Friday!

On the friendship star (FS) project, I now have 26 dark blocks finished (they won’t all fit on the design wall😏) and I’m linking up with Finished (or not) Friday.

With the 29 light blocks, I have 55 of the 81 FS blocks sewn so I’m over halfway finished, yay! There’s another five blocks in progress (see below) but then I’ll have to cut some more. 

Here’s my sewing machine still life. There’s only four different blocks on the table, 😂. The pile of cutoff triangles, FS’s, Celtic Solstice and…..

….some blocks I’ve cut for Cynthia’s block drive for Many Hands and Many Hearts, mini squares in squares.

Happy Friday! Cherie 

March BOM Finished

I finished the March BOM waaaay before the end of the month 😁. I am pleased with the Christmas colors (not Christmas fabrics per se) I chose….and all the fabrics are from stash. Can’t beat that.

Here’s the blocks I have so far.

I’ve been leader/ender-ing some gifted triangles into HST’s. I’m ironing them along with some gifted bonus HST’s (thanks Jan 😊) and, serendipitously, they all trim to 2” HST’s. And……I have a plan for them!!! I’ll get to them eventually 😆

Happy Quilting, Cherie 

RSC Four Patch Fun

I made some of Bonnie Hunter’s Four Patch Fun blocks in red. These are really fun blocks to sew and they are easy to kit up. A couple of finished crumb blocks that I’m making for the RSC are on the wall as well. Joining SoScrappy for the RSC link up.

I have a pile red crumb blocks coming along 😀.

Just noticing it might be easier on the eyes if I didn’t take the picture on my green mat, lol!

Cheers, Cherie 

Scappy Mountains is a Top

I had a talk with myself about my avoidance sewing. I agreed I couldn’t sew anything else until I sewed the Scrappy Mountain Majesty rows together, lol. And sew I did…..it’s finished and I’m linking up with Alycia’s Finished (or not) Friday. In the end, I made it square at 61” x 61”.

I also spent a bit of time looking for a backing for it. What do you think of this Jane Sassaman from Jane’s Magic Forest? Too dark? I love the big fern fronds.

And, I leader/endeared a couple friendship stars bringing my count of dark ones to 12 out of 52. Goodness, King sized quilts take A LOT of blocks, even when they are 12”!

Have you gotten your Harriet Powers postage stamps?!?! I bought mine yesterday 😄.

Happy Friday, Cherie

Quilts and Color Exhibition Book

I bought a used copy of the Museum of Art Boston exhibition book for the Quilts and Color exhibit and it arrived yesterday. 

It’s a fabulous collection of Pilgram/Roy quilts described in terms of art. Below is the painting and description used to describe the use of colors in the Vibrations section of quilts where Julie was first inspired to make a cheddar, green & red quilt.

And here is the Cheddar & Dill inspiration quilt……stunning, no?

Julie found further inspiration from Gigi’s Thimble 4/24/2015 blog post for a single wedding ring quilt. And here is the sheet Julie sent to me with the fabrics.

There are several quilts from the exhibit that are inspiring me, including this one from the Optical Illusion section.

The exhibition book is wonderful and used copies are pretty inexpensive. I highly recommend getting a copy!

Cheers, Cherie

Cheddar Chatter

Finally, I’m ready to machine sew the binding on! I kept thinking I wanted to record Cheddar & Dill’s story on the label but there were so many words! I dithered, I dathered , I thought of Lynne’s quilt story books. In the end, I decided to do what I originally wanted, put the story on two labels……two BIG labels 😂😂😂. Why yes, the cheddar for the labels is a slightly different color 😜. And yes, they will blouse a little being so large, but I’m okay with both.  

I dislike it when a binding seam ends up in or near a corner so I pin the end of the binding to the quilt and run it around the edges so I can adjust the starting point as needed to avoided a seam/corner situation. I  nailed the binding start on the first try, little happy dance. 

Onwards! Cherie

A Star & Bandana Backing

We left our cabin early due to snow predictions down to 4,000 feet that would make getting down the mountain dangerous. We stayed with our friends in Bakersfield and I was grousing about having to appliqué a star in the center blue block of the cowboy quilt.  Lisa, (hi Lisa 👋🏼) mentioned she could put a machine embroidery star there using her embroidery machine. Well, sign me up! I’ve seen some embroidery machine pieces but didn’t really know the process so it was fun to see the steps. Man, once it was set up, it didn’t take long at all to stitch out the rope-y star! The star shows up better IRL.

Yesterday I received my order from the Fat Quarter Shop with the backing fabric, sweet!

The February BOM block was pretty involved, but I persevered.

It took way longer to sew than I thought but I’m glad I measured and trimmed each unit as it definitely helped getting the block together. Here are the blocks I have so far.

I’ve been kind of at loose ends since returning home, not really wanting to sew on any of the (many!) projects currently underway. I received a 60 degree ruler in the box from the FQS. And you know where this going….SQUIRREL!!!

I’m trying to resist as I still very much want to finish up the projects in process to clear the decks as it were…..wishing myself good luck 😉.

Happy quilting, Cherie

Cheddar & Dill Returns!

Yippee! UPS just arrived and Cheddar & Dill is back from Colorado! Alycia, The Quilty Girl, quilted it…..sort of a modern take on Baptist Fans and I’m ever so pleased 😀. Thank you, Alycia!

Now to trim it and decide on cheddar or dill for the binding. I’m leaning towards cheddar. Can’t wait to get the binding on, woohoo!!

I arrived home late last night after a very (VERY) productive stay with The Colorful Fabriholic and was having a slow morning, now I’m raring to get going 😁.

