About zippyquilts

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

YOW! I’m teaching curved piecing!

Posted on May 7, 2017 by zippyquilts

To be exact, YOW is the name of the quilt, not my reaction to teaching a curved piecing class 🙂

YOW is the class I’ll be teaching at Studio Stitch in Greensboro

The class is at Studio Stitch in Greensboro (NC), one of my favorite shops. To my surprise, I don’t have a picture of the quilt I’m using as a class sample, so I had to lift this one from the Studio Stitch website. There is no pattern for this quilt; it is just what I did with some really bright batiks and some nice templates from Elisa’s Backporch Designs.

I’m going to teach at least 3 different ways to piece these curves, so most anybody with some sewing experience can find success with at least one of the methods.

I got out some examples of my quilts with curved piecing yesterday to have them for display in class, and I was surprised at how many there are. Then I found all these pictures of other things I’ve made with curved piecing, so here are a few.

An attempt at improvised New York Beauty blocks

My “cocktail pillow”–to put out when you have people over for cocktails! (As if!)

This block was made with curves cut freehand

This was made for my modern sampler

Cat Circus, my 2015 Quilt Alliance challenge quilt

This was made using the Quick Curve ruler. I don’t love it–but the baby did.

Radiating Orchid mini-quilt for the Radiant Orchid Challenge, 2014

A Fun Gift Wrap, and A Fun Gift

Posted on April 30, 2017 by zippyquilts

My friend Gwen sent me her book on Christo, which she has used to write several blogs recently. Christo is the guy who goes around wrapping stuff in fabric, and Gwen got interested in the fabric involved. You can check out her blogs on the topic here.

So the book came in the mail yesterday, and look how it was wrapped!

This is such a great idea, to wrap a gift for a quilter in colorful fabric! And I’m enjoying the book, too 🙂 Here’s a picture of it.

Gwen is a textile expert, so I’ve been meaning for some time to ask her for any ideas abut this little table cloth I inherited from my Grandmother. I don’t know whether it was the era or she was just pretentious, but Granny had a lot of stuff that’s much fancier than anything I’ve ever cared to acquire. Here’s the back side of the cloth.

I thought at first it was hand-woven, but on closer inspection I believe it may be too regular and tight for a hand-woven cloth from the early 20th Century. Here’s a close-up.My only thought is Arts-and-Crafts era (early 20th Century) interest in handmade and ethnic textiles may have influenced this.

If Gwen has any ideas I’ll let you know. Just in case you like textiles, too 😉

Straight Pins: A Brief Review

Posted on April 23, 2017 by zippyquilts

I’ve used the same straight pins for years because they are smooth, sharp, and a little flexible, with glass heads that don’t melt if you happen to iron over them. Pins are very important in quilting! ( As always, I do NOT get payment or product for this review; I’m telling you about these pins because I use them.)

These pins used to come from the Clotilde catalog (IBC stands for “Imported by Clotilde”), but that business was sold to Annie’s Catalog a few years ago.

Recently when I ordered pins I noticed that Dritz also makes silk pins, and they were just a tad cheaper. I decided to try them. Here are both boxes of pins:

Those are the Dritz pins on the left, the IBC pins on the right.

The Dritz pins came in a nicer box than the pins from Annie’s. They might even be better pins if I were sewing on thin, lightweight fabric. However, they were thinner and even more flexible than the IBC pins, and that made them actually difficult to get through quilting cotton!

There is a larger IBC straight pin for quilting, 1-3/4 inches long!

I don’t like the size of these larger pins, but I expect that for some projects they would be better. For now, I’m sticking with my regular IBC pins.

Any other suggestions for great quilting straight pins?

A Practice Piece

Posted on April 16, 2017 by zippyquilts

So, while I was on a Jane-Sassaman-fabric kick, I got this piece to use for practice.

Flower Fiesta by Jane Sassaman

And I cut it up into triangles and made this top. This was just for practice, so I sewed it together all the way and added borders of another Sassaman fabric.

This practice quilt is 54″ square

I think I like the print borders better than the solid black I was trying out on the “real” Sassaman quilt I blogged about last week. This practice one is about 54″ square.

