Binding Time!

I got right to sewing the binding to the front of the scrappy mountain quilt and am hand sewing it down on our trip to the Finger Lakes region in NY. I’ve named Fall Mountains.

I received a package delivery notice so the thread I ordered for the graduation quilt will be waiting for me when we return. I’ll work on getting it quilted on Monday/Tuesday. I already have the binding and label prepped so it will be finished in time for gifting a week from Sunday 😅😅.

Linking up with Alycia’s Finished (or not) Friday.

Cheers, Cherie

A Bit of a Clean Up

I felt the need to clean up the cutting table & surrounding surfaces. I have been leader/ender-ing scrap/crumb blocks as well as HST’s and still have a huge pile to trim. 

The trimmed blocks are either put in their respective scrap drawers for pinning the next round or added to my growing piles of finished 6 1/2” blocks (note to self….decide on the next project from them!). 

The blocks, L to R, multi colored, neutrals, single color and single color with a neutral center. I pin, sew, iron & trim these when I want to just go with the flow……good for my peace of mind.

The HST phase started with cut off triangles from two friends (thanks Lisa & Jan!) and now I’m enjoying sewing from the boxes of triangles I’ve saved for years.

The 4 1/2” pink HST’s are for the king sized friendship star quilt I’m making and that is the last of them 😁. 

The 2 1/2” HST’s are growing (almost all of the above are from the recently gifted triangles) and I’m hoping to have enough to keep me busy at retreat in July…..assuming I have settled on a design for them 🤔.

As for the graduation quilt…….

I wanted to get it quilted so I could hand sew the binding on our getaway trip this weekend. I have some variegated turquoise thread I thought would work for it, however, I wasn’t happy with how light parts of the thread looked on the black fabric 🙁. New thread is to arrive Monday……

Cheers, Cherie

Freeing Up Sophie

I needed to get the quilt already loaded on Sophie quilted to free the longarm up for the graduation quilt. I went right to it this morning and here it is fresh off the long arm.

This one doesn’t have a home currently but I’m not going to let that keep me from getting it bound…she says with her fingers crossed. 

Happy quilting, Cherie

Finished Top!

I finished the top! It’s amazing as I told myself I had until the weekend to get the graduation quilt finished. Ethan’s graduation was last week and there’s no word on when or if there will be a party so I felt like I needed to get it done asap. Edited to add the Finished (or not) Friday link.

The sound visualization line worked out better than I’d hoped and I used a big chunk of the scraps Jan sent me from the panel fabric for the stars and coping bits. Thanks again Jan! This is all that’s left.

Here’s the backing for it. It’s a good quality flannel that I’ve had for a long time because I thought it was beautiful and wanted to use it for a special quilt. One seam up the middle and it will be ready for quilting!

Happy quilting, Cherie

Finally Some Progress

It has been a minute since I posted. In that time I made two free pieced birds for Lynne using her tutorial. Lynne said she would like a few right facing birds if anyone wanted to send her one. I know why she has more left facing birds……her tutorial is illustrated with left facing birds and you have to think in the reverse to make right facing ones 🤣.

Guess I’m an over achiever because the leftover triangle from the square of fabric I cut for the large bird’s wing just begged to be used in a second bird 😄. 

I have finally made progress on the graduation quilt, here’s where it was yesterday before a bit of modification.

 

Here it is after modification with an added row. I’m creating this as I go as I don’t have design software and sometimes quilter’s math is a challenge for me. I have great spatial relations and was a business manager for my career so one would think it wouldn’t be a problem but the sewn vs cut measurements often defeat me when figuring out cuts for pieced spacers. 🤪 Thus the “modification” to the ends of the sound visualization row.

 

Cheers, Cherie 

Sewing Ovals, Gifts & Acquisitions

While traveling (again!) this past week, I sewed some more ovals. Here are all the ones I have finished so far, along with a couple that Darlene had made. These are quick and easy to appliqué……any thoughts on what I can make with them? 

Before we left, I shopped hopped with a friend to a few shops we hadn’t been to before. What is with my fascination with panels these days? I am an Audrey Hepburn fan and hadn’t seen this panel before!

And I saw a quilt top made with this panel and just love the flowers.

I was gifted fabric from three friends, two I visited (thanks Debbie & Jessie) and one via mail (thanks Jan/Edna). I love, love, love that even my non quilting friends gift me fabric 😁.

Above is from four shirts and a dress!

Beer fabric found at an antique/flea market store.

And leftovers given to my friend who realized they are from the same fabric line as the panel I’m currently sewing with….talk about serendipity!! And I’d better get busy because this one needs to get made asap…..good thing we are home for a while now!

Cheers, Cherie

Doll Quilt Swap

The doll quilt I made for the Humble Quilts swap was received today so I can post pictures of the one I made. 

In honor of the 250 anniversary of the USA, I appliquéd an eagle and used red, gold and blue fabric. I hand quilted it and used single fold binding.

I’ve had the fabric I used for the backing for ages and was happy I had enough to center Lady Liberty.

Cheers, Cherie 

In the Mail!

I haven’t posted as I was waiting for Julie to receive her rock flower my Dad made and I was spending all my time on the Humble Quilts doll quilt swap quilt. First, here’s the quilt I made being mailed today, May 9th, (the deadline) in the oh-so-cute mailer Tish used to send the quilt she made me 😁.

Now for the flowers I sent to Julie, here they are when we arrived home. I sent this picture to Julie and now realize why the hummingbird was a surprise as she explains in her post. There’s no hummingbird in my picture 😂.

