Happy Squares

Posted on September 13, 2015 by zippyquilts

This quilt was what I designed when I got bundles of two of my favorite collections a while back: Alissa Haight Carlton’s Modern Solids (sadly, they seem to be no longer available) and Allison Glass’s feather-like prints.

Happy Squares

I started with 9-patch blocks composed of 3 inch (finished) squares. Of course I couldn’t stand to make all the blocks alike. I made some half-square triangle patches to add to the 9-patch blocks. Then I made some big 4-patch blocks from 4-1/2 inch (finished) squares so that they finished the same size as the 9-patch blocks. Finally, I made some 36-patch blocks from 1-1/2 inch (finished) squares to finish the same size as all the other blocks.

When it came to laying the blocks out, I separated some of the 9-patch blocks to fit the 4-patch and 36-patch blocks in at interesting places. Finally, I inserted a 1/4″ strip before adding the last row of squares on each side to make a sort of border.I did the quilting freehand on my home machine. This means I did not mark the diagonals but sewed “sort of” straight from corner to corner in the squares. I like the less-rigid feel of this technique, but it’s a good example of why it may be unwise to enter modern quilts in traditional quilt shows. Here again, if I wanted machine-like accuracy I could hire someone to do this on a longarm or even have a machine-generated pantograph design. In fact, I like both those techniques for some things, but I didn’t want my “happy” quilt to be too-precisely quilted.

This is bright and cheerful, so I’m calling it “Happy Squares”. What have you been up to?

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!

6 August Projects!

Posted on August 30, 2015 by zippyquilts

As always, I’m taking part in Aunt Marti’s UFO challenge. The August UFO was actually finished back in February as a donation quilt:

February donation quilt. This started out entirely different, but I failed to take Before and After pictures.

That gave me all of August to work on quilting another UFO, my Swim quilt. It’s completely quilted, but I’m still thinking about whether to add more fish, some beads, or more quilting before I bind it.

“Swim” is about 50′ x 50″. I quilted wavy horizontal lines all over it.

I’m caught up on making quilt tops for donation. My goal is a quilt a month, and I made 3 tops in August. They still need to be quilted, but I’ll have a one-woman quilting party and get it done. They are 40″ x 40″, so not difficult to do on a home machine.

Pseudo Random arrangement starting with Kaffe fabric

This is a leaders-and-enders project

Quilt top made from khaki pants and 2 shirts

Finally, I made several new blocks for My Modern Sampler. You can read about the one below here, and I’ll be blogging about the others in the coming weeks.

The Modern Scrap Block will finish 12 inches square

And a good thing August was so productive, because every weekend in September is scheduled! Yikes!

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!

7 Quilts

Posted on August 2, 2015 by zippyquilts

The Modern Quilt Guild of Asheville had a show at the Handmade in America gallery this summer. Here are a few of the quilts. Unfortunately, there were difficulties with photography so the pictures aren’t as good as I’d like, but these quilts are just too good to pass up.

Grumpy Cat. by Diana Cantor

Through the Open Window, by Amy Anderson

Dreamsicle, by Kelly Wood

This, That, and the Other, by Miriam Coffey

Fantastical Astronomy, by Erica Kilgo

Karla Made Me Do It, by Mary Puckett

Migration, by Emily Coffey

The Modern Quilt Guild of Asheville continues to grow and thrive, so look for more news in the future!

Modern Sampler: Painter’s Tape Block

Posted on July 26, 2015 by zippyquilts

For the next block in my modern sampler, I used an improvisational technique that first occurred to me several years ago: I outline the size I want my final piece to be with painter’s tape and then fill it with whatever shape I’ve decided to use.

My first exploration of this technique was a T shirt quilt. The motifs from the shirts were many different sizes but could all be cut as rectangles or squares. I outlined a rectangle about 55″ x 68″ on one of my carpets and stated filling it with shirt pieces. I selected a modern fabric to fill in the holes, and here it is:

Improvised T shirt quilt

The shirts were all cut into rectangles and squares, and the fill-ins therefore were rectangles and squares as well. I’m not saying this is easy, but it sure was more fun than just making a bunch of blocks the same size and lining them up.

So for the next Modern Sampler Block, I outlined an 8-1/2″ square on my cutting mat and started filling it with triangles.

Starting a square that will finish 8″

I added 1/4″ strips between the triangles to give the whole thing definition. Then I just kept addiing triangles (that I cut randomly) until it was done.

Improvised triangles block

No chance of a pattern for this one. To make it, just cut a triangle you want to start with and then keep adding on. I have a couple of deliberate exceptions to my “rules” so that the eye doesn’t just keep saying “yes”, it has to stop occasionally and say, “hey, wait!” The only trick is to keep finishing with a straight edge so you can easily add on the next section.

Try this technique! I hope you enjoy it!

Here are the previous posts in my Modern Sampler series:

Humbug Star

Improv Block I

Pretty Blocks–better look at this one!

My Own Modern Sampler–It May Take a Year!

Slabs in 4 Colors

Posted on July 19, 2015 by zippyquilts

One of my quilt groups is swapping slabs, those blocks made up of scraps all in a single color range. (The name was given to this block style by Cheryl Arkison, who blogs at Dining Room Empire, if you want to check her out.) We all have MORE than enough scraps in all possible colors, so each of us requested slabs of a specific color.

It turns out these are addictive! Usually we make only 2 blocks for each recipient, but I got a little carried away….and this is only half the blocks I’ve made so far.

Just a few of the slabs

Aren’t they pretty? And such fun! So fair warning to my quilt group friends: I HAVE the scraps and I know what to do with them! You will be getting lots of blocks this time! Which should give the option of taking a break to those of you who have weddings to plan, etc.

