QuiltZilla!

Designed and constructed by Nancy        Lowry and Tied by Nancy, Walt and Jessica Lowry, Marian Tworek and Belinda Wilcox

I have decided to call this quilt  “The Anti-Black Hole Quilt”  shown here at that black hole of bureaucracy, the Utah Department of Motor Vehicles.  My parents and I had to get our Drivers licenses switched from Maryland to Utah.  I hate waiting in lines. I also hate the way people have nothing to do there but stare at other people.  We always plan ahead and the 3 of us had books, but you know what i mean.

I am starting a series of gorgeous quilts in ugly, awful or unlikely locations.  Get daring and send us your pictures for this series.

This quilt is a simple block for first timers.  It’s just a picture frame.  I love rainbows though and I couldn’t resist begging this quilt off my mom.  Hope you like it

Jacob is my middle child. I dont think it’s all that easy growing up in the middle.  Competing with older siblings, resenting the baby of the family it adds up.  Jake usually gets a bit stiffed during birthday time.  He was born at the end of November and i am usually saving up for Christmas presents.  Well this was the year to wow him.  Or in this case, WOW (World of Warcarft).

Jake love to play the online RPG game World of Warcraft.  It’s actually more of an obsession.  And though I do not share the interest, I understand the fascination.  What kid hasn’t dreamed of fairy tales filled with dwarves and elves and knight in shining white armor?  WOW lets you be and or fight all kinds of mythical characters.  Jake runs a Pali (which is sland for Paladin).  Pali are the epitome of Knight in shining armor who swoops in on his flying pegasus and saves the day.  Not hard to see the allure of that.

I love this quilt because it’s the culmination of an idea I got in a Walmart and i love it when a plan comes together.  I saw a CD case that was Black with a white dragon on it.  I said to my mom, who i was shopping with, “Hey this would make a great dragon quilt”.  I bought the CD case home. scanned it into my computer, reversed the color image with my PhotoShop, sharpened up the image and printed out the 6 in square design took it to Kinko’s and blew it up 400%.  I then cut out the pattern pieces.  I prepped some red fish scale fabric for the body and some pebbly fabric for the wings and i iron some Wonder-Under to the wrong side.  I traced the design on and cut out the peices and aplliqued it to a black background * Note I learned I probably would have gotten a better result if i had also stabilized the black background fabric as well.   After i had the applique down i borrowed by friend Lisa’s embroidery machine and put all kinds of different words that were significant to World of Warcraft (ie: Character classes like Paladin, Rogue and Mage.  Guild and Character Names like Space Monkeys and Mimeto. Zodiace things like a zodiac wheel,  a centaur archer and the word Sagittarius. And finally different RED dragons. like Y Ddrach Goch , the red dragon of Wales, Chien-Tang The chines Emperor of dragons etc.)  I embroidered them all in red to stand out on the Background. * Note I found that thread specifically made for embroidery which is more shiny on the spool, seemed to break more frequently.  I used regular bright red Coats&Clark  Dual Duty.  It worked fine.  I also embroidered in black thread the words Mama’s Boy.  Pretty much so he would se it and know I love him.

I sent out an email asking my family members to send me some  6.5 inch squares that were Red and Black or Black and white.  I just wanted Jake to know that his whole family loves him.  The contributors of fabric were.  Jake’s Grandma Nancy Lowry, his Aunt Marian, his cousin Rachel, his Aunt Sara, his Spare Mom Lisa Yohn, his sister Jenna and his Great Aunt Jan and of course me his mom.

The Back of the quilt is red flannel that we pre-washed i always recommed this as there is so much dye in flannel.  It was quilted by Jeanie’s Quilt Shop in West Jordan, Utah, who I would recommend for any of your quilting needs.  It was bound by his grandma Nancy.

Along with the quilt. Lisa bought Jake a red sheet set and a big red body pillow with a soft red micro fleece cover.  I got him a couple of extra king sized pillowcases, a new soft feather pillow from Ikea and a firm pillow as well.  All in all a great gift.  He was floored and I enjoyed giving this quilt more than any I have made so far.

