Quilts by Julie Ramsey
geek
Morse code quilt 2
Jul 1st
I think I’m going to make another Morse code quilt, this one (potentially!) for publication. I picked an Albert Einstein quote: “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.”
Translated into quilt form, it should come out something like this:
Approx. finished size (using 2.5″ finished squares) before borders should be something around 33″ x 65″, so if I get creative with the borders, I could probably stretch it out to approximately twin size. Maybe set one border around it, then “Albert” and “Einstein” in vertical strips on each side to widen it out a bit?
I think I’m going to stick to the blue/green color scheme. I picked it because the colors were right next to each other in MS paint, but I really like the effect on a white background.
Next step: counting blocks and figuring out how much fabric to buy! Sounds like a monsoon storm is headed my way, so I can’t go out for supplies today, but at least I can be well-prepared for a shopping trip tomorrow.
Double helix quilt
Jun 30th
It’s time to work on something geeky again, which means putting aside the quilt-block-of-the-month project I’ve been working on and starting in on a new pattern of some sort.
This one has been bouncing around in my head for a while now; it’s a fairly simple design, with paper-pieced blocks set on point. I don’t really like the spacing between the strands, though, and would rather see them staggered a bit. All things considered, though, it’s a neat effect that would probably work up fairly quickly.
The gene sequence is completely random right now… I’m halfway tempted to pick a ‘real’ genome and see if I could color-code that into the quilt as well.
Or maybe with something in the background, like this:
WoW quilt, part 1
May 2nd
So I’ve decided to try my hand at a World of Warcraft quilt, using all of the little icons for skills/items/etc. as the quilt blocks. Since I haven’t done appliqué before, I decided to start with something easy and only a few colors.
Block number 1: Mutilate! Original icon: 
My block (cut out, yet unsewn):
Not too shabby, if I say so myself! I think that in the end, I’ll try to do one icon per class and maybe a few random items (potions, food, etc.) in there, too. I imagine I’ll be working on it for a while, one piece at a time, but I think the end result will be very cool!
"Secret Messages" morse-code quilt
May 27th
My little brother graduates from high school next week, so naturally I made him a quilt. He’s a bit of a geek (planning to do computer engineering in college), so I wanted to make him something that’s geeky without being so ridiculous that he wouldn’t use it. So this quilt has some hidden geek messages in it, you just can’t tell at first glance!
It may look like squares and stripes, but if you look at it sideways, it actually spells out messages in Morse code:
Remember all semicolons
Document as you go
Do (Mt.) Dew, not drugs
Change passwords and underwear often
Fight for great justice
Additionally, if you read the width of the pieces i(1 3 4 1 3 5 4 1 3 4 3 1) on the border as degrees of a Cm musical scale, you get the main riff to “Smoke on the Water.” (My little brother plays bass in a rock band.)
It was a fun quilt to make, but had a LOT of pieces… so let’s just say that the top isn’t quite as rectangular as it should be. I think it turned out okay, though, and it was certainly fun to make 
How to make a Tetris Quilt
Feb 10th
Want to make your own Tetris quilt? I’m working on a “fancy” version of the pattern in PDF, but until then, here are the basics
Materials:
I hope you have a big stash, access to lots of FQs, and/or very patient cutting-table ladies at your local quilt shop, because you’re going to need a LOT of different pieces of fabric! You’ll need sets of fabric in red, orange, yellow, light blue, dark blue, green, and purple; for each color, get one quarter-yards each (FQ or yardage, either one works) in five gradiating shades. Small prints work best, though larger tone-on-tone patterns are fine if that’s all you can find.
If you have difficulty finding enough pieces at once, break your fabric shopping and sewing into separate sessions. I ended up working on these blocks one color at a time, as fabric discoveries (and the cash to purchase them) permitted.
With so many fabrics to deal with, I found it was helpful to glue a scrap of each to a piece of tagboard and mark the color number with a sharpie.