Meanwhile, my friend Jean suggested I look at quilts by Bruce Seeds. He doesn’t distribute the blocks randomly as suggested in the One Block Wonder books, he uses them to make a big design (from all the blocks with fancy little designs). Check out his quilts here: BruceSeeds.com. They are terrific! He has used little strips of fabric to outline parts of quilts, as I was thinking about doing. And he’s obviously used more than one fabric in some quilts. I’m definitely going to study his quilts more before I decide on a final design for mine.

Thanks to Jean for the great suggestion!

Finally, A Quilt Design

Posted on April 9, 2017 by zippyquilts

I’ve had this Jane Sassaman fabric for several (5?) years now, but I love it so much it’s been hard to decide what to do with it.

Garden Divas fabric by Jane Sassaman

Coincidentally, I’ve also been meaning for years (more than 5?) to make a one-block wonder quilt. In case you don’t know, one-block wonders are hexagonal blocks made out of 6 equilateral triangles. Usually the triangles are identical so that the block looks like a kaleidoscope.

I think you can see the outline of the hexagonal block and its triangles here

Finally, I got the fabric and the one-block wonder idea together, and here are the blocks. They are just pinned together, and I expect to re-arrange them many times before I decide on a final design.That black half-hexagon in the upper left corner is what I’ll do to make the edges of the final design even.

I thought about adding some focus to the design by inserting small, solid-color lines at random places, line this:

I’m not sure I like that, but scattered black triangles are a possibility:

Or maybe not. Suggestions?

Threads of Resistance

Posted on April 2, 2017 by zippyquilts

My friend Claire made me aware of Threads of Resistance, “a juried exhibition of work created to protest the Trump administration’s actions and policies”. I usually avoid politics here, since this is a blog about quilting. But I am very concerned about some of the Trump administration’s plans, so I’m making an exception. Here is my quilt, the Statue of Liberty wearing a hijab, because it’s un-American to exclude immigrants based on religion.

The Statue of Liberty stands for freedom, including freedom of religion.

As always, I learned a lot doing this. First, there are a TON of public domain pictures out there. I finally found a couple showing the Statue from the perspective I wanted, and sort of improvised from there. Second, it IS possible to find verdigris-color fabric, and it’s easier than I thought because everyone seems to have a different idea about just what shade “verdigris” is.

I drew my design on a big piece of paper then traced it onto the verdigris fabric. I quilted the rays on the background, then cut out the statue and horizon pieces and fused them to the background. I consulted one of Sue Bleiweiss’ books about how to do the black outline, but ended up not using her method because I was too far down my own road before I consulted the book! I would like to say I think a project through thoroughly before beginning, but the truth is that often I have no idea how I’m going to do something until I’m doing it!

I outlined most of my drawn lines with black thread, but then had to go back over the lines in the face with marker to make them stand out. One final lesson: Kona cotton was a poor choice for fusible applique; the weave is much too loose. I had to fray-check the edges even after I fused them, and then had to go back and trim some “whiskers” even after I had satin stitched the edges. From now on I’m sticking to Michael Miller Cotton Couture, which is a much finer weave (similar to the hand of the batik here, which gave me no trouble with fused applique).

If you’d like to make a quilt to submit for the Threads of Resistance exhibit, which is juried, click on the highlighted name and it will take you to the link you need. And if you disagree with my politics, please do not take offense–allowing differences is what America is all about.

Not Arkansas Crossroads

Posted on March 26, 2017 by zippyquilts

Arkansas crossroads is a block I’ve wanted to make for some time, but I can’t put my hands on a picture of it right now. Anyway, I ran across this very similar block last week and just had to make a few of them.

This block is not Arkansas crossroads, but it’s the same idea 🙂

This quilt will be a Ronald McDonald House donation when finished.

Also this week, I gave away a quilt I made several years ago to a friend who is retiring (again) after volunteering for many years at the free clinic where I work. I don’t recall the source of this block, but I do recall the quilt was a lot of fun to make using scraps.

This quilt was made from real scraps left over from other projects.

How was your week?

Which Permanent Markers for Quilts?

Posted on March 19, 2017 by zippyquilts

I’m making a quilt to be used as a wedding “guest registry” by a friend. It will be a “couch quilt” after the wedding, used for naps, watching TV, etc., so it will be washed. This led me to wonder what type pen the guests should use to sign.

