Finished Tops!

Posted on March 20, 2016 by zippyquilts

After much deliberation about layout, I got my Modern Sampler quilt put together last week and sent it off to be quilted. Here’s the final top:

My Modern Sampler top is ready for quilting!

Then, for good measure, I put together the batik blocks from a swap I was in several years ago and sent that top off to be quilted, as well.

Group batik blocks, put together and ready for quilting

Yes, the sashing DOES vary a bit, because the blocks do. That’s the way it goes with a block swap. I love the variety of the blocks and, of course, the batik fabrics.

I’m sending this to Aunt Marti’s UFO challenge, which helps keep me motivated. What are you up to?

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?

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!

This picture of Iceland is from NordicFoodFestival.org

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!

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!

Artsy Table Runner

Posted on November 8, 2015 by zippyquilts

I’ve been looking at lots of beautiful pictures of art quilts. Also, the monthly challenge for the Modern Quilt Guild of Franklin (NC) was to make something including prairie points.

For years I’ve had Susan K. Cleveland’s Prairie Pointer, intending to make something with prairie points “any day now”. (Raise your hand if you DON’T know how THAT goes!)The stars finally aligned, and here is my first crack at a table runner combining all of the above.

As expected, Susan’s Prairie Pointer tool worked beautifully. I’m a big fan of her techniques, and teach some of them in my classes. The starting squares for the prairie points ranged from 1-1/2″ to 2-1/2″ in size, so they were all pretty small.

Prairie Points

I like this runner pretty well, but I just KNOW I could do better! So here goes with another idea I’ve meant to try for some time: working in a series. I’ll keep you posted 🙂

Narrow Accents!

Posted on October 18, 2015 by zippyquilts

Modern Quilts Unlimited just published my article on how to add narrow accents to your projects. It’s a very easy method for sewing crisp, even accent strips from 1/8″ to 3/4″ wide.

Notice the Narrow Accents article featured on the cover, along with the beautiful quilt by Bev Getschel

There are so many uses for narrow accents! Here are a few of mine:

narrow accents, Modern Quilts Unlimited magazine

This is a corner of the piece I made to illustrate the MQU article

These blocks from my modern sampler all include narrow strips:

The samples I made for my improvised table runner class all include narrow strips, as well. Here is one of them:

Here is one of the samples for my improvised table runner class

Here’s a Mondrian-style block I made several years ago with narrow inserts

There are options too numerous to mention! Go get the magazine and make some accent strips, then please send me pictures of your creations.

Blocks 11 and 12, Modern Sampler

Posted on September 20, 2015 by zippyquilts

Probably have enough blocks now for my usual size “cuddle quilt”, about 55″ X 70″. I have enough ideas and fabric for at least 2 more quilts, so the project may continue anyway.

Doodle block inspired by Sherri Lynn Wood

Block 11 was inspired by Sherri Lynn Wood’s “Doodle” quilt. I had a couple of scraps and decided to just cut them and see what happened, and this is it. The block is only about 6″ wide. I quit without adding anything else in an attempt not to “overdo” and make it too complex.

The next block is certainly improvised, having turned out rather different from my original idea. It started with equal amounts of these fabrics. I thought I would stack them, cut arcs, and shuffle–Karla Alexander’s quilts are among my favorite inspirations. It all started out as planned…

Arcs cut, colors shuffled

But, as sometimes happens, I felt the need to change it as I went along. The final quarter actually was made using templates (gasp!) because I had a particular look in mind. Now I surely have enough blocks for my sampler. The question is how to arrange them. I’ll be looking for your input in a week or so!

My Modern Sampler, Blocks 9 and 10

Posted on September 6, 2015 by zippyquilts

Channeling Gwen Marston, I made a couple of “liberated” quilt blocks for the sampler. This means they were cut without a ruler and the pieces are deliberately “wonky”.

Liberated Hole in the Barn Door blocks finish about 5″ square

Some current authors are making a big deal of cutting without a ruler, but Gwen Marston has been doing it for years.

I DID use a ruler to make the original background square. Here are the steps:

I cut the big square using a ruler, the subdivided it into a 9-patch freehand

Pin triangle where you plan to sew it

Flip triangle over the pin to be sure it will cover the corner

Sew the triangle in place, then trim triangle to match background

Corners done, time for the sides

Sides done using method similar to the corners: pin, check, then sew and trim

Ready to be sewn together!

For Block 10, I cut my scraps into strips.and lined them up.

Scraps cut into strips and pieced with black and white background

The widths of the colored strips and the white strips between them are semi-random. The sashing between the columns finishes 2″, and the block finishes 12″ square.

A few more blocks and then I’ll have to decide how to set them! Here are the previous posts about My Modern Sampler:

My Own Modern Sampler–It May Take a Year!

My Modern Sampler, Block 8

Posted on August 23, 2015 by zippyquilts

Here’s a picture of the blocks made to date for my modern sampler. Links to the posts about each one are at the bottom of this post. Some are designed by me, some not.

These are the sampler blocks I’ve made so far

It’s time to look at all the blocks together and think about what this quilt needs next.

So far I’ve made 7 blocks; it needs 7 or 8 more.
The blocks will fit together in multiples of 3″, with some solid strips to fill in spaces. The blocks are generally “busy”, so I think those solid strips will be important.
There are a variety of colors and a lot of white and bright. I like the bright, but I want some more black backgrounds.
All of the blocks except one have some text fabric. I need to either save the one block with no text for another purpose or make 2 more without text. I can use some text fabric as background strips.
That orange and turquoise block with all the random trapezoids doesn’t fit with the others, so I either need to make more like it or modify it in some way. I may cut it up and re-make it altogether. Suggestions?

Meanwhile, here’s one new block to add to the sampler.

The Modern Scrap Block will finish 12 inches square

And here are the steps for making it. I just sewed together my scraps and then framed them with triangles.

I made sets of strips left from other blocks.

These strips varied in width, and some were uneven widths.

Strips of tiny blocks cut from the strip sets.

I joined the strips of little blocks (which varied in width from 1 inch to 1-1/2 inches) and then added black triangles. The center “square” is NOT square–it is improvised without much measuring!

There, now I have another one with a black background! Here are the links to the other quilt blocks in my sampler:

My Own Modern Sampler–It May Take a Year!

Zippy Quilts

Modern Quilts With A Twist

Tag Archives: improvisational quilting

Finished Tops!

2013: The Quilts

My Modern Sampler: Using Linen in Quilts

Crunchy Numbers

Final Finishes!

Artsy Table Runner

Narrow Accents!

Blocks 11 and 12, Modern Sampler

My Modern Sampler, Blocks 9 and 10

My Modern Sampler, Block 8

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