Evening in the Garden Quilts

Adventures in Fabric Art


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Tale of a Rescued Christmas UFO

Those of you who chat about quilting with me on Twitter (don’t we have fun?) know about my recent heart palpitations over a Christmas quilt I sold on Etsy that took its own sweet time reaching the new owner, along with unconcerned Postal workers and broken tracking.  It all came out fine.  The new owner (very pleasant to work with) proclaims it, “one of the most gorgeous Christmas quilts I have seen.”  Nice, hmm?  Alas, it was not always so, and I want to share its journey from UFO to beauty.

This really begins several (five?) years ago, when I became intrigued with using blue and white squares to reproduce a gingham pattern.

Blue gingham 011The result was successful, if a little boring.

Blue gingham 1000I jazzed it up with some peacock feather borders and a flat white piping, then quilted it with lovely feathers.  The batting stayed flat and unshrunken (I really think it was Hobbs Heirloom Cotton- could that be?), so the feathers never plumped.

Blue foldedI still think it would have been effective in the right nursery, but it’s never sold.  It will be heading for Project Linus soon.

Next, I thought, Christmas plaid!  Yes, this could be made with 2 1/2 squares in red, green, and white.  Here is what I got.

plaidYeah.  Plaid.  And it just kind of sits there, doesn’t it?  So it kind of sat in my sewing studio for a couple of years.  This doesn’t seem odd to some of you (you know who you are!)  who have oodles of UFOs, but I have hardly any.  At that time, this was the only one.  Now I have two, I think.  So, yeah, I really had no idea what to do with this bit of Christmas ickiness.

Eventually, I took it back out and dove into it.  I pulled out all my stash Christmas fabric.

V C detail4I made borders from gold braid prints and tassel prints.  Better, but still small and square.

V C detail2I created diamond (on point) blocks with varying shades of gold on dark backgrounds, and put rows of these on the top and bottom of the quilt.  Better.  A rectangle now.

IMG_0569Now I cut large borders of printed swags and tassels.  I didn’t have quite enough so I added corner stones.  These brought it to its final size (47″ x 65″) and Victorian glory.  I added lots of quilting in gold metalic thread.

finished ChristmasI knew it was either a masterpiece or a gawd-awful hodgepodge of Christmas fabric, but at least it was a finished quilt.  It was festive and warm.

Victorian Christmas 500Apparently, it is attractive, because it was picked up in several Etsy treasuries after I listed it last month, and favorited by many, and then purchased by this nice appreciative lady who was giving it as a gift before the holiday.  I am so glad it will have a loving home for Christmas, happy it turned out okay, and so happy to have it out of my sewing space!

Yes, Jaye, it is the process.  Some just take longer than others.


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Tidying Up Random Things

CT pillowcasesFirst, of course, we have to acknowledge that our hearts and thoughts have been in Newtown, CT these past few days.  As a retired teacher (and mother), I could visualize every bit of it, and it was really tough.  My DH is a retired teacher and a current first responder, so we’ve been thinking a lot.  We drilled for something like this.  Where I worked, we sometimes had emergencies, but they never turned tragic.  I know exactly what it’s like to gather children against the coat cubbies in a locked room and read to them while listening for unknown danger in the hallway.  It’s what teachers do, but they’re supposed to go home again afterward, and so are the children.

So many people in our quilt blogging and Twitter community have shared so much recently, and we all know each other a little better.  Thank you.

In all the terribleness, it is good to see people come together and to see all the gifts that have been given to these people from around the country.  I stitched some pillow cases today and mailed them off for the surviving Sandy Hook children.  It felt peaceful and constructive to work on them.  Then I stood with the Christmas package mailers in the Post Office of our small, friendly, quiet town to mail them.  Here is info on the project from Jaye’s Artquiltmaker blog.  This is the tutorial from Mama Spark I use for making pillowcases, but I discovered that I have learned how to do them without looking back at the site.

 

Here are a few odds and ends while I think of them.  In no particular order:

Lily’s Quilts:  Do you follow Lynne, from Lily’s Quilts?  I really like her recent post about straight line quilting.  Besides the chance to see some of her great quilts again, she gives really good ideas about the quilting.  I especially like the part about not ripping out small baubles and The Waltons.  Kind of the running horse thing.

Pattern on pattern:  So, we are lovers of pattern and we often use various designs together.  We do this well, we hope.  Not like this motel room I encountered on my Texas trip (I think this was in Louisiana).

IMG_1290I was stunned when I opened the door.  My camera came out before the suitcase went in.

IMG_1291It was nice and clean, but I couldn’t have stayed more than one night.  Ooooh.