Although a laundry pen would seem obvious, I ruled that out because it can be difficult to get it to move smoothly over fabric. That left Sharpies and Pigma pens as the primary contenders, and both are available in a variety of colors, which is nice.

The Contenders

I’ve heard pros and cons regarding both, and when I asked a vendor at a show for suggestions, she expressed shock that I might use a Sharpie. I have to admit that I had doubts when I first read Mark Lipinski’s remark about using Sharpies to “fix” a quilt, years ago. However, I’ve tried them since and they’ve worked out fine. Mind you, I’m not concerned about archival quality, I’m concerned about the ease of use of the pen and how well the signatures will hold up to washing.

Since I had both types of pen on hand, I made a couple of little quilt sandwiches, one with poly batting and one with cotton batting. I was concerned that either or both types of batting might absorb the ink and transfer it to the other side.

After Washing and Drying

Yes, these are the “after” pictures. Both inks were essentially unchanged after washing and drying in cold water on the delicate cycle. The pigma pen had a broader tip, so the mark showed up better both before and after washing. Neither pen bled significantly during writing, and neither soaked through the batting into the backing.

Because Sharpies are easier to find, I’ll probably use those for guests to sign the quilt. And I’ll show the quilt to be used as a guest registry in a later post.

Anybody out there have suggestions for permanent markers to be used on quilts?

A Finish, and One Lovely Blog Chain

Posted on March 12, 2017 by zippyquilts

After several years (due to my dislike of free motion quilting) I have finished this little quilt, which I started in a class years ago at Quiltfest in Jonesborough, TN.

Mount Pisgah

In other news, one of my fellow bloggers, Morgan Lipkin, has included me in the “One Lovely Blog Award” chain. As I discovered a few years ago, this isn’t a contest, it is a way for bloggers to promote each other, and I’m all about that. You can see Morgan’s blog at BrambletonThreads.com. She’s does a lot of other fiber-related things in addition to quilts. Thanks, Morgan!

The rules for the One Lovely Blog chain are:

Thank the person who nominated you and leave a link to their blog.
Post about the award.
Share 7 facts about yourself.
Nominate at most 15 people.
Tell your nominees that you have nominated them.

I’m nominating the following bloggers because they do fiber-related things, too, but are a little different from me. So if you check them out you’ll add some variety to your reading!

Pauline Barrett at Reflectionsofafiberartist.wordpress.com

Sue Janson at Sue’s Journey

Lori Brewer at QuiltingNeeds.com

And now for 7 facts about me, which is part of the deal:

I live in a rural area,
which means that my “local” quilt shop is 45 minutes away;
but I get to visit a midsize city fairly often.
I have a demanding day job as a physician assistant,
which cuts into my quilting time!
Besides quilting, I enjoy reading
and cooking.

Check out the other blogs above to broaden your blog experience! And have a good week!

Pamela Wiley Quilts in Savannah

Posted on March 5, 2017 by zippyquilts

While in Savannah for QuiltCon, my husband and I happened on an exhibit of quilts by Pamela Wiley, a professor emerita of SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). I’m sorry I missed her class at QuiltCon, but the exhibition of her quilts was terrific!

As Above So Below, by Pamela Wiley

Pamela Wiley’s quilts are stretched tight and framed, so that when we looked in from the street we were not sure at first whether we were looking at paintings or quilts. Once in the gallery, it was apparent that these were real quilts.

Mineralogie by Pamela Wiley

Little information was given about the materials used; each label simply listed “stitched cotton”. However, the stitching was used to distort the cotton, not just in the usual way by making raised and depressed areas with stitching and batting, but also by slightly moving printed lines so that the surface appeared warped.

Detail of Outside In, by Pamela Wiley

Stitching was used to add layers of color and to distort commercially printed fabric in ways that fooled the eye.

Outside In by Pamela Wiley

I took a number of pictures, with permission of the guard for the exhibit. If you want more, there is an article about her work in what I call “art school language” here, and many pictures of details of her quilts on Instagram here. I’ll be looking for quilt shows where she may teach in the future!