Cherry House Quilts

You want it, you got it!

Hi quilty friends!

For some time you have been asking for detailed color information for all of our patterns.  Some patterns provide this, like The Sandpebbles, City Park, and City Scapes, others like City Fair encourage you to spread your designer wings and color it, as your heart desires. For some quilters this is perfect, for others, not so much.  In order to please everyone, all future patterns will contain as much detailed information as possible regarding fabric manufacturer, exact colors used, as well as placement. Our first quilt pattern in this new format will be House's House!

Thank you for your feedback, and for your continued support! 

How about another free pattern?  Can you tell I did a bunch of these when I first got started in the biz?  This is from the Cosmo Cricket's Halfway Cafe fabric line. I always thought this would be a great quilt for members of the military!  What fabric line would you use to make this quilt now? I'd love to know! Download Halfway Cafe 

Here are the winners of the Hey Sugar fabric drawing:

Pamela Davis

Sara @ One Silver Thread

Cathy - who said "Hey Sugar, Sugar You are my candy...(I barely remember that song)"

email me at cherryhousequilts at gmail dot com with your mailing addresses, and I will get your fabric out to you!

Thank you for entering our drawing, and thank you for all of the sweet things you said!

 Guess what? It's finally starting to feel like fall in Houston, Texas!!!  What a blessing...fall is definitely my favorite time of year!

Cherri

BEST HST CHARM SQUARE TRICK EVER!

Have you ever wanted to making something with HST (half square triangles), but hate actually making triangles?  I have the solution for you! A little trick I discovered after I completely, and almost irreversibly messed up a project I was working on. The problem was, I figured something out in theory, and cut out all my fabric based on that theory; but holy freaking cow, my theory was flawed!!!  What to do, what to do???  In my desperation to figure out a solution to save the fabric, I discovered something really cool...so in the end, it's all for the good; and now everyone wins!

Ready to try this? Okay, quick - go run and find two charm squares...I'll wait.  Have them in hand? You don't have any charm squares?  That's okay...what about two layer cake 10" squares?  How about two squares of equal size?  Ready?  Okay, what else?  Hot iron?  Sewing machine? Ruler? Thin pencil for writing on fabric? All your other quilting necessities? 

Let's go!

1. Take 2 squares, lay them right sides together, make sure they are perfect aligned
2. Fold these in half, press fold firmly
3. Open, refold in the other direction, press firmly on the fold, but DO NOT press out the previous crease
4. Open, place a pin in center to keep the unit from shifting
5. Using the fold lines as a guide, sew on the diagonal (corner to corner) on all four sides of the unit
6. Cut unit down the center, rotate 90 degrees, cut down the center - for 4 equal square units
7. Draw a line 1/4" from the sewing line (either side of the sewn line; it doesn't matter which side)
8. Stitch 1/4" from the drawn line
9. Cut units apart on the drawn line
10. Press units open
11. Pat yourself on the back...you just made 8 triangle units without ever touching a triangle!

Here are some photos to help you visualize the process. Some of the edges are cut off, so if you need a better view, you can see the individual photos better here on my flickr page.

For more detailed information about the sizes, and yield from charm squares, see my post at the Moda Bake Shop on my quilt Sunday Best.

Happy Sewing!!!

Cherri

One more free quilt pattern!

Thank you for all of the positive comments about Sugar Snap! Lots of you have downloaded the pattern, and have said you have just the person (usually a little one) in need of a quilt, and that is perfect! In the spirit of making sure everyone everywhere has a quilt, how about another free pattern?

This is Soda Shop, another free quilt pattern that I did for Cosmo Cricket. It was a companion piece to the quilt below, for Fons & Porter called Jukebox.  A poster of Jukebox is on the wall of the Fons & Porter television studio, and I get to see it every Saturday morning.  I'm always so excited to see on my quilt on TV...silly, I know; but so exciting!

 
Here's the free pattern Download Sodashop quilt pattern

Remember to leave a comment to be entered to win a yard of Hey Sugar!

Thanks also for your continued comments on solids & near solids...the information you are providing is wonderful!

Happy Wednesday!

Cherri

 

You guys are the best! How about a free pattern & fabric to celebrate!!!

Thank you so much all of the House's House love!!!  Your lovely comments are so appreciated!  Thank you as well for taking the time to answer my solids/near solids questions.  Your answers are so helpful, and just the information that I'm looking for.

As a thank you, how about a free quilt pattern? It's a few years old, a quilt that I made for my cousins over at Cosmo Cricket  for their fabric line called Hey Sugar! If I were to make it again, I'd leave off the border, but I'm not much of a border girl. 

To sweeten this thank you, I'll throw in 3 one yard cuts of Hey Sugar (now quite impossible to find I think) to 3 lucky winners...1 yard per winner!  Leave a sweet comment - something appropriate for a fabric line called Hey Sugar <3  Contest ends on 9/27/10

It's amazing how two years passes so quickly.  Two years ago at this time, Houston was trying to pull itself out of hurricane Ike, I had no power for two weeks, and I was trying to get three quilts finished for quilt market; this being one of them.

Please keep leaving your responses about solids on the previous post, I will be sure and pass on your thoughts and wishes to quilt shop owners everywhere.

Here's the free pattern...Download Sugar snap pattern

Enjoy,

Cherri

 

House's House is done, and a survery!!!

