Wrapping Fun!

Posted on January 5, 2014 by zippyquilts

I recently found this book and thought it was perfect for using up stash. It’s about how to make recyclable wrapping for gifts, whether holiday, birthday, or whatever. So I bought it, and I love it!

Of course, the first thing you need to know is that the cute wrap on the front is very dependent on a cute printed fabric (or paper, I’m not sure)–nothing in the book is as complicated as painting a little face on a package.

My favorite project so far is a gift bag made from a discarded man’s shirt. This idea was very welcome to me because my stash includes a

large box of discarded clothing to be made into quilts “some day”. The book has instructions for a simple envelope bag. I made it with a flat bottom so a wider gift would fit in more smoothly, added a red “hanky” in the pocket, and used the cuff of the shirt to fix the bag so it buttons closed. My husband swears he wore this shirt last Tuesday and I stole it, but scout’s honor, I didn’t!

The book has lots of ideas about using materials you already have around the house to make unique wrapping for presents. I “wrapped” a box for a baby shower by gluing on pages from a baby catalog that came in the mail and making a cute paper flower for the top, following instructions from the book. I took her suggestion to wrap (or cover with glued pictures in this case) just the top of the box. That way it can be used over again, since opening it doesn’t require any tearing of the wrap–just lift off the lid, like on TV.

Another project in the book is for a drawstring bag with a round bottom. I made this one to use up a couple of yards of fabric from my stash, since I got “a few” yards of fabric for Christmas! This is big enough to use to give someone a quilt, so I’ll probably make more of them.

I recommend this book! It has tons of inspiring ideas for wrapping all sorts of things. I figure if I get started now, I may never have to use wrapping paper again! And, of course, it uses up lots of stash 🙂

Here’s another page from the book for you to preview

Update on the Auction

Posted on December 2, 2013 by zippyquilts

Now that it is Monday night the group of Quilt Alliance donations that includes mine is up for auction on eBay. Check it out with this link! When you get to the eBay site, you’ll need to click on “Items for Sale”, near the top right, to get the full listing. (Currently mine is listed twice; I assume that will be fixed soon.) And thanks for looking!

Three Easy Chevron Quilts

Posted on August 18, 2013 by zippyquilts

My plan here is to make modern quilts to clear out ALL my stash, and yours! With that in mind, here are some fun quilts to make if you have lots of charms (5 inch squares), or squares of any uniform size.

ONE: Make a chevron quilt

Just sort the squares into lights and darks and make half square triangle blocks using your favorite method (or here are half-square triangle instructions on another website).

Any single solid (or fabric that reads solid) can be used to contrast with scraps

Here’s the layout for option ONE:

Scrappy zigzag quilt with alternate rows offset 1/2 block

TWO: Just for fun, here’s an alternate layout that also makes a nice zigzag quilt. This has fewer corners to match than option one 🙂

Just offset every other row a half block so that the points on the Row 2 blocks fall at the center of the Row 1 blocks–look at the picture on the left and you’ll get the idea!

THREE: You can even arrange your blocks to make really big zigzags across the quilt: This is the most challenging of the bunch in terms of making the corners match, but of course the design also has a big impact because of the big chevrons.

A bigger chevron would obviously be easier if you started with larger squares. Got any layer cakes (i.e., packages of 10 inch squares) you’re wondering what to do with? As you can see, this example shows two different ways to make BIG chevrons.

I’ve made a couple of zigzag quilts, one scrappy and one using all my purple charms. It’s a fun way to make a quilt with a lot of graphic appeal while using stash. Now, let’s go make some chevrons!