Interview: Sherry of Powered by Quilting

Posted on February 13, 2022 by zippyquilts

I recently ran across this quilt by Sherry Shish, of Powered By Quilting, and I’m very impressed with it. It’s a great mix of traditional and modern looks

Simply Cornered, as shown on Sherry’s website

I contacted Sherry and asked a few questions, which she graciously answered. Here’s The interview:

Q: How did you get into quilting, how long have you been doing it, and when did you decide to make it professional?

A: I had been hand sewing and doing other crafts for many years before I learned how to sew on a machine. I’ve been quilting for just over 5 years now and I fell in love with all the different aspects of quilting. I started pretty early designing patterns since I really love seeing my ideas and my style of quilts.

Q: Where do you get your design ideas?

A: Everywhere… but I find it easier to put self constraints on what I’m designing to help narrow the focus. I really love secondary designs (like really love them) so a ton of my patterns have a secondary design. I create, iterate, rotate, recolor, and repeat several times before I land on a design that I love and want to make.

Q: You’ve got a lot going on with social media. How much time does it take?

A: Social media is hard… It’s necessary, but sometimes I’d rather just be me and pretty pictures are not reality. I should spend more time on social media, but I find I give what I can and that has to be good enough.

Q: What are your goals for your quilting business? What are your goals for your quilting art?

A: I would love to make it my main source of income, but I have a good day job that makes it very difficult to balance time and commitments. There are things that I would love to be able to do such as kit more of my patterns, teach, lecture, etc. but time is precious and there are things that I’m still prioritizing over adding to the business side to make sure I keep my sanity and don’t burnout in life in general.

Back to the quilt that impressed me: It certainly does have a great secondary design. I drew it in EQ8 and re-colored it because I think it would be striking if done all in one color.

My EQ8 drawing based on Sherry Shish’s pattern “Simply Cornered”

It appears Sherry has made the pattern available already to her Patreon subscribers, and she also sewed it on her Twitch channel in January. It will be available through her PayHip store in March, and you can pre-order here.

I will be making this pattern and following Sherry’s blog. Please join me in wishing her luck!

Eight Years

Posted on May 30, 2021 by zippyquilts

I’ve now been blogging weekly for 8 years. One of the best things about it is “meeting” people from all over the world and reading about what they are doing. Some of them have been at it even longer than I have, though many of the bloggers I’ve “met” have since quit writing.

Here are my current favorite quilts from each of the years I’ve been blogging.

Rising Star, made for the Quilt Alliance TWENTY contest in 2013

My Zippy Star Quilt and Pillow as shown in Modern Quilts Unlimited, Summer 2014

Happy Squares, designed and made by me, 2015

Cherrywood Toss, 2016.

Scrap quilt made with strips that finish 1″ wide, 2017

Equilateral Triangles, 2018

My “Little Green Man” quilt, June 2019

“Clamshells? Really?” 2020

I’m going to delete many of the older posts since I doubt they are serving any purpose at this time. I have had a book made for each year, as suggested by my friend Linda, so I can always look back at them if I want.

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:

My entry for the Quilt Alliance Challenge 2014; I think it won a judge’s choice award

Second year:

I designed this quilt for Modern Quilts Unlimited

Third year:

Improv Table Runner for Modern Quilts Unlimited

Fourth year:

Quilt I designed from a QR code used by Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Northwest, shown here with their staff

Fifth year:

My donation to the Quilt Alliance auction was used in their publicity

Sixth year:

My “Little Green Man” quilt included Kraft-Tex applique

Seventh year:

I’ll have more to say about “Fiddlesticks” next week

Thanks for reading, and please stay tuned for Year 8 🙂

Gypsy Wife Adopted

Posted on January 28, 2018 by zippyquilts

The Gypsy Wife quilt is quilted, and bound, and ready to go to its “forever home”, as our daughter calls it when one of the animals she fosters is adopted.

