One UFO Makes 3 Quilts!

Posted on November 27, 2016 by zippyquilts

I made these “prepared fabric” squares some months ago with John Cage’s “prepared piano” in mind. Then they sat in a box while I wondered what to do with them.

At a quilt retreat, I got some of them out and put them together into a 40″ x 44″ quilt top for Ronald McDonald House.

So the November UFO (UnFinished Object) project was to do something with the rest of those squares. I modified them further and made 2 more Ronald McDonald quilt tops, each 40 inches square.

That UFO box is empty! There were a few scraps for the scrap bin, and 3 blocks for the orphan block bin, but that project is DONE!

Sort of like that turkey…how was your Thanksgiving?

Quilting Thanksgiving

Posted on November 20, 2016 by zippyquilts

Gratitude is always a good practice, so it’s especially nice to have a holiday specifically dedicated to thanksgiving. Here are 10 reasons I’m thankful for quilting:

Every project is a new learning experience. Even if it is, sometimes, “another *%@!! learning experience” 🙂
A learning experience!
There is no failure. Projects that don’t turn out as planned can be recycled into something. (It may take a while to figure out what.)
This one had to be cut up and made into placemats!
Friends. Quilting is a great way to meet interesting people and make new friends. I love making friends online, too, even though I may never meet them in person. It’s such fun that people from 3000 miles away follow my blog and I follow theirs.
A new friend holding up one of my quilts at a recent guild talk
Quilting is a great creative outlet, whether or not I choose to be an “artist”.
Quilt made for a class with Gwen Marston
Gifts. I’ve made quilts, placemats, table runners, potholders, and bags to give to friends.
Divided basket made from pattern by Noodlehead
Opportunity to give to the community. I make quilts for Ronald McDonald house.
One of my quilts for Ronald McDonald House
Color! Who doesn’t love playing with all the beautiful fabrics?
Yummy fabrics at Studio Stitch, where I sometimes teach
Socializing: it’s great to get together and work on a project with friends.
An especially quilty friend at a sewing group
Being alone: it’s equally great to spend a quiet day alone in my studio
View from my home
Problem solving: Many projects present problems that need to be solved, and I love the challenge.
I enjoyed the challenge of designing and making this quilt

What are you thankful for?

Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show, Part 2

Posted on October 30, 2016 by zippyquilts

There has been so much going on (that’s good!) I haven’t had a chance to post the rest of my favorites from my local guild show. Here are a few more of them.

Please note that this is a local show, so most of the quilts were made from patterns or workshops. I’ll list the source where I have it.

Jen Kingwell design beautifully done by Susan Roper

Traditional design made “to use up scraps”

Our guild has a very active group making Quilts of Valor for men and women who have served in the military. The next two were made for that program.

Inspired by a design on the Alycia Quilts blog

Design by Jenny Doan for Missouri Star Quilt Company

Design from the book Modern Paper Piecing was both pieced and quilted by Linda

Debby designed and made this quilt after a study of Amish quilts

Quilt is based on a Mind the Gap design by Moda. Karen cleverly named it after her “mistake” in placing the green strips!

Christeen designed this quilt herself, and I think the name should get a humor award!

Betty designed and made this quilt for a log cabin challenge

From a pattern by Kathy Wells

I’m lucky to live near so many talented quilters!

Six Finishes!

Posted on September 18, 2016 by zippyquilts

Last year I pledged (and made) 12 quilts for Ronald McDonald House. That was a little overwhelming, so I decided on 6 quilts this year. I’ve now finished the last one, and here they are! All are about 40 inches square.

The first was made from a pattern called Ribbon Box, available free from Cloud 9 Fabrics.

The next was from the last of the many wonky 9-patch blocks. I made these for a quilt, but didn’t like the way they looked all together. Luckily they look just fine with alternate solid blocks.

The next two were to use fabric with vehicles, since sometimes we run short on “boy” quilts.

This one was made to use some of my stash of charm squares:And finally, I just had to make one using a lot of the cute modern prints I’ve been collecting:These were fun, as always. I used them to try a few new things, and now they’re ready to go 🙂

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Projects from 2014

Posted on June 19, 2016 by zippyquilts

As part of my effort to develop galleries for this site, here is a review of my projects from the first half of 2014.

The design and tutorial for this zippered pouch came from Noodlehead.

I made a series of these little zippered pouches, and they have been useful.

These next two bags were made from a book entitled Ruby Star Wrapping. You can read my review of the book here, if you want.

I continued my interest in improvisational piecing in 2014, making this confetti block…

Confetti Block, 2014

…and this entry for the Quilt Alliance annual contest:

Whirlwind, my 2014 Quilt Alliance challenge quilt

I made this quilt for the Pantone Challenge. It looks better in person than in this picture, and now is used to decorate one of the rooms at our local free clinic:

Radiating Orchid, my mini-quilt for the Radiant Orchid Challenge

As always, I made a number of donation quilts for Ronald McDonald House. I used them to try out a variety of techniques and other experiments:

Nine Patch Quilt

Donation quilt top is the finish for June!

One of my quilts for Ronald McDonald House

I made this baby quilt because I loved the fabrics:

Baby Dots–Front

Baby Dots–back. I may like it even more than the front!

