Evening in the Garden Quilts

Adventures in Fabric Art

Tag Archives: Evening in the Garden


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WIP Wednesday: Spring Hangings, take II

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Monday I cut, sewed (not really pieced), and sandwiched two 12″ x 24″ spring wall hangings for my Etsy shop.  Yesterday I quilted them, trying to make the designs I’d drawn on the spring prints pop by surrounding them with dense quilting.  This so did not work.  I practiced some new filler stitches, so it wasn’t a complete waste of thread and time, but one is a wadder for sure.  (Do quilters use the term “wadder”, as in wad it up and throw it away?  I think I picked that up from Carolyn at Diary of a Sewing Fanatic.  She sew garments, but you haven’t seen stash till you’ve seen her stash!)  I know, we so seldom throw anything away, reusing blocks and pieces, but this is a heavily quilted little thing.  I might save a little of the border fabric, but then it’s going out.

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The other one I worked on with a green permanent marker (Bic Markit in key lime-  anyone have any experience with these?).  I may finish it.   We’ll see.

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So, yesterday I fused and appliqued shapes to new backgrounds and am starting the process over again, in a different direction.  Wish me luck.  The Wonder Under already fought with me yesterday.  I am not in a very springy mood!

 

I’m linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Maybe I’ll feel better after I see what everyone else is working on!


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Design Wall Monday: My Bed Quilt Top

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Last spring I gathered a jelly roll of “Nicey Jane”, a few stash fabrics, and lots of Kona “Bluebell” to make a queen sized quilt for our bedroom.

Nicey-Jane Quilt Design

I designed it on EQ7.  Since I hate to quilt huge quilts, I  planned it to be made in two pieces and put together when nearly finished.  I got the first half of it together, then ran out of Bluebell.  While waiting for more to arrive, I guess summer intervened and this went to the back burner.  Way back.  I put it on my March “Getting it Done” list, so I dug it out to finish.

Nicey border

So hard to figure out what you were doing on a stone cold quilt!  I had to remake a couple of blocks, but they’re all together now, so I just have to add the borders.  I am not completely happy about the borders.  They are all cut, and they will look nice with my green bed.  Probably they will be fine.

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Here’s the view from my studio this morning.  It’s very beautiful, but it’s time for spring.  Birds keep stopping by my dogwood tree.  I think they are looking for nesting sites.  It would be nice to sew with a family outside my window.

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


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Sunday Stash Report and March-a-Long 3/24/13

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Yes, there’s more fabric!  Fourteen yards, to be exact.  But it was all on sale, and mostly nice basics that I need.  Besides, remember that I had to buy some so that I didn’t make my goal of 100 yards too early.  The Pink and Gray quilt used 7.75 yards, all from stash, so it’s really like I only bought 6.25….

 

This week:  +14 yards,  -7.75 yards

YTD:  +35.75 yards,  -90.5 yards

Net stash used in 2013:  -54.75 yards

How are you doing on destashing?

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Yes, Darla, I’ve sort of been marching along this week.  There were a couple of days when I got no sewing done, but I wrote a blog post, sent Frances some fabric, photographed quilts, etc.  I must have logged some hours, because I did make the pink and gray quilt, so you can tell I’ve been trying.  Keep it up, everyone!

I’m linking up to Sunday Stash on Patchwork Times and March-a-Long at The Scientific Quilter.


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Finish It Up Friday: Pink and Gray Donation Quilt

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With the 4 x 4 pink, gray, and white blocks completed, this quilt went together quickly, and the solid gray offered a good place for some fun quilting.

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It’s all from stash, and a lot of 2 1/2″ scraps from many previous projects that were fun to revisit.  I made the blocks back in December or January when I was unfocused and needed some mindless piecing to keep me moving forward.

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I knew the fuscia hand dyed fabric was the right design choice for the binding, but I was pretty nervous about it bleeding, even though it had been prewashed.  I used three Color Catchers when I washed it, but didn’t have a bit of bleeding, so that was a relief.   (Reused those C C s later to prewash newly arrived fabric, and they picked up some dye there.)  It’s actually two different pieces of hand dye, but we won’t tell, will we?  This binding was a lot easier to photograph than the one on my last quilt, so I took photos as I did it for the machine binding tutorial.