I have a tradition of making handmade items for my mom for Christmas.  She brought me this project and asked me to embellish it with beads.  When I asked her how much decoration she wanted, She said, “I dont think you can do too much”  Well I tried my darndest to prove her wrong.

Shopping through Nana stash.

Fabric donated by Marian Tworek and Nancy Lowry Designed by Jessica and Nancy Lowry.  Constructed by Jessica Lowry

This is a design that we saw in two quilt magazines last month.  Both of them called it the same thing so I guess it’s safe to call it that here.

Marian sent these in a surprise

We started off with this wonderful collection of fabrics, that my sister Marian of MyCraftTime.com sent me.   These are such fun fabrics.  They are so cheerful they just make me smile.

To these Fabrics we added some from Nana’s stash.

I love aqua and Lime!

Blues and yellows are always a cheery combination

Designed by Jenna Peck Constructed by Jenna Peck, Jenna’s Mom: Jessica Lowry and Jenna’s Grandma, Nancy Lowry:

The ratio is 3/4 blues to 1/4 yellows, otherwise the yellows just take over!

This quilt was Jenna’s second quilt.  This qult was easy to cust the pieces are 3″ X 3″  and 3″ X 7″.  We just used all the medium and light blues we had.  We laid it all out on the floor so we could make sure it was randomized properly.

This label says we love Jenny and Blueberry Muffins!

The label is a very important part of any quilt.  It helps date the quilt, identify the quilters and gives some insight into the background of the quilt.  Jenna is very proud to be a fifth generation quilter.  So having 3 generations of  her family working on this quilt meant a lot to her.

Last But not least here is a picture of Jenny with her quilt.

We tied it and bound it in time for Jenna's wedding

This is the easiest of designs.

If you are new to the joy of quilting, you may want to start with something simple.  This classic beauty could not be any easier.  4-patches made with 2 1/2″  strips finish to a 4 inch square.  Easy for a beginner to do.

Match a smaller print with a sold and you are off!

This quilt has a very classic feminine feel to it.

This is a favorite design.  We have done it in a couple of different colorways.  I am posting it so you can see that there are no bad quilt designs though there are some awful color selections out there.  This first Straight Furrows design in made in a Country colors palette of pinks, blues and cream.

Can you see the 2 types of squares? 9-patch and thangles?

The design is simple a 6″ thangle in the control fabrics of a tone on tone country blue and a pink floral on a cream background.  Then you take your other fabrics for the quilt and divide them in to 2 pile, fabrics that read light and fabrics that read dark.  You make cut the fabrics into 2 1/2″ strips and make 9 patches out of the lights and a different set out of the darks.  Then when putting them together it’s easiest to lay out the thangles first.   It’s every other square is a thangle and the same color points touch.

I love the glorious colors of this one

Next you will see the same design in a brighter Blue and aqua colorway in one of my favorite quilts titled “Chicken ofthe Sea”  I like this second one better, but then I always choose the brighter palettes of colors.

The layout is very clear in this shot.

Both of these quilts were made by Nancy Lowry and Walter Lowry.  Mostly Nancy sews and Walt irons and is in charge of layout and quality control.  Walt can spot a block out of place from 10 paces. (actually it’s always easier to spot an out of place block from a slight distance. Something about can’t see the forest for the trees, or something like that)

So if you find a design you like in a quilt magazine never limit yourself to using the color scheme they have chosen.  Graph it out and try a different set of colors one that speaks to your heart.

This beautiful fairy hangs in the air as if flying

My father, Walt Lowry, is a quiet man.  A sort of no-nonsense fella who always seems to practice that old adage “Think before you speak”.  However his artistic pieces of work in stained glass speak loud enough for me.

Papa made this for my mother to match a quilt she made,

My father took up stained glass later in life when he retired.  He learned it from My Aunt Suzy who is incredible with glass.

