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?

Projects 2013–Part I

Posted on February 21, 2016 by zippyquilts

For some time I’ve been meaning to add to my blog with a gallery of projects for each of the past several years. I’ve been held up in part by the variable quality of my photography over the years, but I’ve decided to just start anyway. Here are some projects from 2013.

I entered several national contests in 2013, the year I also started this blog. Here is the quilt I made for the Quilt Alliance TWENTY challenge and chose as the header for my blog:

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

I made this quilt for the Michael Miller challenge in 2013:

Packet of Posey Seeds

And I made this little quilt for the Pantone Challenge:

Radiating Orchid mini-quilt for the Radiant Orchid Challenge

I attended some wonderful classes with Laura Wasilowski in 2013, and made this little art quilt:

Leaf, made in class with Laura Wasilowski

I did some “crafty” things in 2013, including chambray shirts decorated with orphan blocks and matching T shirts for a special baby and his special Dad:

A decorated chambray work shirt

Here’s another orphan block on a shirt

Here are a set of placemats and two table runners from 2013:

Table runner made from a strip of leftovers

Also in 2013, I made an apron for a special friend and a caddy for carrying my iron to classes and retreats:

2013 was also a good year to make pillows for friends and to use up orphan blocks:

Well! That’s it for special projects from 2013. The actual quilts from 2013 are up next–more to come!

Connie Brown, A North Carolina Quilter

Posted on February 14, 2016 by zippyquilts

Connie Brown

Connie Brown and I met at the Modern Quilt Guild of Asheville. She has been juried into membership in the Southern Highland Craft Guild, a prestigious organization promoting fine Southern Appalachian crafts. I thought you would enjoy meeting her.

Give us the quick tour of your quilting career. How did you get started?

My husband, son, and I moved to Asheville in 1989. I knew no one in the area, so I signed up for a quilting class at Asheville-Biltmore Technical College. The instructor, Mary Field, was the best. Along with quilting basics, she taught me many sewing skills and shared her knowledge and love of antique quilts and quilt history. By the end of the class she had encouraged me to join the Asheville Quilt Guild and a weekly bee. The first few meetings I attended featured presentations by quilt historians. I really enjoyed quilt history, so I started studying antique quilts.

When/how did you decide to “go pro” by studying quilt history and appraisal, judging shows, and joining the Southern Highland Craft Guild (SHCG)?

Connie demonstrates quilting at a Southern Highland Craft Guild event

After a few years of making quilts and entering them in both local and national shows, I put a couple in a gallery exhibit. To my surprise, one sold and visitors were interested in my other quilts. I knew about the SHCG, with its shops, marketing, and educational opportunities. After selling that quilt in the art gallery, I decided to apply for membership and was juried in during 2000. I have my quilts in their shops and participate in several of their events, including Fiber Day and Heritage Day (where I share my beekeeping), as well as others.

When people started calling me about the value of antique quilts, or what value to place on a quilt they were entering in a show, I saw a need for a local certified quilt appraiser. I put my years of studying quilt history and my knowledge of local quilt sales to use and focused on becoming a certified quilt appraiser. In 2009, I was certified by the AQS (American Quilters Society) as an Appraiser of Quilted Textiles.

What is your favorite of the quilts you have made?

I love making circles and Drunkard’s Path units! My 3 favorite quilts so far are:

Color Cascade

“Color Cascade aka Prints Charming” includes more than 500 scraps. The pattern for this quilt is in the September 2012 issue of American Quilter Magazine. This is machine pieced and machine quilted.

“V-Spot Target Attack” is also made entirely by machine.

Finally, “Tiffilippa” was inspired by a Tiffany lampshade. I couldn’t throw away the trimmed off “waste”, so I used it as a border.

How much time do you spend quilting? How do you have time to quilt, participate in guilds, keep bees, substitute teach, and still eat and sleep?

Every day I do something quilt related, whether it’s making quilts, studying, visiting an exhibit, or writing appraisals. I always carry something to work on in my down time when I substitute teach.

How far do you travel with your quilt activities? And what do you have coming up?

I’ll be at the Folk Art Center (on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville) for National Quilting Day (March 19, 2016). I’ll be hosting a quilt sharing day with an exhibition of 4 or 5 antique quilts, and people are invited to bring older quilts they have questions about. I won’t be doing appraisals that day, but it’s a free event and a good opportunity for people who may have quilts they wonder about. It can help them decide whether the quilt needs a formal appraisal.

This year I will be offering appraisals at the AQS shows in Paducah and Chattanooga as well as in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina during the Cobblestone Quilt Show. My fees for written appraisals are $75 per quilt, but during these events the charge is $50 per quilt. Each appraisal takes a minimum of 2 hours, including meeting with the client, travel, research and preparation, and typing the report.

To see more of Connie’s quilts, visit her webpage at southernhighlandguild.org/conniebrown

You may email Connie at mail2thebrowns@juno.com

Meet J. Michelle Watts

Posted on January 31, 2016 by zippyquilts

I make frequent trips to the Southwest, and you KNOW they include visits to quilt shops along the way. For years I’ve been seeing Southwestern-themed patterns by J. Michelle Watts, who seems to have that niche all to herself. So this last time I thought I’d ask her for an interview. Here she is:

J. Michelle Watts

Tell us about your quilts and your other projects, too.

When I started quilting in 1982, I hand pieced and hand quilted mostly traditional quilt blocks.

I designed my first original southwestern wall hanging, Adobe Sunrise, in 1987. In 1989, I started a small mail order pattern company with my own collection of southwestern quilt patterns. I have also designed a line of patterns that use the 9 degree wedge ruler and a couple of jelly roll friendly scrap quilt patterns, written 3 books, and designed 3 collections of fabric for Moda.

