Made in Cherry quilt along – fabric schemes

Have you taken a look at the latest Fat Quarterly?  There’s a great article on spring 2012 colour schemes with contributors interpreting them in quilting projects.  I always find it interesting to see where we’re going in design and fashion, though I’ve got to say, spring is looking a little blah.  Or maybe sophisticated.  Where are the clear yellows, oranges, pinks, and aquas?  Spring seems to consist mostly of dusty, subtle color choices, beautiful but I guess just not me. 

I was drawn to the “resilience” palette, though.  Funky shades of pea soup and salmon with a bunch of neutrals thrown in for fun.  But for a quilt?  So for my first Made in Cherry fabric scheme post, Made of Resilience!

I’ve pulled my swatches from multiple lines, but one source – Pink Castle Fabrics.  There are so many fabric choices out there, limiting myself to one store made things a little easier.  Oh, and I’d love to see some Lotta Jansdotter fabrics added to this when they come out!  I’m so in love with that line, even if I can’t quite see how to incorporate it into my life.

The fabrics are:

• 1 Joel Dewberry Aviary woodgrain in vintage yellow
• 2 Anna Maria Horner Little Folks voile bouquet in meadow
• 3 Lizzy House 1001 Peeps sheherazade in orange
• 4 Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow Herringbone in timber
• 5 Alexander Henry Heath in brown chocolate
• 6 Lizzy House 1001 Peeps pearl bracelet in brown
• 7 Melissa Averinos Dazzle basketweave in tan
• 8 Hometown by Sweetwater town news in cream

For the background I wanted something that would really anchor all the colours – essex linen in putty. Sweet, muddy goodness!

And that’s how it all looks together!  Pretty good, right?  And definitely husband friendly.

happy stitching,

c

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Made in Cherry quilt along

Anyone up for a quilt along?  As soon as I saw market shots of Sarah Fielke's Made in Cherry pattern, I was!

Sarah Fielke's Made in Cherry from the Lecien website

This is an easy peasy quilt that should go together really quickly.  Sarah's pattern has great instructions and I'll do a condensed version here every week for the quilt along - starting mid January.  Sound good?  Then join me!  Come on, you know you want to!!

Since most of us are putting together lists this time of year, here's the yardage requirements for this 80" by 80" quilt:

20" of 8 different fabrics (that's just over 1/2 yard each)*
2 1/2 yards of background fabric

* OR 220 charm squares (if your charm packs have the standard 42 per pack, you'll need 5 packs plus 10 charms cut from your stash - or 6 packs)

And if the size is scaring you, I'll be posting alternate instructions for a scaled down 60" by 60" top, perfect for snuggling.

xox,
c

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Made in Cherry Quilt Along - fabric choices

Hey guys!  Wow, I can't believe I took a whole week off.  I was just not inspired at all.  I don't even think I did any sewing all week!  But, inspiration has struck again, and, get this, in the form of (screaming fangirl moment here) an email from Sarah Fielke herself!  So cool, right?  Sarah mentioned the quilt along on her blog and emailed me to let me know that she has kits available for the Made in Cherry pattern and that the fabric is starting to be available in store.  So, if you're struggling with your fabric choices or someone in your life is struggling to figure out what to get you for christmas, Sarah may have the answer.  Each kit comes with enough fabric for the quilt top plus an awesome stripe for the binding.  And there's four colourways!

Starting at the top left and going clockwise, the colourways are: Watermelon, Blue Vanilla, Polar Purple Shiver, and Cherry.  I'm loving watermelon.

If you haven't seen Sarah's line St Ives, check it out here.  The fabrics are conveniently grouped into their colorways so you can see which fabrics come with each kit.  Those ruffles are one of the coolest ideas I've seen in fabric in ages.  And if you're in Australia, Sarah's fabric is available at The Cottage Quiltworks, Quilt Fabric Delights, and Patchwork Orange.

rock on,
c

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Made in Cherry update

It took a while, but I finally quilted my Made in Cherry quilt, just in time for our local quilt show.  And I really do mean just in time.  I was sewing on the stupid hanging sleeve minutes before dropping it off!  I wanted it to be perfect, but after hurting my back and not being able to quilt (or sit for that matter) for over a week, I settled on finished (and pretty awesome - I'm not that humble!).  Oh, and if you're wondering about the back, it was just a combo of overdoing it working out followed by a really long car ride.  I've since moved on to super sore quads and glutes.  Yay!

