Summertime Quilt

Posted on March 29, 2020 by zippyquilts

This quilt was inspired by all the fun text prints I have collected and also by the desire to make something new as a sample for teaching curved piecing.

I used batiks from stash for the colors and I love the combination. BUT combining batik fabrics, which are lighter weight, with the printed fabrics was a bear! I do not recommend it. Ordinarily this block is fairly easy to piece, but this combination made it difficult. Another doggone learning experience 😀

I did put in a few of my trademark tiny strips of color:

The templates I used are from Back Porch Designs. I’ve been pleased with them and think they are reasonably priced. This is not an affiliate link, but you can find them here if you’re interested. The quilt block used here is a slight modification of a pattern that came with the template.

And here is the back! Notice the cute “bubble” quilting pattern 🙂

Quilt Stats: Summertime

Finished size: 47″ square

Fabric: batiks and text prints, all from stash; backing is a Windham print

Made by: me

Quilted by: Walker Quilt Co.

Fun with Rickrack

Posted on April 8, 2018 by zippyquilts

Or ricrac, or rick rack, whatever. I found a lot of spellings when I was trying to decide!

This fun way to piece curves was part of a class I taught this past weekend, and it was so cute in the blocks the students made that I just had to do a tutorial.

We were piecing quarter circles as part of my quilt YOW, which you’ve already seen:

So here is a partially assembled block with one curved seam left to go:

Select rickrack and lay it along the edge of the convex piece. Probably would work with the concave piece, too, but I haven’t tried that:Sew the rickrack down with the usual 1/4 inch seam

Now turn the raw edge and attached rickrack to the back along the 1/4 inch seam and press. Here’s the front:

And here’s the back:

Lay the convex piece on top of the concave piece and line up the edges.

Flip over and try to line up the raw edges all along the seam on the back.

Applique the convex piece to the concave piece by stitching in the ditch. I used silver metallic thread just for fun, but matching thread works well, of course. And here’s the finished block.

Sort of modern-retro. Go try it!

Fun Teaching Projects

Posted on February 4, 2018 by zippyquilts

Last Saturday I taught my “secret valentine” pillow at Studio Stitch in Greensboro (NC). Here are a few pictures of the finished pillow covers with their proud makers.

I’ll be teaching Yow again this spring, this time at A Stitch in Time in Franklin, NC. The class is scheduled for Friday, April 6. This is a lively quilt, and I teach three different ways to piece a curve perfectly.

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

What have you been up to?

YOW! I’m teaching curved piecing!

Posted on May 7, 2017 by zippyquilts

To be exact, YOW is the name of the quilt, not my reaction to teaching a curved piecing class 🙂

YOW is the class I’ll be teaching at Studio Stitch in Greensboro

The class is at Studio Stitch in Greensboro (NC), one of my favorite shops. To my surprise, I don’t have a picture of the quilt I’m using as a class sample, so I had to lift this one from the Studio Stitch website. There is no pattern for this quilt; it is just what I did with some really bright batiks and some nice templates from Elisa’s Backporch Designs.

I’m going to teach at least 3 different ways to piece these curves, so most anybody with some sewing experience can find success with at least one of the methods.

I got out some examples of my quilts with curved piecing yesterday to have them for display in class, and I was surprised at how many there are. Then I found all these pictures of other things I’ve made with curved piecing, so here are a few.