Block Construction:
In order to get the 3-d effect, each 4″ colored block is made as a nine-patch with the five different colors; for reference, 1 is the lightest, and 5 is the darkest.
For one block, you’ll need the following:
Color 1, 2, 4, and 5: one strip, 2.5″ x 1.5″; one 2″ square, cut across the diagonal
Color 3: one 2.5″ square
You will also need a stack of 4.5″ squares in a black tone-on-tone print.
Color Counts
For this layout, make:
12 red
20 orange
18 yellow
18 green
18 light blue
12 dark blue
13 blue
39 non-pieced black
1. Assemble the cornerstones:
for each block, you’ll need:
1 and 4
1 and 2
5 and 4
5 and 2
If you need more than one block of a particular color, layer the two squares together, draw down the diagonal with a marker (sharpie is okay, since the ink will be inside the seam allowance) and sew 1/4″ from each side of the line.
TIP: use a 4.5″ square quilting ruler to trim each block when you’re finished sewing and pressing. With so many small blocks, it’s important that everything be square!
2. Assemble each row:
Following the diagram above, attach one corner to each side of the middle strip for the top and bottom rows. The middle segment can be speed-pieced with two 1.5″ strips and one 2.5″ strip, which is then cut into 2.5″ slices.
3. Assemble three rows into one block, pressing seams towards the center.
Top Construction
Following the layout above, assemble the top, chain-piecing the first two columns of each row together without clipping the threads, Do this for each column, and then fold the rows together to finish the horizontal seams. Having the blocks connected helps to line up all of the seams!
For this top, I finished with long-horizontal grey borders measuring 2″ wide, a 6″ border of small, multicolored dots on a black background, and another 2″ border in bright red to tie all the colors together.
Quilting
An easy way to machine-quilt the top would be to simply stitch in the ditch between each block and outline the borders.
Alternately, you can freehand an all-over pattern in either single-color or variegated thread. A meander pattern would work well, though for my top, I used angles instead of curves for a neat effect.
Finishing
Finish the quilt with a red binding and make sure to add a tag. Congratulations! Now you can play too much Tetris, dream about it, and have it decorate your bed, too!
If you make one of these on your own, I’d love to see it! Send me a pic, and I can start a gaming-quilt gallery!
Tetris Quilt
Jan 15th
It’s finally finished, after six months of off-and-on piecing and a year and a half sitting in the closet, waiting for the sandwich to be finished:
“Quiltris,” in a “Tetris DS/ Tetris Worlds” color scheme.
I’m really happy with the way this turned out. It’s far from perfect, but the overall effect is really great, especially with the 3-d shading.
I’m still practicing my machine quilting, but I really like this freehand design. I approached it like a curvy meander, but turned 90-degree angles instead. I was a bit wary of using the variegated thread, since any wonky quilting would show up very clearly on the back fabric, but I really like the way it turned out.
Since the quilt’s gotten such a positive response, I’ll probably be putting together an instruction sheet in the near future. While I doubt I’d be able to actually publish it, I’d like to share with other geek quilters out there!
Chocobo pixel quilt
Jan 14th
This one has been sitting in my closet for quite a while now, but I’ll be picking it up soon. I wanted to do a video-game sprite, but wasn’t sure how to manage all the little pieces. The solution: fusible grid! I cut 1″ squares that will end up at .5″ by the time all of the seams are put together, so the finished project should be small enough for a wallhanging.
At the moment, the rows are sewn together and I still need to trim the seam allowances before the columns are pieced.
EDIT:
After sewing the columns together, I tried to sew the rows, but I think the seam allowances are going to be more than I can handle; for each 1″ cut square, I’ll have .5″ of seam and .5″ of block! Next time, I’ll do this with 2″ fusible grid and end up with 1.5″ blocks instead. Maybe it’ll be a chocobo, maybe it’ll be a Yoshi, who knows?
