Cherry House Quilts

Peter Rabbit Quilt/Quilt #6

Hi Friends!  We are at #6 in the One Mountain, Ten Quilts series.  I love that everyone is now referring to them as the "Mountain Quilts", I really do love it!  I should explain that these quilts are not numbered in the order that I made them, only in the order I have presented them.  Actually this was one of the first that I made, you can tell because there were still big pieces of fabric available, and full length strips! 

Everyone is probably aware of how the center sections are made, but I'll review just in case you are unfamiliar.  The first time I saw this done on Simply Quilts, I thought it a life changing moment!!! What a great method for creating an Around the World type of block:

• All of the center sections units were made with strips 2" x WOF
• Sew 5 strips together, press all seam allowances in the same direction
• Fold the fabric lengthwise in half, right sides together, and sew to create a long tube
• With a rotary cutter cut 2" sections the entire length of the tube - in teaching I call this the frozen cookie dough method.
• Determine the fabric you want to run diagonally in the center, then unstitch one of the two 2" units so that the corner fabric is in the correct position.
• Continue to do this with the next 4 strip sections, unstitching at the next join to keep the fabrics in the correct order
• Press the unstitched seam allowances flat
• Pin the units together by two's, and sew, continue to complete the block
• Ta da...before you know it, you have a bunch of beautiful blocks that look like they took forever to make, but were really done in a fraction of the time

Here's a close up of the center section:

A few more details about the quilt that I normally forget until after I have posted...

• Quilt Size 38 x 38
• I'm not sure if you can tell by the photo but quilt is quilted, and was bound in yellow, the same as the back of the quilt, but I hated the binding, so I cut it off, and now I have to start over.  Green I think...yes / no??? 

Until next time, Happy Weekend!

Cherri

Fruit Stripe Gum Quilt Love

Fruit Stripe Gum Zebra
Originally uploaded by Waffle Whiffer

I'm feeling all of the love for the Fruit Stripe Gum Quilt, and I just have to say "thank you, thank you, thank you!" I feel like Sally Fields when she said, "You like me, you really, really like me", but in this case it's the quilt you like! I'd hope you'd like it, I'd hoped it would make you as happy as it makes me. So many of you guys have left comments about remembering fruit stripe gum, the scent, the song, the commercials, and the zebra. I found a couple of images on Flickr that I thought would be fun to share.

I'll be putting up photos of the next 'Mountain' quilt soon. I don't have a name for it yet; it's just quilt #6 for now.

 

Fruit Stripe Gum Quilt / Quilt #5

Here's is the quilt that I kept talking about...I love this quilt, I think it is so fun!  It's totally the fruit stripe gum quilt to me; do you think the Wrigley corporation will come after me for calling it that?  Hope not.  Can you think of a better name?  I'm open to all suggestions.

A few things about this quilt

• Again, these blocks are sewn on to non-fusible/non-woven interfacing.  Can you imagine trying to deal with all of those bias edges? 
• I used a flip and sew method to create the blocks
• What unites the block?  The use of the same color family throughout the block.  You can use quite a bit of leeway in this, just make sure they are in the same family.
• What unites the quilt?   The consistent use of white throughout.  All kinds of whites, many white on white scraps were used.

Here's a close up of a section

 See that yellow stripe right above, with the bunny?  That is a leftover from my son's baby quilt I made before he was born.  Five quilts down in my One Mountain, Ten Quilts project; five more to go...I hope you are enjoying this adventure.  It's been fun sharing these quilts with you!

Happy Friday,

Cherri 

Revisiting City Blocks

Lately there has been a great deal of interest in our City Blocks Quilt Pattern - lots of Internet searches for it, and sales of the pattern.  It's funny how these cycles work, I'm never sure what drives them, but I'm all for it!  This is such a great pattern, absolutely fab for big bold prints that are too lovely, or special to chop up in little bits.  It's also great for getting your toes wet in regards to working with solids, if this is something that is new to you.  Just think of all of the new lines of fabric that are out right now that would be perfect for this pattern...I think I'll need to make one with Red Letter Day as soon as I can get my hands on some of Lizzy's new fabric!  The only problem with our City Blocks quilt is the unholy war between Lizzy and Ashlee for this quilt...Lizzy says that it should belong to her because she picked out most of the fabric, Ashlee says it should belong to her because she loves it so, I say, "I made it, I'll keep it", that generally slows the argument down for a little while. 

