

We’re back for another episode of Make Those Frivols! 2018

Today I’m working on Frivols Tin #2, with a line of fabrics from Moda’s Minick and Simpson.

Of course the cute little giveaway in this tin, a personalized label, was caught in a blurry photo, so the above photo came from Moda’s blog. The fabrics are traditional, but with a grouping of 7″ squares, they’ve crafted an interesting little quilt, which finishes at approximately 26″ square.

I pressed all the fabrics flat, as they had a nice little curve in them from being stored in the tin for a while. I checked and re-checked but there were no Errata posts on this tin, so I just started cutting them out.

But here is your caution: The strips, above, are the dark borders and the light borders. THE DARK BORDER IS SUPPOSED TO BE WIDER. Okay, there’s my oops. I liked the look of the wider border, so after piecing as instructed (see below), I sewed another coordinating strip onto the blue to bring it wider. I didn’t have any of this fabric, but did have some navy “primitive” fabric, and it worked okay.

I did not pencil in all the center lines when sewing the half-square triangles, like they asked. I put a strip of masking tape extending out from the needle stitching line, and used that to line up for sewing. My needle position is set 1/4″ to the right, so I have to pay attention to where I line up my point so I stitch on either side of that imaginary center line.

The cream-coloredborder strips are stitched end to end, but the blue is stitched with a diagonal seam. After I sewed, I trimmed.

I pressed all the half-square triangles to the dark, but didn’t have time to start trueing them up. Getting this far gives me a good start on my February goal.

You can see the extra strip I stitched on the blue border here (the darker fabric on the left). I didn’t worry about the width of the border, figuring I would trim it when I got back to the sewing. I tell you all this as a cautionary note: pay attention to, circle, highlight, make notes to make sure you follow the cutting directions. However, since this is just a fun little quilt in a fun little tin, you can adopt a happy attitude, even in the face of cutting mistakes. Just sew another strip on and go, because I’ve paid off all the Quilt Police so no one will ever find out if yours is different than the directions.

I have a tailor-made little tin to store it in while I’m away from this task — another benefit of those Frivols tins. See you at the end of the month, when I report in again on my little quilt.

Frivols Quilts · Quilts

Frivols 1 Is Finished!

January 23, 2018January 4, 2024 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

Caitlin’s Baby Quilt • Quilt #192
40″ (approx) square

I finished the first Frivol and I finished it early — before the end of January, so I was pretty happy with THAT deadline. As I was making it, I was thinking about my friend Caitlin, who is having a girl after two boys. I decided she just needed this feminine quilt that isn’t so fussy, that it couldn’t be thrown down on the ground when the family has a picnic.

It’s my first finish in this year; 2017 saw sixteen finishes, but a lot of them were smaller quilts, so it’s nice to lead off with a good-sized quilt.

I used Carolyn Friedlander’s white-on-white cross-hatch design (from her Architextures line) for the sashing and accent, and then used another white-on-white heart print for the borders.

A lot of contemporary quilters are notorious for not owning up to the traditional name of the block, and this group was no exception. The block has several names, the most common being “Chimney Sweep,” and it was first published in 1929 by Ruth Finley (I get all my info from Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns). It’s also known as “Christian Cross” (from a book published by the Shelburne Museum that listed all their quilts).

This backing is from a fabric from about a decade ago.

I quilted it in an overall lazy large meander, and bound it with a fabric that was a nice companion to the Bonnie and Camille line, interspersed with bits of the fabric from the leftover squares, as I don’t plan to make an extra block for a sampler quilt (one feature of the Frivols tins).

My review: if you are a Bonnie and Camille fan, this box is for you. I haven’t ever sewn with their line, and part of why I’m doing this is to learn about other styles of fabrics. I found the repetitive blocks easy, once I learned about the misprint measurement. Resolved: I’m going to look up any errata (errors) first, before I start cutting. But overall, it didn’t hold my attention, nor was I fascinated with the fabrics or the block. I guess I’ve spent too much designing my own quilts as well as working in highly saturated colors and splashy patterns. But, like I said, good to have a change.

It will be perfect for Catlin’s little baby girl. On to Frivols #2 in February.

~~January 2018 • No. 1 – Hello Darling by Bonnie & Camille~~ DONE!
February 2018 • No. 2 – Polka Dots & Paisleys by Minick & Simpson
March 2018 • No. 3 – Eliza’s Indigo by Betsy Chutchian
April 2018 • No. 4 – Windermere by Brenda Riddle
May 2018 • No. 5 – Petite Prints Deux by French General
June 2018 • No. 6 – Strawberry Fields Revisited by Fig Tree
July 2018 • No. 7 – Songbird Gatherings by Primitive Gatherings
August 2018 • No. 8 – Bread ‘n Butter by American Jane
September 2018 • No. 9 – Little Miss Sunshine by Lella Boutique
October 2018 • No. 10 – The Cookie Exchange by Sweetwater
November 2018 • No. 11 – Sew & Sew by Chloe’s Closet
December 2018 • No. 12 – Blue Barn by Laundry Basket Quilts