Map:  While I’m at it, here is a map I made of our Texas travels.

MapThanks to Diane and others for following along and keeping me company on that long journey.  We had a very nice time, but those are a lot of miles.  And miles.

Chex Mix:  I didn’t get much reaction when I posted this picture of the cereal aisle in my local grocery store, but I think it’s pretty funny.

Urbana-20121209-00515This is the America I want to think about at this time of year.


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Sunday Stash Report 12/16/12

Urbana-20121212-00522

Not very productive (at sewing or anything) this week, but I did make a baby quilt and use 4 1/2 yds. all from stash.  I couldn’t really focus on planned things, so I just pulled fabric with abandon, chopped it up into Disappearing Four Patches, and sewed away.  It turned out pretty well considering.  And I haven’t bought any new fabric.  I’m leaving the Internet sales alone, for now.

This week:  +0 yds.,  -4.5 yds.

This year:  +116 yds.,  -228.5 yds.

Net stash used in 2012:  112.5  yds.

How are you doing with your Stash Reduction?

I’m linking up with Judy’s Phttp://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/12/16/stash-report-week-50-2012/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatchworkTimes+%28Patchwork+Times+by+Judy+Laquidara%29atchwork Times.


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Baby Quilt Finished

Wills stool

I finished up the baby quilt yesterday, and it’s all washed and dried and crinkly.  This looks different from other baby quilts I’ve made, but I like it.

Will's Quilt

It’s bright and bold and energetic, and I think it will be perfect for a little boy.  I bound it with rayon blanket binding for the touchable edges.  This finish doesn’t seem to sell well for me, but I almost always use it on gifts, because I know the babies like it.  This is made completely from stash.

Wills backThe backing is one piece of pale blue and white cloud fabric.

Will back 2I like this stained glass look where the sun brings the other colors through it.

Wills detailThe piecing and cutting were very quick, perhaps three hours.  The quilting, however, took around six hours.  There’s lots of it, in the ditches and through the block centers.  I used Superior Bottom Line in a pale blue on top and bottom.

Wills folded

The finished size is 36″ x 48″.  I always consider that the binding will take about 2″ off of each side of the design, so I usually add borders.  I didn’t this time, because I thought it was okay to cut off the edges of these Disappearing Four Patch blocks, and I think it works.

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


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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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Christmas Pillows Finished!

Pillows largeThese six Christmas pillow covers were really finished yesterday, but it has been pouring steadily for two days, so I just now got pictures of them.  It was still drizzling when I took them out to the wet bench for photos. They turned out very well, especially since they are for my own living room.  I made a few mistakes, and learned a new technique, so it was a good project.

Pillows backYou can’t see this zipper, can you?

New technique:  I used this tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew for inserting a covered zipper into the backing.  (I heard about this recently from someone else on a blog, but I can’t remember who’s Ah, is was Jacquie, from Tall Grass Prairie Studio. Just look at her beautiful pillows! Thank you!)  It worked really well, especially after the first one.  I was able to assembly line the last five covers and achieve a very nice look in no time.  I liked this much better than the velcro I’ve used before.  I had some trouble with the 1/4″ Steam-A-Seam2 Double Stick Lite Fusible Web.  It was supposed to be sticky to stick to the project before ironing, but it wasn’t at all.  The web kept separating from the paper backing and it was a little fussy to use.  Also, the cat was very attracted to these slender, curly strips I was trying to work with.  It was worth the fuss, and I got better at it, and it really made the zippers go in easily.  I will use it again.

Pillows greenMistakes:  The red and green strips showed through the Kona Snow.  I only noticed this after the tops were quilted.  They were actual strings, with frayed edges.  In the future, I will trim these edges and check the pieced top carefully for any seams that are showing through.  Live and learn.

Urbana-20121208-00514Also, I’m used to shaping the corners of pillow covers by trimming 1/2″ from each corner, tapered on back to the middle on each side.  This works great with home dec covers to keep the points on the corners from being too “pointy” and sticking out.  I think it was the fact that these covers were quilted that caused this not to work so great. They’re just a little wonky, but look fine on the couch.  Next time I will just sew them square.  These covers were sewn right sides together, then machine bound like a quilt.  I much prefer this to covering cording, inserting it, then turning the pillows, which I’ve done for years.  I like this method and this look.

Pillows red and greenNot a mistake:  Even though I pre-wash all my fabric, I still thought that all that red and white could be trouble.  I washed the covers with two Color Catchers, and I’m very glad I did.  I have six nice clean pillows and two very pink Color catchers.

Pillow green insideSo my living room looks better for Christmas.  What are you working on for yourself?

I’ll go ahead and link this up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.


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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.