Cherry House Quilts

Quilts

Lizzy is working so hard on her BFA project, she can't see straight.  I'm working hard on one quilt after another for Cherry House Quilts, that everything becomes a bit of a blur.  So I unchained myself from my sewing machine and came downstairs for a gloriously cold Diet Coke.  On my way I saw my wall of quilts, and I was happy! 

Stella's here, I think we'll go visit for a while.

Fabric, glorious fabric

How I love fabric!  Growing up I spent a lot of time in fabric stores.  My Mom was an amazing seamstress; she could create anything.  She hasn't sewn in years, but everything I learned about sewing, I learned from her.  There was a local fabric store, and I think it must have been one of my favorite places to go.  The minute we walked in the store, I would breathe in that wonderful smell.  Then I would walk around the store, finding all the new fabric, and proceed to make my Mom come see it.  I must have been a pest, but I was a happy one. 

My love of fabric hasn't changed, or diminished.  The more fabric, the better.  I do have a failing though, sometimes I love a fabric so much, I forget that I already purchased it, so I come home with it again, and again.

Here's a sample of Melissa's quilt - an explosion of pink!

Precious Baby!

Look at this face!  I wasn't sure how I felt about becoming a grandma for the first time.  I adore babies and children, without reservation, but me a grandma?   My children are the most important people in the world to me.  They are the most fascinating, amazing people I know.  I created my best friends, but they grew up, and left to conquer the world.  And what is my reward???  Little baby Alton, the precious son, of my precious son.   What a gift!  Luke, Becky, and my little guy are coming to Houston in about 10 days, and I cannot wait.

My best girls

As I've been working on my latest quilt, I've been thinking about quilting...why I love it, why it means so much to me, why it means so much to my children.  I remember when I was about 8 or 9 and my Mom brought a package (I love that word) into the room I shared with my sister.  My Mom told my sister to open the box.  Inside the box was a quilt that my Grandma had made for her.  I thought that quilt the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  It wasn't fancy, it was just plain squares of what must have been left over fabric from sewing projects...but I loved it!  I asked my Mom why my sister had received it, and my Mom said that it was because my sister was the first grandchild.  I quickly did the calculation, knowing that I was the 5th grandchild, figuring my odds were slightly even for ever receiving a quilt myself ( I didn't).  But that's okay, because it instilled in me a love for quilts that has never gone away.   

My children all love quilts too...it's funny to watch them pick out their favorites, as they lay around watching movies, or just visiting with friends.  Even the friends have their favorites.  It can become quite territorial; everyone knows not to touch Lizzy's quilt if they want to live. 

Here's my best girls a few years back...Lizzy, my Mom, Melissa and Ashlee

Happiness for $1.13

Everyone has their favorite quilting tool right?  Your favorite ruler, the rotary cutter you are most comfortable with.  What about those non quilting items, that making quilting so much more efficient.   Something that I really love are index cards, I use them all the time.  Everytime I start a new project I have to have an index card.  I do all of my calculations on them... how many blocks, how much fabric, etc.  Sometimes I use them to jot notes, ideas, or progress of where I am on a project.  When the project is complete, I put the index card, along with fabric swatches in my quilt journal. 

The other day at the grocery store we were passing through the office supply aisle, and I remembered that I needed more index cards.  They had a package of 100 for $1.12, and a package of 300 for $1.13...what kind of craziness is that?  Needless to say, I went home with the package of 100, just kidding.

 

Here's a Stella update, I thought we had an agreement, I would sew, and she would keep me company as I completed our next quilt for Cherry House Quilts, and what do I find...her sleeping on the job!

I love my Stella!

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!

Hello!

I'm Cherri House, and I'd like to introduce myself.  I wanted Lizzy to do this for me, but she said I have to do it myself, because she's got to do her homework.  I can't believe that I'm blogging...I read tons of blogs, but I never imagined that I'd be doing this...how exciting!

Hopefully by now everyone's had a chance to see City Scapes, the first quilt from our new company Cherry House Quilts.  It was so exciting on Friday and Saturday to see everything coming together after so much work.  Lizzy and I were emailing, phoning, throughout both days, until she got it posted.  What a thrill to see it actually happen.  It seems silly in comparison to the accomplishments of so many others, but we had to start somewhere, and City Scapes is definitely the beginning. 

Real quick about myself, I'm a single Mom of four beautiful, amazing children.  First there is Luke, who is proudly serving in the Army, he and his wife Becky just had their first baby...precious baby Alton.  Then there is Lizzy - who you all know, did you enter her book contest?  If not, you should, her books are beautiful, actually everything she creates is beautiful, heck, she's beautiful!  Next is Ashlee, my song writing, guitar playing, band touring, currently platinum blond daughter; and last but not least Melissa.  Melissa just graduated from high school, in a few days she will be off to New York to work as a camp nurse for 6 weeks, then she will be off to BYU-Idaho with her sisters; and I will be home alone.  Hence the need to turn my quilting into something more than a hobby.  I've been quilting forever it seems, but in earnest since Luke was on the way.  How many of us started quilting that way? 

This is all so exciting, and I'm really looking forward all that is ahead.

Here's a close up of City Scapes...enjoy!

Here we are!

This will be our home for operations until the website is up in October.