Remember back in October when I went to Wisconsin to film an episode of Sewing with Nancy?That episode went live last week.
Read more on the Nancy Zieman blog.You can currently watch the show on the Wisconsin Public Television site.
Every Last Piece - Stardust
I just realized that I never shared my quilt, Stardust, with you. That's a little funny because it is the quilt on the cover of Every Last Piece!
I started making the little two inch stars in this quilt back in 2011. The first little star was so cute, I had to make another, and another, and another.
I was still having fun making little stars all through 2012. I cut the star point pieces in groups of eight and cut stacks of the background pieces. The star centers were cut from fabrics in my scrap basket. My daughter enjoyed matching the solid star point fabrics with the center squares. I had a featherweight set up in the sewing room that was always ready for sewing stars. I could easily work on them in small batches whenever I had a few minutes.
In the spring of 2013, I started building the nine patch blocks. I continued working on this quilt at the same time I was making other quilts.
The quilt was finished in April of 2014.
The quilting is an all over freeform flower and swirl design.
I would never have made this quilt if I had read the directions first. "Cut 3,742 one inch squares from solid scraps." Nope, that never would have happened. By cutting a few at a time and working in small batches, I kept the process fun.
Finished quilt - 87'' by 99'' You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.
Every Last Piece - Off the Chart
Off the Chart is another quilt from my book, Every Last Piece.
This design was inspired by colorwork knitting charts. I love this design idea because there are so many different ways to interpret it. Here, the different size circles represent different colors of yarn that would be used when knitting from the chart.
The the pattern is made of three kinds of blocks; blank, small circles, and large circles.
The scraps used in this quilt are all "light" fabrics. The background is a rich teal print from Carolyn Friedlander's botanics line.
It is quilted in a design that mimics the look of the knit stitch at a size equal to the applique "stitches".
Finished Size 58'' by 81''.
In addition to being published in the book, this quilt was in the QuiltCon 2015 show.
The pattern and directions for Off the Chart can be found in chapter three of my book.
You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.
Every Last Piece - feature quilt - Troubles with Scraps
The design for Troubles with Scraps came from playing with the parts for the traditional Kansas Troubles block.
The basic pieced unit for Kansas Troubles reads as a half square triangle. I tried many different settings and layouts for the hst unit and finally settled on this bullseye look.
This was one of the first quilts I quilted on my longarm and I really had fun with the feathers and bubbles.
Finished size: 42'' by 55''The pattern and directions for Troubles with Scraps can be found in chapter two of my book.You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.
Every Last Piece - feature quilt - Square Dance
The design for Square Dance came about while playing around with the four patch and nine patch parts for Square Root.
I saw that I could piece the design I wanted for this quilt more easily by piecing ninepatch and ninepatch variation blocks.
I carefully chose a selection of pale or light fabrics that contrasted with the dark cerise I wanted for the background. I love the little surprised found in some of these fabrics, like this little goldfish.
When you save all your scraps it is easier to have enough variety to make a quilt like this.
The design for this quilt is fairly simple but it is still one of my favorites.
Sometimes an unexpected fabric choice for a background or "neutral" is all it takes to make a simple design sing.
Finished size: 44'' by 55''The pattern and directions for Square Dance can be found in chapter two of my book.You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.
Every Last Piece - featured quilt - Solar Flare
Solar Flare is another of the string quilts featured in chapter one of Every Last Piece. In this quilt I built the string pieced units to fit the 45 degree triangle rotary cutter ruler.I played with the pieces for a long time trying to decide on a layout. I had them in various settings on the design wall as I was working on other projects. I tried vertical zig/zag strips, horizontal rows, random placement, circular blobs, small stars, and several others.
My son was home from school one weekend while the parts were on the design wall. He asked if he could play around with them and I assured him that would be fine. I came into the sewing room later to find a huge starburst filling the design wall. That yellow ring really sparkles. I tweaked it a bit and added some coordinating fabrics and ended up with this quilt. I love it!I had a bit of fun with the quilting too. The yellow/golden star ring is quilted in a flame design.
The string pieced sections are quilted with an overall serpentine design. There are a few random strings that break the pattern. I love the added interest in the quilting.
The main background is quilted with a turbulent swirl reminiscent of Van Gogh's Starry Night.
