"Let It Go": A Frozen Mini Quilt

This mini quilt is definitely one of my all-time favorite makes. It's ironic that it made the list because for about 10 months, I couldn't make any finite decisions about it!

Last year, by special request, I gifted my younger sister "Tomorrow Night," which is a mini quilt based on the animated Disney movie Tangled. We both adore Disney movies and it seemed like a fun challenge. That quilt came out better than expected, too. I never thought I could outdo the work I did on those lanterns!

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Almost immediately after gifting that one, Marisa asked if I could make her a Frozen mini quilt for her next (19th) birthday. Because Frozen is about two sisters and the songs are catchy (and Olaf the snowman is hilarious), we're huge fans! She very specifically requested that I use the above promotional picture for the movie as inspiration. It stumped me, but I knew I always had until November! And then November came. And I really needed to start this mini quilt before she came home for the holidays

"Let it go, let it go, can't hold it back anymore..."

In case you've been living under a rock for two years, here's a video of the song. Besides the amazing melody (which you might be slightly tired of, especially if you have little kids or work in an elementary school like I do), the animation is stunning.

Here's how I went about making the quilt. Hopefully I did the movie justice!

Scraps and huge fabric pull. The pieces in the front I designated for the snowy hill, Elsa's dress (which I kept waffling about), and her hair.

I pieced improvisational curves for the sky, which was so much fun (and then I steamed them to death so they would lay flat!). I felt like the original picture was TOO blue and needed some more color in mini quilt form! Also, you can kind of tell in this picture - I used some scraps of Oakshott shot cottons (top right purple), and it's especially shiny and beautiful. Also, that little piece of metallic Dottie blue fabric from Cotton and Steel makes for a great sky! I also free-hand cut the mountains, dress, hair, shoulders, and arms at this point.

Getting ready to quilt! I ended up just using the Aurifil navy (2783) and purple (4225), but this was the choosing stage. I had also quilted the snowflakes on Elsa's dress in two colors (first light blue, then silver), matchstick quilted over her sleeves for texture, secured her hands, and outlined her hair (which I would quilt over again several times to make it pop). All of the quilting was done with my free motion foot.

 A fun night time shot - more detail below.

I quilted the snow in pebbles and the mountains in squares. I really enjoyed sketch quilting over the mountains with white to create snow! I kept going back to fill more of that in.

I quilted the sky by following the curves and creating random swirls. I completed that before attempting the snowflake, which I free-handed/thread painted based on the inspiration picture. I added the blue swirls in for some charm and whimsy; I think it was exactly what it needed.

Here's the back, where you can see all the intense quilting.

It was so difficult to keep this quilt a secret. I posted one sneak photo on Instagram a couple of weeks ago, and ordered Marisa NOT to go on there (she didn't)!

Now, she's home for winter break (finally!) and she has her mini. Just for kicks, here are the two Disney-inspired minis next to each other.

"Tomorrow Night" and "Let It Go"

If only gift-giving was ALWAYS this exciting! And might I just say, my Janome MC 6300 (whose name is Elsa) LOVED making this, too. I'm pretty sure more Disney-inspired mini quilts are in my future, because they are just too darn fun!

Linking up to TGIFF, Crazy Mom Quilts, Fabric Tuesday, Needle and Thread Thursday.