A Quilt, and Sending Quilts

Posted on September 24, 2023 by zippyquilts

First, here’s the latest donation quilt, made to use up 5″ squares in floral fabrics. I just added the strips as “leaders and enders” while working on other projects, and here it is.

Quilt Stats

Name: Floral Crumbs

Design: Variation of the “crumbs” pattern from The Quilt Police

Finished size: 60″ x 73″

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

Sending Quilts–solved!

I occasionally enter quilt shows where I’m not able to physically deliver and/or retrieve my quilt, and this has presented a problem.

Last year I took the packed quilts to UPS, FedEx, and USPS asking to purchase a pre-paid return label to include with them. The first two flatly refused. The lady at USPS finally explained that I could purchase stamps and include them with my own return label inside the package.

This year I researched online and figured out that I could purchase a prepaid return label by going through a third party, such as GoShippo.com. The GoShippo service is intended for businesses needing to offer pre-paid return for merchandise, but I was able to set up an account as a non-business individual.

So this year, I packed my quilts, measured and weighed the box, and entered the information at the GoShippo site. I was immediately given prices for UPS, FedEx, and USPS, including the various levels of service for each and transit time for each. Much easier than running around to all the various shippers and being turned down!

Here are the quilts I’ve entered in the Asheville show. I’ll be attending but won’t be able to pick them up, so they’ll use that return label 😀

Improv 2022, 42″ x 57″

Circular Reasoning, 56″ x 68″

How do you manage shipping to shows when you need a paid return label?

Eeeek! Another Start!

Posted on September 17, 2023 by zippyquilts

OK, so the Bloem quilt is off to be quilted and I thought of the other pattern I got at Five Little Monkeys. It’s on the right below. (That’s Bloem on the left.)

I had some strips of Kaffe [2.5″ strips of fabric by the designer Kaffe Fassett] and no intention of following most of the instructions on the pattern, so I just started.

I usually reserve Kaffe fabrics for quilts designed by him, or at least for modern quilts. I did think this design modern enough for them to work, but then…

Those are interesting blocks, but they don’t much hang together. It might have been a good idea to follow some of the pattern’s instructions about color placement. And maybe cut back a little on the Kaffe.

To be continued 😀

And not to worry; if there aren’t a few mistakes I’m not stretching my skills enough!

What’s your latest experiment?

Quilts for Veterans

Posted on September 10, 2023 by zippyquilts

One of the guilds I joined recently participates in the Quilts of Valor program, awarding quilts to veterans.

My parents met when both were in the Army during World War II. They would have been touched to have their service remembered years later with a quilt.

However, both of them died before I knew of the program.

Therefore, these two quilts are not only to honor living veterans but to honor the memory of my parents and their service.

This first quilt is made from the Lucky Stars pattern by Alex Anderson. It’s another one I’ve made numerous times and it’s always turned out well.

The second quilt is a modification of the Wish pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew.

Both of these were quilted by Linda Nichols, who is an official Quilt of Valor longarm quilter. I hope you can see this nice panto she used. It’s called “Star Spangled”

P.S.– A blogging friend asked if I had written about my parents’ service, so I thought I would add what information I have. Mother’s jobs with the army included recruiter, sex educator for female personnel, and finally WAAC commander at Keesler Field. Daddy was an aircraft mechanic, first in Texas and then in Europe.

Both left the army with the rank of captain. I recall that one outranked the other by virtue of having been promoted a few days earlier, but I don’t recall which. I do know that Mother outranked Daddy at home 😀

Fall Classes

Posted on September 3, 2023 by zippyquilts

Studio Stitch has published the fall class list. Of note for those of you with embroidery modules, there are some new embroidery classes that look like fun.

For quilters, here are the classes I’ll be teaching!

In September it’s basic binding. This is something many quilters struggle with and I promise to make it easier.

Also in September I’m teaching a class to rescue some orphan blocks! As I’ve mentioned, I have a lot of those and I suspect other quilters do, too. Here’s the quilt for the class:

And note that the blocks do not have to be all the same size/shape/etc. We have work-arounds!

In October I’ll be teaching two quilts (but at different times!). The first is Weathervane. There’s a kit for Weathervane available at Studio Stitch or you can just bring the pattern (also available at the shop) and your own fabric. (There’s a discount on the class if you’re using the kit from the shop, plus of course you get 15% off the kit since it’s for a class. Just sayin’–double discount!). This is a good quilt for perfecting your half square triangles.