I am grateful that my son spent a little time playing in my studio that day.
Finished size: 67'' by 67''The pattern and directions for Solar Flare can be found in chapter one of my book.You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.
Every Last Piece - feature quilt - Circular Reasoning
This quilt, Circular Reasoning, uses the same idea for varied value placement as Bow Ties that I shared earlier. I chose to use a solid red for the circular pieces and solid black for the "crossing" segments. The other parts of the block vary in light medium or dark fabrics. 
The variation in value placement results in a high energy quilt and keeps your eye moving.
When building the blocks I first tried a more scrappy look with a different fabric in each area of the block. I tried fabrics that read the same from a distance instead of repeating the same fabrics as I did in the finished quilt. Even with the consistent black and red there was a bit too much going on.
I like that here, with the same fabric repeated symmetrically in the block, you can see each block as its own unit.
I'd like to try this design again but keep the diagonal cross lines as a constant fabric instead of the circles.
Finished size: 60'' x 75''The pattern and directions for Circular Reasoning can be found in chapter two of my book.You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.
Every Last Piece - feature quilt - Bow Ties
Bow Ties is a quilt I finished in 1993. It is a true scrap quilt and is made with the scraps from many of my old 4-H sewing projects.
I was inspired by an antique bow ties quilt I had seen in a magazine. I love the way the placement of light and dark fabrics varied in each block and wanted to create the same energy in my own quilt.
I am glad that I took the time to make the block the traditional way with the set in seams. The square set on an angle in the center of the block really looks like a knot in the bow, especially with stripe, plaid, or checked fabrics.
This quilt is a real trip down memory lane for me. I'm having a bit of a 1970s flashback here.
My grandmother hand quilted this quilt and I gave it to my oldest son for Christmas back in 1993. I'm secretly glad that he hasn't taken it to his apartment.
Finished size 71'' by 100''.Bow Ties can be found in the gallery section of my book.You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.
Every Last Piece - featured quilt - Bar Scene
Bar Scene, a quilt in chapter three of Every Last Piece, features a strip of hourglass blocks made from some of my favorite scraps. The column of color is set of by the surrounding solid paprika fabric.
I had fun with the wavy, loopy quilting.
Finished size 51'' by 68''.The directions for Bar Scene along with some suggestions for other variations of this design are in chapter 3 of my book.You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.
Every Last Piece - feature quilt - Beach Balls
On this cold, dark, and rainy day, I'm sharing the colorful and sunny quilt, Beach Balls.
The background is string pieced with sandy colored neutrals.The beach balls are string pieced using color coordinating scraps.
I had fun digging through my scraps and building the color wedges.
The binding is pieced from a variety of the background fabrics.
This quilt is the perfect size for a child's play quilt.Fun fact - this was the first quilt I quilted on my longarm.
Finished size: 42'' by 48''. The directions for Beach Ball are in Chapter 1 of my book.You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.
Every Last Piece - featured quilt of the week - Butterfly Effect
Butterfly Effect was a long time in the making.
I enjoyed working on it with miss P. Here she is in May 2010 helping match the scrap pieces with the solids. I had gone through my solid stach and cut squares in groups of four from each color. It took four squares to make each butterfly block. Miss P loved to sit across from me and match the fabrics while I sewed.
After making all the blocks we tried quite a few different layouts.The quilt was inspired by a photo of a polyester double knit quilt that my friend Jessica Wilson purchased at a thrift shop.
The inspiration quilt is on the left, and my quilt top on the right.
I love how each print gets to be showcased a little with the surrounding solid fabric. Isn't that toaster print fun?
I am glad to have this one finished, back from the publisher, and finally photographed so that I can put it on our bed. It will be nice to have a colorful quilt on the bed this winter.
Finished size: 95'' by 95''.Butterfly Effect is shown in the gallery section at the beginnning of my book.You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.I can't compete with Amazon's low prices. But if you want to save a little and purchase from Amazon, please click here. This is an affiliate link and clicking through to purchase will allow me to earn a few extra pennies.You can also ask your local quilt shop or book store to get the book for you.
Every Last Piece - feature quilt of the week - Paris on a Shoestring
This week's feature quilt is Paris on a Shoestring. It is a variation of Nancy, one of the quilts that is patterned in my book. Both quilts use the same string pieced triangle units.
