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Meet my new CF Grid Group fabric!

By carolyn friedlander on April 8, 2021 in fabric, Featured on Home, my patterns | Comments: 10

I have some fun news that I can finally share. Meet my new CF Grid Group fabric collection!

CF Grid Group fabric collection . carolyn friedlander

On Grids

It shouldn’t be a surprise, but I LOVE grids. There’s something wonderful about clean lines and repetition, and grids epitomize that. Plus, once you get a good grid on some fabric, it’s really fun to cut it up and sew it into a project!

projects made using CF Grid Group fabrics . carolyn friedlander

Grids can add a nice structure to piecing as well as some delightful contrast to curvy shapes and appliqué.

collection CF grid group fabric projects . carolyn friedlander

CF Grid Group Fabrics

This is my Grid Group, which is part of my basics line–Collection CF. What I’ve done is take some of my favorite grid-like motifs from past collections and reimagined them in a new way and with a specific color theme–in grayscale.

On Grayscale and Color

When I’m teaching a color class, one of my favorite points to make is how you can exaggerate the variety and nuance in a fabric pull when you reduce your palette down to a very narrow range. Doing this has a magical way of emphasizing variation in a beautiful way. It makes it fun to see more color in whatever you are working with.

This is exactly what I was thinking when I put this collection together. Even though this is a grayscale palette, together these 12 pieces feel really colorful to me, and they come to life in projects.

Project Peek

And, I have some new projects, including a new appliqué project that I am just over-the-moon excited about. It’s called Bow, and it’s (maybe obviously) based on a Rainbow. I know I’ve dropped the ball a bit on my pattern releases recently, but I promise, this (and others I’ve been working on) will be real, and we’ll be able to sew together with them soon.

CF Bow quilt in CF Grid Group fabrics . carolyn friedlander

As for the new fabrics, you can ask your local quilt shop to get their order in now. The collection starts shipping in September.

Watch This

I put together a little video introducing you to the new group…along with more of a look at the projects on my YouTube channel here, and I’ll be sharing more about it all in posts to come.

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Meet, Kept–my newest fabric collection.

By carolyn friedlander on October 23, 2020 in fabric, Featured on Home, loving, my patterns, patterns | Comments: 26

Meet kept–my newest fabric collection for Robert Kaufman.

I have a new fabric collection, and it is called Kept. This is a small, 12-piece group that has a mellow feel and the ability to go with the flow.

The designs themselves are inspired by collections of things that I have kept. These are things like shapes found in studio stuff, patterns I come across in my daily life and design ideas that roll around in my head. The mix of textures and shape goes from hand drawn and linear to bold and geometric.

kept fabric and kept coordinates . carolyn friedlander

As is usual with a new collection comes a brand-new group of coordinates to go along with it. I love bringing in coordinates that can broaden the character and expand on the possibilities of any collection. These can go alongside Kept or inspire a starting point all their own.

kept fabric and coordinates . carolyn friedlander

I’ve made a variety of projects using my Kept collection and the coordinates to celebrate just some of the creative possibilities. I don’t know about you, but while spending so much time at home during a challenging year I’ve found great comfort in sewing and all of the levels of creativity that it offers. From embracing color, to working with different fabrics, to indulging in projects big and small, practical and comforting–sewing is a very good thing for us to embrace right now.

kept fabric projects . carolyn friedlander

I’ll be sharing more about each of the projects in the coming weeks. If you’d like to see an overview of all of them now, check out this new video that I put together. And let me know what you think!

I made most of the projects above with the big exception of the AMAZING quilted coat and tote. They were made by Brittney Frey (using the Sapporo Coat pattern and Sylvie Tote pattern), and they are just dreamy.

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Colorful Quilts for my Niece

By carolyn friedlander on October 9, 2020 in fabric, weekend projects | Comments: 19

This summer I made a couple of colorful quilts for my niece. It was a treat for both of us.

Colorful Quilts for my niece . carolyn friedlander

To start, I picked up a couple of adorable mini charm packs from Bunny’s at QuiltCon back in February. (That feels like a million years ago!) Together the packs make up a full rainbow of color, and I knew at the time they’d be perfect for her–and me. I love all of the cute Japanese prints and the range of color feels so happy too.

Quilt Tops

To me, one mini quilt wasn’t enough, and so I made matching quilts–a big one for her and the mini for her dolls. I made the mini first from the 2 mini charm packs from Bunny’s with 2 1/2″ squares added in from my stash (my 2 1/2″ square stash!). It’s a simple, checkerboard layout with the stash pieces going between the Japanese prints. The lighter colors set them off nicely.

For the big quilt, I wanted a similar-but-larger match, and so I sized up by using 5″ squares. Unfortunately I didn’t have a perfect rainbow pre-cut pack to work with, but I created my own by diving into my stash. I sought out colorful prints with clever motifs that I hoped she’d enjoy discovering and perusing over time. There’s nothing better than an i-spy quilt, and I definitely had a great time revisiting all of these lovely fabrics.

Like in the mini version, I alternated in with some of my own lighter prints–mostly repurposed from my scrap piles.

Sewing

There’s nothing better than sewing through a stack of color, plus it was fun seeing all of the great prints as I sewed. I pressed all of the seams open, with a seam wheel first, and then with the iron. I think this makes things much easier.

Quilting!

Hand quilting has been my personal vacation/spa treatment/zen in recent months. I’ve really been loving it. For these quilts I wanted to hand quilt them to make them super soft, but also to use a colorful array of thick threads to stand out.

I changed my thread colors often to mimic the color changes across the quilt. The effect is really nice.

I didn’t mark these quilts, and so the lines are more freeform. I stitched from corner to corner, with some definite wobble here and there, but I like the personal touch.

Label

As I mentioned recently, I’ve been trying to be better with adding labels to my quilts. It was pretty easy to do here, because I had an extra square from the big quilt. I re-purposed it for the label, and then made a matching mini for the other quilt.

My niece loves her quilts, which of course makes me very happy.

Pattern: None–just 5″ squares for the big quilt, 2 1/2″ squares for the little quilt.

Fabrics: Mini quilt is made from 2 mini charm packs from Bunnys (I don’t see a listing, but you can probably ask via email) plus my own fabric. Larger quilt is made from my stash with fabrics by Melody Miller, Alexia Abegg, Rifle, Aneela Hoey, UPPERCASE, Denyse Schmidt, Jeni Baker, Charley Harper, Rashida Coleman-Hale, Lizzy House, Ed Emberley, Leah Duncan, Robert Kaufman, and several others.

Hand Quilting: Here’s a link to my favorite tools.

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