Cherry House Quilts

Fabric time is here (sung to the tune of Christmas time is here)

Keeping with the Christmas theme, it was like Christmas time for me today!  When I got home, on my door step was a big box of fabric from my dearest friends at Robert Kaufman with Amy Schimler's newest fabric line On A Whim 2.  I'll tell you a little secret that Amy doesn't know; at our house we call her 'little Amy Shim Shim'.  Become friends with us, and your name is definitely in danger of being strangely modified. 

So here's a little peek, actually it's not a peek at all, it's the whole freaking quilt, who am I kidding here?  Hope you like it...the pattern will be out as soon as the quilt is done...I gotta get to work!

cheers,

Cherri

Modern Quilt Guild Phenomenon

Have you seen all of the Modern Quilt groups popping up all over the place?  It is something that I have been watching gain momentum for several months.  I first noticed it on the Flickr Fresh Modern Quilt Group, quilters asking other like minded quilters if anyone else in their areas were interested in getting together to quilt.  Alissa @ Handmade by Alissa seems to be the godmother of this marvelous occurence, with little baby groups sprouting up, not only all over the country; but around the world!

Just today over on Elizabeth's blog I saw her calling for quilters in Portland, and she had a link to the Modern Quilt Guild's website.  On the right hand side of the page, all of the set up guilds were listed, but no HOUSTON.  So, I did it; I bit the bullet and started one for Houston.  The thought of a new kind of supportive, do your own thing guild appeals to me; no quilt police allowed!!!

Here is the link to our Houston Group, we are brand new; just hours old.  If you are in Houston, or the surrounding area, please feel to sign up!  Any information regarding the group will be posted on this page.

Cherri

The best day by far

So far I have talked about the emotional, mental, and logistical trials of writing the book; but I have yet to talk about the very best day by far!  It was the day I shipped my quilts to C&T; May 16th to be exact.  Two days before the quilts had to be shipped, I still had 11 quilts to bind...can you believe it?  It wasn't a matter of procrastination, it was just a matter or not having enough time.  So each night I stayed up until about 2 in the morning sewing on bindings - is that terrible?  I've gotten very good at it.   At first I was horrified with the thought of sewn bindings, but I'll tell you what - I got over it quick!  Sewing on bindings is still a time consuming event, and I will never know how I got it all done.  I told my Mom that I thought sewing angels were helping me along the way.  She is convinced that it was all of my dearly departed sewing grandmothers were coming to my aid.  Either way, miraculously it got done. 

On the morning of the 16th my Mom arrived early, bring breakfast (thank you Mom), along with little scissors for snipping last minute threads and lint roller brushes.  I had cleared the living room of the furniture, and made sure the carpet was freshly vacuumed, laid down a clean sheet for extra protection, I threw the cats outside (gently), and banished Mickey to his little bed.  Even on the morning of the 16th I still had the last quilt to bind; that quilt is called City Play - I can't wait to show it to you, but it is definitely the pièce de résistance so I don't want to spoil the surprise.  By this time I was so brain dead I couldn't decide which color binding to use, so I let my Mom decide. 

As I brought each quilt downstairs, it went through the process of being gone over with the roller brush, and checked for loose threads...isn't it amazing, no matter how many times you check, you still miss threads?  As each quilt was finished it was laid in the center of the room.  Soon the process began of labeling, numbering and measuring each quilt.  As soon as this was done, each quilt was added to a master packing list for C&T's receiving process.  My best friend, Rich soon joined us in this packing task.  The two people I love best in the world (besides my children) were by my side, helping to make this dream a reality.  As I sat printing out photos, forms, packing lists, and everything else required, I looked up to see everyone working so hard on my behalf, and I was filled with gratitude, and pride for what had been accomplished.  Soon the quilts were being bagged, and packed into a huge cardboard box.  It was so big, we had to measure the car to make sure it would fit.  Soon we were on our way to FedEx to send this labor of love on it's way to California.  Rich wouldn't let me drive, he thought I was too giddy, and too sleep deprived to be trusted.  What an incredible relief it was to hand off those quilts.  I was beside myself for days after that...all I could think was, "I did it, it's done!".  What had seemed an enormous, impossible task, was now done.  In reality it was far from being done, there was still a long way to go before it was finished; actually it's still not quite finished - but close. 

It was such a good day, the best day ever I'm sure, until I actually get a copy of my book - I can't even imagine how that will feel.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me now, it was so hard to not be able to talk about the process, during the process; but I'm glad to be able to share it now!

This is bit of City Lot!

This time last year

Vacation is over, and it's time to get back to real life...I'm not ready, but it is time nevertheless.  Normally I do a end of the year review, but the end of the year got here so fast, I was hardly prepared.  If I had a chapter for each year in the book of my life, the title for 2009 would be called THE BOOK.  Writing CITY QUILTS  was an all consuming project...I could write a book, about writing the book.  I'm not sure how the process works for other people but for myself, for the most part it was a very solitary, isolated time. 

As soon as the girls headed back after Christmas to their respective lives in other states, the work began.  This time last year boxes began arriving from all over the country - fabric and batting filled my living room.  I remember the day 2 huge boxes arrived from Robert Kaufman, well over a 100 yards of Kona Solids in every color imaginable.  There are 12 quilts in the book, so I set up 12 cardboard boxes, labeled every box with the name of the quilt, and divided the fabric according to a master fabric list.  All around the living room boxes labeled with CITY names such as CITY SWEETS, CITY CIRCLE, CITY HARBOR; on and on they went.  I thought, "how will I ever make 12 quilts in 5 months?"  To this day, I still don't know how I did it, plus work a full time job, run Cherry House Quilts, as well writing the book on top of everything else.  It was a crazy intense time, I can hardly talk about my book without crying, not out of any particular emotion other than I poured my whole soul into making that book - it truly is the essence of me. 

My days began to have a regular pattern, I would go to work, come home, take care of the dog, get a bite to eat, and come up stairs to sew.  Pinecone would lie on my bed, Mickey would lie in his little bed near the ironing board, and Stella would lay on the fabric shelves.  My room, which at the time was my sewing room as well, was covered in fabric, quilts, plans, little plastic project folders for each quilt. The design wall was forever changing with each new quilt.

Here's a peek at City Aviation, one of the quilts in the book.  This is only half of the quilt, I can't wait for your to see it in it's full glory, the quilting by DeLoa Jones is incredible. 

As I said, it's time to get moving again, today I shipped off a quilt to Fon's and Porter for some issue of Easy Quilts magazine, look for the quilt called Bonneville, with beautiful batiks by Robert Kaufman.  Lots of new quilts and patterns due out soon!

May 2010 be wonderful for everyone of you!  I am so grateful for your kindness, support, and friendship.

love,

Cherri