If you think I’m kidding about making extra, just look at the scrap bin. Something must be done!

What are you doing with your scraps these days?

3 Little Soapboxes

Posted on July 12, 2015 by zippyquilts

Here are 3 topics on which I just couldn’t hold back:

1. Competitive quilter?!?! I don’t think so! I took a great class with a noted quilter about two years ago and was stunned when she referred to herself as a “competitive quilter”. I’ve always thought of quilting as the ultimate cooperative endeavor, with women working together in quilting bees and quilt guilds, sharing both their work and their lives. It was discouraging to hear that many quilters find out who the judge will be at a major show and then make a quilt specifically to please that judge. I do understand that many people make all or part of their income from quilting, and that big wins can bring in both fame and fortune. I’m still shocked that some people quilt for other people rather than for their own artistic expression. Just call me grumpy.

Some practice quilting–love that shiny thread!

2. I don’t want to become a machine. I’ve written before about what works and doesn’t work for me in terms of learning to quilt on my domestic sewing machine. It finally occurred to me when I was working to get all my loops exactly the same that a pantograph (all-over) design on a longarm machine could do exactly the same thing with a fraction of the effort. HUH.

So, from now on I’m going to limit my efforts on the domestic machine to small items that are easier to do than to send out, and to quilts that really require custom quilting for some reason. And I’m going to quit trying to “perfect” my loops, stitches, etc.

I figure I could have every quilt I’ll make for the rest of my life quilted for what it would cost me in time and money to buy, house, and learn to use a longarm machine.

I recently met a woman who says she will have her longarm paid for after 40 quilts. But she was accounting for only the cost of the machine, not her time in learning to use it, her time doing the quilting, or the cost of finding a place to set it up. Seems to work for her and for many others, but I think it’s not for me. I’ll hire one of them to do my longarm work!

More practice quilting, more shiny thread

3. Chutzpah and modern quilting. I’m not big on a definition of modern quilting. “I know it when I see it” works for me. But in looking at many blogs and websites, it appears to me that it’s modern quilting if you say it is. I’ve seen very traditional designs done in modern fabric and called “modern”. So I if I use traditional fabric but with asymmetric design or lots of negative space or one of those other “hallmarks” of modern quilting, that would be a modern quilt, too! Looks to me like modern quilting is a lot like all other art: 80% chutzpah. Fine by me. Don’t tell me my design isn’t modern and I won’t tell you that yours isn’t either. We get to define ourselves. Enough said.

Have a good week!

One final sample…not perfect and not meant to be since I’m not a machine

One Big Improvement

Posted on July 5, 2015 by zippyquilts

Here’s the donation quilt that resulted from following one of Sherri Lynn Wood’s “scores” as it originally turned out. I didn’t much like it. As several friends pointed out, there wasn’t anywhere for the eye to rest!

This came from following one of Sherri Lynn Wood’s “scores”

I got some great suggestions from readers and other friends. I considered them all and finally used EQ7 (the Electric Quilt design program) to draft a layout. I removed the borders and cut the center into 9 equal blocks, each 10″ square. I loved Wanda’s idea to make the blocks different sizes with frames, but I was afraid the design already suffered from too much “creativity” so I didn’t do it.

10″ x 10″ blocks cut from the quilt center

Checking my stash, I came up with these options for sashing. I guess if I’d wanted a “really” modern quilt I’d have chosen the gray 😉

Sashing options for the revised quilt

I chose the marine blue because it calmed things down without making them dull. I’m pleased with the result.

The “New! Improved!” quilt top

Thanks to everyone who provided input about what to do with this!

What To Do x 2?

Posted on June 28, 2015 by zippyquilts

Here are two projects I need to “fix”, and I’m open to suggestions.

“Swim” is about 50′ x 50″

This first one, shown above, is an improvisation I did about 2 years ago. I haven’t finished it because the lines between the layers are more distinct than I intended. I joined the layers with curved seams cut freehand, and I changed the fabrics I used in each layer gradually, but the layers still aren’t blended as well as I’d like.

My “UFO finish” for June is to do SOMETHING with this top. (Mother used to say, “Do something, even if it’s wrong!” when we got stuck on a task.)

My current thought is to cut some freehand diamonds and applique them intermittently along the seams I want to blend. Any other ideas?

And here’s the second one that needs “fixing”:

This is to be the June donation quilt, 40″ x 40″

This is my second attempt to follow a Sherri Lynn Wood “score”. I followed her instructions more closely than last time, and I like it a lot less!

I chose a focus fabric from my novelties because this is a quilt for a child. I followed Sherri Lynn’s directions to make some “rules” and cut up 3 fabrics for the quilt, etc, etc. When I finished, I thought it needed something to “pull it together”, so I added a border of the focus fabric.

BUT, my friend who coordinates our donation quilts looked worried when she saw it. (PLEASE don’t tell me you think that’s a donation quilt?)

So help me out here! What should I do with this?

1. Leave it as it is and quilt it, already!

2. Cut it into blocks to be joined by solid color sashing to calm things down.

Option 2

3. Dye it black and use it to back something else (kidding!)

4. Another idea?

Option X

Hope you have a good week 🙂

Zippy Quilts

Modern Quilts With A Twist

Tag Archives: quilts

Happy Squares

My Modern Sampler, Blocks 9 and 10

6 August Projects!

My Modern Sampler, Block 8

7 Quilts

Modern Sampler: Painter’s Tape Block

Slabs in 4 Colors

3 Little Soapboxes

One Big Improvement

What To Do x 2?

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