Author Archives: zippyquilts

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About zippyquilts

I quilt for pleasure but I also teach and write about quilting.

A Novel Project

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I publish this blog on Sunday, so what’s up with a random mid-week post?

Because I made something for the current PROJECT QUILTING challenge, here.

The challenge requires making something quilty from start to finish within a week, and must be posted by Saturday, which is why this post is early. There will still be a regular post on Sunday.

This week’s prompt is “a novel”–any novel. I made this card because the occasional romance novel is my guilty pleasure (OK, one of my guilty pleasures), and it did double duty as a valentine card this week!

Process: I took something from the discard bin and applied heat-n-bond to the back. Then I cut out a heart, fused it to the front of a blank card, and zig-zagged around the edge. 

Fun and done!

About Those Improv Blocks…

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Back in 2019 I made up my own improvisational block challenge. When the blocks were done, though, I decided it was going to be difficult to put them all together in one quilt. I had chosen coordinated fabrics but used all the colors from the collection, among other problems.  Of course it was intended as a learning experience, and I learned that I should restrict my color options when I experiment with just a few blocks!

Here are all the blocks together:

And just for comparison, here is a more recent series of improvisational blocks in which I did limit the colors:

So I learned, which is good, but then those 2019 blocks have been sitting around for a while. OK, almost 4 years.

I’ve decided to use the 2019 blocks in a series of small pieces that I quilt by hand. This not only gives the blocks something to do but also gives me something to do with my hands during meetings.

Here’s the first piece so far.

The funny thing is that many people at meetings have asked, “What is it? A table runner?” And when I say, “Art” they just look puzzled.

And a lot of times art is puzzling, so I’m good with that 😀

I do need to find a local art quilt group to join, though. Any suggestions?

Did Someone Say Scrap Quilt?

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I modified this from multiple quilts I have seen because I liked the idea of turning squares into those elongated hexagons as well as the idea of pointing everything toward the center.

Not incidentally, it also used some more of my (many, many) 5″ squares.

It’s sometimes important for Elvis to make an appearance 🙂

I wasn’t sure about this binding, but I think it worked out OK. That’s not my usual type of backing, but it was available on short notice!

Quilt Stats

Name: Really? Another Scrap Quilt?

Finished size: 65″ x 65″

Designed and made by: me, with inspiration from multiple other quilts I’ve seen

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

The Smallest Scraps?

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Wordspress claims to have published this, but nobody got it, so I’m trying a workaround. I have left out some of the pictures hoping that will help. Computers!*%$***

What to do with the scraps that are really, really too small to sew into a quilt? Options include:

Put them in the compost pile. I haven’t tried this, but they are 100% cotton, so I think they should compost just fine. And most of us should be composting anyway, so why not!

I have a couple of friends who say they make dog beds for the animal shelter and stuff them with the tiny scraps. You might think that would take a while, but if it does so what, and I think I might be surprised with how fast the dog bed fills. I wasn’t sure about whether the shelters take these, but a friend in one of my guilds assures me that the shelters here not only take them, but wash them and re-use them. She says she makes the “shell” out of upholstery fabric, which I can often find at thrift shops for almost nothing, so the bed really wouldn’t cost much to make. If you’re interested, there are nice instructions at National Quilters Circle, here.

One of my quilt groups is making blocks by putting the tiny scraps on a fabric base and then sewing over them to hold them in place. They’re holding the scraps with glue (from the ubiquitous glue stick) until they sew. After the pieces are stitched down, the block is trimmed to size. They plan to piece these blocks together for a donation quilt.

I made one of these blocks (above) with the assistance of one of my grandsons. Instead of just stitching the fabric to the backing, I layered and quilted the block, then cut it to size as a resting pad for our crystal bell. The grandsons like to ring all the bells, and I thought this might remind them to put the crystal one down gently.

And then there is the actual confetti quilt option. These usually are art quilts, not meant to be washed. The tiny pieces are placed on a background fabric and the whole covered with mesh, such as tulle. Some people attach the tulle with a very light weight fusible, some rely on quilting over the tulle to hold everything in place. There’s an example here, with details on how it was done.

So what do you do with tiny scraps? Any other ideas?

Floral Lattice and a Fun Addition

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The fun addition first: I found these little “PS I love you” tags at Studio Stitch and bought a bunch of them to add to quilts I’ve made for our daughter’s family. After some debate about how to attach them, I decided on having them stick out a little over the binding, like this.

I love these tags! Now I’m going to attach them as I put on the binding when I make quilts for special people.

I seem unable to resist floral print fabric, so in a recent attempt to use some of it I made another floral lattice quilt. You can find my instructions here if you want the pattern.

One of the fun things about this iteration of the quilt is that the cream-background fabric shown below is scrap from a dress I made for myself years ago. That dress, along with several others, was given to a visiting psychologist from Russia whom I met at a conference. Again, many years ago. I like to think of those dresses travelling to another country and being enjoyed there.

