Evening in the Garden Quilts

Adventures in Fabric Art

Tag Archives: fabric


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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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Sunday Stash: After the Vacation

Obviously, no sewing was done in the last three weeks, so nothing was used that way.  And, yes, I did make Hancock’s of Paducah my last stop… so there’s no net use to report.

Still, these are good purchases, don’t you think?  I mostly stuck to my list, and stayed on my budget.

The lovely pile of Kona solids came from a discounted bin of remnants (they are generous about what is a remnant there!). 

The rest (mostly batiks, also from a discount table) are great neutrals and blues I need for a prospective quilt.  No regrets here.

To help the numbers a little, I decided that this would be a good time to donate some  large pieces of fabric that are neither pretty nor first-quality, and will never get used by me.  Someone else can have a stab at them.

This week:  12 yds. added, 7 yds. donated

YTD:  +114 yds., -192.5 yds.

Used 2012: 77.5 yds.

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times.


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Quilt Fabric on the Hoof, er, on the Plant!

It was unseasonably cold when we left Ohio Monday morning, and we passed many frosty fields.  When we arrived in Missouri, the fields again looked frosty, but they turned out to be frosted with ripe cotton.  We have traveled in cotton country before, but never in the fall.

I’m used to corn lining the roads at home, but here and all through Arkansas, there were acres and acres of cotton in various stages of harvest.

In some fields, the effects of the drought were evident, with sparse crops.

Still, they seemed to be harvesting a lot, some in these huge rectangular bales, and some in large round bales that were each wrapped in bright yellow plastic.  Rail cars waited on sidings and trucks hauled bales around.

When we stopped to take these pictures, I felt the “lint” on the plants.  It reminded me of wool:  soft and a little greasy.  Of course, I was thinking about all the quilt fabric this could produce, but I forgot that cotton seed meal and oil are important parts of the crop.  Anyway, this is one of the places where our beautiful fabric gets its start!


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Sunday Stash Report: Progress!

Finally used some fabric!  Well, I’m always using fabric, but I wait until a project is finished to count it.  The Blue and Gold Cabins quilt was all from stash, which tells you something about my stash.  More importantly, it used two rather difficult pieces of fabric.  I loved those wild blue and gold prints when I bought them, but they were on the verge of becoming large (2 yard pieces) stash dogs.  In this quilt, they are not just “okay”, they are perfect for this recipient.  Now they’re happy and I’m happy, and I feel like counting them double, but I won’t.

Recently, Judy was saying that she uses the yardage calculations from her EQ7 designs to calculate stash usage.  Somehow, this hadn’t occurred to me!  I guess I always assumed the estimate would be too high.  I took a look at it this time, compared it with my guesstimate on yardage for the top, and found it to be pretty close (with the large, straight pieces and limited fabrics in this quilt, it was fairly easy to figure).  What about you?  Do you find EQ estimates to be close?  How do you measure your fabric usage?

This week:  0 yds. in, 9.5 yds. used

YTD:  + 102 yds, -185.5 yds.

Net used in 2012:  -82.5 yds.

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times.