Evening in the Garden Quilts

Adventures in Fabric Art

Tag Archives: Valerie Root


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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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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.


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Sunday Stash Report- That time already?

Don’t know where this week went.  I guess a lot of time was spent with the television looking at Hurricane Sandy, before, during, and now after.  Lot of misery and cold going on out there.  And, of course, the campaign coverage, Presidential visit here (I didn’t go), and lots of discussion going on.

Anyway, not enough sewing to effect the stash.  I used about 4 yards to make this top, but I’ll count it when it’s all finished, maybe tomorrow.

This week: 0 yds. added,  0 yds. used

YTD:  +114 yds., -192.5 yds.

Used 2012: 77.5 yds.

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times.

Here’s to a more productive week, but I’m sure there will be election drama, too.


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Little Rock, Arkansas: History and Art Quilts

We stopped in Little Rock to see Central High School.

I had taught about it for years, and it was amazing to stand on the steps where such a change began for our country.  It is a truly beautiful building which should be preserved regardless of its history, and it is still an active high school, so tours are by appointment only.  Across the street, the National Parks Service maintains a small but excellent Visitor Center with great audio/visuals of the events that occurred there.  All so peaceful now.

A wonderful surprise was a display at the Visitor Center of a number of quilts by an artist new to me, Sabrina Zarco.  The exhibit is called “American Spring:  A Cause for Justice Quilt Exhibition”. 

I found these two quilts especially arresting.

I love that she made this one from a vintage tablecloth (thought I was the only one who did that).

I’m told all the quotations are things that have been said to her.

Great embellishment.  Buttons!

These are nine patches, with paint and stenciling over top, besides the large “applique”.

We had lunch downtown in their River Market District, then continued toward home.


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Bloggers’ Quilt Festival Fall 2012

Wow, I had a hard time choosing my favorite quilt to enter in this show.  I really like several of the things I’ve made this year.  In fact, I started a post on “Windflowers” before I realized that this was my favorite.  For today.

This is “Ocean Breezes”, made in early July.  It’s made from 176 HSTs, in a variety of textured fabrics.

I wanted that breezy, summer, beachy feel, so I used several seer suckers and an embellished white cotton that had pin tucks and rick rack .

This was my first foray into fabrics like these for quilting.  They were stretchy and finicky, but we got along all right, and everything came out square enough in the end.

The pale yellow back was hard to photograph.  I pieced it with a strip of seer sucker.

I quilted this entirely with white Bottom Line by Superior Threads.  I stablized the lines between all the blocks first, then did the diagonals in one direction only.  I’m very pleased with the alternating wavy lines.  My favorite comment from a viewer:  “I can feel the breezes!”

The best part about Ocean Breezes is its new home.  It was purchased by a woman who had an antique family quilt in aqua and white (unusual, I think, she sent me a picture), and she felt that this one was meant to come home to be with hers.  I couldn’t be happier.

Ocean Breezes

48″ x 66″

Machine pieced, machine quilted by Valerie Root

Best categories:  Throw quilt; Home machine quilted

Linking up to the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival 2012 at Amy’s Creative Side


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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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Greetings from Marathon, Texas!

Sitting here in the lobby on the historic (1929) Gage Hotel in tiny (pop. 430) Marathon, Texas, using their wifi to post this.

We left San Antonio this morning on the way to Big Bend National Park.  San Antonio is a beautiful and friendly place, and here are some images.  Sorry, these are just phone photos.  It’s a city full of textures and patterns.


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Greyhound Station, Blytheville, Arkansas

In spite of the sign, this station was not “open”,  but someone was working in the back in the “Main Street”  office.

This art deco gem was built in 1939.  It’s on the National Register of Historic Places, and believed to be one of just three left.

Such an amazing and functional building, with its wide overhangs, neon sign, and tiny, perfect lunch counter inside.

The underside of the overhangs was even stamped with quilting designs!


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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!