 
What do you think?  I love it...I love these house's so much!  Can't wait to quilt it in a few days!

If you know anything about me, you know about my love for solids, and we will now add near solids (see above)!  I have the opportunity to talk about this subject; nearest and dearest to my quilty heart to a room full of quilt shop owners.  Would you like to share your thoughts about this with some shop owners?  Here's some questions, that I would love to have your input on, if you have a moment. We've talked about this before here, but your fresh outlook will be so helpful to me.

1. Where do you buy your solids?  Online or LQS
2. Favorite brands?
3. Do you use strictly solids, or do you use near solids as well, such as Grunge (Moda), Crossweave (Moda), Dimensions (RK), Carolina Chambray (RK), Quilter's Linen (RK), Kaffe Fassett's Shot Cottons? There may be others that I'm not familiar with...if you use something else, let me know...like linen.
4. Are you comfortable using solids?
5. How big is your stash of solids?
6. Is there anything that you would like your quilt store to know; in regards to solids, their use, and their availability?

Thank you everyone that visited, and commented about my Moda Bake Shop quilt Sunday Best!  I'm afraid that those triangles scared some quilters off, but I hope you will give my tricky 2 Charm Square - 8 HST's method a try.  Also, thank you in advance for also for your input on my SOLIDS SURVEY!

xoxo,

Cherri

 

Sunday Best

 
Hello, welcome to Cherry House Quilts!  I hope you enjoy my Moda Bake Shop project SUNDAY BEST, and I hope you will definitely give it a try.  A gazillion triangles can be intimidating; I know...but I promise with my presto, magic pressing/sewing/cutting method - nothing could be easier.  8 HST units from 2 charm squares...could life be any better?  Most likely yes, it could - but you know what I mean!  8 HST UNITS!!!

For those of you familiar with my work & love affair with solid fabrics, this lovely, floral quilt might come as something of a surprise.  The truth is I have a split personality where fabric, and decor are concerned...it's either very plain and rather stark; or extremely floral and sweet.  These Fresh Cotton fabrics were the perfect fit for this quilt!

Remember that today is the last day of our BUY A COPY OF CITY QUILTS, AND GET A PATTERN FREE SALE.  Any available pattern of your choice, and a copy of City Quilts!  Make note of your free pattern in the INSTRUCTIONS section.

Thank you so much new quilting friends for visiting, I hope you will return often!!! 

 xoxo,

Cherri

 

Housing Updates!

 

The blocks are all made, and the house blocks are all coming together!  I'm loving this quilt, and I can't wait to share it in all its glory. 

In the way of news, four more patterns have been added to our electronic downloads store, and more will be added in the next few days!  Any requests?  Let me know, I'll get them added right away.  Also, you may recall that we are retiring some of our earlier patterns, but we will keep them available in our downloadable patterns. 

Just a few more days on our BUY A COPY OF CITY QUILTS, AND GET A PATTERN FREE SALE.  Any pattern we have available for free, plus a signed copy of City Quilts.  Sweet action deal!

Pop over to our Pattern Store, order your book, and in the special instruction state the pattern that you would like for free.

I'm off to watch a little reality tv (guilty vice), and then time to sew a few more houses together.

Goodnight sweetest friends,

Cherri

Thing 1 & Thing 2 (and 3) Pattern Retirement Sale!

 
90 houses built, a bunch more to go!  Is anyone making houses with me?  Send photos!

Thing 1: Retirement sale for 3 of our patterns - once they are gone, they're gone.  We currently have 3 copies of Forest Friends, 4 copies of City Garden, and 4 copies of Animal Crossing.  Pop over to our pattern store, and get them while you can.  All retired patterns are reduced to $6.00 each

Thing 2: We are now selling patterns electronically - awesome news for our international customers, and the instant gratification folks!  Instant downloads - how cool is that? Click here, or click ELECTRONIC DOWNLOAD above our pattern store button.  Currently we have 3 patterns listed, but we are adding more all the time. 

Thing 3: One more week for the BUY A COPY OF CITY QUILTS, AND GET A PATTERN FOR FREE SALE.  The sale ends on 9/17/10...don't miss it!

Is it fall where you are?  I love the fall, it's my favorite time of year, and my birthday is in there somewhere too!  Sadly, fall will not arrive in Houston for a some time.  Fall to me is serious get ready for market/quilting time...what's not to love?

Have a great weekend sweet friends, I'm off to sew more houses, do some quilty math, watch some part of the Jason Bourne trilogy - 1, 2, or 3 (can't pick a favorite), and work on a few top secret projects!

xoxo,

Cherri

House's House!

As you can imagine, having HOUSE for a last name is interesting, to say the least...and that was before there was a television show by the same name.  We're used to it of course, but new friends sometimes stumble over it...they may receive a phone call while here, and someone will ask where they are; generally it's "we are at the House's house?" Then they feel silly, and we say 'it's alright, we've heard it all before'. 

So many internet searchs bring quilters to our blogs looking for house blocks...funny that I've never done one, so I figured it was time to change all that.  What better name could I give to my little house, then House's House!  These are so fun and fast to make.  The fabric...it's Basic Grey's Grunge...I love it so much!  I'm going to create an entire quilt from these incredible fabrics...little pink houses anyone???

  xoxo,

Cherri