I had this fabulous Paris Maps print that I wanted to use and I wanted to keep it in the largest possible pieces. Instead of making four large star blocks, I pieced this quilt in rows leaving each area of the map print as a single piece of fabric.
There are a lot of ways to put together quilts using the string pieced triangle units.
This quilt also features a scrappy binding. I cut lots of scrap pieces to the 2 1/4 size that I like to use and sewed them together as usual.
Finished size: 47'' by 47''.There is still quite a large pile of string pieced triangles and squares that I plan to combine into one quilt.
Framed
Do you remember my new custom Sizzix die? I used some of the little one inch squares I cut with it and made a mini version of Don't Fence Me In.
I love this design; even small scale it is a great way to showcase quilting motifs.
Rather than loading it on the longarm, I quilted it on my domestic Bernina. I stitched in the ditch around each of the little 1/2 inch half square triangles.
The tiny stippling around the wreath helps give the feathers and triangles a bit more definition.
After cleaning up in the barn I think I have located another quilt photography location! What do you think? I'll try some larger quilts there and see how they turn out.
The finished quilt is 12" by 12".Quilted with Aurifil #2021.The Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild is participating in a mini quilt swap with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. This quilt is for my secret partner in the swap. I hope she likes it.
Every Last Piece - feature quilt of the week - Wind Farm
This week's feature quilt is Wind Farm, which I made for my niece's high school graduation in 2012.
The base blocks were built and squared up with a 6.5'' square rotary cutter ruler. A triangle was stiched to the corner of each square and four squares are sewn together to make a wind mill block. When building the blocks I used all but the lightest lights and the darkest darks from my scraps.
I like the way the blue fabric in the blades shows continuity throughout the quilt.I'd like to make another one with less variation in the value of the fabrics making up the string pieced blocks and higher contrast of the windmill blades and the background.
My sister and I made a second string piece quilt for my nephew's high school graduation in 2012. We each built half of the background blocks from our scrap stash. I then, added the corner triangles and put the quilt together. This was a great design to work on together. My sister and I live across the country from each other and have very different scrap stashes. By mixing all of the blocks together, there is still a cohesive look for the quilt.
In this variation of the design, the triangle corners are pieced the same way as the blocks for my Aurifil mini block but are larger.
You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.
Every Last Piece - feature quilt of the Week - Square Root
The featured quilt this week is Square Root, another from the gallery section of Every Last Piece. This quilt is composed of four patch and nine patch blocks. The background is a plain muslin fabric and all of the other sqaures are scraps from other projects. I chose scraps that read as dark to give the finished design more impact.This was one of the first quilts I quilted on my longarm. I did an all over loopy design on it.
There are no patterns in the book for the quilts pictured in the "gallery." They are there to provide inspiration and ideas for the designs presented later in the book.I chose this quilt to share with you now, because my friend Trudi Wood sent me this photo on Instagram and it made my day. (photo shared with permission) She is making her own version of the quilt. She figured out the layout in EQ, sized it up for a bigger quilt, and has added a border to it. She says she'll use reproduction 30's fabrics. I love that fancy feather quilting she has planned for the border.
After reading the book she says, "I've been thinking very differently about my scraps AND my stash!"I hope there are others out there inspired to make scrap quilts after reading Every Last Piece!If you are making anything inspired by the quilts in my book please use the hashtag #everylastpiece so I can see what you're doing.
Every Last Piece - feature quilt of the week - Don't Fence Me In
Don't Fence Me In is the last quilt pattern in my book. If you have a large scrap stash and work your way through the book you can use the last of your scraps in this quilt. If you are just building your scrap collection you can start with this quilt and work backwards through the book.I designed this quilt with a large center area for featuring an interesting quilting design. The design used here was found in a historical pattern and ornament book from my local library. I tried to find out more about the original use but couldn't get any specifics. My library no longer has the book and I didn't write down any information about it when I had the book checked out. File that under "lessons learned".After quilting the center and then basic fans in the border, the border would not lie flat. It had a bit of a wave to it. I added the flying geese in every other arc of the fans. The extra quilting worked like a charm.
