Where Did You Wear It?

Posted on September 25, 2016 by zippyquilts

A couple of years ago I made a quilt based on the little triangle codes found on plants at my local nursery. It sank without a trace when I entered it in a show.

But the idea stayed with me, and earlier this year, when I wanted to make a quilt with social significance, I decided on a QR code.

Since my “day job” involves a lot of treating conditions that condoms might have prevented, I wanted to make a quilt to promote condom use. It’s what we like to call “safer sex”. Now don’t get all huffy on me; sex is a fact of life.

When I went looking for a condom-related QR code, I found this one developed by Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands.

The folks at Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and Hawaiian Islands were gracious enough to allow me to use their QR code

Back in 2012 they put this QR code on all their condoms in a campaign called “Where Did You Wear It?”. Those who scan the code are taken to a website where they can put a pin in a map to show their geographic location–where they wore the condom!

The site also gives some important facts about condom use. The point of their campaign, and my point in making this quilt for show, is to normalize, encourage, and promote the use of condoms when needed.

It turns out QR codes are robust little devils, so I was able to re-color it and develop a lively quilt design with the use of my trusty Electric Quilt program:

Quilt Design from the “Where Did You Wear It?” QR code

Making this was quite a challenge! At each step I kept scanning it to be sure it took me to the “Where Did You Wear It?” site. (You can download any of several QR code scanners to your smart phone or iPad. I used QMark.)

The QR Code quilt, ready for its first show. It will the in the Asheville Quilt Show soon!

When I discussed the project with my wonderful son-in-law, he helped me turn my blog address into a QR code, too! That’s this blog address you see in the TINY QR code making up one block toward the bottom right of the quilt. Scanning it brings you to this post.

Please help me to encourage condom use when appropriate by sharing this post.

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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Tutorial: Spray Baste a Small Quilt

Posted on September 4, 2016 by zippyquilts

I’m putting this up because I will be teaching a class soon in which students will be doing some spray basting before class, and I’m hoping to make it easier for those who have never tried it.

This quilt is derived from the Ribbon Box Quilt pattern available on the Cloud 9 website

The quilt shown here is about 40″ x 40″, an easy size to spray baste. I have a variation for spray basting larger quilts, but I won’t cover that here.

Start by taping the quilt back to the floor, right side down. Pull enough to get rid of wrinkles, but do not stretch the fabric.

Backing

Next, sweep the porch 😉 If all you have is a deck, that will do, but sometimes the spaces between the boards are a bother.Lay a large clean piece of discarded fabric on the porch floor. This is a sheet from a long-ago pre-teen room.

Lay the batting on the clean cloth and spray baste it evenly according to the directions on your can. It’s best to do this outdoors to avoid inhaling the spray.

The batting here is Quilter’s Dream Green. It’s made out of recycled plastic bottles. It works great, and as you will see it doesn’t look green even through this cream colored backing.

I generally use either 505 or Sullivan’s basting spray. The only one I avoid is the one that breaks down with heat. I follow Michele Scott’s method of ironing each section of the quilt just before I quilt it, and that obviously won’t work if ironing destroys my spray basting!

Lift the batting carefully and transfer it to the backing, sticky side down. Usually I center the backing on the batting, but this quilt is an exception because the design on the front is meant to kind of “wrap around” to the backing. Keep reading and you’ll see it.

Next, put the quilt top on the clean cloth right side down. Spray it with basting spray.

Transfer the quilt top to the batting, sticky side down. I do this by grasping the top on opposite sides, about at the midpoint, and letting it fold in half (non-sticky sides together) as I lift it. Then I place the first half on the batting and gently fold out the second half to cover the batting.

Smooth it all out and you’re done! Remove the tape, quilt and bind. Here are the front and back:

Questions? Better ideas? I’m all ears 😀

Tuesday Quilters’ Show

Posted on August 21, 2016 by zippyquilts

One of my quilt groups (which I seldom attend because it meets during the day and I work full time) is having a little show at the church where they meet, so I stopped by to take some pictures. Most of these ladies are traditional quilters, and many are quite accomplished.

The purple diamonds near the center feature geckos fussy-cut from a batik

One of the women has really gotten going on miniature quilts, so this next bunch are all by Maryann Budahl. They are under 12″ x 12″, and they are NOT as wonky as they seem in the pictures–some were hung too high for me to photograph them well.

Look at that quilting!

You can click on any of these little quilts to see it up close.

Here are a few of the other quilts on display:

This is a miniature by Susan Roper.

There were several Christmas quilts:

Several full size quilts were draped rather than hung, so I couldn’t get a complete picture of them.

