Happy Habitat House

Posted on May 8, 2022 by zippyquilts

The Gate City Quilt Guild, which I recently joined, makes little house quilts for the local Habitat for Humanity. Each family then gets a little quilt as part of the ceremony in which they take over their new house. Of course I wanted to make one, so here we go!

The quilts are approximately 12″ x 12″, so I began by cutting two 13″ squares of fabric, one for the front and one for the back. I recently read in Sue Bleiweiss’s latest book that she uses a wool-blend felt for the batting in her art quilts, so I gave that a try. I cut the felt 12″ x 12″.

This is the back

I turned the edges of the front fabric to the back, turned under the edges of the backing fabric, and edge stitched the 3 layers together. The felt “batting” was easy to work with and avoided the puffiness that can distort a quilt when using regular batting.

I used Heat n Bond Lite to fuse the door, windows, and roof to the house, then fused the house to the quilt top.

The finished quilt front

I added stitching to the grass and tree for texture, and to make rays from the sun to show sunshine falling on the house. I collect fun buttons, so I had a round one for the door knob and some little flowers for the yard.

The buttons were shank-type, so I had to make little holes in the quilt to push the shank through so they would lie flat. The felt batting was extremely stable, which helped a lot with this process. Here’s the back, showing the button shanks held in place with little pins.

Although I like my quilt, I must say that there are some very talented quilters in the group and some of the houses were more realistic than mine! I look forward to learning a lot from these ladies.

Quilt Stats:

Name: Happy Habitat House

Size: 12″ x 12″

Designed and made by me

I hope the family who receives the quilt will enjoy it, though of course it is unlikely to look like their real house!

Place Setting Carrier Revisited

Posted on April 14, 2019 by zippyquilts

It turns out people in my modern guild read my blog (thanks!). At the gift exchange last Christmas, one of the most coveted gifts was a place setting carrier for potlucks. The woman who made it had gotten the idea from one of my blog posts, here.

A place setting carrier is used to bring a plate and flatware from home when attending a potluck so that the waste of paper plates and plastic flatware is avoided.

There is a pattern available on Craftsy (which has changed its name), but she used this free pattern from the St. Croix International Quilters’ Guild, designed by Joline Cook. The carrier made for our gift exchange was so popular that the entire guild decided to make carriers for our February meeting!

Since the guild LOVES potlucks, these will be used! Do be advised that, if you use the free pattern, it takes quite a bit of thinking it through to get it put together correctly. I’m still not sure mine is the way the instructions intended, but it is functional 🙂

Someone in the guild also suggested tucking a plastic grocery bag in the carrier so that dirty dishes can be transported home without having to wash the carrier, too.

Time for a potluck!

A Few Favorites

Posted on February 25, 2018 by zippyquilts

I’ve been thinking about what inspires my quilt designs, and the first thing that came to mind was the beautiful or fun or amazing quilts I see at shows, guild meetings, retreats, wherever. Here are a few of my favorite quilts for inspiration.

I love the variety of bright colors and the tiny pieces in this one:

Quilt made by Jerri from TINY pieces of Liberty of London fabric

And this is a favorite because of the bright colors and eccentric design:

Cinco de Mayo, made by Renny Jaeger; pattern by Karen K Stone

This unusual design appeals to me:

Rena was given a circle cutter at the last retreat, and she went wild!

Pamela Wiley’s excellent workmanship and eye-popping designs make her quilts among my favorites:

Outside In by Pamela Wiley

I like the use of color in this next one, as well as the movement generated by the curved piecing and curved quilting:

In the Marsh #2, by Carol Bryer Fallert-Gentry

And this one reminds me of Maine, where we lived for a while:

Coves and Islands by Carol Anne Grotian

What inspires your designs?

Guild Program, Guild Challenge

Posted on September 17, 2017 by zippyquilts

Since somebody has to be in charge of guild programs, and this year I’m “it” for my modern guild, I’ve been publishing some ideas for guild programs and challenges. Hopefully, if you are in charge of programs and challenges for your guild, you can use some of these.

The familiar “cat” tessellation

Nobody volunteered to do the program this month, so I read up on tessellations, starting with this post my friend Jean did for my blog a couple of years ago. I found a couple of great books on tessellations, one by Jinny Byer (yes, that Jinny Byer!). They are:

Designing Tessellations: The Secrets of Interlocking Patterns, by Jinny Byer

Introduction to Tessellations, by Dale Seymour and Jill Britton

And if you decide to develop a program on tessellations for your guild, feel free to e-mail me. You can have my “class outline” and list of exercises if you want.

Wonky house drawn with Electric Quilt 7

The challenge for next month is to make a 12-1/2 inch (so it will finish 12 inches) wonky house block. I made up a couple of blocks to illustrate the idea and drew a couple of additional ones for people to take home for inspiration.

Another wonky house drawing for inspiration

I cut the pieces for this house freehand, with scissors, to make it really wonky

This one was made with fused fabric, using techniques I learned several years ago from Laura Wasilowski

We’ll vote on whether to have a “dirty Santa” swap or a drawing where one person gets all the blocks to make a quilt. Seems like most of our members are really into the swap thing, so I’m betting that’s what happens!

Another Experiment

Posted on June 18, 2017 by zippyquilts

In one of my modern guilds, several of our members have volunteered to teach techniques we want to try out. Some of these may be more “art quilt” than strictly “modern quilt”, but what matters is that the members want to learn the technique, not how it could be classified.

One member who does some fantastic art quilts is going to teach us how to use colored pencils intended for fabric. At the last meeting, she suggested that we get a head start by making a palette of the pencils we have so we won’t be wondering how the color will turn out when we do her project. I had this grid-print fabric from another project, so I used it for my sampler

After reading an article in Quilting Arts about how to use pencils on fabric, I got some textile medium to try To make the sampler above, I brushed a thin layer of fabric medium on the square, then applied pencil. The color went on smoothly while the textile medium was damp.

I haven’t yet tested how colorfast it may be. The woman who will be doing the program applied her pencils directly to the fabric (without textile medium), then brushed with water. The colors had a lovely watercolor-like appearance as they bled a little into each other. I presume the textile medium will hold the color and prevent that bleeding. That would be good for things where precise placement is needed, but of course sometimes fuzzy edges might look better. More to come!

Fabric Postcards Again

Posted on June 11, 2017 by zippyquilts

I’ve been blogging about the monthly challenges and programs at my modern guild, hoping it will be helpful to some of you who need challenge or program ideas. Here’s a recent one: we made fabric postcards.

I gave out pieces of Peltex 71F cut 4″ x 6″ to use as the stabilizer and backing for the cards. I gave no further guidance, though I did bring an example to pass around.

Here is the example

I probably should have provided a handout with some basic instructions, since we have members with quite variable skills, as do most guilds. Anyway, here are some of the postcards people made. As you can see, they varied in technique quite a bit, and all were fun.

Kim’s clever Bee Kind postcard–she paper pieced the bee!

Somebody had some cute quilt lady fabric and put a nice frame around it

Coffee is always popular, and the fusible broderie perse worked well

Somebody else stitched elaborate designs like Zentangles on hers

Bev made a bird with a nest of torn strips and beads sewn on for eggs

Mine was titled “A Different UFO”. I’ve had that UFO button a long time!

Guild Challenges, Part I

Posted on January 22, 2017 by zippyquilts

When I volunteered to arrange programs for one of my modern guilds this year, I didn’t realize the job included coming up with a challenge each month. Luckily, there were lots of ideas for guild challenges in internet-world, so the challenges weren’t too much of a challenge. (Sorry, that just slipped in!)

I thought it might be helpful to other modern guilds if I posted our proposed challenges, since I’m sure other folks are in need of ideas, too. So here’s the first one: slabs. If you don’t know what a slab quilt block is, Canadian quilter Cheryl Arkison published the idea in her book Sunday Morning Quilts. You can see a picture and instructions here.

Slabs can be addictive! And a quilt of many colors is fun.

In January, each member received brief instructions on how to make a “slab” of a single color of the rainbow. Sort of. While trying to figure out how to set up the rainbow challenge, I found this quote from Isaac Asimov (one of my heroes):

It is customary to list indigo as a color lying between blue and violet, but it has never seemed to me that indigo is worth the dignity of being considered a separate color. To my eyes it seems merely deep blue.

So our colors for the challenge are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Seems like the main value of indigo and violet is that they let us spell out ROY G BIV. Huh.

Our slabs are 15-1/2 inches square, to be 15 inch finished blocks. Each person makes one in her assigned color, then can make as many others as she wants in as many of the six basic colors as she wants. At the next meeting, we’ll put all our slabs in a pile and each person’s name will go in a basket once for each block she turns in. Then we’ll draw a name and somebody gets all the blocks. Of course she’s expected to make something wonderful with those blocks before the next meeting!

I e-mailed examples of slab quilts to guild members as part of the challenge and also took some of my quilts to show.

Jerri Szlizewski combined her purple slabs with neutral slabs, then appliqued purple dots on the neutral backgrounds

I cut up the yellow-orange slabs I got in a swap and inserted blue

Does your modern guild have some great challenge ideas? Let me know! I’ll be posting about our other challenges as we go along so you can use them, too.

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!

Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show 2016

Posted on October 16, 2016 by zippyquilts

One of my local guilds had their biennial show recently, so of course I have many pictures of the quilts. This is an opportunity to display the best needlework of many of our local quilters.

I’m starting with ten of the most elaborate ones. The quality of the pictures is limited by both the lighting in the hall and the arrangement of quilts in 3-sided cul-de-sacs, the way it is done at AQS as well. However, it is obvious that a lot of work went into these!

Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild, Sandra Sneed

I’ve always meant to make one of these!

Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild show, Karen Burney

Though it is traditional, this is one of my favorites!

Love the houses and trees!

I’ll have more pictures from this show at a later date 🙂

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Connie Brown, A North Carolina Quilter

Posted on February 14, 2016 by zippyquilts

Connie Brown

Connie Brown and I met at the Modern Quilt Guild of Asheville. She has been juried into membership in the Southern Highland Craft Guild, a prestigious organization promoting fine Southern Appalachian crafts. I thought you would enjoy meeting her.

Give us the quick tour of your quilting career. How did you get started?

My husband, son, and I moved to Asheville in 1989. I knew no one in the area, so I signed up for a quilting class at Asheville-Biltmore Technical College. The instructor, Mary Field, was the best. Along with quilting basics, she taught me many sewing skills and shared her knowledge and love of antique quilts and quilt history. By the end of the class she had encouraged me to join the Asheville Quilt Guild and a weekly bee. The first few meetings I attended featured presentations by quilt historians. I really enjoyed quilt history, so I started studying antique quilts.

When/how did you decide to “go pro” by studying quilt history and appraisal, judging shows, and joining the Southern Highland Craft Guild (SHCG)?

Connie demonstrates quilting at a Southern Highland Craft Guild event

After a few years of making quilts and entering them in both local and national shows, I put a couple in a gallery exhibit. To my surprise, one sold and visitors were interested in my other quilts. I knew about the SHCG, with its shops, marketing, and educational opportunities. After selling that quilt in the art gallery, I decided to apply for membership and was juried in during 2000. I have my quilts in their shops and participate in several of their events, including Fiber Day and Heritage Day (where I share my beekeeping), as well as others.

When people started calling me about the value of antique quilts, or what value to place on a quilt they were entering in a show, I saw a need for a local certified quilt appraiser. I put my years of studying quilt history and my knowledge of local quilt sales to use and focused on becoming a certified quilt appraiser. In 2009, I was certified by the AQS (American Quilters Society) as an Appraiser of Quilted Textiles.

What is your favorite of the quilts you have made?

I love making circles and Drunkard’s Path units! My 3 favorite quilts so far are:

Color Cascade

“Color Cascade aka Prints Charming” includes more than 500 scraps. The pattern for this quilt is in the September 2012 issue of American Quilter Magazine. This is machine pieced and machine quilted.

“V-Spot Target Attack” is also made entirely by machine.

Finally, “Tiffilippa” was inspired by a Tiffany lampshade. I couldn’t throw away the trimmed off “waste”, so I used it as a border.

How much time do you spend quilting? How do you have time to quilt, participate in guilds, keep bees, substitute teach, and still eat and sleep?

Every day I do something quilt related, whether it’s making quilts, studying, visiting an exhibit, or writing appraisals. I always carry something to work on in my down time when I substitute teach.

How far do you travel with your quilt activities? And what do you have coming up?

I’ll be at the Folk Art Center (on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville) for National Quilting Day (March 19, 2016). I’ll be hosting a quilt sharing day with an exhibition of 4 or 5 antique quilts, and people are invited to bring older quilts they have questions about. I won’t be doing appraisals that day, but it’s a free event and a good opportunity for people who may have quilts they wonder about. It can help them decide whether the quilt needs a formal appraisal.

This year I will be offering appraisals at the AQS shows in Paducah and Chattanooga as well as in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina during the Cobblestone Quilt Show. My fees for written appraisals are $75 per quilt, but during these events the charge is $50 per quilt. Each appraisal takes a minimum of 2 hours, including meeting with the client, travel, research and preparation, and typing the report.

To see more of Connie’s quilts, visit her webpage at southernhighlandguild.org/conniebrown

You may email Connie at mail2thebrowns@juno.com

Zippy Quilts

Modern Quilts With A Twist

Tag Archives: quilt guild

Happy Habitat House

Place Setting Carrier Revisited

A Few Favorites

Guild Program, Guild Challenge

Another Experiment

Fabric Postcards Again

Guild Challenges, Part I

Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show, Part 2

Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show 2016

Connie Brown, A North Carolina Quilter

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