10 Favorites from Vermont Quilt Festival

Posted on July 20, 2014 by zippyquilts

I really enjoyed the Vermont Quilt Festival in Burlington the end of June. I expected a traditional quilt show, and there were some traditional quilts, but there were many modern quilts as well. Here are 10 of my favorites for various reasons. That fantastic quilting on the first one was done by Carrie Zizza of Zizza Machine Quilting (http://www.itsazizza.com/).

Look at the quilting on Love Those Liberties by Laura Clements!

Rainbow Bricks by Melissa Rolfe–this was her second quilt ever!

Full Circle by Rebecca Rohrkaste

Patch of Swiss Chard by Ann Feitelson

Detail of Patch of Swiss Chard

This quilt by Ruth Eissfeldt was all shiny metallic fabrics

These fish by Velda Newman were SO realistic!

Tied Together by Timna Tarr–a modernized bowtie quilt

Circles of Hope by Sylvia Einstein

Kaleidoscopic XX by Paula Nadelstern

Fill the Void by Cinzia Allocca–my FAVORITE!

Look at her beautiful quilting! I love this quilt!

Excitement x 3!!!

Posted on July 13, 2014 by zippyquilts

Woo! It’s been an exciting week!
My entry in the Quilt Alliance “Inspired By” Challenge won 3rd place! Here’s a picture of it, and below that is a link that will take you to a short video showing all the winners! I am SO excited!

Whirlwind, my 2015 Quilt Alliance challenge quilt

And HERE is a link that will show you all the winners in a very short youtube video.

The quilt will now tour with the other entries and will be auctioned on Ebay next fall to benefit the Quilt Alliance.

And here’s a picture of the second excitement: [photo] I finally finished my quilt for the Michael Miller challenge. It’s a packet of flower seeds with the new scanning code I now see on items at the nursery, composed of multiple colored triangles. I don’t think you can scan mine; I designed it based on the code but didn’t copy exactly.

Packet of Posy Seeds

Finally, I had a “very significant birthday” and my husband gave me a new Bernina

Bernina 550 QE

for the occasion! I’ll be reviewing it after I’ve used it for a while. For now I’m just enjoying trying out all the features!
So, as they used to say on the radio, listen in next week…I’ll have pictures from the Vermont Quilt Festival, which was really good.

The year so far…

Posted on June 29, 2014 by zippyquilts

Oops! It’s the end of June already, so half way through 2014! Therefore, here are pictures of a few of the things I’ve done so far:

Quilt Alliance Challenge 2014

Detail of a quilt I submitted to an IQF contest

Next is the June “finish”. I’ve been sending a finish every month to Aunt Marti at 52quilts because I need the motivation of her challenge to get some of my UFOs (Unfinished Objects) cleaned up! As you can see, this is pieced but not quilted; Aunt Marti let’s YOU decide what qualifies as “finished”! And after 2 years staring at these HSTs (half square triangles), I think putting them together into a top for a donation quilt qualifies as “finished”! So if you need motivation to finish some of your UFOs, click the link above and head over to her blog 🙂

Donation quilt top is the finish for June!

In Fairyland, entered in the Vermont Quilt Festival

Swap Block–88 little squares!!!

Swap Block

Improv 9 Patch for Ronald McDonald House

As always, 20% of the projects took 80% of the time! So it’s good to have the little pouches and swap blocks to be done relatively quickly! What have you been up to?

Three Reasons to Love Pinterest

Posted on June 22, 2014 by zippyquilts

Delightful quilt from CutToPieces.blogspot.com

I started using Pinterest a while back at the urging of my daughter, and have found it invaluable. It replaces at least 3 scrapbooks/notebooks that have been floating around my house for years.

First, of course, Pinterest is great for quilting ideas! When I find something I love, I don’t have to bookmark it or add it to favorites to be able to find it again. I just pin it to one of my Pinterest boards–maybe Quilt Ideas, or Good Quilt Photos, or Design. Then when I wonder, “Now where did I see that great quilt?” I can flip through my Pinterest boards and find the picture, which in turn has the link to where it was found. This saves a LOT of fooling around looking for things on the internet and replaces the lists I had to keep previously. It’s even partially replaced the notebooks full of clippings I’ve kept for years.

T-Perspective by Linda Rotz Miller

Second, Pinterest is great for finding other quilters, their blogs, etc. For example, I found the Cut To Pieces blog shown above because I admired one of the quilts from the blog I found on Pinterest. But there’s more! When you find someone whose taste is similar to yours (based on the pins you find from him/her), you can “follow” that person or just some of that person’s boards on Pinterest and get lots of great new pictures that he/she found. For example, I found the picture here on the Pinterest page of Tricia Royal, a quilt artist from Chicago, so now I follow several of her boards. You can also follow your friends’ boards to see what they’re pinning. In fact, if you see something they’re pinning it may give you an idea of what they’d like to have for the next birthday!

Terrific design from Melody Johnson Quilts

Finally, you can simply search Pinterest when you need inspiration. By putting “modern quilts”, “colors”, “art quilts”, or whatever into Pinterest’s search box, I’ve found many, many fun ideas. It’s a great amusement in waiting rooms, while enjoying a second cup of coffee, or when in need of new ideas. As a commercial for a product I’ve long forgotten used to say: “Try it–you’ll like it!”

Gallery Show!

Posted on April 27, 2014 by zippyquilts

Leaf, made in class with Laura Wasilowski

The Asheville Modern Quilt Guild is lucky enough to meet in a nice conference room in the building occupied by both the Quilt Alliance and the Handmade in America organization. Because of those connections (and the quality of our work) we will be having a show of our members’ work at the gallery maintained by Handmade in America. This is an organization representing craft artists from Western North Carolina (that would be us!) The work they represent is very high quality, so we are thrilled to be invited to display our work in their gallery, located at 125 S. Lexington Avenue in Asheville. (The entrance is on Hilliard Avenue between Church and S. Lexington.)

I’m including pictures in this post of the works I’m submitting, but I hope any of you who are in the area will come see the show. It will run April 29 – August 19, with an opening reception 2-4 p.m. on Sunday, May 4. We have several fine quilters in our group, and they really do make “all kinds of quilts”, as the title of the exhibit suggests. Please come!

Improv I, my original design

Bubble Up, my oritinal design

Quilt Alliance Challenge

Posted on April 20, 2014 by zippyquilts

After thinking I would use Sunbonnet Sue as my inspiration,

Scraps!

I did a total about-face and chose a scrap quilt instead. I LOVE scrap quilts, and since I certainly HAVE a lot of scraps, it all works out 🙂

Here’s the process for this year’s Quilt Alliance donation quilt. I wanted to use tiny scraps and have one tiny star. I used Electric Quilt (EQ7) to print a foundation pattern for a star that finishes about 3″ square. The first one I made, using the brand of fabric we’ve all

Paper foundation for star

Foundation pieced star, finishing 3″

depended on for solids, was just a little off. Turns out the “beefy” thick texture of that fabric doesn’t lend itself well to tiny, tiny points (the center square here is 1/2″ x 1/2″). So I re-generated the foundation pattern and, as often happens, decided on a little design change at the same time. Then I made the star using Moda Bella black, which is a lighter weight cloth that folded more crisply in such a small space.

Joining scraps

Scraps

Improvisational piecing

For the rest of the quilt I pulled out my zippy-colored Michael Miller cotton couture scraps and just sewed them together as I took them out of the box. Eventually I had to cut a few more “scraps” to finish the top. There were so very MANY seams that I was glad of the lighter weight of this cloth, almost like voile. It took many days to do this, quite a bit longer than I had expected for a 16″ x 16″ quilt! The smallest pieces finish about 1/4″ squares or triangles!

Quilt Alliance Challenge 2014

So here it is! I would love to count the pieces, but I don’t think I have the energy left to do it! Besides, who wants to know a thing like that? 😉

Pop-up Show

Posted on March 30, 2014 by zippyquilts

Asheville Modern Quilt Guild Show

Here are some pictures from the Asheville Modern Quilt Guild’s Pop-up Quilt Show, held Sunday, March 16 at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had good attendance and gained several new members! As you can see, we had some members demonstrating quilt making, as well. If you missed it, the Guild will have a show at the Handmade in America gallery in Asheville from mid-May through mid-August. Meanwhile, here are some of our members and their quilts:

First, here’s Diana Kantor with her amazing table runner. It has 3-D folded flowers and leaves in addition to that beautiful quilted design in the center!

Diana Kantor

And here’s Erica Kilgo with her very fun Bricks and Bubbles quilt:

Erica Kilgo

Here’s Amy Anderson with three of her beautiful quilts:

Amy Anderson

Here is Connie Brown with some of her amazing art quilts:

Connie Brown

Emily and Miriam Coffey weren’t able to be there, so I don’t have their pictures, but here is one of their beautiful quilts:

Emily and Miriam Coffey’s quilt

And of course we had our Opportunity Quilt on display so people could take an interest and maybe even buy tickets:

Asheville Modern Quilt Guild Opportunity Quilt

Hopefully you’ve found these quilts inspiring. If you’re interested in joining our guild, here is a link to our Facebook page.

Next week I’m starting a series on designing your own quilts.

Pantone Challenge

Posted on March 19, 2014 by zippyquilts

You’re getting this blog early because of the deadline for the Pantone Challenge. I’ll be back to my regular schedule on Sunday, March 30.