I originally used the center quilting design as an applique on Childhood's End, a quilt I finished in 2001. The center is one piece of fabric appliqued to the background.
It is called Childhood's End because the making of it encompassed the time in which four family members moved into nursing homes and died. Three of those deaths occuring in the same week.This quilt was in the AQS quilt show in Paducah in 2002. When it returned, I put it in the closet where it stayed for more than ten years. While cleaning the closet a couple of years ago, I took it out and looked at it. I was unprepared for my emotional response when seeing it again. I was instantly sobbing. Seeing all those stitches triggered an avalanche of memories of loving family members who I still miss every day. Hours of time sewing in the car driving to nursing homes, visiting family, and funerals. Needlework can be a powerful and therapeutic thing.
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Every Last Piece - feature quilt of the week - The Color Purple
This week's feature quilt is The Color Purple, from the gallery section of Every Last Piece. My sister and I worked on this one together for my niece's high school graduation. We each used purples from our fabric scraps and kona snow for the solid background. It has a very controlled but scrappy look. The large and small square diagonal rows are very prominent. My niece used this quilt in her dorm room at UNC Chapel Hill for four years. I know she is eager to get it back so that she can use it again.This quilt pattern, Double Four Patch by Judy Hopkins, is quick and easy to put together from 2.5" and 4.5" squares of fabric. In fact, this was the third quilt of this same design I have made. Here are two other versions that I made for my nephews before I started blogging.I was quite happy to use so many of my scraps in one quilt when I made this first version. The lights and dark pattern is less obvious here but there are so many memorable fabrics in this early quilt -so many fabrics that I recognize from clothes I made growing up. I see scraps from pajamas I made for my boys twenty years ago! My nephew used this quilt four years at NMT and then through graduate school at VA Tech.
This is the second of this pattern I made. The lights and darks here are a little more obvious but still all the fabrics are scraps. This quilt has also gotten years of use in my nephew's room at home and his dorm room at UVA and next year will be in his room in a house he is sharing with THIRTEEN other boys. Yikes. I hope this helps him know where his bed is! I hear that next year he will be able to look out of his window and see a house that Georgia O'Keefe used to live in.
It sort of makes me want to take a quilt and go back to college! Well, not really. I had my first quilt and a wool afghan made by my grandmother in my dorm room at Va Tech.Thank you M and G for photographing these and letting me share them today!
String Pieced Blocks
This week I finished a stack of 140 string pieced blocks - enough for a quilt! I worked on these on and off for a couple of years.It's a good thing I'm not in a hurry for this quilt; it will probably take a long time for me to decide on a setting plan.
Every Last Piece - feature quilt of the week - Garden Windows
Garden Window, which I made back in 2010, is another string pieced quilt that uses the 6.5 inch square rotary cutting ruler. I string pieced the blocks and put them in an alternate block setting with hourglass blocks.The hour glass blocks give a secondary pattern to the overall quilt design. Since they blocks are fairly quick to make, mixing them in with the string blocks makes for a faster finish.
Finished size 40'' by 51''. This is another version of the same quilt that has been made in browns and rusts. I started this quilt in 1999 while at Beaver Island quilt retreat with Gwen Marston and finished it for the birth of my niece who was born in early October, 2001.
Finished size 30'' by 42''.There wasn't room to include both versions of the quilt in the book so I'm including the first one here. It warms my heart to see that it has been well loved.
Every Last Piece - featured quilt of the week - Rose Trellis
Rose Trellis is a quilt I finished back in 2008. I enjoyed piecing this scrap buster quilt and giving it to Miss P for Christmas. You can read the original post here. I have to say, my photography skills have improved a lot since then!
The blocks were string pieced from the center diagonal out to the corners. The center strip of each square is the same solid rose color fabric in similar widths but not exactly the same. They are cut slightly off parallel so they are wider on one end than the other which gives the quilt a high energy look. The finished blocks were squared with my 6 1/2 inch rotary cutting ruler. This technique is shown step by step in Every Last Piece.
Miss P still loves this quilt and spreads it across the foot of her bed for a splash of bright color in her room. We love to layer quilts on our beds in the winter. It can get a bit chilly in our old farm house.
She's sure grown a lot since I made it for her.
It's hard to believe she used to be this small!
Finished quilt size: 40'' by 51''.