One of Michelle’s designs for wedge ruler.

“Stenciling Quilt Blocks” is my favorite class to teach right now. The technique is simple, fast and fun and the finished projects can fool you into thinking they are pieced or appliqued.

Pueblo Rhapsody

The black designs in “Pueblo Rhapsody” have been stenciled onto 40 odd shaped turquoise blocks and then the blocks are sewn together. My newest pattern collection, “It’s Simple With Stencils”, is a collection of quilt patterns that use laser cut stencils and Paintstiks to stencil quilt blocks and quilts. The collection features a variety of small traditional quilt blocks and some with a southwestern style.

Inquiring minds always want to know: do you have a “day job”, or do you teach and develop patterns full time?

I print and package all my own patterns. This is my day job, night job and weekend job. I now travel about 120 days a year teaching and vending at quilt shows. I manage a website that features all my patterns. I host a small quilt retreat each year near Ruidoso, NM. This year I want to try to make some short tutorials on several techniques I teach. When people ask me “So what do you do for a living?”, I love being able to tell them ” I am a quilter.” There is a quilted wall hanging in my studio that says “Love what you do and do what you love.” That pretty much says it all.

Casa Blanca, Michelle’s newest applique pattern. Thank goodness it will be available as a stencil, also!

What’s next?

My newest applique pattern, Casa Blanca, which is inspired by an old ironwork door. This design will also be available as a stencil pattern. The dark wine pieces are machine appliqued to a cream background. I have many other patterns in the works as well.

If you want to see all Michelle’s patterns, visit her website. Here are a few of my favorites:

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!

Little House Class at Studio Stitch

Posted on January 10, 2016 by zippyquilts

I’ll be teaching my fusible applique class, called Little House on the Wall (with no

Samples for the Little House workshop

apologies to Laura Ingles Wilder) at Studio Stitch in Greensboro (NC) on January 30.

I visited the shop recently to talk with the staff about materials for the class, and of course I HAD to look at EVERYTHING. Well, I needed to look so I could discuss what would be appropriate for the class, but it’s OK to just drool on the fabric a little, right?

They had landscape fabrics and plenty of batiks that will be great for the class.

There was even a bundle that seemed just made for creating my little houses!

I even found 28 weight thread for embellishment in a variety of yummy colors.

28 weight thread can be hard to find, but Studio Stitch has plenty!

Of course I wandered a little…they had gorgeous batiks made specifically for use with the Jacqueline De Jonge patterns. They even had one as a kit, with a more restful background fabric than this sample I took from Jacqueline’s site.

Yummy fabrics at Studio Stitch, where I sometimes teach

The ladies at the shop were all friendly and helpful, and I’m looking forward to teaching there. You can find out more about the shop and my class on the Studio Stitch website.

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!).

These are a good illustration of why a dark border is a good idea to make a quilt feel “finished”. I’ll try to remember that next year!

And here are the other 10 donation quilt finishes for the year. I love how different they are! I got to try lots of new things 🙂

Design by Cindy Williams

Pseudo Random arrangement starting with Kaffe fabric

This is a leaders-and-enders project

February donation quilt. This started out entirely different, but I failed to take Before and After pictures.

The “New! Improved!” quilt

Flower Fairies

Donation quilt made from orphan star blocks

February finish and January donation quilt

More finishes coming soon!

Winner! Online Quilt Retreat

Posted on December 6, 2015 by zippyquilts

I won a year-long online quilt retreat! What the heck is that?

Lora Douglas of Dragonfly Quiltworks

Here’s Lora Douglas, one of the teachers from the retreat, to explain.

This year-long on-line, quilt retreat is sponsored by “Adventure Art Retreats”, which was started by Ilysa Ginsburg and Kira Slye. They launched “Polymer Clay Adventure” as an online experience in 2015 and got about 1000 subscribers! They’re adding a quilt adventure for 2016.

There are 12 projects, one each month of the retreat. There will be classes for quilts, placemats, totes, hexies, fabric dyeing, laminating fabric and polymer clay buttons

Roxie bags made by Lora for her Quilt Adventure class

.I designed the Roxie Bag as one of the monthly projects for the retreat, and I’ll be teaching it by online video. When I couldn’t find a pattern using flex frame hardware that was easy to make and looked great, I designed my own. It is perfect as a cross-body bag for carrying a cell phone and other small items.

“Quilted Adventure” is the online equivalent of a traditional quilt retreat where you meet other quilters while learning new things. “Retreaters” can take a new class each month; participate in live-stream events with our host, Vanessa Vargas Wilson of The Crafty Gemini; receive monthly clues for a mystery quilt; and take part in swaps. There will be a newsletter to keep participants informed of upcoming events. The instructors will be available to answer questions throughout the retreat. It’s going to be fun!

Another Roxie bag–how many samples did she make???

I’m gathering my supplies, and I’m sure you’ll be seeing some of my projects here as I participate in the retreat. For now, If you want to know more about Lora or the Quilt Adventure online retreat, here’s the link for her site. There’s a button there to click for finding out more about the retreat. (Or, if you just want to buy a Roxie bag after seeing it here, her site has a link to her Etsy shop as well. I won’t tell if you want to buy it instead of making it yourself 😉

Zippy Quilts

Modern Quilts With A Twist

Category Archives: Quilting

2013: The Quilts

My Modern Sampler: Using Linen in Quilts

Projects 2013–Part I

Connie Brown, A North Carolina Quilter

Meet J. Michelle Watts

Crunchy Numbers

Little House Class at Studio Stitch

Final Finishes!

2015 Finishes: Part I

Winner! Online Quilt Retreat

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