The Quilt Alliance’s TWENTY challenge was so much fun last year that when I heard about the Pantone Radiant Orchid Challenge I decided to enter

Radiating Orchid mini-quilt for the Radiant Orchid Challenge, 15″ x 15″

This challenge is via link-up with one of the two sponsoring blogs, On the Windy Side and Play Crafts. You can go to either blog to see the other entries and get details.

Luckily I had a pretty orchid color FQ (fat quarter) in a collection of modern solids (came from my smart son-in-law at Christmas!). And I took a piping class with Susan K Cleveland a few years ago where I learned to make little bitty piping. I’d already gotten the Alison Glass green fabric to go with the modern solids, so I was ready to roll!

Using piping to help turn under the edge is one of my favorite ways to applique circles, and I wanted a little extra definition for the edges. I had to make templates (yikes!) to cut the green and, naturally, the print turned out to be directional so I had to be careful how I cut it (double yikes!).

As always, I learned several things making this project. Using templates wasn’t so bad; I made them from freezer paper & ironed them onto the fabric for cutting. And Susan’s method for joining the ends of the piping worked perfectly so you can’t tell where it begins and ends as it circles the shapes. So, it was fun and now it’s done! 😉 Have a good week!

Stick your neck out with me!

Posted on March 9, 2014 by zippyquilts

OK, folks, you may recall that I made a donation quilt for the Quilt Alliance last year BEFORE I realized that most of the other quilters were WAY better known than I am! It turned out pretty well, because the ladies who won first place were local and not all that famous (at least until they won)! And my quilt did sell in the auction, so it’s all good.

IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN! The Quilt Alliance has just announced the 2014 contest, and I hope you’ll consider making a quilt for them. You can see the contest announcement and a link to the rules on the Quilt Alliance website. (You can see last year’s donation quilts here–mine is #29 if you’re interested.) The theme this year is “Inspired by” and your entry must be inspired by one of the quilts in the Alliance’s Quilt Index or their Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories (Q.S.O.S.) project.

: Sunbonnet Sue

: by Mary Lee Ownbey Kimsey

: of Asheville, NC

I already have my project in mind and here’s a hint: it’s based on Sunbonnet Sue. I searched the QSOS project files for Asheville, since that’s the nearest town of any size, and one of the first quilts I saw was a Sunbonnet Sue–you can see it if you click the link but I think it would be a copyright violation for me to reproduce it here. I was immediately drawn to it because I have a Sunbonnet Sue quilt made by my Grandmother (Mary Lee Ownbey Kimsey, who lived in Asheville) and it hangs in my studio much of the time.

I also made Eleanor Burns’ Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam a few years ago; that is the quilt at the top of this post. The contest quilt is going to be “inspired by” Sunbonnet Sue, but you’d have to know Sue to “get it”. You’ll see later!

Sunbonnet Sue by my Grandmother

Meanwhile, come on: STICK OUT YOUR NECK WITH ME! Even if you’ve never entered a contest, I’m pretty sure you regularly make donation quilts. Design a donation quilt and send it in to the Quilt Alliance Contest. Here are the TOP 3 REASONS to make a quilt for this contest:

1. DO SOMETHING NEW! TAKE A RISK! If I can do it, you can do it.

2. You’ll have to spend time browsing the Quilt Index or the Q.S.O.S.–either could be hours of fun!

3. It’s just a LITTLE quilt–16 x 16 this year! Just do it! Here’s the link again: Quilt Alliance

Fairyland to Vermont

Posted on February 16, 2014 by zippyquilts

I’ve just submitted my improvisational quilt “In Fairyland” to the Vermont Quilt Festival, and of course I’m hoping it gets in!

In Fairyland

I made the blocks at the top just for fun when I got an EQ add-on called “Town & Country Patchwork” by Cori Derksen & Myra Harder (who have generously agreed to my use of their designs in this quilt for the show). The blocks are paper pieced and I made them in fantasy colors because those were the scraps I had on the day I decided to make them. Then the blocks sat around for quite a while 😉 Sound familiar?

Eventually I decided I needed to use up some of my MANY scraps. At least the scraps are cut into strips of standard widths, so when I get a notion to use them, they’re ready to go. So I just made rows of scraps, putting the sky-type ones at the top. Below the houses, I arranged the thinner rows in the “distance”. Finally, I found one of the flower fairies and put her in near the bottom.

My friend Joyce quilted the whole thing on her long arm, using a pattern of leaves at my request.

I’m happy to say I’ll be going to the Vermont Quilt Festival this year–something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’m hopeful that “In Fairyland” will be included so I can view my own quilt there! Anybody else going?

Zippy Quilts

Modern Quilts With A Twist

Tag Archives: art quilt

10 Favorites from Vermont Quilt Festival

Excitement x 3!!!

The year so far…

Three Reasons to Love Pinterest

Gallery Show!

Quilt Alliance Challenge

Pop-up Show

Pantone Challenge

Stick your neck out with me!

Fairyland to Vermont

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