Evening in the Garden Quilts

Adventures in Fabric Art

Monthly Archives: September 2016


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September / October Goals

2016-09-29-10-43-59From the heat of the summer, our weather has turned suddenly chilly and rainy.  The cats tell me the best thing to do is to stay inside and take naps, so I’ve been listening to them.

It’s a little less than three weeks since my knee surgery.  It went well, and I’m now walking unaided, but the pain had been a lot worse this time, for some reason.  I’m using ice and cats.

September Goals:

  1. Take my machine to the spa.  Yes.
  2. Watch Craftsy classes.  Yes, one so far.  (Cut to It)
  3. Catch up on podcasts.  Not yet.  Soon!  Or at least get current.
  4. Heal from my right knee replacement!  Yes. Ice, cats, and physical therapy.  Ouch!

 

Bonus: I finished that blue and brown quilt.  

christmas-starsI bought fabric on line, then designed this Christmas quilt to make with it.  The background will be grays, not pinks.


October Goals

  1. Make string blocks for Kat’s October block drive.
  2. Start the Christmas quilt.

That’s all.  I don’t have my machine back yet, and I’m not yet climbing stairs, so I won’t be too ambitious.

Thanks to all of you who have been sewing in my stead.  Keep it up!


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Sunday Stash Report and a Finish!

IMG_2752Technically, Yuri and I didn’t finish this quilt until today, but I’m counting it on this Stash anyway.  This will be the last report I’ll write for a while, because of my knee surgery, so I want to include this.

IMG_2753This is a leaders and enders quilt that I made blocks for during the last year.  It’s very simple, two colors, because that’s about all I can handle for l and e.  I need to think about the quilt I’m doing, so this has to be fool-proof.  I have a lot of small scraps, but the main reason I do these is to eliminate starting and stopping threads in my regular piecing.  This cleans things up a lot.

IMG_2754It was fun to revisit some of the fabrics in here.  There are bits of peacock fabric from the 2008 Hoffman Challenge, and some from my nephew’s ocean-themed graduation quilt.

The quilting started with stitching in the ditch next to all the sashing using blue Bottom Line, so it’s nearly invisible.  Then I used a gold and blue variegated So Fine (Superior) 40 wt. thread for all the other quilting.  I used orange peel quilting on half the blocks, and free-hand spirals in the alternate blocks.  The border has a series of wavy lines.  I started that with the walking foot, but quickly switched back to free-motion quilting because it was much easier than turning the quilt for the walking foot, and, with the echo foot, seemed just as accurate.

IMG_2755.JPGThis quilt is 62″ x 84″ (or it was before washing!).  It used about 9.25 yards of fabric.

This week:  + 0 yards,  – 9.25 yards
This year: + 77.25 yards,  – 123.75 yards
Net destashed in 2016:  46.50 yards

IMG_2757We’re linking up to the Stash Report at Patchwork Times.


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August/ September Goals

PicMonkey Collage 9-1-16September is suddenly here, so it’s time to check the goals.

August Goals:

  1. Hang the darned picture already!  Yes!  Done!
  2. Coastal-themed art quilt.  Nope.
  3. Piece top to Birds in the Air quilt.  Yes, and quilted and bound!  Here.
  4. Make autumn themed wall hangings / table runners. Yes, three.
  5. Make blocks for Kat’s August drive.  Yes, eight.

Bonus:  Assembled Blue and Brown Leaders and Enders top and made a lot of quilting progress.

2016-09-01 10.38.34

I finally just went up and hung that picture because I was too embarrassed to put it on the list one more time!  The photograph I hung is of my great, great Aunt Maggie.  She was Maggie Jane McMillen Mills (1864 -1916).  She was a seamstress, along with her sister Francie, and I have always wanted her to watch over my studio.  She made the dress she is wearing, which I wish you could see better, because it’s very elaborate in the front.  This very heavy portrait is behind curved glass, and I found it almost impossible to photograph, try as I might. The background is completely plain, everything you see is reflection. The background was tinted a rose tone, as were her lips.  I think some of the dress details were drawn in to help them show up against the dark dress.

2016-09-01 10.51.432016-09-01 10.53.11Anyway, Aunt Maggie is finally in her spot, and that corner behind the door has been cleaned up!

 

 

 

September Goals:

  1. Take my machine to the spa.
  2. Watch Craftsy classes.
  3. Catch up on podcasts.
  4. Heal from my right knee replacement!

 

Yes, light duty for September.  You’ll have to sew for me, please!