Evening in the Garden Quilts

Adventures in Fabric Art

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WIP Wednesday: Baby Memories

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My design wall is full of patches cut from baby clothes.  I have a commission for a throw quilt and a pillow top.  It’s very odd and interesting to go through the clothes of a child you’ve never met.  I’m the mom of one son, so these girly clothes were pretty foreign to me.  One problem was that someone had already begun to trace and cut patches from these clothes before turning them over to me. 

Nearly all of these are knit fabrics, so I backed them all with fusible interfacing before I cut, the way one does for T shirt quilts.  I worked mostly with Pellon sheer weight fusible, which cut, pressed, handled very well.  When I ran out, I used a bargain, packaged, store brand interfacing to finish.  Not so good.  It was difficult to tell which side was fusible.  Even when I got that right, it wanted to deform and melt with the hot iron and kind of stick to it.  Yuck.  I muddled through.  Unfortunately, once the fabrics were interfaced, they completely refused to stick to my design wall, so they are all pinned and hanging off.

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A number of these dresses were handcrafted batiks, so I tried to make the most of them.  I’ve ordered some batik yardage for the backing, and I think it will look great.

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Here’s the finished top for the pillow cover.  I soaked poor Winnie in Oxiclean, but he’s still a little grungy.  If he doesn’t come cleaner when I wash these, I’m going to add a few extra gold glitter hearts to cover up the spots.

What are you working on?

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I’m linking up to Wednesday WIP at Freshly Pieced.


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Design Wall Monday: A Nautical Feel

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Here is the baby quilt top I worked on over the weekend.  I had previously made a nautical baby quilt and really enjoyed it.  I purposely did not look back at pictures of the last one.  I took the tiny bit of leftover stripe fabric I had, put it with some red and blue canvas print, yellow, clouds, and really old (1996!) water print.  I just started cutting 4 1/2″ squares and 4 7/8″ squares to make into HSTs, and used the tiny scraps to make some four patches.  I like all the strong diagonal lines.  This measures 36″ x 44″ and uses 99 blocks.

 

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And here is the one I made last year.  Turns out I used 180 3 1/2″ blocks for it.  Also, I included lots of white, so it has a lighter look.  I like them both.

Have you been playing with fabric?

I’m linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.


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WIP Wednesday: Still Tulips

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I thought I was at the point of auditioning thread for some accent quilting on this garden of tulips, but not so.  The quilt insists that I stitch in every ditch, so I’m going back to do that.  Straight line quilting may be fairly easy, but does it ever take time!  When I do get the ditch quilting finished, I think I will use this light green King Tut (40 wt.).  It’s tempting to try something special on the plain green Grunge areas, but everything else is the busy prints and it would be wasted.  So, more straight lines.  Someone said that they tape their seam guide in place on their walking foot to keep it from moving around (and to keep from having to mark all those lines!), so I think I’ll try that.

 

This quilt is 60″ x 84″ , which is at the outside of my zone for really enjoying machine quilting.  It’s a bit heavy on the shoulders, and more than a bit warm in this lovely summer weather in my upstairs studio.

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Verdict on the fabrics:  I still love both tulip prints and the Grunge.  I really can’t stand the pink at this point, but it still plays well with the others, so…

 

Back to work.  I’m linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.


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Gray and Orange Strings are Finished!

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Here is the result of the 40 six-inch string blocks I pieced last week.  I really like the way it came out.

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The back is the end of a bolt of a kind of Japanese feel taupey gray circle print.  I just barely had enough, and it is perfect on the back.

Dark gray would have worked for the binding, but was a little hard to coordinate with the backing.  The soft orange hand dye looks good to me.

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I’m very happy with the quilting.  First I stabilized it by stitching in the ditch on all the vertical and horizontal seams with Bottom Line.  I almost always start like this.  It isn’t very noticable in the finished quilt, but it really does keeps things from going askew.

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Then I quilted randomly placed leaves all over the top.  I cut an 8 1/2″ template and traced about 60 of them (they are so random they are hard to count).  I used two strands of light gray Sulky rayon thread to do the stitching.  There are also two “special” leaves where I tried using a silver metallic or a dark gray thread.  I didn’t stick with either, but I left the two experiments to be surprises to discover.

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This did start as a donation quilt, but it is only 48″ x 72″.  I like that size for a throw, but quilt drives often prefer larger ones, so it’s going in my Etsy shop soon.

What have you finished?

I’m linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.


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WIP Wednesday: Tulips!

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I don’t know if I’ve ever had more trouble photographing fabric than these four fabrics.  Every light in my studio is on (cue country song), and it’s daytime, but I still can’t get a true picture.  Take my word that these fabrics really do play nice together.  The pink is a little on the strawberry side, but nowhere near as dark as it looks.  My favorite blocks are the ones with the two tulip prints.  This placement works, but I may move some things around, too.  You’ll just have to stay tuned.

I’m using the Disappearing Four Patch technique (D4P), which I think is a lot prettier than the 9 patch.  I’m sure there are lots of tutorials, but I learned it from Mama Vesuvius when she was collecting blocks for Hurricane Sandy quilts.  Scroll down a little on that page, the tutorial is there.  These are the 12 1/2″ blocks she is showing.

 

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I’m linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.


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Design Wall Monday: D4P

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Today’s fabrics aren’t even on the design wall yet.  I spent time today repairing the damage to my fabric closet after The Great Stash Cave In.  The problem was the extremely close quarters inside the closet.  There is not enough space to pull the baskets straight out to remove them from the frames.  And I have some backings hanging in there.  And packing boxes.  And I was in there.  So that was an ordeal.

 

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But while I was at it I pulled several older, floral fabrics that I do not wish to see anymore.  They are lovely, and perfectly good quality.  I once was obsessed with tulip fabric.  I collected quite a bit, and made one of my nieces a twin sized quilt using a lot of it.  But I still have a lot left.  And I’m just not as into it.  So I want this to become my next donation quilt.  Perhaps someone else can indulge a tulip obsession.  Or at least keep warm.

My concept at the moment is to do a Disappearing Four Patch that transitions gradually from one fabric to the next as it goes across the quilt.  I’m still working out how to do that, but I think I’ve settled on the fabrics.  The florals and the pink are definite.  I’m reluctant to include my wonderful green Grunge because I like it so much, but that’s silly, isn’t it?  I bought it to cut up and sew into quilts.  I just want to use it and keep it, too, like cake.  But it wants to be in this quilt, so I will probably use it.  I think.

 

Are you playing with fabric today?

 

I’m linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Time.

 


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Sunday Stash Report: A little out, a little in. 6/2/13

 
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It’s been a busy, hot week, and I didn’t sew as much as I would have liked.  I need to make sure I get up early and not linger over the coffee and tablet.  Our woods are deceptively cool, but by noon my upstairs studio is usually too hot for sewing in this weather.  We’ve also been away a fair amount.   This week I used 6 1/2 yards for the Orange and Gray String Quilt.  I’ll blog about it soon.

 
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Some fabric was purchased.  10 1/2 yards.  but isn’t it pretty?  Those are little gray flying geese on the white one!  I passed by The Fabric Shack twice in the last two weeks, but I couldn’t look the other way the third time.  The geese were on sale…  Aaa, I have the rest of the year to make it to -100 yards!

 

This week:  +10.5 yards,  -6.5 yards

YTD:  +83.5 yards,  -144.4 yards

Net stash used in 2013:  -61 yards

 

How are you doing with your destashing?

 

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

 

 


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WIP Wednesday: Strings

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I made these forty string blocks into this top, and finished putting borders on it yesterday.

 

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This was intended as a  new donation quilt, but it turned out a little small for that, at 48″ x  72″, especially since I only had a yard of the border fabric and was determined to make it work, so I think I’ll keep it for my shop.  I have an idea for quilting it all over with leaves to go with the borders.

Now I’m going to put together the backing and at least get this sandwiched today.  Also, someone should clean up this studio.  It’s all mine, but it’s tiny and things are beginning to pile up.  And spill over.  And the orange fabric needs to go away before I’m tempted to start another quilt with orange in it!

 

What are you working on?

I’m linking up with  WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

 

 


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Design Wall Monday: Strings!

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Yesterday I made forty 6″ string blocks, and I am in love with the colors.  No, I can’t tell a difference in my string baskets.  What is up with that?  but I like to sew string blocks, and I always feel I’ve created something from nothing.  I’m sashing them with Kona White, and using this nice gray and white Kaufman leaf print for the borders.  This will make a throw size, 50″ x 74″.

Are you playing with fabric today?

I’m linking up with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.


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A Finished Baby Quilt, and a Back to Piece

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On my design wall I have the orphan blocks and taupey fabric I to use to piece the back to the blue and orange donation quilt.  I see one of the larger ones needs to be turned.   Returning to this after time off makes it a little better, though backings are still not my favorite.

 

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On Saturday I finished the aqua and gray HST baby quilt, and it makes me very happy.  I really enjoyed doing the quilting on it.

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The gray zigzags and the print feathers have an extra layer of batting under them for a gentle trapunto effect.

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The back is gray, white, and yellow.  The gray and yellow look brown in photos, but in person it’s a good match to the front.

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This quilt is 36″ x 42″, my favorite baby size, made from 168 3″ blocks.

I’m linking up to Design Wall Monday on Patchwork Times.