Award winning design!

Quilters: Nancy Lowry, Walt Lowry, Jessica Lowry, and Sara Lowry

This was the first time we ever entered a Contest. We were at a meeting of the Utah Quilt Guild. They meet at the Salt Lake County Goverment Building on 2100 South and State Street in Salt Lake City, Utah on the first Thursday of every month. We love to go because we get to show off our latest works and get some applause and feedback from other quilters. Well this was back in 1999 and they were having a contest. The show to display contest entries was on 9/9/99 and the theme? “Taking It To The Nines”.

Well before we had gone 15 more minutes into the meeting, we had decided to do a quilt based on one of our family favorites memories and traditions, singing in the car. We have been across country numerous times. in a station wagon with 4 or 5 kids.

That's him on the right.

Kids get pretty bored on a trip and so we would sing! We sang hymns, songs we learned at camp and sometimes silly song we would make up. These are some of the happiest memories of my childhood. Since i don’t sing well this was usually the best times for singing. Nobody expects perfect car singing, after all there are too many variables. Is the wind from the windows moving all the music to the back of the car? Who knows the song best and/or started it off? Did your little brother eat too many Cheetos at lunch and is now according to him “just a little bit carsick”? All things to consider when judging the quality of car singing.

The last bottle has been drunk!

Using the Most Sung but probably Least Loved car song or all time “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” we designed and created this quilt. Sara Lowry designed the beer bottles and layout. She designed a paper pieced pattern that was approx. 6″ tall. Nancy Lowry (Sara’s Mom) did all paper piecing and sewing, as well as hand painted the pretzels. Walt Lowry (Nancy’s husband and Sara’s Dad) performed quality control and ripped out all seams that were not exactly right. He also sat by Nancy and ironed each piece as she finished with it. Jessica Lowry researched beer names on the Internet, wrote labels on the bottles, and embroidered the words on the border. Wow, what a fun family collaboration!

Sara, Nancy and Walt (Jess had to work)

The quilt show was held at an art studio at 9th and 9th (900 South and 900 East) We won People’s choice and Best Use of Theme. We got a check for $9.99. Of course it was never for the money.

It’s been in all of our houses, but it was Nancy’s quilt. She aggreed to do another for her niece but then realized how much work it was and was going to sell her this original quilt. Sara was so upset at the thought of losing it, she pleaded with Nancy not to sell it. Sara got it as a Christmas present that year.

(This picture was posted on the old site but this is my favorite quilt so I am reposting it in a position of Glory as the first quilt post on the new site. Hope you enjoyed the detailed story.) Below are the up close pics.

Nancy and the Millenium Star

We’d like to give you just a little in depth information about the website and what we hope to accomplish.

This original Wiki website was a present from Eric Lowry for his mother, Nancy Lowry. She wanted a place where we (her family and friends) could all post pics and comments on each others quilts. That was the original idea, but like always in our family we found we love to share our projects and ideas with everyone. QuiltaZilla the constantly changing and growing quilters bragging site was born. We recently decided that the Wiki site was getting too many spam issues so we locked it up and decided to move to a blog format. Also this way it is so much easier to see recent projects and addition.

When we say this is a collaborative site we mean it. We encourage your comments on every page. We really do want to know what you think. We also want you to feel free to join us and show off your projects-in-progress. We want you to post pics so we can applaud your efforts, as well. We know a little applause goes a long way towards brightening your day. You can be a first time quilter or a well seasoned master, a doll clothes maker, a jewelery maker, you name it, if you’re crafty, we want you! We want you all.

So here you are. You can just flip through all these beautiful quilts andcrafts, you’ll get a lot of enjoyment out of that or…

You can really be a part of the fun. Join us now! Post Pics. Tell funny quilting stories. Get advice from other talented crafters. Don’t be selfish. Share the Joy!

If you are not sure if you can do it Send your quilt pics and some info about the to Jessica Lowry. I will get you started. My Email address is questions@quiltzilla.com