Cherry House Quilts

Grandma's

In becoming a Grandma to my little baby Alton, my thoughts have continually turned to my Grandma...how much I loved her, how much I miss her.  I think about how much she meant to her children, to my cousins, to my children, and me.  I also think about my Mom, I think about how much I love her, and how grateful I am for all that she has taught me, and for all that she has done for me.  I think about how much she means to my children, how she will forever be the image of Grandma in their minds.  I came across a picture of my Grandma and Grandpa the other day and I thought I'd post...too cute!

Scraps - how I love them!

As I've said before, I love fabric, love it with all of my heart!  I have a problem with throwing fabric away...I just can't bear it.  Sometimes, if I have lots of a particular fabric, I can throw out the scraps; but the unique ones I'll hold onto until they are just completely used up.  There was a blank space on a wall that needed some art - we had a large canvas leftover from some project of Lizzy's.  I thought if I created large sheets of fabric with all my favorite little bits of leftovers, I could staple the sheet to the frame, and turn it into art!  Here's the result...

Caring for Your Introvert

Here's another article that I found of great interest... http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200303/rauch .  It's titled Caring for your Introvert.  It's amusing, as well as enlightening.  I too feel that I should stand up, introduce myself, and confess to being an introvert.  Depending on how well you know my family, you might find it hard to believe.  I'm Mother to four of the most outgoing performers you are ever likely to meet.  My children are always center stage, and they love it...I on the other hand, prefer nothing more than sitting in the back row, in the shadows.  Quilting has been good for me, it's helped me step out of the shadows, and into the light.  I love quilts, quilting, and quilters.  I also love fabric, and fabric stores.  I'm not too good with quilt guilds though; maybe you need to be an extrovert to thrive in the quilt guild world.  Starting Cherry House Quilts with Lizzy has been good for me too.  We have an exciting new pattern to introduce in the next couple of days.  We hope you will love it!

Two of my performers - Ashlee and Melissa

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!

 

Happy Baby

Well this past weekend was a joy because my little Alton came for a visit! 

   

Ashlee and baby Alton - too cute!

Next time...Stella and the scarf (Lizzy's scarf)

Check back soon - our first quilt pattern will be available for sale in the next few days. 

A Serious Look at Quilting

I take quilting seriously...it has saved my sanity on more than one occasion.  There have been personal trials that I could not have survived, had it not been for my family, my faith, and being able to loose myself in quilting.  There is a really interesting article in Find Articles.com entitled Negotiating Time and Space for Serious Leisure: Quilting in the Modern U.S. Home.  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3702/is_200601/ai_n16123553/print

This is a lengthy article, but if you have the time, it is definitely worth the read. 

Enjoy!

Cherri

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