Evening in the Garden Quilts

Adventures in Fabric Art

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WIP Wednesday: Baby Quilt

Will

The Disapearing Four Patch blocks I made to donate to Sandy relief kind of intrigued me, and I wanted to try them with a variety of prints for a scrappy look.  I decided to use them in this baby quilt for the new son of my “nephew”,  the son of my friend and college roommate.

Will block 2

I used three baseball prints and some fabrics I thought coordinated, for a total of six fabrics.  (I won’t say I hang onto fabric, but one of these baseball prints was used in the nephew’s high school graduation quilt…)

Will block 1

I still have five more blocks to make, hopefully today, but I think I like how this is coming out.  It seems to have lots of energy.

WIP Wed

I’m linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced (isn’t the new look pretty?).


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Sunday Stash Report 12/09/12

Pillows red and green

This is a good week to report.  Those pillows took a long time, but they also used 5 1/2 yards of fabric. I don’t know what the next couple of weeks will bring, because there are a lot of things that should take my attention instead of sewing, but we shall see.  Happy with these numbers, anyway.

This week:  +0 yds, -5.5 yds.

YTD:  +116 yds., -224 yds.

Total stash used in 2012:  108 yds.!

 

I continue to take inspiration and encouragement from my 95 friends at Stash Pact II:  Electric Bugaloo on Flickr.

How are you doing on your deStashing?

Linking up with Stash Reports at Patchwork Times.

 

 


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Design Wall Monday

Pillows 2I made up six pillow tops from red and green strings just for our own holiday decor.  The white is Kona “Snow”, which also seemed Christmasy.

pillow3I used random width strings, and thought the effect would be more random.  Now that they are together, it’s almost like I was trying to make diamonds and missed the points.

pillow5I hope that isn’t the finished effect.  I think that they will quilt up okay.  I wanted something fresh and modern, in Christmas colors, to replace my neutral, botanical covers for the holidays, and I think these do it.

pillow4The red and green ones are very rich and nice, more old fashioned.

To work, to work.

I’m linking up with Design Wall Monday on Judy’s Patchwork Times.


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W.I.P. Wednesday 11/28/12

Son of Midwest Modern

I love to make string blocks, but I really was going to use Christmas colors for my next one.  When I went to clean up my scraps from the M. M. Zig Zag quilt, I found that my strings have been breeding again, overflowing their containers, and the new pink and yellow ones wouldn’t even fit.  So here are thirty-five 8″ string blocks in that same color scheme.  Why mess with success?

Planning to sash them with pink and gold Kona solids.

In some ways, string quilts do seem free, don’t they?  In approaching it as a business, I’ve come to realize that I did already pay for all of that fabric, even the skinny,stringy edges.  Making a quilt from scraps costs exactly the same, just wringing more value out of the fabric.  Still, I like to make them, and I love the variety of fabrics from various projects that come together in string blocks.

I used pages from an IRA prospectus (already recycled paper), and after I ripped them off the blocks, we used them to start this evening’ fire.  Four uses?  Not bad.

Enjoy the process.

See more Work In Progress at Freshly Pieced.


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Sunday Stash Report 11/25/12

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  Since we traveled most of the week, there was no sewing or fabric used.  Of course, one can shop when traveling, but I only bought two yards, so all is well.

This week:  2 yds. added, 0 yds. used

YTD:  116 yds. added 218.5 yds. used

Net used in 2012:  102.5 yds.

On to more sewing this week.  Linking up with Patchwork Times.  Take care.


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Sunday Stash: Meeting My Goal

Yaaah!  I did it!  I’m in at over 100 yards of net stash reduction, and it’s not even Dec. 31!  I suppose the numbers could change between now and the end of the year, but I’m pretty sure I’m good for the 100 yds.  What did it this week was today’s finish of a twin size quilt to send to Sandy survivors through Luana Rubin’s 5000 Quilt Challenge.  I used large pieces to show off a large scale print, and, in spite of being a pretty quick quilt to get mailed right away, it has received some nice comments.  I’ll do a post on it tomorrow.  The sun is not currently cooperating for good photos.

Next week you won’t hear from me.  Our family aways travels to spend Thanksgiving with relatives, so there will be no posts, and definitely no stash reduction, so it’s good that I met my goal now.

This week:  o yds. added, 15.5 yds. used

YTD:  114 yds. added 218.5 yds. used

Net used in 2012:  104.5 yds!!!!

How are you doing on your goals?

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times.


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A Finished Top

Here’s the finished top on my bed (no walls large enough).  Actually, it looks pretty good in my room… No, this is headed to the east coast.

I always feel finished when the top is done, and then  remember that I have to piece a giant back.  And the batting.  Ah, well.  Back to it.

Linking up to Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.


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Design Wall Monday

image

Here is one fourth of a twin quilt that I’m making for Hurricane Sandy relief. Yesterday I made the 99 HST units during the Veterans Day Sew In (#vdsi) on Twitter. The units will finish at 9 inches. I have this quarter sewn together now and hope to get the top finished today. The main pink and yellow prints are Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern. The lighting here could be better. The darkest triangles aren’t really that dark and they blend better. I’m linking up to Design Wall Monday on Patchwork Times.


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Sunday Stash Report

Ooh, used some fabric this week!  I finished the red and gray zig zag quilt,, 8 1/2 yards, and then finished 12 donation blocks for Sandy survivors, 2 yards, for a total of 10 1/2 yards.

This week:  +0 yds, -10 1/2 yds.
YTD:  +114 yards, -203 yds.
Net used this year:  -89 yds.

One hundred yards is in sight!  What’s your stash busting goal?

See more stash reports at Patchwork Times.


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Finish It Up Friday

The Red and Gray Zig Zags is finished!  I’m very happy with it.  I thought it would be quicker, but I kept adding more quilting, and that’s usually a good thing.

This quilt started from this intriguing but odd piece of fabric (“stash dog”).  “Germania” by Jay McCarroll.  I loved it when I bought it, on sale, I’m sure, but it never worked with anything and never made any sense to me.  Finally, decided to cut it up and put it with various luscious grays.  This gave it depth without being any more busy than it already was.

I usually make my HSTs by cutting squares 7/8″ larger than the finished side, placing right sides together, drawing a diagonal line down the center, then sewing 1/4″ inch from the marked line on both sides.  I rarely trim them, as they are usually very accurate, and these were just fine.

I pressed them open, which I think helps a lot with preventing stretching, and I think it helped in matching these particular seams.

Lot of them, though.  Except, remember, that I had cut them all wrong at the beginning.  So I adjusted the block sizes to 3 1/2″ finished.  Didn’t really know what size that would be on the finished quilt, because I misfiled or failed to save my design on EQ7.  The quilt washed up at 48″ x 61″, which is okay for a throw.  A little longer would have been nice.

Our “crinkle” chants worked pretty well, and the straight line quilting is presentable.  I really like my free-motion feather border.  This is the first time I made a double spine, and also outlined the feathers on the outside.  The stippling next to them makes them pop a little.

The binding is the last of the red fabric with a little Kona “Lagoon” and “Rich Red”  thrown in to extend it.  The batting is Warm and White.   The back is pieced with 12″ squares of grays and three blocks made from scraps with pops of red.  I think it has just enough quilting, and I’m in love with the crinkly grayness of it.  A good finish.

I’m linking up to Finish It Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts and to Owen’s Olivia.