So which new fabric line would you use to make City Blocks?  If you've made City Blocks we'd love to see your photos.  The City Blocks Quilt Pattern is available in our Pattern Store.

 

On a personal note...thank you for all of your sweet, encouraging comments about my One Mountain, Ten Quilts Series.  I'm grateful that you've been following along, and I'm so excited to share the rest of the quilts with you!  I think you are really going to love the Fruit Stripe Gum quilt. 

Children's Lit. or Quilt #4

Quilt Size 37 x 51  Picking my favorite quilt from the One Mountain, Ten Quilt series has to be like picking a favorite child.  Maybe the one you are with at the moment is your favorite.  For the moment, this is my fav!  Lizzy and Ashlee helped me named this quilt Children's Lit. because they thought it looked like leaning books on a shelf.  On a side note if you ever need anything named, ask Lizzy - she has mad, crazy naming skills.  We had a dog named Olive, but before she decided on Olive; it was going to be Potato...ask her sometime about the names of Peppermint's litter of kittens - a blog worthy post in and of itself. 

Back to quilts - I seemed to have caused a great deal of confusion in regards to my fondness for sewing on lightweight, non-fusible, non-woven interfacing.  I've taken a picture to help better demonstrate my use of the interfacing.  This is a photo of the back of the quilt top.  The rows are 37" L X 6" W, and I've sewn the scraps, strings, and some wedges to the long, narrow piece of interfacing.  I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem to not sew on it, I just like not having any issues with bias edges; or with the stability of tiny 3/4" strips of fabric.  Not to mention the stability it adds when sewing multiple weights of fabric in the same quilt.  The scraps in this quilt include really thin cotton, flannel, and these cool nubby fabrics Moda put out for a while that were heavier than normal cotton.  This helps everyone play together, better!

I really do love this quilt, because it has fabric straps leftover from sewing for my children when they were small.  I had 3 daughters within 4 years, so for a long time they all wore similar sizes.  One summer I made 6 tops, 6 skirts, and 6 shorts as sets - one of each piece from six different fabrics.  They were all coordinated, and they could all be interchanged.  It really was brilliant for them being able to have something different to wear everyday.  Little bits of these fabrics are in this quilt top, as well fabrics from the first "real" quilt I made for Lizzy for her 7th birthday.  See this sashing strips between?  Those were leftover from quilt #2...these quilts are all so interconnected.     What's the next quilt in the series???  The Fruit Stripe Gum Quilt - I know I have to think of another name, but that's what it looks like to me!

Okay friends...it's back to sewing for me,

Cherri 

Sneak Peak of a Fons & Porter Ad

Check it out baby... How cool is this?  I'm so excited, I've never been part of an ad before!  Plus - here's a bonus - in this issue I'll also have a quilt pattern using Hey Sugar, by my favs at Cosmo Cricket!

To buy a copy of our I Do Quilt Pattern

Okay...I'll back in a day or two with my next scrap quilt in my One Mountain, Ten Quilts project.

Cherri 

Check out Quick Quilts Magazine!

                Hey Friends!  Have you seen the latest copy of Quick Quilts Magazine - page 22 to be exact?  If not, go check it out!  If you do, you'll find my quilt Gilded Asian Elegance.  I think it looks just perfect in the setting.  If you are looking for a quick, but elegant quilt, this may be the one!  The fabric is from Robert Kaufman's Imperial Fusion Collection, and the pattern is a play on Chinese Coins, in our Cherry House Quilts style.

In October when I was working on this quilt, I fell in love with my walking foot all over again.  The quilting on this is minimal, but with this glorious, rich fabric, that was all that was needed.

Have a great weekend,

Cherri

Some tips about scrap quilting

Hi Quilty Friends,

I've received lots of comments and emails about how to get started on a scrap quilt, so I thought I'd address some questions here...

From Shannon:

Q: Is this a pattern or do you just make it up as you go? I would love to use up my scraps, but have no idea where to begin with it.

and Gail:

Q: I have LOTS of scraps but I am like Shannon - do you have a pattern or how do you start?

A: There is no pattern, just a sew & go, make it up as you go along kinda quilt.

I'll go through some of the steps that work for me and see if I can help a little.

