A Toddler Quilt and a “Finish”

Posted on January 18, 2015 by zippyquilts

One of the things I like about Aunt Marti’s UFO challenge is that I get to decide what constitutes a “finish”. With that in mind, my January “finish” consisted of sending my Charley Harper quilt off to the longarm quilter. Lest you think that just means handing it over, I had to select backing and make binding so that when it comes back I’ll be all ready to bind it. So here it is ready to go:

Turning Twenty Again, Charley Harper fabric

Binding is ready for when the Charley Harper quilt is returned to me

I started making the binding when I finish the quilt top for two reasons: I already have the fabric right there, so it saves time later. And I don’t accidentally use that binding fabric for something else before the quilt is ready for it 😉

My other finish this week (and this one is really, really finished) is a toddler quilt. It is 42″ x 52″ and is backed with Minkee Dot fabric. It has no batting. (Yeah, I know, that means it’s “not a quilt”. Right.) This makes it both soft and light, so a toddler can carry it around with him. He can use it to make a fort, take a nap, have a picnic, or whatever else. Here it is, from start to finish:

Toddler Quilt

I think this simple design would be good for a donation quilt, as well. It was quick and easy to make, and I think it shows the cute fabric to advantage.

2015 UFO Challenge

Posted on January 11, 2015 by zippyquilts

Last year I participated in Aunt Marti’s UFO (Unfinished Object) challenge over at 52 Quilts and found it helpful. I did NOT succeed in finishing a UFO every month, but there were several months when I wouldn’t have gotten even one done if it weren’t for the challenge.
So this year I’m not only taking the challenge, I’m (gasp!) publishing my list here so it’s public! And I’ll post about the finishes as I do them. Here’s the list, some of it in picture form: If you hover over the picture you can see its caption.

I made this quilt years ago in a class at Tennessee Quiltfest

Charley Harper top needs to sent to quilter

Pink and green orphan blocks need to be made into a donation quilt

Storm at Sea needs to be paper pieced

Need to finish piecing Triangle Quilt

Will need to bind Charley Harper quilt when it comes back

Maple Leaf donation quilt

Need to design a quilt for this wonderful fabric

Flower fairies need to be made into a quilt

Need to either make Amazon Star or not!

There are two more to be done, but no pictures yet:

11. Rework the Under the Sea top

12. Quilt a practice piece I made for a magazine project.

Aunt Marti’s UFO challenge goes like this: You gather up 12 of your (many) UFOs and number them. Then, each month Aunt Marti posts the number of the UFO to be done for that month. (By the way, the project for January is #2).

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. If you want to play along, here’s the link to the “rules” at Aunt Marti’s site.

Hope you have a good week at get at least one UFO finished even if you aren’t doing the challenge!

First Finish

Posted on January 4, 2015 by zippyquilts

Metro Hoops quilt made by Allison at Cluck, Cluck, Sew

Inspired by the beautiful Metro Hoops quilt Allison showed over at Cluck, Cluck, Sew, I mentioned the Quick Curve Ruler as something I wanted to try in a recent post. Here’s a picture of her quilt so you can see what inspired me.

My clever son-in-law gave me the ruler for Christmas, and as soon as we got home I tried it out. As always, I learned a lot. Certainly the Metro Hoops pattern is a nice modern alternative to the traditional wedding ring quilt. What I wasn’t prepared for was the fudge factor required to make it work.

My first Metro Hoops block

It made a really cute block, but then my inner perfectionist kicked in 😦 The block required a lot of “easing in” along the seams to make the points match up. *(You can skip to the reason why at the end of this post, if you like.)

Luckily, I almost never cut out a new quilt completely before making a test block. After making one block for this quilt, I decided 5 hoop blocks was my limit. The blocks really are quicker and easier to make than they look, so I got the 5 done in a few hours. They are nice big blocks (finish 15″) so I had a good start on a baby quilt.

I drew an approximation of the block with my EQ7 program and came up with this layout:

My EQ7 layout for the Metro Hoops blocks

Another half day to make the alternate blocks, then a day to put it together, make a back, and quilt it–and voila! The first finish of 2015!

About the Quick Curve ruler: the women who designed it have lots of cute quilt patterns on their site, so it’s worth checking out.

*BUT, if I make metro hoops again, I’ll modify the directions to make it more to my liking. I think the basic issue here is that the single curve provided by this ruler is used for both the concave and convex curves in the quilt. That means there is no seam allowance to make the curves match nicely. The project is “saved” by the fact that the curve is less than a quarter circle, so it’s possible to fudge the sewing to make it go together without adding seam allowances. It does work, but don’t think it’s going to fit the way pieces cut from most curved templates do. If you decide to do it, be forewarned to relax and get rid of the inner perfectionist!

Happy new year!