Quilt Stats

Name: Floral Lattice

Finished size: 57″ x 73″

Designed and made by: me

Quilted by: Elisabeth Pugh

 

What I’ll Be Teaching

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In the first quarter of 2023, I’m teaching a scrap quilt, a beginning quilting class, a special binding class, and Quilt As You Go. All classes are through Studio Stitch, and you can get sign-up information here if interested. Meanwhile, here are my notes on each class.

Superfans!

Yes, I’ve shown this quilt recently, and I’m teaching it in a two-part class on January 27 and 28. That’s a Friday afternoon and a Saturday morning. This means everyone can leave a sewing machine set up between classes but have a night of rest half way through.

Beginning Quilting

Probably not directly relevant to anybody reading this, but it will start February 11 and run for 6 Saturdays. For the first time we have a book to be used with the class so folks will have a reference at home.

Improve Your Binding

In this class we will explore several ways to improve binding techniques as well as some nice (easy) embellishments for binding. One of my friends calls this a “game changer” for binding.

Quilt As You Go (QAYG)

It seems that most quilters want to at least try QAYG. There are a number of ways to do it. I will teach the way I think is most effective and show some of the other techniques as well. As a bonus, we’ll be making the Bauhaus pattern by Zen Chic as we learn the techniques for QAYG.

I liked this pattern by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic so much that I made it twice

I’m sure most of my readers are nowhere near Greensboro (North Carolina, U.S.A.), so won’t be taking these classes. However, if you have related questions I’ll try to answer them. If you do live near Greensboro, join us and have fun! Further information is on the Studio Stitch site, here.

 

 

A Scrappy Finish

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When the scrap bins get too full (or more too-full than usual!), I make a scrap quilt. This one was inspired by the wonderful Tim Holtz fabric shown in the center below, so was a green and gold quilt with some purple accents.

Yes, there were plenty of scraps in each of those colors! The back includes a few leftover blocks, since I am trying not to add to the orphan block collection.

And the wonderful quilting pattern is one of the “Aboriginal” designs from Nancy Haacke of Wasatch Quilting. The quilting was done by Linda Nichols, who is patient and helpful when I want to select particular quilting designs.

Quilt Stats

Name: Strips and Squares

Finished size: 60″ x 72″

Pattern: If this was a pattern, I can’t find it now! Perhaps I just got the idea on Pinterest. They’re surely all traditional blocks in any case.

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

 

A WOMBAT

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According to a facetious list of quilting terms I have, a WOMBAT is a quilt that is a “Waste Of Money, Batting, And Time”. Which is why I’ve named this quilt WOMBAT.

The full sun on the west side of the house washed out the colors a bit

And here’s the backing!

This was one of the patterns provided by the Modern Quilt Guild. I usually ignore those, BUT in this case a blogging friend made one and it sounded interesting. In particular, she commented, “Who thinks like that?” with regard to the written instructions in the pattern. I like to find out how different designers think and plan, so I jumped in.

In fairness, I learned a couple of things, but I thought the written instructions wasted a lot of printer ink and time giving detailed instructions for things that were easily improvised. Anyway, it’s done. Finished in 2022, actually, but I have a backlog of quilts to bind and blog about, so here it is at the start of 2023. Happy new year to all!

Quilt Stats

Name: WOMBAT

Designed by: Charles Cameron, for the Modern Quilt Guild

Finished size: 63″ x 87″

Made by: me

Quilted by: Elisabeth Pugh

Did anyone else make this quilt? If so, what did you think?

 

 

2023 In Quilts

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I’ve finished 32 quilts so far this year, and 8 additional non-quilt sewing projects. The good news is that I’m not going to show you all of that here. Rather, here are my 10 favorites in no particular order.

Dynamic Dresdens, made in class with Susan Cleveland

Bright Scraps, one of many scrap quilts made this year. And no, the scrap pile has NOT diminished!

It Takes A Village to Can Watermelon, started during the pandemic and finished this year. If only the pandemic were finished, too!

Wild Geese, from a pattern by Beyond the Reef

Arkansas Crossroads, a traditional pattern made from scraps 

Superfans, made from many scraps. Inspired by several quilts I saw on Pinterest, but no pattern

A Girl’s Best Friend–another scrap quilt!

I liked this pattern by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic so much that I made it twice

“Susan’s Head Explodes”, 12″ x 12″, a tribute to Susan Cleveland, made for the SAQA auction

My first bowl made with The Mountain Thread Company cord

What’s your favorite?

Night Sky Finished!

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Whew! Night Sky, a Jaybird Quilts pattern, was what we politely call a “challenge”. A friend and I made it together and both used some naughty words.

But here it is, and it looks pretty good.

Night Sky from a pattern by Jaybird Quilts

Here’s a detail of one of the stars.

And the back, which is a leftover sheet from the 1990s! This is also a good place to see the lovely quilting. I think those swirls really add something nice to the quilt.

Quilt Stats

Name: Night Sky

Finished size: 56″ x 64″

Designer: Jaybird Quilts

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

P.S.: take a look at this wonderful pegboard my husband just made for hanging all my rulers, templates, etc, etc. The wood is quarter-sawn white oak, for those of you who care about such things 😉