Chela’s Journal

Posted on January 26, 2020 by zippyquilts

My blogging friend Chela makes beautiful fabric journals (and other fabric art) and recently used Kraft-Tex to make a cover for last year’s journal pages. You can read about how she did it in her post here. However, she had some difficulty with pictures on her site, so I have some pictures of her process below:

Chela used a tool to crease the Kraft-Tex, and I do too–it’s tough enough to stand up to this

She also used clips to hold it for sewing–of course you don’t want pin holes!

She decorated the cover of her journal with stitching and buttons–Kraft-Tex can be stitched either by hand or by machine

Chela had trouble with glue for applique, but stitching worked fine. If you want glue, I use the Aleene’s Jewel-It glue with good results on Kraft-Tex

And here are some of her creative journal pages. Click on any image for a larger view.

You can see Chela’s blog here: colchasymas.blog

Rabbits!

Posted on January 19, 2020 by zippyquilts

I guess every quilt has a story, but sometimes I think “Hoo-boy, this one really has a story!”

The finish here started with a shibori dying class with Debbie Maddy in 2018.

I decided to use the fat quarters (FQs) I’d dyed in the class to make a quilt using Debbie’s Usagi pattern.

The blocks were easy to make and I enjoyed the process. Then I decided to quilt it myself! I usually do pretty well quilting on my domestic machine, but my walking foot decided it didn’t want to participate. The resulting quilt was quite a mess. No, I did not take pictures!

I took out a lot of the quilting, using both a regular seam ripper and a tool that looks like a miniature electric razor. Both worked pretty well, and I managed not to make holes in the fabric!

Finally I got up the nerve to try again. I did small meandering in the blocks to make the rabbits stand out, some stitch-in-the-ditch around the blocks, and some wavy quilting in the border. Done!

Quilt stats:

Name: Rabbits!

Pattern: Usagi by Debbie Maddy

Fabric: Most shibori-dyed in class with Debbie Maddy; border is a commercial batik

Size: 44″ x 44″

Quilted by: me (twice–a learning experience!)

New Classes

Posted on January 12, 2020 by zippyquilts

I like to start the year with a scrap quilt, so I’ll be teaching one January 21 at Studio Stitch in Greensboro, NC. It’s based on this pattern by Linda Hahn, but I have made some significant changes.

On February 29 I’ll be teaching a quilt I call “Easier Than It Looks”. It’s great for those “just can’t cut” fabrics, whether you can’t cut because the design is large or because you love the fabric so much.

Not sure yet what I’ll be teaching in March, but I’m thinking about tiny landscape quilts. Opinions, anyone?

If you live near Greensboro, please join us for one of these classes–we’ll have fun! And there’ll be chocolate 😉

One of the Last Finishes of 2019

Posted on January 5, 2020 by zippyquilts

Having the internet out for several days caused problems with my blog, but I got a lot of quilting done. I finally finished (got the binding on) my bed-size One Block Wonder (OBW) quilt!

I found this Jane Sassaman fabric many years ago and just had to make something from it.

Garden Divas fabric by Jane Sassaman

After many design experiments (using photocopies of the fabric so as not to waste), I decided on OBW. Not sure I’d do that again. Anyway, here’s the finished quilt, as well as some detail shots.: