A Little Quilt Show

Posted on August 27, 2017 by zippyquilts

Quiltfest, in Jonesborough, Tennessee, is accompanied by a little quilt show of things done by the teachers and the shop owners. Naturally, I took a few pictures 🙂 Here are some of my favorites:

Clam Shell, a Judy Niemeyer pattern made by Louise Amos

Detail shot. This quit was at least queen size, and the little HST squares finish less than an inch!

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

Quilt by Shannon Shirley. The blocks are TINY and the baskets have tiny chain-stitched handles. See detail view below

Detail of quilt by Shannon Shirley

Lobster Stew, by Nancy Mahoney

Quiltfest is 3 days of classes and other programs held in Jonesborough, TN every July. So, who’s coming to Quiltfest with me next year?

A Little Quilt

Posted on July 23, 2017 by zippyquilts

Finished the smallest size (41″ x 35″) Lombard Street pattern and I’m about to send it to Studio Stitch, where I’ll be teaching the class. The triangles are all dots, though not polka dots!
I quilted this on my home machine, just following the zigzags in the background, and it worked just fine.
And the backing is a fun fabric I found on the sale rack at Studio Stitch last time I taught there! Win!

I’m teaching this as an introduction to modern paper piecing, of which it’s a great example. Paper piecing makes it easy to get all those nice sharp points, and the arrangement of blocks makes people wonder, “How did she DO that???” It’s always fun to keep people guessing 🙂

A Little Triangle Quilt

Posted on July 9, 2017 by zippyquilts

After making the Lombard Street quilt and sending it off to the shop where I’ll be teaching that pattern, I decided to make a little one. (The pattern includes three sizes.)

I cut the triangles from my 3-1/2 inch scraps, and had almost enough scraps to cut all 200 triangles–very little yardage was used up for this part of the process.

I decided on purple for the background and made a few test blocks. Looking at the test blocks, I particularly liked the triangle with the one big dot in the middle. I also decided these triangles would look better with a light grey background, so naturally I had to make another quilt to use that purple background fabric 😉

I love dotted fabric, so I looked through my stash,finding about 30 different fabrics with dots of some kind. I cut another 200 triangles and here are the sample blocks. Aren’t they cute? More later…

Teaching Paper Piecing and Seminole Patchwork

Posted on June 25, 2017 by zippyquilts

This next quarter I will be teaching two classes at Studio Stitch in Greensboro (NC). The last class there was a lot of fun, so I’m really looking forward to these.

The first class, on Friday, August 11, will be a modern paper piecing project using the Lombard Street Pattern from Sassafras designs. Here is my version, which you’ve seen before. The pattern comes in 3 sizes, so I’m going to make a smaller one as well, just for fun.

“Amish on Lombard Street”, my quilt made from a Sassafras Lane pattern

The second class will be Friday, September 15. We’ll be making place mats using linen (if desired) and decorative strips of Seminole patchwork. Here’s the class sample, though I’m making another set using a variety of patchwork patterns.

Seminole Patchwork Place Mat using a linen blend for the main fabric

If you’re in the Greensboro area, please come join us. You can find Studio Stitch online (click the name) or come by the shop at 3215 B Battleground Ave, Greensboro, NC.

A Few Updates

Posted on May 28, 2017 by zippyquilts

Here is the couple I made the T Shirt wedding quilt/guest book for. They seemed happy with the quilt, and enjoyed pointing to the various shirts and talking about them.

Neither my submission nor that of my friend Clare will be touring with the Threads of Resistance show, but I’m glad I made the quilt anyway. There were so many interesting entries (550 in all!) that I’m just glad to have submitted something.

You can see the whole range of submissions here, and the ones that were selected for the show here. I was particularly happy to see several tributes to Senator Elizabeth Warren.

You can see Clare’s submission here, and my favorite submission here. Hint on my favorite: It’s titled “Trumpty Dumpty” 😀 If you want to see mine again, I blogged about it here.

And finally, an update on my project with Jane Sassaman fabrics. I decided on this layout, which sort of swirls the blocks in a spiral.The quilt is to be a queen size for my bed, so it needs to be bigger. However, I never found a companion fabric that suited me for the borders, so finally I ordered another 4 yards of the original fabric! More later…

Quilt as a Wedding Guest Book

Posted on May 21, 2017 by zippyquilts

One of our daughter’s former room mates is getting married and asked if I would make a T shirt quilt from shirts both she and her fiance have gathered in their various athletic pursuits.

She decided to use the back of the quilt as a guest book, then use the quilt on their couch as a wedding memento. I thought that was a great idea! Who ever looks at the wedding guest book again? The quilt, however, is a fun combination of “his and hers” and will serve a useful purpose after the wedding.

I ordered this cross-hatched backing, thinking it would be relatively good for people to sign.

Carolyn Friedlander fabric, 108″ wide

I used very thin polyester batting (Quilter’s Dream Request Loft poly) so the quilt will be fairly flat for signing. We’ll use fine point sharpies I am leaving the backing unwashed in the hope that the finish on it will limit bleeding.

The wedding is only a couple of weeks away, so I’m off to deliver the guest book!

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.

An attempt at improvised New York Beauty blocks

My “cocktail pillow”–to put out when you have people over for cocktails! (As if!)

This block was made with curves cut freehand

This was made for my modern sampler

Cat Circus, my 2015 Quilt Alliance challenge quilt

This was made using the Quick Curve ruler. I don’t love it–but the baby did.

Radiating Orchid mini-quilt for the Radiant Orchid Challenge, 2014

Threads of Resistance

Posted on April 2, 2017 by zippyquilts

My friend Claire made me aware of Threads of Resistance, “a juried exhibition of work created to protest the Trump administration’s actions and policies”. I usually avoid politics here, since this is a blog about quilting. But I am very concerned about some of the Trump administration’s plans, so I’m making an exception. Here is my quilt, the Statue of Liberty wearing a hijab, because it’s un-American to exclude immigrants based on religion.

The Statue of Liberty stands for freedom, including freedom of religion.

As always, I learned a lot doing this. First, there are a TON of public domain pictures out there. I finally found a couple showing the Statue from the perspective I wanted, and sort of improvised from there. Second, it IS possible to find verdigris-color fabric, and it’s easier than I thought because everyone seems to have a different idea about just what shade “verdigris” is.

I drew my design on a big piece of paper then traced it onto the verdigris fabric. I quilted the rays on the background, then cut out the statue and horizon pieces and fused them to the background. I consulted one of Sue Bleiweiss’ books about how to do the black outline, but ended up not using her method because I was too far down my own road before I consulted the book! I would like to say I think a project through thoroughly before beginning, but the truth is that often I have no idea how I’m going to do something until I’m doing it!

I outlined most of my drawn lines with black thread, but then had to go back over the lines in the face with marker to make them stand out. One final lesson: Kona cotton was a poor choice for fusible applique; the weave is much too loose. I had to fray-check the edges even after I fused them, and then had to go back and trim some “whiskers” even after I had satin stitched the edges. From now on I’m sticking to Michael Miller Cotton Couture, which is a much finer weave (similar to the hand of the batik here, which gave me no trouble with fused applique).

If you’d like to make a quilt to submit for the Threads of Resistance exhibit, which is juried, click on the highlighted name and it will take you to the link you need. And if you disagree with my politics, please do not take offense–allowing differences is what America is all about.

A Few Studio Upgrades

Posted on February 12, 2017 by zippyquilts

I have a great quilt studio with natural light and plenty of storage, but of course there’s always room for improvement! For starters, I was given a robot vacuum cleaner for Christmas!

: Robot vacuum cleaner

: Even cleans under furniture!

It runs on Friday mornings while I quilt, and I’ve pretty well learned what I need to block off or get out of the way so that it runs without glitches. It’s great to have “somebody else” cleaning the floor while I sew 🙂

A while back, I got tired of having my main rulers “lost” on the cutting table all the time. You probably know what I mean–always under the fabric, looking for the big one but find the little one, etc. I didn’t want one of those ruler racks taking up space on my table, so I finally settled on attaching hooks to the sides of the table.

Hanging rulers from the side of the cutting table means I can always find them

The hooks have worked out well! For some reason, the manufacturer (these are Command hooks) thinks the hooks need to flip up and down, so they have tape over the part that would flip. However, they seem to stick to the table just fine, and now I always know where to find my rulers!

My final “upgrade” is a new rotary cutter. I’ve been looking at the Martelli Ergo cutter for some time, wondering if it really is easier on the hands and wrists. Finally, one of my friends bought one and confirmed that it really does make cutting easier. She is left-handed, so was especially glad that it comes in a design specifically for lefties.

Photo from Connecting Threads catalog

Photo from Amazon.com

I bought one of my own, and II agree that this is much easier to use than any of my standard rotary cutters. It makes for less strain on (aging???) joints and better control while cutting. I can recommend this cutter without reservation.

What’s new in your studio?

Finished! In 2016

Posted on January 1, 2017 by zippyquilts

First, the Christmas tree picture with fireplace was at the Grove Park Inn, in Asheville, N.C. That fireplace is big enough for a man to stand up in. Hopefully when there’s no fire.

And now, the 2016 finishes.