Friday, January 24, 2014

Frozen Friday: Sven!

As promised, today is our first "Frozen Friday!"  I am really excited to be presenting my first series of blocks.  I know that other designers are working on Frozen blocks as well, but I wanted to be responsible for these start to finish for my daughter's quilt to add to the special, homemade quality.  You can probably expect another short design series this spring as well for my other daughter's birthday. We are thinking dragons, which should be a lot of fun.  Maybe something based off Eragon?

But back to Frozen.  :)  We are beginning with Sven.  Not only is he really adorable, but I wasn't quite ready to design blocks with people's faces yet.  That was a bit of a scary prospect until I actually got down to it.

Sven Frozen Quilt Block
Here's the computer-generated image ...

Here is the completed block!  (Please forgive the terrible lighting, but I had to take the photo after it was dark out.)

Sven Frozen Quilt Block
and the real deal!

The stitches are still stretched a little tight and are a bit visible because I haven't removed the paper yet.  I find that I have better luck with my stitching holding together if I wait to remove the paper until the quilt has been assembled.

The snowflake fabric is Wintersburg, by Abbott Designed (licensed to South Sea Imports), and everything else was scraps.  I actually found other snowflake fabrics that looked more like "Frozen" to me, but I didn't want them competing with the characters too much.  Maybe I will use one of those prints for the backing.  I haven't quite decided yet.

You might recall that I designed these blocks at 5" to fit into Jennifer Ofenstein's Classic Film pattern.  Because of that, this pattern can be incredibly complicated.  I don't personally find small pieces to be an issue, but I know some people do.  There aren't any strange angles that I can remember, but there are lots and lots and lots of tiny pieces.  I suggest that you blow it up to a larger size if you are intimidated.  Another option is to leave the inside of his eyes entirely white and either embroider a pupil or add a small black bead to your design.  You will, until I can convince my husband to get me EQ7, have to compare the pattern pieces to the section key and write in your own colors, but it is very manageable.

You can find the pattern free here or on Craftsy.

I do have all the other patterns (Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf) designed, so I am looking forward to testing those over the next few weeks and releasing them to the public.  If you have a serious preference for which one is released next, be sure to let me know in the comments and I can take that into consideration.

Enjoy!

13 comments:

  1. Wow!! Such a cool pattern!! Thanks for sharing... I don't want to start another project... but with such fun blocks I am not sure that I will be able to resist ;)

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    1. Thank you so much! Trust me, I didn't need another project right now either (haha!), but I realized I have never made my girls anything quilty and thought this would be a fun place to start. Thanks for checking it out!

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  2. He looks great! Just to let you know, there's an Elsa in the FiS queue. That's no reason for you to not finish yours, just thought you should know. :)

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  3. Awesome, thank you! I may save that one for last, then, because if I run out of time before this birthday party, I may need a fallback option. ;) It is such a great movie, you can never have too much Frozen!

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  4. My daughter turned 5 today, we had a Frozen party! As I was cruising around FIS this evening she spotted him and asked so sweetly for a Frozen quilt. I guess I'm going to have to multi task with this and AYW! He is so cute! I would really love Elsa next if you are still taking requests :o) Thanks for the great patterns!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! We were planning a mermaid party until we saw Frozen, and my daughter changed her mind so fast it gave me whiplash. :D It looks like an Elsa pattern should be popping up soon on Fandom in Stitches soon (probably from Michelle at www.misha29.com), or I am happy to send you the untested pattern if you like. I know that Michelle also has other untested Frozen patterns on her blog. If you decide to test mine I would love to feature it here, or if you test out Michelle's it may help her get them up on Fandom in Stitches sooner. :)

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  5. Great job! We just saw Frozen and my kids are smitten with the music. What do you use to make patterns on the computer? I'm going to follow your blog as we sound like we have similar interests. My daughter as read Eragon more times then I can count!

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    1. Thank you! I find myself singing the songs more often than a full-grown adult probably should. :) For drafting patterns, I used to work in QuiltAssistant, but more recently I have been designing in ElectricQuilt 5. I am hoping to upgrade to EQ7 soon. For newer designers, it is probably easier to design in QuiltAssistant, but I like the output that EQ generates better. Either way you can put together great patterns, though. Thanks for stopping by!

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  6. I am looking forward to the dragons. Anne McCraffery's books are such a favorite of mine.

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    1. We are a huge fan of the sci-fi/fantasy realm around here. :) I already picked up some dragon scale fabric in different colors to prepare for those quilt blocks, so I am really looking forward to getting to them.

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  7. You and I must be on the same designing wavelength - we started Frozen patterns around the same time and I have had Eragon patterns half done for ages. What do they say great minds think alike. I love that you want to do your own patterns because that's how I feel - I find other peoples patterns don't always fit my vision. It doesn't mean they are not awesome just not what I had in mind. Michelle (misha29)

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    1. That is really funny. I bounce around a lot when deciding what I want to design because I want to do it all! :D I love how every designer approaches things differently, and I also love being able to pick and choose what I want from the different designers. Some blocks definitely speak more to me than others. I am a huge fan of your work (there are a few of the FiS designers who are my quilting idols) and I am really flattered that you stopped by!

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    2. Michelle, I didn't have enough entries on my giveaway, so I have two extra copies of the fishbowl pattern. I am offering them to the most recent commenters as a thank you for blog participation; if you are interested, you can contact me through the blog with your mailing address and I will get one in the mail to you!

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I welcome your comments and feedback! I will try to get back to you shortly.