The Updated Zebra

 

I love taking an idea and pushing it around, seeing where I can go with it. 

When I made my son a chessboard out of fabric way back in 2000 (can it really be 24 years ago?) I never expected to make a quilt out of the leftovers, or that I'd be selling a tutorial about making them 20 years later.

At any rate, I have made nine of the so-called "Zebra" quilts, and since I published the tutorial in 2020 I have made three more quilts, which have taught me things I didn't know when I wrote the tutorial.

I have been working on updating the Zebra tute with those things, and have added ten pages of information. I've figured out how to fix a triangle if you have cut the wrong one (there are four different triangles and they aren't easily interchangeable); a more efficient way of cutting them out, and I've included instructions on how to make the Fourth of July quilt.

The new Zebra tutorial is live!

You can get all my tutorials here, at my Etsy shop.

What I did on Sunday...

 

I got the binding added to the Pink Panther quilt. Now I can pin it to the front and hand sew it down. Good thing, because the quilting on the quilt for P is done and I'll be picking it up later this week. I want to finish the Pink Panther before that happens.

My Mom and her beau came over for dinner on Sunday. After dinner I showed her the quilts I was working on. She loves all my quilts, but she was particularly taken with Allegretto (the yellow and green one on the left). "Oooo! Can I have it?" Um, no. "Are you sure?" Yup, no, this one is staying with me. 

My Mom got creative, "But Lynne, how many quilts do you need? You already have so many." She said this with a broad grin. She knew perfectly well I have used that line on her before,  because she loves ALL my quilts, and basically wants each and every one of them.

"Can I BORROW it" she asked again? 

No.

"Can I RENT it? I'll give you money for it," she laughed.

Um, no.

Across the room, her beau, M, was laughing. This isn't the first time my Mom has tried to convince me by hook or by crook, to give her a quilt. He was enjoying the exchange.

Now before you get all judgy and tell me what I should or should not do, that my mother is old enough to get whatever she wants because after all, she's 88 and I'm not going to have her forever... remember that this is a game between my Mom and I. We both know that whenever she sees a new quilt of mine, she's going to ask for it. And we both know I'm going to say no. 

"You know Lynne, it would go so well with my Yellow Ribbons quilt and M's Jealousy quilt."

I rolled my eyes.

My Mom laughed.

 Yeah, we had a great visit.

Zebra Tutorial Progresses

The Zebra tutorial is humming right along. I've already received terrific feedback from some of my beta testers and I have modified the tutorial accordingly. It covers everything from fabric selection, to design variations, hints on sewing, and all kinds of other stuff my head is full of right now. There's even a gentle rant on so-called perfection and how I keep my design straight when I am tinkering on the design wall.

As usual I tell you why I do everything.

There are pages that describe how to make the Zebra quilts that I designed, and there's even a page that tells you how you can design your own variation.

If I had to guess I would say it will be out by the end of June. Maybe sooner. It depends on how much sleep I plan to get between now and then. I still have lots of work to do. (Making sure the elements are centered on the page; making sure the footer is consistent; the formatting of the fractions is consistent; the headers are correct; the grammar and spelling is OK; the page numbers that refer to other pages in the tute are correct; the spacing between words and sentences is consistent and proper...  You know, the kind of stuff you NOTICE if it's done wrong.

Can't Stop...

After work I went into the studio and looked at what I had on the wall and wondered "What if..."
I kept going where it took me and I ended up here...

I wrestled with some other possible color ideas, but these are still the blocks I used when I played yesterday, so after I while I dug out the leftover strip sets and cut blocks that fit, and arranged the fabrics a bit better and ....

you can tell where I improved the fabrics in some of the long lozenge shapes and the two big diamonds. Not done yet, but I really like the strong hot and cold contrast, and I think THIS layout has a lot of possibilities.

Do you recognize it? It is the same as Jealousy and Aquamarine, shifted over a bit and the big V and diamond shapes split down the middle...

I can see this in Red, White and Blue.

Have I said lately how much I like the possibilities of these big Zebra triangles?

The Six

I wanted to see the Zebra quilts all lined up, but I don't own them all. So I did my best in making a virtual show.

Top row, from left: Parade of Zebras; Golden Zebras; Tutti Frutti. All these are made from the same layout.

Second row, from left: Jealousy, Aquamarine, Firebird. The first two are made with the same layout. The Firebird quilt is a slight variation.

It's interesting to see them all together.

Make it Yours

I got up yesterday morning, very excited about playing with this. I moved a few things around. I did not like the bland blenderinsh light blues in the blue diamonds on either side of the center one.

I really liked the center diamond, and it is BUSY, so I decided to make the other two blue diamonds busy too. I cut strips of these fabrics...

So here are the big diamonds. Now I have to shuffle around the lights.

Some of the light creamy fabrics were just too bland and too light. They looked like holes.

So I had to replace them. That means I made new ones.

So this is the almost final version, and I am pretty happy with it. The middle section is all sewn up, otherwise I would swap one of the white lozenges with another one. I have to decide how important it is to do that. Ripping out a long bias edge doesn't always end well. But you know me. If it annoys me, it's got to go. And if it annoys me now and I leave it in, I'm going to be even more annoyed with it every time I look at it in the future. (And, by the way, that is how you know something has to change. If it fits that definition, fix it.)