Year End Review

Posted on December 28, 2014 by zippyquilts

For better or worse, I published goals at the beginning of the year, so here’s the review of my progress:
I met all the goals! (Does that mean I didn’t set them high enough?) I retreated with my buddies THREE times instead of just two! I attended 3 big national shows as well as 2 local ones (all were excellent). I took a couple of fun and useful classes, one of which I still need to write up here so you’ll know about it. I submitted several quilts to shows/contests and 3 were accepted. The one I donated to the Quilt Alliance even won something, and sold for $300 to benefit the Quilt Alliance! And I had lots of fun, which was really the point of it all.

Here are pictures of a few of my projects from the second half of the year. The pix of projects from the first half of the year are in this post.

Spring Sun, a design by me, using blocks paper pieced from a totally different Judy Niemeyer pattern! It took about 2 years, but it’s now DONE.

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

Packet of Posy Seeds, done for the Michael Miller spring challenge

Zippy Star I, which sold at the Asheville Quilt Show in September. This was my “practice piece” for the MQU quilt shown above.

Donation quilt for Ronald McDonald House. I’m going to work more on using up orphan blocks next year.

And, despite the risk, here’s what I plan for the coming year:

1. I’ll retreat with my buddies at least twice, probably 3 times again!

2. I’ll attend one big national quilt show, maybe two. I’ll attend at least one local show.

3. I will limit much more strictly the shows and challenges I enter. It takes too much time and effort that could be spent on making what I want to make 🙂

4. I’ll continue to make donation quilts, including one for the Quilt Alliance. Please consider making one for the Quilt Alliance yourself. You can read about their mission here. Click on “2015 Quilt Contest” to learn about this year’s challenge.

5. I’ll continue my blog, and I think I’ll put up instructions for a few easy donation quilts just in case somebody is looking for ideas.

What’s coming up for you?

5 Favorites of 2014

Posted on December 21, 2014 by zippyquilts

1. Favorite quilt show I attended: Vermont Quilt Festival. You can see some quilts from it here and here. And here again is a detail of one of my favorites:

Detail of Fill the Void by Cinzia Allocca, at Vermont Quilt Festival 2014

2. Favorite thing about blogging: Meeting new friends, both in person and online. Read about a couple of them here and here, if you like.
3. Favorite modern quilt trend: some textures and low-volume prints (those that show more background, having the prints smaller and farther apart) to get us away from all solids, all the time. Some of my favorites include these from Carolyn Friedlander:

From Carolyn Friedlander’s Architextures collection

and these from Alison Glass:

4. Favorite new (to me) quilt tool: Frixion pen. It comes in lots of colors and erases when you iron over the markings. Only drawback I’ve found is that you can’t see the mark on dark fabric. For that I still love my chaco liner with yellow chalk. Show below: chaco liners on left, frixion pens on right.

5. Favorite lesson learned: I’d rather see my designs in print than at quilt shows. Yes, I entered several shows and contests, and I won something. But my favorite quilt of the year (from those I made) was the one that was published in Modern Quilts Unlimited. So here is a picture of it again.

And what were your favorites of the year?

Eye Candy x 10

Posted on December 14, 2014 by zippyquilts

I’ve been saving this treat, and today is the day. For those of us who want to escape for a few minutes from holiday-themed anything, here are 10 of my favorite art quilts from this year’s Vermont Quilt Festival.

Coves & Islands by Carol Anne Grotian

Torrid Dwelling by Molly Upton

Suntreader III by Michael James

Aspens Reaching for Bluebird Skies by Ann Schubert Turner

The Getty by Katie Pasquini Masopust

Remembered Vistas by Jo Diggs

The Wall, by Pamela Druhen

Double Wedding Ring #2 by Mike McNamara

Color Waves by Pamela Druhen

Detail from Leaves on Klee, by Mabry Benson

Now, get back to work on those holiday gifts 🙂

Beads on Quilts

Posted on December 7, 2014 by zippyquilts

I was waaaay into beads before I got waaaay into quilts, so there are lots of beads in the studio. Thank goodness they take up less room than fabric 😉

A few of the bead drawers

I’ve read a bit about using beads in quilts, and I took a class with Mary Stori a few years ago.

Here are a few of my uses of beads so far. Most recently, I added a row of tiny silver-lined glass beads around the edge of a star in my quilt for the Michael Miller challenge. It took most of a day to get this done! YIKES!

I outlined the focal point of my Michael Miller challenge quilt with beads

A while back I made this little wall hanging as a shop sample for a friend, and put beads both on it and hanging from it.

There are beads on the sun, and that’s how I learned that sewing on beads can distort the quilt! I used techniques from jewelry making to create a beaded fringe for the bottom of the piece with larger beads.

And beads were used to give Overall Sam a fish in one block and a toy airplane to fly in another block when I made this wall hanging from a few years ago. The blocks are based on a pattern from Eleanor Burns.

Finally, I used beads to make fancy zipper pulls for some of my pouches.

Give beads a try! And if you don’t have enough beads, let me know…

5 Things I’m Grateful for in Quilt-World

Posted on October 12, 2014 by zippyquilts

Gratitude is always a good exercise, as I was reminded when I met with an old friend the other day. So, here are 5 of the things I’m most thankful for in my quilt life:

1. Good friends! Some of my best buddies are people I’ve met through quilting, and, as I’ve mentioned before, joining a quilt group is a great way to make friends.