I have delivered all but two of the rock flowers we brought home….my dad is the best!!!

Cheers, Cherie

Winter UFO List Status

I am late in updating my progress on the UFO list from January 1st, you know, since it’s now spring despite the 45 degree weather 😂.  I completed 4 of the 12 items, so 33%. 🫤.

I will continue to focus on these UFO’s but first I have to finish the graduation quilt…..and there has been progress on it.

1) Finish the flannel donation quilt……NO PROGRESS 😟

2)  Quilt and bind the fall table runner…..NO PROGRESS 😏

3)  Finish the third quilt from broken dishes blocks made as part of the RSC many (many!) years ago.  NO PROGRESS on this one either!

4)  Quilt & bind Scrap Confetti - FINISHED! And gifted!

5)  Quilt & bind Starfire - NOPE 🙂‍↔️ 

6)  Quilt & Bind Quadrangle - NOPE 🙂‍↔️.

8)  Make the last “not quite to size” broken dishes blocks into a small baby quilt. NO, NO, NO 😳.

9)  Make progress on Celtic Solstice - YES, all Birthday Girl blocks are made & lots of 54-40 or Fight blocks are together as well. Spring goal is to continue assembling 54-40 blocks.

10)  Make a table topper from these waste triangles that have been kicking around for years 🙄. NOPE, and they are under a pile somewhere 🧐

11)  Sew the Mountain Majesty blocks into a top. YES!! The top is together and, bonus, the backing is made, the batting is cut and it’s loaded on Sophie. Spring goal is to quilt and bind it.

12) Finish Cheddar & Dill top to be sent for quilting. This I know will happen as I have a January time to get it quilted! FINISHED!!!!!!

Happy New Year! Cherie

Doll Quilt Swap Received!

I received an exciting package in the mail yesterday just as we were leaving to see the Cardinals vs Pirates day game. It was 48 degrees and just a bit breezy.  We had great seats. 

We are Cardinals fans, having lived outside St Louis for 28 years prior to moving to the Pittsburgh area, and they won 10-5 completing a sweep of the Pirates. We stayed the whole game because we came prepared with coats and quilts 😁.

As soon as we got home, I carefully opened the cute bubble mailer to find some lovely fabrics and funny card from Tish.

It was nice of Tish to send pretty fabrics that coordinate so well with the envelope 😉.  And here’s the sweet doll quilt Tish made for me as part of Lori’s 13th annual doll quilt swap. 

Isn’t it an adorable doll quilt made with purple & pink reproduction fabrics? You can just see a child wrapping her dolly in it to play, can’t you? Here’s the backing with a lovely flower repro print.

Such an adorable doll quilt….thank you, Tish!

Here’s a link to Lori’s swap quilt & reminder of the mailing deadline. Because I’m a high achiever procrastinator, who works best under pressure, I haven’t finished my swap quilt yet. It’s well underway so I will beat the May 9th deadline…..and I’ll reuse the lovely bubble mailer from Tish! Spreading the simple joy of receiving a lovely envelope in the mail 😁.

Cheers, Cherie 

Paducah on the Spur of the Moment

On the spur of the moment I decided to travel to my friend’s in St. Louis to go to the AQS quilt show in Paducah! I hadn’t been to Paducah since the Pandemic & the show did not disappoint. So many beautiful, exquisite quilts in the show and the Cherrywood Challenge quilts were amazing! Because we only went for one day, I didn’t make it to the bubble or the Finkle building but we did pack in pretty much everything else!

My friend Darlene & I used to go to the show together & we always picked one quilt we’d like to take home with us. This is the one I chose this year. 

36 Shirts by Donna Frederick from Kentucky. I love it and could easily enjoy seeing it everyday!!

It was great to return to Paducah for the quilt show and have a fun time with my friend.

Cheers! Cherie 

A Plan for a Panel

Here’s my rough sketch for a graduation quilt using a musical panel. I’m starting with the letters & numbers since they will be the guide for sizing.

Below is my first cut of fabrics. On the right side is the background fabric….it’s black with subtle colored dots, then next is a coordinated guitar print that goes with the panel. I may have to pull a few other fabrics to get enough variety for the row blocks…..we’ll have to see.

I’m using the red fabric & the book below for the letters & numbers. I’ll use the cheddar fabric to border the panel and then I’ll decide on blocks for the rows. 

Word Play Quilts is a great resource! It is out of print now but used copies are out there although they are a bit more expensive than the original retail price. I had my book spiral bound and, boy, is it nice to have it lay flat when open.

Here’s my progress so far. Notice the extra A’s and N’s in the middle there 😂 . The six is too small so I’ll have an extra 6 as well. Not sure yet if the 2’s will be okay once finished. The letters & numbers are fun to make but I’m a bit rusty as I haven’t made any in quite a while.

I better put the petal to the metal as graduation is in May!! 😬😬

Cheers, Cherie 

Friends

While traveling with the flowers, we stopped in St Louis to visit friends. Two of these friends gave me some shirts ☺️.  Between these and the shirts from my dad, I have quite a bit of shirt de-boning ahead of me. 

And another friend gave me me a ziplock bag of scraps!

If you didn’t know, I LOVE scraps! In fact, the quilt I finished and gifted to my sister was made 100% from scraps 😁😁

I sorted the scraps and got them put away in their color drawers. I also added the squares to their respective boxes, after pulling out a few for a little something I’m doing on the side 😂🤣.  

It feels good to be home! Cherie