• SUPPLIES: Normal quilting supplies; your size favorite square ruler (mine's a 9 1/2" sq); non-fusible/non-woven interfacing
• COLOR: For my One Mountain, Ten Quilts project it was important that all of the scraps worked together, so that is how I organized the scraps.  It is important to have some order to your scraps in terms of color, so deciding a color palette, theme, or flavor is a good place to begin. 
• FABRIC: Sort your fabric by sizes; leftover strips make great string quilts, and little tiny pieces work great for crazy quilts
• BLOCK SIZES - make the block size manageable 6" to 10" is good
• FOUNDATION - I'm a huge fan of sewing on lightweight non-fusible/non-woven interfacing.  I use this for crazy style quilts or string pieced quilts.  It doesn't add any significant weight to the block, and it keeps everything orderly - especially those pesky biased edges.  Cut these foundation blocks to an inch+ larger then the finished size you have selected.  These blocks really draw up in the sewing/ironing process
• IRONING: Take care when ironing the interfacing - it will shrivel if it's too hot, so turn down the temp a little
• QUILT SIZE: Baby Quilt / Queen size quilt - any size will work; just keep making blocks til you run out of scraps.  More blocks equal more quilts!
• HOW TO UNIFY A SCRAP QUILT: There really is some magic to making a scrap quilt work; what appears totally random is usually organized chaos.  Again, group fabrics by color or theme; pick a unifying element such as a sashing, a repeated color throughout the quilt, something that will bring all of the various parts together - be consistent in this element.
• FLIP & SEW BLOCKS - I don't paper piece, but I think of the flip & sew method as paper piecing without all the hard work, and the numbers. 
• START SMALL (CRAZY QUILT BLOCKS): Start randomly sewing your tiniest bits of fabric together, create patches about the size of your palm.  Just keep making them up until you're sick of it, or you run out of those tiny bits. Trim these pieces so they have a clean edges all around.  Think of these as your center starting block.
• NEXT: Lay one of these prepared units (right side up) in the center of a foundation square.  Lay a second piece of fabric large enough to cover an edge (right side down), stitch, press out, and continue on until you have covered the entire block.
• TRIM: I love square rulers, and I have them in lots of sizes; trim your block using the appropriate ruler...ta da; you have a block!  Repeat, repeat, repeat!
• JOIN: Determine the size of your quilt, layout your blocks in a pleasing fashion; start sewing rows, until your quilt top is complete.

Before you know it, your mountain of scraps will become a heap of quilt tops!  Don't fret over these instructions - find out what works best for you, and go with it!  This is low tech sewing meant to be fun and relaxing!

Okay, ready to get start...GO!

Crazy Scrap Quilt - the center

Quilt#2 One Mountain; 10 quilts
Originally uploaded by cherry house quilts

This is a reference for some of the points discussed in "Some tips about scrap quilting". Click the Flickr link to see notes on the photo.

Quilt Three - One Mountain, Ten Quilts

 This has to be one of my favorite quilts in this series, somehow I managed to get several bits of fabric that came from clothing I made for the girls when they were little.  The blue bunny fabric was a jumper of Ashlee's, and some of the tiny flowers directly above were from a jumper for Lizzy.  Were jumpers the rage in the early 90's?  I made so many of them. 

This scrap quilt is about as basic as they get...I've made countless of these; but I did allow myself one for the One Mountain, Ten Quilts Challenge. 

What's great about this quilt...

• Super fast flip & sew quilt blocks - I used non fusible, non woven (NFNW) interfacing as a foundation for all of the blocks.  Using a foundation allows you to use any old wonky piece, regardless of the grain or bias
• Use up all sizes of scraps - large or small, it doesn't matter
• A good opportunity to practice your machine quilting!
• Also a good opportunity to use up all your leftover bits of threads - bobbins, almost empty spools, etc.
• Pretty mindless sewing; a good project for when you want to sew, but not think too hard (am I the only one who needs this kind of sewing?)
• Blocks - Cut the NFNW interfacing 10" square, trim completed block to 9.5" square
• Finished block size 9" square, quilt size 35" x 45"

        That rose applique in the center of the block - it was left over from another project, so I thought; why not elevate this little scrap quilt into something a little more special!

Is anyone game to join me in this wonderful recycling project?  If you have a bag of scraps, this could be the project for you!

Next time - Quilt #4 - a string pieced quilt