Cherry House Quilts

Quick Stella Story

This morning as I was leaving my room I found a rechargeable battery on my floor...I couldn't figure out how on earth it got there, the last time I had them they were on the computer desk.  As I left my room I found another one in the hall - then it dawned on me, Stella brought the batteries to my door, and managed to actually roll one underneath.  My sweet kitty Stella, she takes her job of delivering my mislayed objects so seriously.  I think about the logistics of what she accomplished.  First fishing those batteries, one at a time from the desk, carrying them up the stairs one at a time, then rolling it under the door.  Poor tired kitty - she must have worked all night.  Well, she does get plenty of rest sleeping on my quilting projects.

Be sure and leave a comment about your favorite quilting style or technique in order to enter our free book giveaway.  Our drawing will be on Sunday...then we will announce our next two books to be given away!

Happy Wednesday...we've made it 1/2 way through! 

To Lizzy with love

If you wonder why Stella was leaving it's because Mick just jumped on the bed.  Pet Relations just isn't the same without you.  The only reason they semi cooperated is because I'm the Mother, but alas not a dog or cat whisperer.  Pinecone regretfully declines having her photo taken due to the fact that she is feeling a little chubby in her winter coat.

Tomorrow I'll try to capture on film the elusive Stella and the Red Pencil...sounds like some kind of exotic Nancy Drew type tale (or should I say tail...ha ha).

Binding Time

It's binding time...the machine quilting is all done on the new quilt, the binding is made, attached, and I'm down to the hand sewing.  Normally when I'm sewing, or machine quilting I face away from the TV, so I do lots of listening, but during binding time I actually get to watch TV.  Stella does feel that it is her opportunity to hide under the quilt, and steal my thread, scissors, and needle threader.  That's okay though, she's my girl.

Let's see, this is what I've been able to catch up on...

• Shakespeare in Love
• Sophie's Choice
• reruns of Frasier (I love David Hyde Pierce / Niles)
• reruns of Simply Quilts

DVR is a fabulous thing don't you think?  I have another night of hand sewing, so tonight I think I'm going to watch something with Robert Redford (sigh) what a dream!  Maybe Three Days of the Condor...great movie.  A couple of other great movies I love to sew to are Long Hot Summer (Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward), and Next Stop Wonderland (Hope Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman).  I'm working on a series of quilts for a book, and I've sewn all of them to Next Stop Wonderland.  I can't hear the music from the movie now without thinking of those quilts.  It's interesting isn't it how sounds, and smells are like a time stamp in our mind. 

Happy Sewing!

Technical difficulties

I'm working on the latest pattern for Cherry House Quilts, which I am really excited about!  It combines big ol' Kaffe Fassett florals, geometrics, and solids in a surprising way.  Using the walking foot for this quilt is a great option, but sewing around my cat Stella is proving a little difficult.  It's a good omen if Stella likes my quilts, she has excellent taste, and so her laying them, in my mind is sort of an honor.  But while I'm in the middle of quilting, that is a bit much.  Definitely not the first time though. 

Weekend Update

Busy, busy weekend, getting Melissa ready to leave for college, a birthday dinner for my BFF, a last minute visit from Becky and baby Alton, and a game of tug of war between Stella and Mickey...

Stella was hiding under the armoire, Ashlee dangled a bit of ribbon across her paw to get her interested, then she gave the ribbon to Mickey who worked hard to get it from her death grip - but alas, Mick caved, Stella won!!!

Ashlee and baby Alton

Melissa and baby Alton

Stella's delivery service

Well Stella is at it again...trying to right the world's wrong, one item at a time.  Ashlee came home from India for one day, enough to unpack, repack, and get a little sleep before hitting the road again.  She left a bag of stuff on the fireplace, and Stella felt it her sworn duty to return these items to their rightful owner.  The problem is that Ashlee's been gone so long that Stella couldn't remember were she sleeps, so all of the items that needed to be returned to her were put in the middle of the hall; she probably thought that it was safest this way.  She returned a bungee cord, a small eye shadow container, a pen...as she delivers these items she comes to my bedroom door, and says the equivalent (very loudly): Hhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, I brought you something, hhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyy, just thought I'd let you know, I took care of this for you.  Once she was done delivering Ashlee's things, then she started delivering things for me.  A canning jar lid (?), and other misc. objects.  Every time she brings something, she let's me know...poor kitty, she must think we are so silly as to be leaving things lying around the house, and thank goodness she is here to keep it all straight for us.

I'm heart broken over the miners trapped in Utah - my prayers go out to the miners, rescuers, and their families.

Stella and the Scarf

Lizzy loves Stella, they are great friends.  Everyone was a little surprised when I picked Stella out myself... all of the girls being in Idaho at the time.  They said, "you got a cat without us?".  I did it - I needed a cat, Stella needed a home, and Pinecone needed a friend.  Lizzy and I talk on the phone ALL of the time, if a day goes by that we don't talk, the world seems slightly off balanced.  When Lizzy calls I give her Stella updates, and when I told her of Stella's love of wool, she just laughed and laughed.  When I told her about the purse, she thought it was amazing.  When Lizzy and Ashlee came home for Christmas, they were so excited to see all of the cats.  The girls sort of live out of their suitcases for the time that they are home.  Clothes and paraphernalia are piled everywhere, an explosion seems to occur, once the suitcases are opened.  Lizzy has this perfect green (her favorite green) wool scarf that she loves from the Gap.  The scarf began appearing at my door every morning.  Of course, my first thought is that Lizzy is dropping her clothes in the hall.  I ask her about it, and she didn't have a clue what I was talking about.  She looks at the scarf, and knows that Stella has been carrying it around at night, and notices that she has chewed a hole in it.  Lizzy decides to get tricky, and puts the scarf in the bottom of the suitcase, with everything else piled on top.  Next morning, everything has been removed from the suitcase, and the scarf is once again at my door.  No matter what Lizzy did, Stella would find the scarf, and bring it to me.  What a loyal kitty!

 

Stella and the Purse

The incredible, but true story of Stella and the purse.

Stella loves wool - all kinds, in any form; Stella also believes that all wool products ultimately belong to me, whether they actually do or not.  She feels it is her sworn duty to delivery nightly all wool items to my bedroom door - no matter where they are located, either in the house, or the garage.

Lizzy and I designed a wool purse, from recycled wool.  We cuts strips, and attached them to heavy interfacing cut to the shape of the purse, then stitched down the strips with decorative stitching.  I lined the purse, attached a closure,   and called it done.

Lizzy and Ashlee went back to school, so Melissa become the temporary owner.  Stella decided that the purse needed to be returned to me.  Every morning I would find the purse at my bedroom door.  At first I asked Melissa if she didn't like the purse, and was she returning it to me.  She said, "No, I never put it there".  Over the next few days I would find various objects on the stairs, and again, the purse at my door.  I said, "Melissa, why did you drop all of your stuff on the stairs?"  She said, "I didn't do that, that's the stuff from my purse".  Soon we started to get suspicious, who was doing this?  What was going on?  Could it be the cats?  As a test, Melissa put the wool purse (full of stuff) in her large school bag.  The next morning all of the stuff was dumped from the wool purse, the school bag was open, and the wool purse was once again at my door in the morning.   Early morning Melissa couldn't sleep so she decides to go downstairs, and who does she meet coming upstairs with a purse in her mouth?  STELLA. 

Stella stories part 1

The day that we got Stella, she was less than happy.  She was angry, hiding, hissing, and was having nothing to do with us.  By day three she was starting to come around.  She was becoming less cautious, and a little more adventuresome.  Things were definitely improving.  Melissa's little cat Pinecone came into my room, and jumped on my bed.  I said, "Pinecone, where is Stella?  Go get Stella".  Pinecone jumped off of my bed, left the room and ran downstairs.  Not five minutes later, there was Stella, with Pinecone in tow.   True story! 

Next time...Stella and purse

Tips from a dyslexic quilter

Calling all dyslexic quilters...

I'm not sure how many quilters this affects, but it is a real issue for me.  The number of times that I've been ready to throw in the towel over my dyslexic mistakes are too numerous to count.  Rows sewn in the wrong direction, patchs turned upside down...needless to say, my seam ripper and I are good friends.

Here's a suggestion for pressing seams when putting your quilt top together.  When I have all of my components on the design wall, and I'm ready to start sewing the rows and/or columns together I use a simple straight pin at the top of the column pointing in the direction that I need to press my seams.  I point the pin up or down depending on which way I need to press.  When I get to the ironing board, I know what to do, and I don't have to try to remember what I'm suppose to be doing.  This worked really well for City Scapes, not every row had matching seams, but where they did, they butted up perfectly.

Here's my kitty Stella...she's my sewing partner.  She's a Hurricane Katrina kitty from New Orleans.  The girls say that she has cookie dough paws.  I think Lizzy is going to write a book about all of Stella's adventures, and quirks...many of them involving wool. 

It's almost Friday - hooray!