And I participated in several swaps, including one involving these blocks. Don’t even think about the 88 little pieces in the block on the left!!!

Swap Block–88 little squares!!!

Swap Block

I’ve reached my (self-imposed) length limit for a post, so the rest of the 2014 review will be coming up next week! Please come back 😉

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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:

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!

What is a Liebster award?

Posted on November 1, 2015 by zippyquilts

Turns out the Liebster award is a tag game for helping readers discover new and under-read blogs. Wanda over at Wanda’s Life Sampler tagged me. So thanks to Wanda, and I’ll be passing it on to some other bloggers. You can check them out at the end of this post.

Here are my answers to Wanda’s questions, but I changed some of them! The next folks in the chain might change them, too…

1. What one thing do you believe with your whole being?

It’s important to learn something new every day. It may be positive or negative, but all knowledge is useful eventually.

I learned to make a sample block before cutting out the whole quilt!

2. What have you made lately?

I’m glad you asked that question! This month’s finish is the top for a “Black and White and Red All Over” quilt for which I’ve been collecting fabrics for some time.

This was made from a pattern called “Lemon Pepper”, but of course mine is more red pepper!

I also sent 5 donation quilts to the Cincinnati Ronald McDonald House. Three were finished this month, 2 previously. Here are some of them:

Design by Cindy Williams

Simple quilt from a recipe on Craftsy

The “New! Improved!” quilt

3. Are you a cat person or a dog person? Or neither?

Presently neither. Though I do miss having a cat right in the middle of every project and cat hair everywhere 😉

4. Where do you hope to be in 10 years’ time?

Retired from my “day job” and in my quilt studio full time!

5. Favorite dessert?

German Chocolate Cake!!!!

6. What is one thing you wish you were better at?

Always saying the right thing.

7. Describe your Dream Vacation?

The next one! But I did recently have a great trip with my husband to Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

View from Clingman’s Dome

8. Why do you blog?

To promote modern quilting, and North Carolina quilters in particular. If you’re a North Carolina quilter and I haven’t featured your work yet, please contact me!

9. Your best sewing/quilting advice?

Do what you enjoy. I used to make all my own clothes, but then I figured out it’s a lot easier to get a quilt to fit a bed than to get a garment to fit my frame!

10. What else is new?

Here’s a picture of Pat with her FINISHED table runner, started in a class I taught recently!

Pat finished her runner in time to give it as a gift

And here are some bloggers I’m passing the “Liebster Award” on to. I think you might enjoy them!

My Imperfect Life

The Accidental Hayseed

KnitNKwilt

6 August Projects!

Posted on August 30, 2015 by zippyquilts

As always, I’m taking part in Aunt Marti’s UFO challenge. The August UFO was actually finished back in February as a donation quilt:

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

That gave me all of August to work on quilting another UFO, my Swim quilt. It’s completely quilted, but I’m still thinking about whether to add more fish, some beads, or more quilting before I bind it.

“Swim” is about 50′ x 50″. I quilted wavy horizontal lines all over it.

I’m caught up on making quilt tops for donation. My goal is a quilt a month, and I made 3 tops in August. They still need to be quilted, but I’ll have a one-woman quilting party and get it done. They are 40″ x 40″, so not difficult to do on a home machine.

Pseudo Random arrangement starting with Kaffe fabric

This is a leaders-and-enders project

Quilt top made from khaki pants and 2 shirts

Finally, I made several new blocks for My Modern Sampler. You can read about the one below here, and I’ll be blogging about the others in the coming weeks.

The Modern Scrap Block will finish 12 inches square

And a good thing August was so productive, because every weekend in September is scheduled! Yikes!

Retreat!

Posted on August 16, 2015 by zippyquilts

There was a BIG finish at our last retreat:

Quilt of 3392 Pieces!!!

Here is Jerri’s quilt of 3392 pieces, made from a pattern in one of Bonnie Hunter’s books. Jerri made this for a Little Sisters of the Poor fundraiser, and it certainly should raise a lot of funds! It is beautiful. And she had the sense not to count the number of pieces until she was FINISHED with the project! Even so, it took almost a year to complete. I am VERY impressed that there is not even ONE block is turned wrong!.

This is a HUGE quilt!

And here is the latest stack of donation quilts from our group.

So far everyone is keeping up with the commitment to make a donation quilt each month, and one over-achiever is several months ahead of the rest of us!!! As you probably can see in the photo, another over-achiever quilts hers by hand! I am always amazed by my very accomplished friends!

As soon as Jerri finished the BIG quilt, she started this beauty!

Our latest block swab is monochromatic slabs. Each of us chose a color we wanted, and as soon as we swapped one group member turned her blocks into a donation quilt. Talk about quick work!

Donation quilt from green slabs

When I got the slabs, I immediately started cutting them up and adding accent strips of blue. So far I really like the result. More on this later.

Slabs with accent strips.

So, what’s new with you?

Zippy Quilts

Modern Quilts With A Twist

Tag Archives: donation quilt

One UFO Makes 3 Quilts!

Quilting Thanksgiving

Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show, Part 2

Six Finishes!

Projects from 2014

Quilt of 5496 Pieces!

2015 Finishes: Part I

What is a Liebster award?

6 August Projects!

Retreat!

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