Evening in the Garden Quilts

Adventures in Fabric Art


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Sunday Stash 9/28/14 and September Goals

Wow, the end of September already!  The year is racing along, isn’t it?  But I have good Stash progress and Goal progress to report.

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Today I finished the Christmas Scrap Quilt, from now on to be known as the Christmas Bird Quilt.  Here is part of the top before quilting.  It’s in the dryer now, so I’ll post pictures in the coming week.

This week: +0 yards, -8.5 yards
YTD: +95.25 yards, -161.75 yards
Net stash used 2014: -66.5 yards

Goals

September Goals

1.  Finish Disappearing Hourglass quilt for QoV. (Assemble top, quilt, and bind.). Yes, finished!  So is its pillowcase.

2.  Clean out cabinet that backs against my sewing table.  If I lose unused craft supplies, it will be a good,dark place to store quilts.  Did it!

3.  Make two more children’s boxy pouches.  Well, no.

4.  Make a Christmas scrap quilt to sell or donate

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Progress on Sewing and the Space

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Yesterday I buckled down and cleaned out this cabinet that backs up my sewing table.  I really like that it supports the weight of the quilts while I’m quilting, and also gives an extra surface for cutting, but I didn’t feel I was making as good use of it’s storage space as I might.  Also, I had rolled up wall hangings stored in the open and I worried about them eventually fading.  And it was on my September Get It Done list.

So I cleaned out thirty years of craft supplies, and managed to reduce them to the bottom shelf so that the quilts can live on the top one.  I kept two knitting UFOs, some novelty yarn, a huge counted cross stitch project, paints and brushes, and Girl Scout things with which I’m not yet ready to part.  I donated a big bag of boring yarn, print making and chair caning supplies,  and many boxes of photo frame Christmas cards.  No, I never sent photo cards, but they worked well for paper pieced cards for special friends.  Whew!  Feeling lighter now.

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I finished two small autumn wall hangings.

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And I started pulling fabric for Scrap-in-a-Box, the mystery quilt that will be starting in January.  I hope some more of you will join us in this.  I’m not going to finalize or cut till at least next month.  I want to look at the colors for a while, and I should do other things that are on my September list.

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Hope you are making the progress you want.  I’m linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.


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Sunday Stash Report: 9/21/14

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Finishes this week!  I finished the Disappearing Hourglass quilt, for 10.25 yards, and a couple of little wall hangings that totaled one yard.  And I didn’t buy a thing.

This week: +0 yards, -11.25 yards
YTD: +95.25 yards, -153.25 yards
Net stash used 2014: -58 yards

[Had to stop to check my spelling, totaled or totalled.  I’ve been hanging out with this international community for too long!  🙂  Went with the American version.  Yep, we are two nations (more than that!) separated by a common language. Not to mention the punctuation.]

Anyway, even with this, I better get going if I want to break 100 yards by the end of the year.  And I do.

Hope your stash is heading the way in which you want it.

I’m linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times.


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Disappearing Hourglass Finish

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After what seems like a long time, I finally finished the DHG quilt.  It is 64″ x 80″, and will go the Quilts of Valor after I get a pillowcase made.

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I feel like one of those recipe blog commentors we’ve been parodying lately.  I made this quilt just like the tutorial at Missouri Star Quilt Company, except I didn’t use a layer cake.  Also, I don’t like their method for making the HSTs, because they’re stretchy on the bias, so I made my own using 6 1/2″ squares.  This caused everything to be a different size.  Then, I completely changed the layout of the blocks.  But otherwise it’s just the same as theirs!

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In general, these blocks were fun to make, but 48 was too many.  I should have made fewer and used borders.  Their sew-around-the-edge method was much faster than my diagonal stitching method, so use it if the wonkiness doesn’t bother you.  My top was nice and flat, though, unlike my Disappearing Pinwheel.

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I had ideas for free-motioning over each block, but I couldn’t figure out how to make a design work without a lot of marking, and I wasn’t up for that.  So I used all straight lines, mostly with the walking foot.  I wasn’t too pleased with look while it was in progress, but after washing and drying, it’s fine.  I used Superior’s Bottom Line, white on top, dark gray on the bottom.

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I like all the white (Snow, actually).  It seems fresh and light.  And it’s finished!

What have you finished this week?  I’m linking up to Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.


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Slow Progress

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Finally, the quilting is finished on the Disappearing Hourglass quilt.  Not very imaginative, but I hope it will look good. It’s bound now and in the washer.  I hope to get some pictures tomorrow.

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Someone on Etsy asked me to put up a few more autumn leaf wall hangings, so I got out my fall fabrics.  There is an immense pile, in spite of the effort I’ve made to use it up.  I think it grows while it’s put away in the cupboard.

The other project on my mind is selecting a color scheme for the Scrap-in-a-Box Mystery Quilt (Scrapitude 2015).  Charlotte is leading us in a smaller quilt this time.  Here is the introduction on Sandy’s blog.  You really should join us for this.  There won’t even be any clues till January!  Loads of time to pull scraps and cut, then sew it during a less busy time.  It’s a lot of fun when we share on Twitter and Flickr.

Hope you are making lots of progress.  I’m linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.


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Sunday Stash Report: 9/7/14

This week I finished the Red and Gray Chevron baby quilt, using three yards, and managed not to buy anything.  Creeping along.

This week: +0 yards, -3 yards
YTD: +95.25 yards, -142 yards
Net stash used 2014: -46.75 yards

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Yesterday I picked about half a peck of pretty peppers for pickling.

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Now I have eight pints of pickled peppers!

I’m linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times.


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Another Chevron Finish

IMG_2136Here’s the commissioned chevron quilt in the more dramatic colors.  It quilted up pretty quickly once the backing fabric arrived.  

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It’s perfect, isn’t it?  It will match the other bedding in the nursery.

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I don’t know if it’s obvious in the photos, but the extra batting under the feathers does make them stand out.  It’s all quilted with Superior’s Bottom Line thread, top and bottom.  The binding is a charcoal color.

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I know you’re missing Yuri in these shots, but he must have been chasing chipmunks, because he missed the whole thing.  Not like him, I know.

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I’m linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

 


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Progress on Hourglass and Chevrons

 

 

 

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During the Labor Day Sew In on Twitter I made twenty-four of the Disappearing Hourglass blocks, half of what I need. On the first one I forgot to rotate the center patch, but I decided I like it, so that’s how I’m making them.  My personal twist.

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The backing fabric arrived for the Chevron commission, and it was worth waiting for, wasn’t it? 

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I have it all spray basted and ready to begin quilting today.  I added extra batting under the gray areas to make the feathers stand out.

Hope you’re making progress with your projects.  I’m linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

(Have you seen Lee’s new studio?  Go look!)