Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Virtues of Fairy Frost


Fairy Frost is a fabric line by Michael Miller and is a favorite of mine because it is shiny and sometimes even sparkly. I have a little obsession with a series of books about sparkly teenage vampires. I'm even making a quilt (or two) about the sparkly vampires. {Comments with the words real vampires don't sparkle, or any combination thereof, will be immediately deleted. It is not up for debate, but next time you meet a real vampire, you can ask him and then we'll discuss.} Fairy Frost is a great pick for quilt blocks about sparkly vampires. As a matter of fact, I've been named the Queen :queen: of the Fairy Frost because of my large stash {50 colors and counting, pictured in part above} and frequent use of Fairy Frost in my Twilight quilt blocks. I named Angie {a fellow TwilightMOM} the Fairy Frost :princess: Princess. See why here.

Fairy Frost comes in a rainbow of colors, each with a really cool name. Generally the color is tonal and splotchy with a pearlescent or metallic overlay. These have a really nice shimmer to them. Sometimes the overlay is pearlescent and metallic, which gives it a kind of shimmery marbled effect {Natural Fairy Frost}. There are a few colors like Aqua, Diamond, Evergreen, Garland, Glimmer, Holly Berry, Platinum and Twinkle which have a glitter overlay.

Fairy Frost is a pretty rare find in the quilt shops around here. I have to import most of mine. The least expensive place I've found is MaryJo's, a fabric mecca in North Carolina with mountains of fabrics at thimble-sized prices {just in case you thought I was clever enough to come up with that terrific, albeit slightly mixed metaphor, it's their tag-line. I totally stole it off their site}. Unlike most other on-line fabric stores, their shipping is flat-rate and so sometimes that makes up for the great discount on their fabrics when you factor that into the total cost. However, they do have a great selection. If you are looking for a certain color of Fairy Frost {or other fabrics as well} and MaryJo's doesn't have it, Quiltshops.com is a great tool because you can search by name and then comparison shop for the best price.

If you're not sold on Fairy Frost yet, and Twilight and quilting about vampires isn't your cup of tea how'd you end up here? you can add a little shimmer to more traditional quilting. Check out this amazing quilt that Angie is working on for her neighbor. The turquoise and olive checkers are Fairy Frost as is the coral. They really make this quilt.

Here's a bigger shot of the quilt, called Autumn in New England, and you can read about how this quilt came to be on Angie's blog.

You would think I was getting paid to advertise Fairy Frost. But I'm not. Michael Miller, if you're out there trolling blogs for people who think Fairy Frost is fabulous, I'm your № 1 fan {and I wouldn't mind if you sent something fabulous and shiny my way}!

2 comments:

Linda said...

I love fairy frost, In the hawaiin quilt on my blog, I used a couple pieces. went really well with the batiks
Linda

Jennifer Lovell said...

I can understand your affinity for this shiny fabric. It reminds me of my affinity for anything small and round and shiny. I love those pearly glass marbles that you find in vases, and the smaller & cuter, the better. Just a little FYI =). One day I stumbled on some tiny green shiny plastic beebees (sp?). They were all over the road when I was going for a walk. I had to stop and pick them all up, and I still have them today, because they are so CUTE (way cuter than those opaque yellow beebees I've always seen before). A little weird, I know. All I'm saying is, I understand the shiny thing : ).