And here are some medium-sized quilts:

A Bird, Several Houses, and More by Maryann Budahl

And finally, a quilt that looked pretty modern to me:

There is a fair amount of overlap between this group and the Smoky Mountain Quilters (of Franklin, NC) who will be having a show in September, so I look forward to seeing more quilts soon.

New Design Wall!

Posted on August 7, 2016 by zippyquilts

I have had several types of design wall over the years, most recently just a flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth hanging on the wall. However, a few months ago I read Katie Pedersen’s instructions for her design wall, and decided I wanted THAT one! She used big sheets of foam insulation covered with a flannel sheet, so fabric sticks to the flannel and pins go into the board easily if needed.

A non-messy part of my husband’s shop is in the same space as my studio, so it made getting him to make the design wall for my birthday really easy!

The shop corner of the studio!

I e-mailed my husband Katie’s design wall tutorial, then e-mailed Katie for further help. (She washed her flannel sheet twice, drying it on hot both times.)

My husband had a few ideas to make the whole thing sturdier, so he added a thin sheet of underlayment material behind the insulating foam board. Then he added a wood frame on the back to stabilize the whole thing. This shows the back side with tape holding the foam to the underlayment, as well as the wood frame. We glued the insulating foam and underlayment together, as well.

Back side of quilt wall, showing taped seam where pieces were joined and a wood frame to reinforce the whole thing. Tape at the edges wraps around both board and foam to hold them together as well.

Then we wrapped the sheet, taped, and stapled per Katie’s instructions.

Despite all that, every project has its glitches:

We were NOT successful in putting bolts or screws through the whole thing to attach it to the wall. Finally we decided to hang it with a French cleat, which you can see here if you want to know what that is. That meant that nothing from the hanging apparatus had to go through the front, so no holes in the flannel!

And finally, here it is:I’ve used it quite a bit already, and it works beautifully! Thanks for the idea, Katie!

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Cherrywood Toss

Posted on July 31, 2016 by zippyquilts

This quilt was started about 2 years ago when I bought a scrap pack of Cherrywood hand dyed fabrics. The blocks are entirely from Cherrywood scrap packs plus that cute print with the words on it, which is a Robert Kaufman fabric.

The dark sashing is made from black plus little pieces of the darkest almost-black solids I could find. All are Cotton Couture from Michael Miller.

I quilted this on my home machine, using randomly-spaced, gently curving, lines from edge to edge. I used Superior Bottom Line in the bobbin, which I always do. Top thread is a medium grey light weight polyester, Mettler Metrosene.

This is going to the Smoky Mountain Quilters show in September. This year the show is scheduled in conjunction with Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Day, which I think is a great idea. Of course I’ll have pictures from that show when it happens.

Linking to Aunt Marti’s UFO Challenge. I did get one finished this month!

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Vermont Quilt Festival–Favorite Quilts, Part 2

Posted on July 17, 2016 by zippyquilts

Here are the rest of the quilts that really caught my eye at VQF.

First, a couple of my favorites among the many fine landscape quilts:These next ones probably would be classified as art quilts. As you can see, my camera was askew on the first one, but it also had very irregular edges. The transparency effects were impressive.This next one had a nice sense of humor and, as you can see from the ribbons, was well executed also.The rest of these are what I would call modern, and I especially appreciated their graphic impact.There were SO MANY more great quilts, so consider attending next year to see the show in person!

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Vermont Quilt Festival–Favorite Quilts Part 1

Posted on July 10, 2016 by zippyquilts

Here are a few of my favorite quilts from the Vermont Quilt Festival. Please note that a few of these really are not square. Others do have straight sides with 90 degree corners, but the picture is off because I had the camera in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other 😀

First, this is one of the youth quilts, made by a 3-1/2 year old! Entrants in this category made the quilt top themselves, but may have had help with quilting. Janome is a big sponsor of the VQF, and each youth entrant was given a sewing machine! This tot had to get help to carry hers from the stage 🙂

As always at VQF, there was a wonderful exhibit of antique quilts. This next one was my favorite:The Instructors’ Showcase made me wish I’d taken some classes. This first one is by Augusta Cole, whose scrappy designs I admire and have used from time to time.And this one by instructor Katie Pasquini Masopust was very unusual. I would like to know more about her techniques.There were a number of other special exhibits and I didn’t take pictures of all of them, though they would have been worth it! This bargello quilt caught my husband’s eye:Here are a few more of the fairly traditional ones that I especially liked. Note that one got a purple ribbon for a very high score on the judging criteria I showed last week.Finally, here is an absolutely spectacular applique quilt. Everyone stood in front of it admiringly, so I had to wait my turn to take a picture:Next week I’ll show you the more modern quilts that caught my eye.

