I have not had the opportunity to meet Leigh yet, but judging from her quilt, I’m going to like her!
Artist’s Statement
SHADOW
Well, this turned out to be more challenging than I originally thought! How hard can a bunch of
rectangles be?
I had always wanted to make a Pac-man Quilt as it reminded me of summer days at the shore in
the arcade with my friends. When Pac-man came out we would hop on our bikes and meet at
the arcade and compete for highest scores till our quarters ran out! What fun.
Anyway, I spent some hours with a graph pad drawing all the lines in order to stay within the
size constraints. I cut out a portion of the quilt to test my sizing……..and found that the vertical
rows were not proportional. I scrapped the quilt annoyed with myself. I started on a different
pattern (from an old magazine) that I resized to fit a 40 x 40 square and hated it. It is sitting in
my unfinished pile. After a lot of going back and forth I realized the pac-man quilt only needed
a slight size adjustment to work out so back to the graph paper.
Testing out the circles I chose to crop and not applique, cropping is very persnickety and just
when you have it down pat it changes up on you. I am a pro at cropping now! The circles had
to be placed individually in order to line up within the maze. I used white stickers along the
rows so I could line up my crop.
The ghosts and Pac-man were made in Designer.
I left the white maze parts unquilted for a 3D look. Looking at the maze now it could use some
quilting.
The fabric was Connecting Threads Nuances de Noir, Superior Threads So Fine and batting wool
and cotton.
I had a blast working on this quilt! Black and white fabric really show your piecing which I wish I
could go back and fix…………oh well next one.
Leigh Zipf
New Jersey
2022
Get to Know Leigh
I have always been a crafty DIY type of person who enjoys making things with my hands. My sewing journey began 26 years ago on industrial machines. I was the owner of a marine canvas shop where I created upholstery from canvas and vinyl for a variety of settings. This is where I fell in love with sewing and wanted to make things for my home and purchased a domestic machine. I made clothing and accessories before finding my love of piecing and creating quilts. Quilting on a domestic machine for most of that time I finally moved to a stationary HQ Sweet Sixteen® long arm and then
moved up to a HQ Forte® long arm with Pro Stitcher® Premium. I worked for a local sewing gallery for the past 4 years where I instructed new owners how to use their new machines and/or software. I also planned and taught many creative classes that focused on all the ways
to use their sewing machines, embroidery machines and embroidery software program.
I love teaching all types of classes and helping others to realize they too can “Make That”.
One thought on “Introducing: Leigh Zipf”