I recently read a post listing pictures we supposedly should take of every quilt, and thought “not”. I think Rita, at Red Pepper Quilts, does one of the best jobs anywhere on her photos and posts about her quilts. She includes enough pictures for me to get a good idea of the quilt. Even better, she lists “statistics” about each quilt at the end of the post. So here’s my attempt:

First, a picture showing the back and giving a closer view of the binding:

Then, a picture of my favorite block. OK, that wasn’t Rita’s idea, but I like it 🙂

A picture showing the quilting:

Gypsy Wife Quilt

Pattern: Gypsy Wife by Jen Kingwell, with several modifications by me

Fabric: Just A Speck collection by Jen Kingwell,

Moda Grunge in various colors

And a few others

Finished Size: 61” x 66”

OK, did any of those pictures or details add to your experience of the quilt?

Happy Blog Year to Me

Posted on July 16, 2017 by zippyquilts

My blog just entered its 5th year, and I’m celebrating by linking to some blogs written by my blog-world friends.

First, two of my blog friends have nominated my blog for another Liebster Award. This award was started by a blog called The Global Aussie as a way for people to find new blogs. I have no idea how many times it’s gone around the world, but the Global Aussie keeps issuing new “rules” each year to keep it going.

I was nominated by both my friend Graciela, at Chela’s Colchas y Mas, and by another friend, Tierney, at Tierney Creates. Both of them post on a variety of subjects, quilting and otherwise. I enjoy them and would nominate them back if I could, but of course that would not be passing along the award. So, I recommend checking out their blogs at the links above. As an incentive, here’s a favorite picture recently posted by Tierney on her blog. Isn’t it fantastic?

Photo by Tierney at TierneyCreates.com

I’ll answer a few of this year’s suggested questions in a minute, for those of you who may be curious about me. But first, here are some blogs I enjoy and can recommend to you. They are, therefore, my nominations for the Liebster Award. I’m trying to get this out of one circle of friends who all read each others’ blogs so you can see something new.

I enjoy Stephanie’s posts at My Imperfect Life. She has a pointy sense of humor, and we have Texas in common, even though hers is an Aggie household (eek!). Oh yes, and she blogs about quilts, too.
Here is one of Stephanie’s quilts. Photo courtesy of Stephanie at My Imperfect Life
I also enjoy Crafting in the 21st Century, written by a couple who, like my husband and me, are a sewist and a woodworker. I knew I had to follow them when they encased a bunch of fire ants in resin to make a blank for turning a pen. They’re obviously as crazy as we are. In a good way 🙂

OK, here are my responses to a few of this year’s Liebster Award questions:

Out of all the countries you have visited, which one did you like the most? Canada. The Canadians are mostly very sane, and they have some beautiful scenery.
What is the most extreme thing you have ever done? Woo! People who know me would say this is quite a contest. But I think probably the winner would be working as a health care provider in a male maximum security prison.
What/Who inspires you to travel this world? The opportunity to learn something new every day!

And that’s it! Check out the blogs who nominated me, and the blogs I’ve nominated. Spread the love!

Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show, Part 2

Posted on October 30, 2016 by zippyquilts

There has been so much going on (that’s good!) I haven’t had a chance to post the rest of my favorites from my local guild show. Here are a few more of them.

Please note that this is a local show, so most of the quilts were made from patterns or workshops. I’ll list the source where I have it.

Jen Kingwell design beautifully done by Susan Roper

Traditional design made “to use up scraps”

Our guild has a very active group making Quilts of Valor for men and women who have served in the military. The next two were made for that program.

Inspired by a design on the Alycia Quilts blog

Design by Jenny Doan for Missouri Star Quilt Company

Design from the book Modern Paper Piecing was both pieced and quilted by Linda

Debby designed and made this quilt after a study of Amish quilts

Quilt is based on a Mind the Gap design by Moda. Karen cleverly named it after her “mistake” in placing the green strips!

Christeen designed this quilt herself, and I think the name should get a humor award!

Betty designed and made this quilt for a log cabin challenge

From a pattern by Kathy Wells

I’m lucky to live near so many talented quilters!

Where Did You Wear It?

Posted on September 25, 2016 by zippyquilts

A couple of years ago I made a quilt based on the little triangle codes found on plants at my local nursery. It sank without a trace when I entered it in a show.

But the idea stayed with me, and earlier this year, when I wanted to make a quilt with social significance, I decided on a QR code.

Since my “day job” involves a lot of treating conditions that condoms might have prevented, I wanted to make a quilt to promote condom use. It’s what we like to call “safer sex”. Now don’t get all huffy on me; sex is a fact of life.

When I went looking for a condom-related QR code, I found this one developed by Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands.

The folks at Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and Hawaiian Islands were gracious enough to allow me to use their QR code

Back in 2012 they put this QR code on all their condoms in a campaign called “Where Did You Wear It?”. Those who scan the code are taken to a website where they can put a pin in a map to show their geographic location–where they wore the condom!

The site also gives some important facts about condom use. The point of their campaign, and my point in making this quilt for show, is to normalize, encourage, and promote the use of condoms when needed.

It turns out QR codes are robust little devils, so I was able to re-color it and develop a lively quilt design with the use of my trusty Electric Quilt program:

Quilt Design from the “Where Did You Wear It?” QR code

Making this was quite a challenge! At each step I kept scanning it to be sure it took me to the “Where Did You Wear It?” site. (You can download any of several QR code scanners to your smart phone or iPad. I used QMark.)

The QR Code quilt, ready for its first show. It will the in the Asheville Quilt Show soon!

When I discussed the project with my wonderful son-in-law, he helped me turn my blog address into a QR code, too! That’s this blog address you see in the TINY QR code making up one block toward the bottom right of the quilt. Scanning it brings you to this post.

Please help me to encourage condom use when appropriate by sharing this post.

Crunchy Numbers

Posted on January 17, 2016 by zippyquilts

The WordPress people send me two statistical reports a year regarding my blog, and of course I can look at statistics on my administrative page at any time. I don’t stress it or check very often, so I was quite surprised when the recent report from WordPress said people from 61 different countries viewed my blog in 2015!

This picture of Iceland is from NordicFoodFestival.org

Most of the countries were predictable: the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. But there were views from every continent except Antarctica! The place I got the biggest kick out of was Iceland 🙂

This improvised log cabin block, which was made into a pillow, appears to have been the most viewed picture on the site.

improvised log cabin block

Jo Glover

And my most popular post was about Jo Glover, who first developed Big Stitch quilting but doesn’t always get enough credit now that everybody does it. You can find that post HERE if you missed it.

Another popular topic was my ongoing modern sampler quilt, and there’ll be much more about that coming up soon. A few of those blocks are shown below.

This block was made with curves cut freehand

The stats show my readership growing steadily over the 2-1/2 years I’ve been blogging. The growth is slow, but I’m blogging for fun (and I’ve kept my day job!) so that’s just fine. I’ve made some new friends, which is even better.

As always, I’m amazed by the power of the internet. I’ll skip the chance to philosophize about that and just wish anyone who reads this a very happy 2016!

What is a Liebster award?

Posted on November 1, 2015 by zippyquilts

Turns out the Liebster award is a tag game for helping readers discover new and under-read blogs. Wanda over at Wanda’s Life Sampler tagged me. So thanks to Wanda, and I’ll be passing it on to some other bloggers. You can check them out at the end of this post.

Here are my answers to Wanda’s questions, but I changed some of them! The next folks in the chain might change them, too…

1. What one thing do you believe with your whole being?

It’s important to learn something new every day. It may be positive or negative, but all knowledge is useful eventually.

I learned to make a sample block before cutting out the whole quilt!

2. What have you made lately?

I’m glad you asked that question! This month’s finish is the top for a “Black and White and Red All Over” quilt for which I’ve been collecting fabrics for some time.

This was made from a pattern called “Lemon Pepper”, but of course mine is more red pepper!

I also sent 5 donation quilts to the Cincinnati Ronald McDonald House. Three were finished this month, 2 previously. Here are some of them:

Design by Cindy Williams

Simple quilt from a recipe on Craftsy

The “New! Improved!” quilt

3. Are you a cat person or a dog person? Or neither?

Presently neither. Though I do miss having a cat right in the middle of every project and cat hair everywhere 😉

4. Where do you hope to be in 10 years’ time?

Retired from my “day job” and in my quilt studio full time!

5. Favorite dessert?

German Chocolate Cake!!!!

6. What is one thing you wish you were better at?

Always saying the right thing.

7. Describe your Dream Vacation?

The next one! But I did recently have a great trip with my husband to Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

View from Clingman’s Dome

8. Why do you blog?

To promote modern quilting, and North Carolina quilters in particular. If you’re a North Carolina quilter and I haven’t featured your work yet, please contact me!

9. Your best sewing/quilting advice?

Do what you enjoy. I used to make all my own clothes, but then I figured out it’s a lot easier to get a quilt to fit a bed than to get a garment to fit my frame!

10. What else is new?

Here’s a picture of Pat with her FINISHED table runner, started in a class I taught recently!

Pat finished her runner in time to give it as a gift

And here are some bloggers I’m passing the “Liebster Award” on to. I think you might enjoy them!

My Imperfect Life

The Accidental Hayseed

KnitNKwilt

Sandi Suggs: Finding Her Way to Modern

Posted on October 11, 2015 by zippyquilts

Sandi’s work was featured in a special display at AQS-Chattanooga, and I was lucky enough to get to interview her. I took some pictures, and if you want to see more of her work, check the links at the bottom of this post.

Sandi designed this nontraditional arrangement of split 9-patch blocks

While I was waiting to interview Sandi, I heard her tell someone, “Any time I make a quilt, I do it to learn something.” My sentiments exactly!

Sandi made this quilt from a pattern, adding modern colors to the design

Sandi started quilting over 25 years ago, using cereal box templates because rotary cutters weren’t yet used for quilting. She still uses templates when appropriate, but a lot of things have changed! For one thing, she now uses freezer paper when she needs templates so she can cut several layers of fabric at once.

Sandi designed and made this quilt using her own quilt-as-you-go technique

Sandi teaches several classes, including her own version of Quilt As You Go. (I’m going to keep an eye on her website because I’d like to take that class if she teaches it anywhere near me 🙂 )

The AQS exhibit included both quilts Sandi designed herself and quilts she has made from designs by others. This was a round robin quilt; Sandi made the final arrangement of sections and did the quilting:

Round Robin quilt by Sandi Suggs and friends. Look at Sandi’s quilting!

A couple of hints from Sandi: she likes to use the multi-stitch zigzag (stitch #4 on Bernina machines) in her quilting. She starches all her fabrics before cutting to make them smoother and less likely to fray. She says starching also equalizes the weight of the various fabrics. She likes to wash her quilts after they are finished to achieve a crinkly look that emphasizes the quilting.

Sandi does her own quilting on her home machine. This quilt is called “Roy G. Biv”

Sandi also has her own way to successfully select fabrics for a mystery quilt! I’ve only done one mystery quilt and was unhappy with the result, so I asked her about it. She showed the quilt below, designed by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr as a mystery quilt, and told me how she selected her fabrics.

Mystery quilt designed by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr demonstrates Sandi’s successful fabric selection

Sandi looked at the fabric requirements for the quilt and figured the largest fabric requirement was for the background. Once she had chosen gray for the background, she decided she would need bright fabrics to contrast with it. I think her decisions were very successful!

You can find Sandi’s blog at: www.FrogPondStudio.blogspot.com

She has many more pictures of her quilts there, including these five posts that show all her quilts from the AQS exhibit:

Finding My Voice

Finding My Voice, Two

Finding My Voice, Three

Finding My Voice, Four

Finding My Voice, Final

Zippy Quilts

Modern Quilts With A Twist

Category Archives: Blog

Interview: Sherry of Powered by Quilting

Eight Years

7 Years and Counting!

Gypsy Wife Adopted

Happy Blog Year to Me

Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show, Part 2

Where Did You Wear It?

Crunchy Numbers

What is a Liebster award?

Sandi Suggs: Finding Her Way to Modern

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