A New Donation!

Posted on March 31, 2024 by zippyquilts

A friend called recently to say that a local charity wanted a quilt to decorate their new office space. I sent a couple of pictures and they were enthusiastic but thought maybe they wanted both quilts! Eventually someone came over to look at some options since both the pictures I sent were very much alike; I didn’t think they’d want two quilt so similar. Of course I was thrilled that somebody wanted my quilts!

The charity is Backpack Beginnings, a local organization whose mission is to give “food and basic necessities directly to children in need” and to connect their families to appropriate community resources. I like the fact that they have a “market” where families can “pick out their own groceries and supplies”.

Anyway, back to the quilts. The Backpack Beginnings representative selected these two quilts to decorate their new space, and I couldn’t be happier that someone actually requested a donation!

This first quilt, 48″ x 48″, is a modification of a pattern by Brigitte Heitland. I made it in 2022 and quilted it using the QAYG method.

The second quilt has been around a long time! I made it for Modern Quilts Unlimited back in 2014 and quilted it myself. Finished size is 47″ x 57″. It’s one of my favorites, so I’m glad it will be displayed.

Just FYI, if you’re local, Backpack Beginnings has the quilts they need now, but they still need volunteers!

What I’ll Be Teaching

Posted on January 15, 2023 by zippyquilts

In the first quarter of 2023, I’m teaching a scrap quilt, a beginning quilting class, a special binding class, and Quilt As You Go. All classes are through Studio Stitch, and you can get sign-up information here if interested. Meanwhile, here are my notes on each class.

Superfans!

Yes, I’ve shown this quilt recently, and I’m teaching it in a two-part class on January 27 and 28. That’s a Friday afternoon and a Saturday morning. This means everyone can leave a sewing machine set up between classes but have a night of rest half way through.

Beginning Quilting

Probably not directly relevant to anybody reading this, but it will start February 11 and run for 6 Saturdays. For the first time we have a book to be used with the class so folks will have a reference at home.

Improve Your Binding

In this class we will explore several ways to improve binding techniques as well as some nice (easy) embellishments for binding. One of my friends calls this a “game changer” for binding.

Quilt As You Go (QAYG)

It seems that most quilters want to at least try QAYG. There are a number of ways to do it. I will teach the way I think is most effective and show some of the other techniques as well. As a bonus, we’ll be making the Bauhaus pattern by Zen Chic as we learn the techniques for QAYG.

I liked this pattern by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic so much that I made it twice

I’m sure most of my readers are nowhere near Greensboro (North Carolina, U.S.A.), so won’t be taking these classes. However, if you have related questions I’ll try to answer them. If you do live near Greensboro, join us and have fun! Further information is on the Studio Stitch site, here.

Oh Boy, NOW What?

Posted on March 20, 2022 by zippyquilts

So, I loved the Bauhaus quilt pattern by Bridgette Heitland. Here is my top finished, waiting to be quilted.

I changed a few blocks just for fun, and re-arranged them, but it’s basically still Brigitte’s design

It looked to me like a perfect quilt to do Quilt-As-You-Go (QAYG), so I pulled more fabric and got started.

I really didn’t like these fabrics as well as the brighter colors I used for the previous version, but it was fun to quilt the blocks individually.

After I got all the blocks quilted separately, I arranged them on the design wall.

But when I started joining blocks and adding borders, things went sideways!

Now what? I could remove the quilting and the borders, but I’m thinking I’ll just “redesign” the block arrangement! I know for sure those two striped blocks can’t be left next to each other like that!!!

A friend reported she had a shot of whiskey when she finally finished one of her projects. I’m pretty sure I’ll need one somewhere along in here!

Any ideas for this “slight error” (other than alcohol)?

Teaching Quilt As You Go

Posted on August 11, 2019 by zippyquilts

I recently had the privilege of teaching Quilt-As-You-Go (QAYG) techniques to a nice bunch of quilters at Studio Stitch in Greensboro. Here’s the summary:

Georgia Bonesteel’s QAYG method is the first one I learned, many years ago. I brought along a queen-sized quilt I made using the method to show. I demonstrated QAYG this way, and we all agreed to go on to something easier!

I made this Jewel Box quilt many years ago using Georgia Bonesteel’s QAYG method

Marti Michell’s method for quilting 1/3 of a large quilt at a time seems much easier and I demonstrated it. You can find out more about it from her book Machine Quilting in Sections or from her demos on YouTube.

The class sample used another common QAYG method, constructing the blocks and quilting them at the same time.

The class was structured so that students could make the class sample if they wanted, or could bring any pattern they chose. Three people brought other patterns and we worked out how to use those with the QAYG method. Everyone made a lot of progress on a quilt during class!

Two quilters brought fairly complex patterns and got a good start on their blocks: