Evening in the Garden Quilts

Adventures in Fabric Art

Monthly Archives: October 2015


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One Lovely Blog Award

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I won an award!  Thank you to Melanie at Thousand Needles blog for nominating me!  If you don’t follow Melanie, you should.  She has a life-simplifying and a gratitude thread going on, along with progress on her beautiful quilting, and her family.

Here are the rules for this award:
  • Thank the blogger who nominated you.
  • Display the banner/sticker/logo on your blog.
  • Share 7 facts or things about yourself.
  • Nominate 5 bloggers that you admire and inform nominees by commenting on their blog.
 About Me:
  1. I’m retired after thirty years of teaching Art (k-6) and elementary (4-6).  This is how I have time to make the quilts!
  2. I’m married, for 32 years, and my husband’s retired, too
  3. We have one son, aged 21.  He has Asperger’s Syndrome/high-functioning autism.  He is currently attending college, loving it, and living with friends in an apartment.  He belongs to several organizations and is doing fairly well academically.
  4. I did my first serious machine sewing at age 11, when I made my Easter dress, with my mother’s help, with set in sleeves and a back zipper.  For the fabric, think Peter Max depicts a flower garden.
  5. In spite of being a successful garment sewer for many years, I don’t like to anymore.  I don’t even really like sewing bags.  Give me flat fabric in small patches.
  6. I like to cook, sometimes, usually when I’m inspired by fresh produce from my garden or the farmer’s market.
  7. I’m a Girl Scout.  I went all the way through the program as a girl, then led troops for many years.  I’m still registered.

I nominate:

http://www.sewexcitedquilts.com/

http://www.120blocks.com/

http://www.artquiltmaker.com/blog/

http://slikstitches.com/

http://quiltinspiratie.blogspot.com/

I know you’ll enjoy all of these!


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Sunday Stash Report: 10/25/15

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Here is a photo of a shop where I didn’t buy any fabric!  It was a nice little shop, but nothing tempted me from my fabric diet.

I sewed two baby quilt tops, but can’t count them till they’re finished, so nothing in and nothing out.

This week:  + 0 yards,  – 0 yards
This year:  + 110.25 yards,  – 142.25 yards
Net fabric destashed  in 2015:  32 yards

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Instead of buying fabric, we spent the weekend looking at the beautiful leaves in West Virginia and southern Ohio, and watching our son perform with Marshall University’s Marching Thunder.

Hope you had a great weekend.  I’m linking up to Judy’s report at Patchwork Times.


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Sunday Stash Report: 10/18/15

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Greetings on a very crisp fall morning!  This week I finished the Turquoise and Gold Quilt, which used seven and a half yards,  and no new fabric came in.

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I finished the back for my Droid Quilt Along quilt, over at The Stitch TV Show, but that project won’t be finished till the movie comes out.

This week:  + 0 yards,  – 7.5 yards
This year:  + 110.25 yards,  – 142.25 yards
Net fabric destashed  in 2015:  32 yards

Sure, I’ll make it to fifty!  How are you doing?  I’m linking up to Judy’s report at Patchwork Times.


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Turquoise and Gold Quilt Finished!

IMG_2480Here it is, on a sunny morning on the fallen leaves.  The colors fit right in for fall, don’t they?

2015-09-24 10.01.36This was one of my few UFOs, but it was an old one.  I’m guessing six years it sat in my cupboard, but I can’t really date it for sure.  It started as a wall hanging.  I pulled it out earlier this year and asked the Twilters if they saw any potential in it, and they were enthusiastic.  This doesn’t look like anything I’m doing now, does it?  Playing with color and value, looks like I spent lots of time with it on the design wall.

2015-10-15 07.48.47The center had some already cut borders and binding with it, as well as a couple yards of backing fabric.  I still wasn’t feeling the wall hanging, so I decided that all that fabric should become a quilt.  Notice I worked with much bigger triangles.  After I sewed that bottom section on right side up it didn’t look too bad.

2015-10-15 07.49.09I quilted it with lots of feathers, some stippling, and some orange peel.  The mid-tone areas are done with Superior’s So Fine in a variegated mustard/navy color.  I tried that on some of the lighter areas, but it did not look good, and I don’t ever want to rip out feathers again.  Ugh.  I know that, forced to decide, I always prefer the thread to be lighter than the background instead of darker.  I know this.  I just need to believe it and practice it.

2015-10-15 07.49.18I replaced that stitching with a golden Living Colors thread on the yellow and light gray areas, and used a Sulky dark gray on the dark gray to black spaces.  The bobbin thread is Bottom Line in a medium gray.

2015-10-15 07.50.23I really love the back.  This was narrowish JoAnn fabric, so I had a chance to piece lots of scraps into it.  I think it pops.

IMG_2479When I was trimming this quilt to bind, it suddenly told me it wanted to have wavy edges to match the half feathers I had quilted into the narrow border.  I told it no, though.  After days of stitch picking, I was ready to finish it up quickly, and I already had all the straight grain binding cut.  So it has straight edges.

2015-10-15 07.54.08I managed to use up almost all of the fabric, except for some of the turquoise, which I am eyeing for an upcoming project.

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I’m linking up to Whoop Whoop Friday and WIPs Be Gone.


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Sunday Stash Report: 10/11/15

2015-10-09 14.22.57Ah, fabric was purchased this week, but it’s okay.  It’s for the Droid Quilt Along taking place over at The Stitch TV Show.  Cutting directions start tomorrow, and the quilt will be finished in time for Christmas.

DroidQAL-Badge-e1444263545143This stack for the quilt (plus some aqua and extra white I needed) is from the Fabric Shack. They are open late on Thursday evenings, so DH and I motored down there, and also ate at the Stone House Tavern, on the deck, with live music.  Yes, I’m that devoted to quilting.

2015-10-04 15.47.56I have made good progress on the Turquoise and Gold quilt, but I still have to bind it.  The only finish this week is eighteen foundation pieced string blocks for Kat’s October block drive.  I was going to make twelve, but I still had strings left out from my pull, so I made six more.  Very difficult to go completely scrappy, but I did it.

This week:  + 17 yards,  – 3.75 yards
This year:  + 110.25 yards,  – 134.75 yards
Net fabric destashed  in 2015:  24.50 yards

No worries.  I’ll make my goal and then some.  Hope you’re making good progress toward your goal.

I’m linking up to Judy’s report at Patchwork Times.


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Boxes of Elephants is Finished

2015-10-04 09.04.53This fun little quilt was commissioned, based on a quilt I made in January.  It makes up very quickly and is super simple sewing.

2015-10-04 09.05.34I can no longer find the original elephant fabric to purchase, so we agreed on this one, in which the light and dark is reversed (cuter print, too, I think!).  That necessitated a little redesign so the colors would look good together.  The elephant print is on home dec fabric, so it makes an interesting combination of textures with the soft Konas and prints.

2015-10-04 09.05.03I quilted this entirely with the walking foot.  I first stitched in the ditch between all the blocks with silver Bottom Line on top and a teal Masterpiece (because I didn’t have teal BL) on the bottom.  Then I switched to a variegated Coats and Clarks that I used to sew a serpentine stitch along all the seam lines, crossing through the plain blocks.  I finished with nine inches of thread left from that spool!

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I used a few inches of large-scale chevrons for the binding.  This quilt is now winging it’s way to Texas.

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I’m linking up to Michelle’s Let’s Make Baby Quilts.

Baby quilts


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Sunday Stash Report: 9/4/15

2015-10-01 14.53.15This week I made sixteen of these cuties and made them into a baby quilt that you’ll see soon.  That used three and a half yards, and no new fabric came in.

This week:  + 0 yards,  – 3.5 yards
This year:  + 93.25 yards,  – 131.0 yards
Net fabric destashed  in 2015:  37.75 yards

Today I’m putting together a dozen string blocks for Kat’s October block drive.  You know me and strings, but it’s also a good cause.  Look at what “we” made with August’s flying geese blocks!  She gave us the color scheme and we all pieced geese, and look how well they went together!  I love the way she sashed and quilted it, too.

Whether you’re stashing or destashing, I hope you’re having success.  I’m linking up to Judy’s report at Patchwork Times.