I ♥ all of you!

Dearest friends,

Thank you so much for your outpouring of love and support this week. After the unpleasant surprise of finding my self and my work being negatively discussed on a message board, your kindness has been the best medicine. What I found shocking about the whole experience was the way my work, and my quilt along project were being discussed. On more than one occasion I was so tempted leave a comment, and say "hey, I am reading what you are saying about me, I am right here!!!" But I didn't...I kept my mouth shut.

How are you coming along with the QAL? Tuesday we will put it all together, isn't it going fast?

I'm already working on our next small quilt, quilt along...we will be combining solids and prints. The whole project came about as I was going through my fabric collection, and realizing how old some of my fabric is, there was some really dated stuff...10+ years! There was a reason I bought the fabric, I loved it once upon a time. I thought the perfect solution would be to take a wide range of fabrics, chop them up really small, combine them with solids in order to make everyone play together well - current fabric, older fabric, hideous fabric - everyone in the pool.

Fair warning, it's a fussy little block, finished size 4". Notice I didn't date that Kaffe fabric...it's timeless to me!

 
Happy Valentines everyone...hope you spend the day with someone you love ♥♥♥

Cherri

Comments

[christina]

Big hug for you:) I am only 29 but in the past few years I have really come to realize that people are mean because they are so unhappy, I kind of feel bad for them but then again I don't want to waste and time or energy on them. I love your patterns and designs. I do plan to do this quilt along although I am behind.

[kelly]

i'm so sorry, cherri! you are delightful, your work is beautiful, and that's final.

[pam]

Happy Valentine's day. Hugs to you my friend. xo

[Mandy]

I love the way you put colour and form together Cherri, you have an outstanding talent. It's also glaringly obvious that your a genuine big hearted individual. You rock in my world.

[mo]

Happy Valentines Day! I am very glad and thankful you didn't let the hurtful and unecessary comments keep you from doing your beautiful work so that we can all share in what you do!

[Lynne]

Don't you love those know it all perfect quilters who can sneer at everyone else?!

I put together a paper pieced tutorial on my blog and came across a picture of one made by someone on flickr who didn't mention me, didn't credit it back to me and trashed the tutorial and the block saying the method was way too complicated and the block didn't have the wow factor! She must have felt really good when she sneered at me from her ivory tower.

I think what those extra superior people don't get is that there are a lot of people out there in the real world who don't yet have the confidence to tackle a whole quilt all alone and a QAL is an experience quilter's way of saying - hey don't worry, quilt along with me and I'll show you the way. That's why they're so popular and the blogger who shares their time and design and energy to take quilter through the whole quilt making process is giving those quilters a gift of a pattern and lessons and their time. There are also quilters who want to join in the fun of quilting along in a group and sharing progress and problems and successes and fabric choices and actually, it's a lot of fun.

Some people just don't get it!

[Tracy]

Having real fun with this QAL and looking forward to the new one.

[Marisa]

Hi Cherri, Glad to see you haven't let these people get to you. I love the idea for the new quilt-along. I too have a lot of old fabric I found after going through my stash clean-up process so this will be fun. I can't wait to get things started, I'll be skimming my stash from now on for fabric I can use.

Stay strong and I was glad to here that your son was home safe. Hugs for you and your whole family.

[Jewel]

I am so sorry to hear that. You have been nothing but kind and lovely. Your work is delicious and they are just plain wrong. Don't let the haters get you down!

[Jen]

I read the message board yesterday and just felt awful for you. It is the reason I'm not on THAT message board - there just seems to be quite of few of the "know it alls" on there and they don't celebrate those who are starting out or who are better then them - which I feel you are. I know we shouldn't let one person ruin it for the rest of us, but, oh was I steamed. What bothered me the most was the fact that this "know it all" spoke about your work and it was obvious she had never really seen your work or know who you are. To be so rude without having any background knowledge is just unacceptable. I've done quite a few of your quilt pattens, and LOVE THEM. And if she knew your work she would have been able to understand completely the method and what was going on.

To think a person got their knickers in a knot over strip piecing - you have that in most of your patterns and other techniques in others - to state you never do that it is LAME.

I'm part of your quilt along and my fabric just arrived so I am a bit behind, I'm starting today and can't wait. I'm looking forward to cutting out all the pieces because precision cutting is a struggle for me.

Please keep up your wonderful work, we love you.

[KatieQ]

Those who can, do. Those who can't, criticize. I'm so glad you share your time and talent with the rest of us.

[Camilla]

The fact that people are polarized by your work is something that you should (try to) take as a compliment.