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Vermont Quilt Festival, Part I

Posted on July 3, 2016 by zippyquilts

I love the Vermont Quilt Festival (VQF) for several reasons: Vermont in June, great exhibits, and the opening reception with champagne and chocolate!!! (I’m showing a few of the beautiful quilts today, and I’ll have more later.)

However, my very favorite part is that each quilt is judged on its own merits. Every quilt is rated with published criteria and may (or may not) be awarded a ribbon, based on its score. I love this idea because, as I’ve said elsewhere, the idea of “competitive quilting” doesn’t compute for me. With the VQF system, your primary competition is yourself. Then, if you just have to try to beat other people in a given category, they do have the usual “best machine quilting”, etc.

This quilt involved extensive work and I think it is very “artistic”. It got a 3rd place for workmanship, but it also got the Best Modern Quilt award.

Here is the way quilts are judged, taken from the VQF website:

Each judge evaluates all entries, scores the quilts using the point system below, and provides a brief written critique. The final score for each entry is the average of the three judges’ scores. Score sheets and critiques are returned to contestants with their quilts.

POINT SYSTEM (100 points total)

Visual Impact: 15 points maximum
Design: 40 points maximum
20 points: use of pattern and design
10 points: effectiveness of color in overall design
5 points: suitability of materials
5 points: border treatment
Workmanship: 45 points maximum
20 points: precision of work, top and back
20 points: quality of quilting and/or needlework
5 points: binding and edges

RIBBON CATEGORIES

Exceptional Merit (purple): 98 -100 points
First (blue): 95-97 points
Second (red): 92-94points
Third (yellow): 88-91point

Modern quilt from Vermont Quilt Festival

Here is a modern sampler that I enjoyed. It got a 3rd place ribbon.

Although I didn’t win any of the “big” categories, I did get a (3rd place) ribbon at VQF this year. As you can see, that amounts to a “B” grade, so I’m pretty happy. The comments were useful, as well, so I know what to do the same and what to do differently next time.

This quilt, made from a pattern, got a 3rd place ribbon as well. The circle is on a black background, so the quilt is square.

I certainly wish other shows would adopt a similar system! I’m sure it is expensive, since VQF has 3 judges for each quilt and they have to make comments and take time to score each one, not just look at it once and move on. But for me, as a quilter, it makes the VQF show much more worth the effort of entering. Here’s my quilt:

Happy Squares, designed and made by me.

Does anyone know of other shows with a similar system? I’d like to consider them when planning next year’s entries!

2014 Projects, Part 2

Posted on June 26, 2016 by zippyquilts

To continue a review of projects from 2014, the point of this exercise is to get together a gallery page for each year I’ve done this blog.

I made “Drunk in the Garden” both to use this beautiful floral fabric that reminded me of Texas and to practice cutting and piecing gentle curves.

Drunk in the Garden, the original quilt

Despite the beautiful fabric, the overall design never looked right to me, primarily because the gold fabrics varied too much in value. I eventually cut this quilt up and made some place mats, which were much more successful. You can see them here, if you like.

I designed a quilt for the Michael Miller challenge and, though it sank without a trace in the challenge, I liked it. The design was improvised based on the little scan codes made up of triangles at my local garden center:

Packet of Posy Seeds

Also in 2014, I designed a quilt and pillow for Modern Quilts Unlimited magazine. Here is the picture from the magazine:

Zippy Star Quilt and Pillow as shown in Modern Quilts Unlimited, Summer 2014

And here is the “practice” quilt I made first to work out the details:

Zippy Star I, which sold at the Asheville Quilt Show in September

As if one Michael Miller challenge weren’t enough, I made this quilt for another later in the year:

And finally, I finished this quilt, which I had been working on for years. Literally.

Spring Sun, a design by me, using blocks paper pieced from a totally different Judy Niemeyer pattern

And that was it for 2014! One thing that is obvious from reviewing some of these pictures is that I have improved my photography since 2014. For which I’m thankful.

Coming up next: a report from the 2016 Vermont Quilt Festival!

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Zippy Quilts

Modern Quilts With A Twist

Tag Archives: quilting

Where Did You Wear It?

Six Finishes!

Tutorial: Spray Baste a Small Quilt

Tuesday Quilters’ Show

New Design Wall!

Cherrywood Toss

Vermont Quilt Festival–Favorite Quilts, Part 2

Vermont Quilt Festival–Favorite Quilts Part 1

Vermont Quilt Festival, Part I

2014 Projects, Part 2

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