Cheers, Cherie 

Finished Friday, Cabin Edition

It’s a finished top! I’m linking up with the Quilty Girl’s Finished (or not) Friday. There might have been some un-sewing caused by lack of a design wall or Olympic distractions. And somehow I’ve managed to not have a seam ripper at the cabin, nor a good pair of sewing scissors….and I call myself a quilter 🙄.

The three of the panel pictures were a bit short of the 7” needed, but I was able to cut a strip along the selvage to add the needed amount with scant seams to, well, selvage them 😀.

We are leaving the cabin next week and I’ll have a stop off in Arizona fora few days  to have a mini retreat with The Colorful Fabriholic to work on our collaboration project. It has been super fun working with a friend on this project and I hope she feels the same since we’re always meeting up in her neck of the woods. As we near then end of this project, I think we should pick a new one to collaborate on 😉.

I’ll be back to posting from Pennsylvania next weekend. 

Cherie 

Cabin Sewing

Here’s my sewing set up at our cabin.

I’m working on the kit I won from the shop hop. I used the kitchen counter to cut all the pieces.

Would be nice to get the top together before we leave. It’s much easier to pack a quilt top 😆.

Cheers, Cherie 

Rows Are Sewn

I have all eight rows of mountain majesty blocks sewn together, finally. The reason it’s taken so long is I chose to unpick some seams so I could iron them the opposite way.  If I had remembered to do this while sewing the blocks, it would have been so much faster 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️. Now the seams nest and it will make neater, flatter top, IMHO.  

I have finished the 29 light background friendship star blocks…..

……..and five of the 52 dark ones.

Last, here’s my design wall as it will be for the next 3 1/2 weeks while I’m gone to visit my Dad & stay in our cabin in the Posey, CA area by the Sequoia National Forrest. A few more scrap blocks have been completed for the RSC. I picked up a cowboy panel with the artwork of Hugh Cabot to make a fundraiser quilt for the Posey Area Fire Auxiliary. There is a lot of ranching in the Posey area so I think it should do well next fall. The scrap blocks are 6 1/2” so you can see the panel is big. Now to design the quilt….some ideas are percolating.

I will post while I’m gone if I have anything interesting.

Cheers, Cherie 

Sunday Snow

I couldn’t seem to settle yesterday as I kept looking out the windows, checking on the snow. We ended up with 13 inches of snow when it stopped last night.

It was beautiful by the light of my cute tree. The first picture is when I woke up and the second when I went to bed on Sunday. In the background you can see our birdbath with a warmer. It managed to keep a small circle melted and was busy with birds visiting all day.

I sewed a little, pinned scraps during the playoff games and continued to straighten/cull the fabric shelves but nothing picture worthy.

Cherie 

Definitely Not Finished Friday 1-23-26

Today I’m sewing with a friend at Zimmerman’s Bernina Sewing in New Enterprise, PA. I brought the “54” block units, the mountain rows and some of the friendship star blocks to sew.

We shop hopped to four quilt shops along the way and I picked up a few things.

Had to snag that 6 yd piece as it was only $1.00/yd. I’d not seen the Kona Natural Crush fabric before but a new store, The Guilded Bobbin, had some so I got 1/2 yd cuts of three of the colors.  

Sew…..no finishes unless you count finished blocks or rows 😂.

I’m linking up to Alycia’s Finished (or not) Friday and speaking of Alycia, Cheddar & Dill arrived safely at her lovely ranch home on Monday 😅. I stuck a few extras in the box 😁😬😁😬. We’ll see if that was a good or bad thing, lolololol!

Hoping everyone in the winter storm path stays safe and warm.  We are lucky our retreat trip has fallen right between two storms and we’ll be home before any snow flies.

Cherie

National Squirrel Appreciation Day/A New Start

Thanks to Julie, I know what day it is, Squirrel 🐿️ Appreciation Day! Here’s Alexander, my studio squirrel. He’s been on hiatus as DGD found and claimed him to play downstairs but he’s baaaaaaack!

And he may have influenced the start of a new BOM project I’m doing with a long distance friend 🧐🧐

I have on my list to make a Christmas quilt, so I’m doing the BOM in Christmas colors but not using Christmas fabrics. 

Here’s my sewing machine still life showing mountain majesty (currently on row four), Celtic Solstice and a not seen before friendship star project underway. There’s also a glimpse of on the right of leader/ender blue crumb blocks for the RSC.

More on the FS project….it will be king sized and is destined for a couple in England.

Jan, the Colorful Fabriholic, has a friendship star in her charity projects on her blog that inspired this one. It will have light gray background and dark grey background blocks forming the layout below.

Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day! Cherie 

Finished (or not) Friday 1-16-26

Finally finished clipping threads and packaged up the Cheddar & Dill quilt top & backing. Tracking says it should be delivered Monday….always worry about quilts in transit!

Here’s a block finished…..I’m shortening the name to “54” because writing 54-40 or Fight is a pain to type out, lol.  

And here’s how I’m trying to make sure I don’t turn any pieces wrong 😑…..it’s so easy to get those pesky pesky/spike units turned the wrong way round and the 4 patches are always subject to rotation, too. 

In my straightening & evaluating the fabric shelves efforts, I’ve come across pieces that I never washed (past Cherie was kicking that can down the road🙄) so I’m washing them as I find them. Check out the 2008 date on this leftover piece I was given!

And contrast this pile of washed and waiting to be ironed fabric from the shelves…….

With these finds from my LQS sale (18 1/2 yds to the stash, not all pictured 😉).

A Tula and some Kaffe, neither of which are on sale very often. I used to love more muted colors and I still do like them, but I’m definitely loving the brights now. 

Linking up to Finished (or not) Friday

Cherie