The number one way to start a long noisy thread is to offer a wrong answer to your question (in this case "she doesn't know any better"); for each person who feels compelled to say "what ever are they thinking?" there's others who say "wow, I love it!" ... except the latter don't get noise and hits and comments quite so readily.

[Mary Ann]

Baskets...oh how I love baskets! Can't wait to see how they play with the solids. i usually see them with little tone of tone backgrounds so this will be fun! I haven't gotten to the QAL yet but its on my do this year list...notice I am trying to be more specific than " do someday"...lol.

[susan]

Happy v day! Sorry about the meanies. Blech to them. Cant wait for the wee quilt a long

[Rossie]

To me, the discussion thread you mention looked like honest criticism and a genuine question. I thought your response on the board was really great and was therefore surprised to see this post. Since you publish patterns and have a book out, isn’t it fair for people to discuss the “pros” and “cons” of your methods? Maybe I'm missing something.

I'm a big fan of your work and don't want you to be soured by things like this, which I think kind of come with the territory when you run a business and publish patterns.

[Cherri House]

Hi Rossi,

I'm all for questions and inquiries, but I was never asked a question. The part that was a little injurious was the speculation that I didn't know what I was doing or teaching. That my work wasn't authentic or traditional, but "modern". What does that even mean? Like something that is modern requires less precision than something traditional; that's just ignorance. I must admit this is the first time that I've been discussed (that I know of) like I wasn't a real person, without feelings or the ability to read what was being said. I'll develop a thicker skin over this, but I don't think there was a way to be prepared when it happened.

Cherri

[Rossie]

Dear Cherri,

Thanks for your response.

I think the original poster was asking a question about a trend rather than about you--she doesn't name you and she later names another blogger. And "modern" gets thrown in because that's where she sees this trend of sidestepping some methods; she sees the trend on blogs where people have labeled themselves or their quilts as modern.

I just worry that if people who write patterns and books take this sort of criticism/question personally the modern quilting movement will stagnate while everyone is busy being super-sweet and non-judgmental.

I probably have a weird perspective on this as my job is all about getting criticized as a mode to improvement.

Rossie

[Pam]

Cherri,
We know that the world is full of unhappy, dissatisfied folks. Some seek happiness and satisfaction from within and others visit their "bad karma" on the rest of us. We just have to ignore those who criticize and tear down good works, projects, ideologies and have absolutely nothing to offer in the way of solutions or even a kind word. Shun those people as they cannot be taken seriously if they haven't a replacement for what they seek to eradicate. I love your quilt along and find your directions clear and concise. I didn't read what you read, but am betting if you re-read it, the person doesn't pose solutions...if not - you can't be hurt or bothered. They are just pissing in the wind!!! I'm going to keep on being an avid reader of your blog! You ROCK!
hugz

[Sarah C.]

Cherri, a friend of mine mentioned your blog today and after reading your posts, I must say I am impressed with how you are handling all this. Regardless of the intent of the commenter in question, his or her comments were posted without thought to how they might affect others. Unfortunately, I think this is a trend in our digital world these days - it's way too easy to say what you think without stopping to think! I'm sorry it happened to you - I absolutely love your designs - they are sophisticated looking without being difficult or time-consuming, which is what I need in a quilt design. Time is a precious commodity to so many quilters these days - thank you for giving us something beautiful to work with!!! Keep up the good work!!

[Jette]

Happy Valentine from Copenhagen to all
Just finish the Harbor quilt next stop the Tempest

Jette
Denmark

[Lori]

Just read the message you referenced. While some of the comments do seem a bit critical, a significant number are positive. My Grand used to say "You can stand in the cold shade or rejoice in the warm sun". Choose to rejoice in the warm sun of all the positive comments on the board and forget the rest.

[VickiB]

While the question on the board may have been valid, I do believe the original poster did "name names" simply by describing the quilt a long in terms that couldn't have been misunderstood. It is fair to question a technique, but to do so in the way that it was done was unfair. The poster indicated that it would have been rude to question you directly, yet she pointedly described your methods so that anyone who follows you would recognize the "target" - then says that she didn't name anyone specifically. As if..... You handled it well and I hope you continue to put yourself out there for those of us who truly enjoy all that you have to offer.

[Leigh]

I am so excited you're doing a quilt along involving prints. I have a much harder time putting them together than solids. Thanks for sharing so many great ideas!

[Julie Koehler]

I am happy to see you use older, loved fabric. And maybe some uglies (what was I thinking when I bought that one? - I say that sometimes.) We can't all buy the newest, latest and greatest fabric for every project. I am interested to see how you incorporate prints and solids to their best advantage.

[Rita C]

I'm a blog reader (love this blog, btw), but I'm not aware of which message boards are worth reading. Can someone post a couple of them for me? Thanks, Rita