Wanda (you know, the closest thing we have to a Quilt Goddess), pointed out that my original layout was striking, and the changes I made were all about what was singing for me in my own head. She's spot on right. Very often, there are no bad options, and many good ones. There is never only ONE way to do it. Like I tell every single class I teach, and every single group I speak to, "Don't copy my quilts. MAKE YOUR OWN."

Size Matters

See this chessboard? It is one of the forty I made about eighteen years ago after my son learned chess at college, came home one weekend and asked if I could make him a chessboard. (Well, duh!)

My son took photos of me making the very first one and the photo I use in my blog's header, above.

Pretty sure I've told this story before. I made one, thought it was okay, then made another and improved on the first. Made a third that was much improved, made another one because I wanted one for myself in pretty colors and then had so much fun with them I kept going. (I called them "a symphony in four fabrics.")

Somebody asked a good question the other day, if I would change the quantity of the stripes in these big blocks. Answer = No.

I am sure you are wondering WHY. The size of the rows of this block (2-1/4") is for a very specific reason. When I made the first chessboard for my son, I did a bit of research. It turns out the size of the squares on a chessboard is directly related to the size of the chess pieces. (You can look it up.) 2-1/4" squares were most common. So I made the chessboards with 2-1/4" squares.

 And when I made the chessboard quilt, I used the leftover strip sets. I didn't get all worked up about how I put the blocks together (it was a SCRAP quilt).

I didn't get all worked up about how the blocks went together either. Then as now, I sewed about a third of my triangles into blocks, played with them on the floor, and then cut and sewed blocks I'd need to fit any space I had (a left leaning block with a dark stripe on the bottom).

I didn't get very worked up about how the blocks worked together, and if I had stripes that went across several triangles, that was fine by me. This quilt is big, about 76" x 94" and it is long gone. It is also tied and not quilted, but it lives in the southern US so it's perfect.

I always liked the quilt's inherent rhythm, the size of the blocks and the strips across, so when I resurrected this idea seventeen years later, I kept those basic "design bones."



And yes, I am working on the tutorial for these "Zebra" quilts. It's taking longer than I expected, but then, the world has thrown us all for a hell of a loop.

Getting Closer to Sapphire

This isn't the final version, but it's getting closer.

Wordless Wednesday

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Sapphire

I'm making a blue version of the Jealousy quilt and the working title is SAPPHIRE.

These are the two light diamonds in the quilt. These fabrics also make up the large lozenge shape in the center of the quilt.

Here I have started to add the dark diamond in the middle of the quilt.

This is the fabric pair that will fill out the empty spaces in the center of the quilt.

These are the other fabrics I have selected. All these are paired up. I'll figure out where they go as I figure out where they'll go. (LOL)

Playing Around

I think one of the reasons why my quilts turn out so great is that I never stop pushing ideas around. I never settle. It took me a few tries to figure out how to make a dark diamonds quilt and the result was Dark Majesty. It took me months to figure out how to make a black and white divided-in-half Crayons quilt, but the Black & White Crayons is the quilt my pal Julie thinks defines my work.

I know there's a quilt in that oh-so-modern variation, (the first one in yesterday's post.) I just haven't found it yet. I'll figure it out. It may take months, but I'll crack that nut eventually.

In the meantime, I wanted to play around, so last night I went into the studio and came up with this.
To fill in the empty space, I'd need to make more blocks.

And the more I look at this design, I think shifting it over a bit would be better.

Oh yeah, this is better.

I like this. And yes, these are the same blocks I've been playing with the last couple of days.

NOW, here is something I have observed. These zebras can be really bright, and hard to look at, like in the examples above that have a strong light/dark contrast in the pairs. But these designs can be really successful when the pairs do NOT have a strong contrast, like...

the Golden Zebras,

the Jealousy quilt,

or the Firebird quilt.

 So even though the really zingy examples might not float your particular boat, the variations shown here can be adapted to much more subtle, but equally successful designs.

I would have discovered NONE OF THEM had I not pushed the ideas around.

Change Partners and Dance

 

Sometimes the best laid plans go astray. This is a perfectly serviceable quilt. It's lovely in its own very unique way. But it doesn't sing for me. Clearly I need to do more tinkering. It may be that this quilt is simply better when made with fabrics that do not have a high contrast, like the Golden Zebras or the Jealousy quilts. This quilt is something you could do with the leftovers.

Or you could make this. This was made with the same blocks as in the first version.

And you could probably figure out other things to do with these blocks. That is my next trick or two.

The first batch of blues have arrived. The blue jealousy quilt will be called SAPPHIRE.

Keeping Occupied

Gosh it's been a scary couple of days. I did a lot of work in the studio getting it ready for the next big project. I'll be working on the Zebras tutorial just as soon as I finish getting the backing ready for the Partly Sunny quilt. Although I may take a small side trip and prepare tutorials on the Asterisk flowers and the Seminole Dots. Lord knows we need something positive to keep ourselves occupied.

Here is my quarantine stock. I can't tell you how glad I am that I got this done last week. When I was at the grocery store after work last night I was shocked to see so many empty shelves. No bananas, spaghetti sauce, pasta, rice, canned meat of all kinds, no beans, no canned or frozen vegetables, hardly any butter or eggs, no bread, no toilet paper or facial tissues. Cold medicines, pain killers and other drugs were in short supply.

OK, back to the good stuff. I'm going to make a blue Jealousy quilt as the how-to for the zebras tutorial. Here are the blues I pulled from my stash. I also have more fabric on order. This will be exciting.