Evening in the Garden Quilts

Adventures in Fabric Art

Tag Archives: donation quilt


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Green Rail Fence Finish

IMG_2204This morning I finally put the binding on the chartreuse rail fence quilt.  I chose a medium blue (Kona, Candy Blue, I think) to bring out the blue in the prints.  I always use a 2″ binding, sewn to the back with a 1/4″ foot, then sewn to the front with a blind stitch. (Tutorial here. Yuri helps!)

IMG_2201bIMG_2203bIt washed up nice and cuddly, but I will need to lint roll it for a few pills.  I discuss quilting it here.  Again, yeah, Yuri helps.  What would I do without that cat?

IMG_2202bMy 20 year old DS (home from college) likes to lounge in my studio and offer opinions, and he was very positive about the colors in these donation quilts.  He often faults me for not using bright enough colors, and he thought these were great.  With any luck they will be as appreciated by the kids who receive them.

IMG_2200bFor me, this quilt takes me over the hundred yards net use of fabric mark, and it clears my stash of fabrics that have overstayed their welcome.  Win, win!

And I’m on to one final Christmas project, a t-shirt quilt for DH, with a fleece backing, so it won’t affect the numbers (I currently don’t expect to use fabric, there are so many shirts), but should be fun to sew on these days leading up to Christmas.

Hope you’re finishing everything you wish!  I’m linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.


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The Tulips are Finished!

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All done!  And successful.  I have to say that this is one of those quilts that I saw in my mind’s eye and was able to create the vision from fabric.  Yes, I got tired of looking at the pink, but it was the right choice.  I did use my design wall a lot, really changing around the position of the blocks, and enlisting input from the Twilters, but in the end I think it became a rich and inviting quilt.

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I think the two tulip prints worked together because they are the same scale and use different values of the same colors.

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The extra blocks and the rest of the lighter tulip fabric went on the back.  I did a really good job using up all of these two fabrics but for a few scraps.  My stash feels lighter.

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This is quilted in all the ditches with Bottom Line thread.  I did do the accent quilting with pale green King Tut, but I decided to mark it with wavy lines through every row of squares and quilt those lines with the walking foot.  I have two of these June Tailor rulers for various sizes of curves and scallops, and I use them a lot.

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Are you aware of how many shades of green fabric do not match this quilt?  I have two drawers of green fabric, and almost none of it was suitable for the binding.  I finally combined two pieces that look very similar, one darker than the other.  It doesn’t really look scrappy,  just shaded.

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I used a label cut with a little extra space at the bottom to write a message when I donate this quilt.  (Note to Universe:  no new disasters are needed just because I have a new quilt ready to donate.)

What did you finish this week?

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


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Finish it up Friday: Deep, dark donation quilt

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This is one of those quilts that is hard to photograph because of the contrast in the colors, but up close those rich, dark boxes are really very interesting, something someone can look at for a while.

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Some of the darks are brown and navy prints from the “Japan” line by Robert Kaufman.  I love them, but they never went with anything else.  The one with the gold overprinting is “Cultivated Cottons” from Andover.  There’s some “Madrona Road” orange in there, and a couple of In the Beginning fabrics I forgot to check before I cut up

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I’m happy with the way the back came out.  It’s very warm looking, with all those browns, but also very interesting.

IMG_1526IMG_1525The quilting…  I like what it did, but I wish it were a little more accurate.  It does give a lot of texture.  It also brings the aqua back into it and brightens it up.  I guess I am just used to using very fine, blending thread, so this looks pretty bold to me, but there it is.  All in all I’m happy with it.

I’m sending this off to Luanna’s 5000 quilts for Hurricane Sandy campaign.  I know it’s almost spring, but there’s still a lot of cold weather, and they keep running out of quilts.

I’m linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.