Barn Quilt to Wall Quilt to Lap Quilt

Posted on June 28, 2020 by zippyquilts

We live in a rural area and one of the barns I pass on the way to town has a quilt block on the end, where it is easily visible as you come around a big curve.I enjoy seeing the “quilt trail” quilts wherever I encounter them, though sometimes they look like something nobody in her right mind would make out of cloth.
This one is different. Its relatively simple design has a striking visual impact and it is something a person COULD make from cloth!.I thought it would make a good wall hanging or an unusual center for a medallion-style quilt. Because of that, I drew it out in Electric Quilt. (I’ve been an EQ user since EQ5, and am now on EQ8!)

I submitted the design to a publishing group for a magazine, where it was accepted. Then there were changes in publishing world and nothing happened for several months. Eventually Eileen Fowler at McCall’s Quilting made a design of her own, giving me credit for inspiration. It’s in the July/August 2020 issue of McCall’s Quilting, page 35. Her quilt is lovely and easy! Check it out!

And Melanie, please note that McCall’s Quilting was very ethical. I probably wouldn’t have recognized Eileen’s quilt as based on mine, but they asked permission and gave credit. It’s always nice when that happens.

Fiddlesticks!

Posted on June 21, 2020 by zippyquilts

I finished this quilt last month, but I’ve been doing a lot of quilting due to quarantine, so I’m behind on showing my work. This is a scrap quilt, of course. I’ve been seeing lots of quilts with little strips inserted on Pinterest, and finally got around to developing my own.

First, I got out all my solids, including the Grunge, and cut a 12″ square from each for background. I planned to trim the blocks to 10.5″ after I finished inserting strips, since I have a 10.5″ square ruler 😀 No point making things difficult; let’s plan for easy!

Then I got out all my scraps and cut them into strips ranging from about 1″ to 2.5″ in width. I made strip sets and cut them crosswise into strips for the quilt. The inserted strips were cut in widths varying from 1″ to 2″, which of course means they finished 0.5″ to 1.5″ wide in the blocks. I made more skinny ones than wide ones.

I just slashed the blocks at random angles. I did slash and insert only one strip at a time.

After I’d inserted enough strips to suit me, I trimmed each block to 10.5″ square.

Just look at the fun flower design my quilter used!

And yes, I left 3 blocks unpieced to add interest.

Quilt stats: Fiddlesticks

Finished size: 49″ x 69″

Technique: Improvisation

Quilted by Julia Madison

An Easy Donation Project

Posted on June 14, 2020 by zippyquilts

Pineapple Fabrics recently sent an email requesting blocks to be made into quilts for Brenner Children’s Hospital. Some days I feel completely overwhelmed with making donation quilts, but this looked easy and fun. They asked for applique pineapple blocks, using a template they provided.

Here are mine:

A couple of my quilting buddies made even more, and Chela even used Dr. Seuss fabric for hers!

Here is the link to the Pineapple Pieces Project if you are interested. Full disclosure: these blocks were as fun and easy as they looked, I also appreciated not having to make a whole top and quilt it!

And I have donated this little art quilt of to the Studio Art Quilt Association’s annual auction.

Quarantine has provided a lot of good quilting time, though I miss getting together with my quilting buddies! I hope you are finding benefits to enforced time at home, too.

7 Years and Counting!

Posted on June 7, 2020 by zippyquilts

As of this month, I’ve been blogging here every Sunday for 7 years! I’ve debated what to do for my blogiversary, having largely skipped it last year. My decision is to show my favorite quilt from each year I’ve blogged. So here we go…

First year blogging: