Quilt Alliance Contest

Posted on May 1, 2016 by zippyquilts

Here’s my entry for the 2016 Quilt Alliance contest, “Playing Favorites “. The design is inspired by Gwen Marston’s work, and the piece is titled “Gwen Visits the Farm”. The black fabric has animal sounds printed on it: “peep” etc.

“Gwen Visits the Farm”

The “Playing Favorites” theme of the 2016 Quilt Alliance contest is intended to capture a picture of quilting in 2016 by asking contestants to make quilts using their favorite techniques. I love improvisational quilting, and Gwen Marston was doing it long before anyone thought of the “modern” quilt movement!

In addition to making the quilt in Gwen Marston’s improvisational style, I quilted it using decorative stitches. I’ve used several of the decorative stitches on my machine for quilting for a long time now. However, I recently took a Craftsy class in which Jackie Gehring suggested using even more of the decorative stitches. I think the stitching reflects the state of the art of quilting in 2016, as well.

I’ve been thinking for YEARS of doing a series of quilts in the styles of my favorite quilt designers, so this is the first in that series. Please stay tuned!

Layer Cake Quilt

Posted on April 24, 2016 by zippyquilts

I bought a terrific layer cake was bought a couple of years ago and it has been “waiting”, along with its solid coordinates, for inspiration to strike.

Future projects are stored in boxes…oops, sometimes for years! (Found a nice set of these at Costco.)

Then the other day I decided I wanted to insert strips of the coordinating colors into the squares. As you probably know, a layer cake is a stack of 10″ x 10″ squares. That means fat quarters (18″ x 22″) of solids will work well for insert strips.

I started by sorting the layer cake squares into stacks with the solids I wanted to use with them.

Layer Cake and Coordinates

Then I cut strips of various widths from the solids.The strips varied from 1″ x 18″ to 2″ x 18″, in 1/4″ increments. I cut a variety of widths from each solid color.

Strips ranging from 1″ to 2″ wide in 1/4″ increments

I had NO idea what I was going to do with these blocks once I got them modified; I just liked cutting them up and inserting strips–it takes very little to entertain some of us 😉 Then I remembered John Cage’s “prepared piano”. So I called these “prepared fabrics”.

I did the inserts in several ways, still working on this just for fun:

When I looked at my “prepared fabrics” together, it was apparent I wasn’t going to just sew them together along the edges (for several reasons)!

So the next step was to go to EQ (Electric Quilt, a computer program for quilt design) and make some designs:

Option #1. I’ve always loved concentric blocks, and alternating them like this produces a nice design easily.

Option #2. Concentric blocks off-center are even better!

Option #3. Flying geese are always a lively design element, and I just bought a special ruler for trimming!

Option #4: I haven’t done anything with gentle curves for a while. These look like flags to me.

What do you think? Anybody have a strong preference for one of these designs? Whatever I do, I think it will be fun to see how the inserted strips turn out in the final design 🙂

Quilt of 5496 Pieces!

Posted on April 17, 2016 by zippyquilts

A friend who loves TINY things recently finished this postage stamp quilt of 5496 one-inch squares!!! She will donate it to be raffled as a fundraiser at the retirement home where she works.

Postage stamp quilt–all 1″ squares! Made by Jerri Szlizewski

Jerri says this is “the ultimate I-Spy quilt”. She has found many, many, little novelty prints to put in the little blocks. She even has Elvis, though I didn’t get him in this close-up.

A close-up showing a few of the little designs in the quilt

Here are just a few of the projects from the design walls at a recent quilt retreat at a “secret” hideaway:

One retreater came up with this design to use slabs we had swapped previously

One person made several dozen of the cute half-circle napkins that fold into a Christmas tree. She made a lot of place mats, too, but I didn’t get a picture of those.

Christmas Tree Napkins

Working on a quilt from Scrap Quilt Sensation, by Katharine Guerrier

Here are a few more works in progress from various people:And finally, here are some of the quilts we made for Ronald McDonald House:

Only as Good as Your Last Quilt?

Posted on April 10, 2016 by zippyquilts

There’s a cynical phrase, common in professional sports, that is used often in other arenas as well: You’re only as good as your last game. It’s a commentary on public opinion. Unfortunately, there’s a corollary in our everyday judgments of ourselves.

This little quilt, “Packet of Posy Seeds”, did NOT win anything.

One of the modern guilds I belong to had an interesting discussion last meeting about which quilts are selected for QuiltCon, and why. We pretty much all agreed that the show is used to further the MQG’s own definition of modern quilting rather than to reveal the depth and breadth of the modern quilt movement.

This little quilt was published, along with an article I wrote

So, am I a good quilter because my quilt was juried into an AQS show? Or a poor quilter because SEVERAL quilts were rejected for a QuiltCon show? A good quilter because I’ve designed quilts that were published? Or a bad quilter because every magazine doesn’t love every one of my proposals? There’s a temptation to feel great when a quilt wins a prize and to feel a bit down when one is rejected. But does that make sense?

Happy Squares, designed and made by me. I love it, but nobody wants to publish the pattern.

Of course there are some “competitive quilters”, but most of us quilt because we enjoy it. My quilts are made to please myself, not to please other people. Even when I make a quilt for a challenge or show, I make it the way I want it, and I expect that is true for most people. I doubt that quilting is a road to fame and fortune for most of us, and that’s fine.

Zippy Star quilt for Modern Quilts Unlimited. I won a contest with this design.

So, if QuiltCon didn’t accept my quilt, it is NOT a personal judgment about me, it is a programmatic judgment about where the MQG folks want the definition of modern quilting to go. And if some of my quilts are published or win prizes, that’s dandy, but I still made them to suit myself.

“In Fairyland” has been in 2 shows but won no prizes.

So much of life involves following other people’s rules, sometimes for good reason and sometimes not. Although I’m a serious quilter, I want to do it by my own rules. I’ll still submit to shows because I like to see my quilts displayed. But really, the quilt is an end in itself.

Spring Sun, a design by me, using blocks paper pieced from a totally different Judy Niemeyer pattern!

I designed Spring Sun using blocks paper pieced from a totally different Judy Niemeyer pattern. It was juried into an AQS show.

My friend Melanie has written a couple of posts on why we quilt. You might enjoy them:

Make Good Art

Saturation Point

Finished Tops!

Posted on March 20, 2016 by zippyquilts

After much deliberation about layout, I got my Modern Sampler quilt put together last week and sent it off to be quilted. Here’s the final top:

My Modern Sampler top is ready for quilting!

Then, for good measure, I put together the batik blocks from a swap I was in several years ago and sent that top off to be quilted, as well.

Group batik blocks, put together and ready for quilting

Yes, the sashing DOES vary a bit, because the blocks do. That’s the way it goes with a block swap. I love the variety of the blocks and, of course, the batik fabrics.

I’m sending this to Aunt Marti’s UFO challenge, which helps keep me motivated. What are you up to?

2013: The Quilts

Posted on March 6, 2016 by zippyquilts

Most of the first post about 2013 showed special projects. Here are the quilts.

This quilt, made from a Batavian Batiks pattern, hangs in my husband’s office

quilt, donation quilt, bright quilt, blended border

And here is a donation quilt made from extra blocks. I used it to try out blended borders.

Here are two more donation quilts, made for Ronald McDonald House in 2013:

Happy Plaids is my own design, but there are MANY similar quilts out there

Twinkle, a pattern by Swirly Girl Designs, was made because I had some fabulous leftover fabric

This is made with bright batiks and templates from Elisa’s Backporch Design

This is the back

The first post about 2013 projects included a table runner made from leftovers after I finished this next quilt:

This quilt, pieced improvisationally from bright batiks and black, is one of my all-time favorites.

This quilt was for a special baby; and yes, that’s me with my beautiful daughter 🙂

Quilt for a special baby!

I found a pattern for this little miniature while on a trip, and just couldn’t resist making it–all from scraps, of course.

Miniature quilt–I’m sorry I don’t recall the name of the designer.

Here’s an improvisationally designed T shirt quilt I made for a friend:

Modern T Shirt Quilt, using my favorite method of designing as I go

And finally, the last Ronald McDonald quilt for 2013, made from blocks that were just too wild without solid sashing!

That’s what I could find for 2013! More years later.

My Modern Sampler: Using Linen in Quilts

Posted on February 28, 2016 by zippyquilts

After finishing the blocks for my modern sampler, I ordered several shades of Essex linen/cotton blend to consider for the background. I know I said I’d never use linen again after the last struggle, but I’ve learned several things since. So, if you’re thinking of using linen in your quilts for its nice texture, read my tips at the end of this post.

Here I’m trying various layouts on two different potential background fabrics. I hung the ironed fabric and pinned the blocks to it, trying out various layouts and different colors of background fabric.

Here is the Pewter background

Here is the Natural background, with a different attempt at layout

I decided I liked the natural background better than they gray. Then I took it all down and made a rectangle on my design “wall”, outlining the approximate finished size with blue painter’s tape.

Here is the layout I decided to use, with some of the sashing in place

And here are my thoughts on using linen in quilts:
–The linen I used the first time was “real”, 100% linen. Remember that from your childhood, when summer clothes were supposed to be linen? Think wrinkles! And avoid 100% linen for your quilts
–The “linen” of the Essex brand actually is a linen/cotton blend, so it has a nice texture but is less wrinkle-prone and tighter woven than the linen I used previously.
–Pre-wash the linen blend, even if you don’t pre-wash anything else. Wash in warm water and dry on warm so it will get its shrinking done and be more dense and stable.
–Before you pre-wash, serge or zig-zag the raw edges together to prevent fraying! This worked great and “wasted” only about 1/4″ on each raw edge, much less than would have frayed. And there was no mess of threads in the washing machine.

How have you done with using fabrics other than quilting cotton in quilts?

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!

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!

Final Finishes!

Posted on December 27, 2015 by zippyquilts

I got these two quilts back from the quilter last week, so I put the binding on and have my final 2 finishes for the year!

Improvisational quilt, orange and blue quilt

Red Pepper is made from a pattern entitled “Yellow Pepper”

This binding was made from the remaining black and white chevron fabric

I finally finished the eternal paper piecing for this quilt and I’m having fun arranging the blocks.

The pattern is Lombard Street, by Sassafras Lane Designs

Here are a few of the other projects I’ve done this year. You can click on any of them for more detail.

Sew Together Bag, pattern by Sew Demented

Another runner for my “Try Improv” class

Divided basket made from pattern by Noodlehead

I designed and made this runner for a guild challenge

Happy Squares, designed and made by me, 2015

Here is one of the samples for my improvised table runner class

Karla Made Me Do It

Cat Circus, my quilt for the 2015 Quilt Alliance challenge

Tote bag made with Kraft-Tex for the bottom section

Toddler Quilt, designed by me

This was made using the Quick Curve ruler

And finally, here are a couple of things I had published in Modern Quilts Unlimited:

This little quilt was publishsed, along with an article I wrote

Can’t wait to start next year’s projects! Woo!

2015 Finishes: Part I

Posted on December 13, 2015 by zippyquilts

Ronald McDonald House is the chosen recipient of donation quilts from one of my groups, and EACH of us made 12 quilts for that cause this year. I finished the last 2 this month (yes, a LITTLE behind!).