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This quilt has no current destination.  I wanted, for once, to have a quilt ready made for the next quilt drive or disaster, so now I do.

I’m linking up to Finish It Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts.  (Check this out, I’ve met a lot of fun people over there!)


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WIP Wednesday: Pink and Gray Donation Quilt

WIP Wed

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This quilt was started in January, I think, inspired by Jaye’s donation blocks at Artquiltmaker.  It is on my March Getting It Done list, so I dug the blocks out this week and set them together.  The solid blocks are Kona Ash and a gray batik.

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Quilting all the diagonal lines through the 2 1/2″ squares was a bit tedious, but the free motion flowers and leaves went quickly and were lots of fun.  The thread is Sulky variegated pink rayon, 943.

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Now for labeling and binding!

What are you working on?

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


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Sunday Stash Report and March-A-Long 3/17/20

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Fabric was ordered this week, but has not yet arrived, so my numbers look good.  The Sultry quilt took 7.25 yards, and was my only finish this week.

 

This week:  +0, yards -7.25 yards

YTD:  +21.75 yards,  -82.75 yards

Net stash used in 2013:  -61 yards

 

How are you doing with destashing?

 

 

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March-A-Long

I sewed every day this past week, except for Friday, but I did make a quilt-related blog post that day.  I would guess that I averaged two hours per day sewing time.  Thank you, Darla, for marching us along!  Know you’ve been hard-pressed for sewing time this week, hope you find some time soon.

Linking up with Sunday Stash Report on Patchwork Times, and March-A-Long at The Scientific Quilter.


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Finish it up Friday: Sultry

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The “Sultry” fabric quilt is finished, and it sure is girly-girl!  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s a little different for me.  This quilt turned out light and bright and pink and lime, and perfect for a girl of any age, I think.  It doesn’t have an intended recipient, so it will be available in my Etsy shop.

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48″ x 72″

Made almost entirely, front and back from Moda’s Basic Grey “Sultry”, with just a few stash additions, including the aquas, which I think perk it up and save it from being too sweet.  This is an old fabric line.  I said 2010 before, but now I’m thinking 2009.  I didn’t quite manage to use up my stash of it, so it may be popping up again.  Some of the prints are really pretty.

Quilted with a diagonal grid on the body of the quilt, and hearts in the border triangles.

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What have you finished?

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


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WIP Wednesday: Quilting Sultry

WIP Wed

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Feels like I’ve been quilting this “Sultry” fabric quilt all week.  I like the look of straight line quilting, but it takes forever.  This seems even longer, because I thought I was finished with the lines, and then I added more.  Like, double.  I had a grid quilted that was twice as large, but kept comparing it with the way I want to quilt the borders, fairly densely, and there was a big discrepancy.  I think fairly even quilting is a good thing, where possible.  This will not be equally dense, but at least there will be twice as much as there was.  If I ever finish.

What are you working on?

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


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Design Wall Monday: Sultry Quilt

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I finished the quilt top made from a broken layer cake of Moda’s Basic Grey “Sultry” plus some pink (Candy?) and Azure Kona.  The  border has some Kona Snow, some Grunge,  some kind of white-on-white from my stash and Sultry yardage.  This is honestly the only layer cake I’ve ever bought (in 2010), and I’m not in a hurry to buy more.  It was irresistibly beautiful in the shop, but really there are just too many prints and colorways to look good in most quilts.  There are some funky little 4-patch units in here left from my first attempt to use this fabric.  I have no idea where I was going with that, but I stuck them in here.  This came from a shop called Threadbear in Las Vegas, New Mexico.  It was a really great shop with tons of modern fabric, and I remember spending a lot of money there.  Unfortunately, I don’t find any information for them past 2011, so I’m afraid my purchases weren’t enough to keep them afloat.  Does anyone have any info about Threadbear?

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Here are fabrics I auditioned  for binding.  I chose this aqua and brown Alexander Henry print.  Wow, is it ever finely wovern and crisp!  Fun to work with, and I have just enough.

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I don’t usually mark the quilting design before I sandwich, but I felt like it this time.  I’ve really written all over this.  Thank goodness for Crayola Washable Markers.

What’s on you design wall?

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


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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.