Some Quilty Friends

2. New challenges. I count any day in which I learn something new as a success.

I made this quilt when we lived in Pennsylvania. The biggest challenge was to design and produce the stencils for the quilting.

3. A creative outlet. Like many quilters, I’ve had careers with a scientific focus. It’s nice to have the opportunity to do something that engages my creative side.

This leaf, made in class with Laura Wasilowski, was a fun way to be more creative than I am when I make bed quilts

4. The opportunity to help. Giving a quilt, whether through a charity or through a personal contact, gives me the opportunity to do something for someone. Often it’s a situation in which there’s no other way to express my concern.

One of my quilt groups makes quilts for Ronald McDonald House

5. The circle is unbroken. When I quilt, I feel connected to my ancestors who made quilts, to friends who use my quilts, and to people all over the world engaged in similar activities. I don’t think about this very often, but it is definitely part of my quilting experience.

I made this quilt to learn curved piecing.

So, what are you thankful for?

Your Inner Designer: 3 Formulas for Modern Quilts

Posted on October 5, 2014 by zippyquilts

It seems to me that, when learning a new skill, there is often a “formula” or basic idea that, once mastered, provides a way into successful practice of the new skill. So here are 3 ideas for you to try. See if one of them helps you create designs that you like.

1. Use lots of “negative space”, and start by making this background space in a shade of gray. (The person who brought my attention to this “rule” of modern quilting has asked to remain anonymous 😉 ) Here are some examples, but I’m sure you know of lots of others:

Shades of Gray by Terry Aske. 2nd place award in the Modern category, Quilts Canada 2014

Found on lilysquilts.blogspot.com

2. Another common way to “design” a modern quilt is to make it an obvious take-off from a piece of 20th Century art (or occasionally more recent art). My design below is by no means an exact copy of any of Piet Mondrian’s work, but it certainly is an imitation of him:

Thanks, Piet! by Mary J. Puckett

Sometimes I do see modern quilts that are a direct imitation of an artwork. However, my preference is to look at a lot of work by one artist, or by a group of similar artists, then close the book and draw something original that “references” the works I’ve studied.

For example, here’s a print I found at an Etsy shop called “Handz”. Compare it to the quilt just below it. It’s not a copy, but it could have been based on the print. Or they could have both been inspired by another source altogether.

Mid Century Modern Art print found at Handz on Etsy

finished – modern drunkard’s path by m_soto on Flickr

3. Just start with modern fabric. One of my favorite “modern” quilters is Rita at Red Pepper Quilts. Many of her quilts are traditional designs, but she uses bright, modern, fabrics and her quilts always look fresh and modern to me.

Spools and Nine Patch Quilt by Rita at Red Pepper Quilts

Here’s a detail of another of Rita’s quilts:

Detail of a quilt by Rita at Red Pepper Quilts

Give some of these ideas a try, and let me know what you come up with!

Your Inner Designer 6: Copy Somebody Good!

Posted on September 7, 2014 by zippyquilts

Truly original ideas in design are really, really rare More often good designs are inspired by other good designs, and most designers start by copying other people. There’s nothing wrong with that–just give credit!

Glass window, designer unknown

For example, here’s a door I admire in a friend’s house. It got me thinking that it would be nice to make her a table runner with a design similar to the glass in the door, especially since the dining table is right by the door. I may start out by copying the design, but my table runner won’t be an exact copy. I want it to be obviously inspired by the door, but I probably couldn’t make an exact copy even if I wanted to. And I’m not going to sell it as my own “original” design without reference to the door, either.

Here’s the first attempt:That may be obviously inspired by the door, though in fact both are inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and Craftsman styles of design. If you don’t know much about those styles of design, Google them. There are many similar designs to be found, so I can make LOTS of designs of this style without copying any of them. Here’s the second try:

This one has a little more detail. Another master of this style, popular in the early years of the 20th Century, was Charles Rennie Mackintosh. William Morris textile and wallpaper designs were the same historical period, and you may have seen Moda’s extensive line of William Morris-inspired fabrics.

One last try:

So go look at some books on the history of design (the history of advertising works too) and make some designs inspired by what you see. It’s a good starting place when you think you don’t have any ideas, and you’ll eventually come up with something your really like. Then it’s time to make a quilt!

Here are the first 5 posts in this series:

Your Inner Designer 5: A Program to Make Your Own Palette!

Quilt Design 4: Choosing Your Color Scheme

Your Inner Designer 3: New Blocks From Old

Your Inner Designer 2: Many Block Arrangements

Find Your Inner Designer, Part 1

Zippy Quilts

Modern Quilts With A Twist

Tag Archives: quilts

A Toddler Quilt and a “Finish”

2015 UFO Challenge

First Finish

Year End Review

5 Favorites of 2014

Eye Candy x 10

Beads on Quilts

5 Things I’m Grateful for in Quilt-World

Your Inner Designer: 3 Formulas for Modern Quilts

Your Inner Designer 6: Copy Somebody Good!

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