Anyway, I tried to challenge Ms Jenny on this one and while I've got miles to go to get her skillz I'm pretty happy.  I love the leafy border, it's modern but with a trad vibe.  Kind of like the quilt itself.  I just wish I'd done something else instead of the swirls.  It's cute but I'd had other plans.

I also seriously need to come up with a better way to photograph big quilts.  I broke the clothesline last week so that's out, we don't have a fence or any outbuildings, and I'm not climbing up on the roof.  There's a park nearby with some really pretty bridges that I've thought about hanging the quilts from, but they're over waterfalls with a 50 foot drop, so I'm still just thinking about that one.

Now totally not quilt related, I have to tell you about the animal encounters we've been having lately.  Sunday I was out for a hike with the hubs and the dog, and suddenly he yells "stop".  I'm kind of surprised that my response wasn't my usual one, which is, where's the spider, get it off of me.  Nope, this time I figured I was about to step on a snake.  "Look" he yells.  I look, no snake.  "Where?"  "Look!"  By this time we're both getting annoyed.  Him because I can't see this obviously important invisible whatever, me because he's not exactly being precise on where I should look for the IW.  And then I turned my head and said "oh, bear."  And that's when we headed home.

Fast forward to today when the dog decided that a fledgling robin needed some encouragement to fly by being repeatedly bonked in the head with her nose.  Then Tron decided that a salamander needed to be carried around the garden.  Don't worry, it's very alive - it climbed into my sweater just to prove it.  Then I was upstairs and heard a cat running hell bent through the living room.  Go downstairs and see Lucy in pursuit.  Which is a little odd since Lu, as much as I love her, is more on the precious than the robust side and tends to spend her days finding items that complement her colouring then sleeping on them.  So I followed Lucy and, guess what, first cat I heard wasn't a cat at all but a baby bunny.  A really cute baby bunny that would look awfully sweet curled up with Lucy.  I just hope wild bunnies don't have fleas because we had quite the snuggle when I was taking it outside.  And I really hope it tells it's buddies (we've seen 3 babies so far) that next door, where there's no cats and no dog, might be the better place to visit.

yup, that's the woods for you.
c

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Made in Cherry Quilt Along - sewing the central star

 

Yay, today we do some sewing!!  Let's start with that block of 100 squares that make up the center of the star.

Yesterday when I laid my quilt out I broke the center down into 4 blocks of 25 squares each.  I find it so much easier working in smaller sections like this, and not just because my sewing table is an Ikea tv tray!  It's just easier to keep track of 25 squares of fabric rather than 100!

Here's my first section.  I started sewing at the top of the pile and sewed the cream and red floral to the raindrop fabric (1).  Then I sewed the fabric with the pink cricket cage to the white and black print (2), sewing them all in a chain until I ended at (5).  Then I started back at the top again, sewing the fabric with the old fashioned lock onto the cream and red floral (1).  Chaining my pieces together like this means that I end up with a piece that looks like this:

Half the seams are sewn and everything is held together.  I don't have to worry about mixing up my rows!  Now I can press my seams.

I like to press my seams in opposite directions.  This way the seam allowances butt up together and make for really tight matches.

Here you can see how in alternating columns I've pressed the seams in opposite directions.  And, yeah, I made a few squares out of smaller pieces - I ran out of light print scraps large enough to cut 4½" squares.

Now you just need to sew all the columns together and press (these seams can all be pressed in the same direction).  Yay, one quadrant down, 3 to go!

Lather Sew, rinse press, repeat!

Our 4 quadrants are sewn, now we just need to join them together.

That was fast!  Ok, one more seam!

Woot!!!  And now I need a cup of tea...

That's better.  Ok, let's tackle those star points.

I found that for the star points it was easiest to lay the pieces out on the floor or table next to me.  Then I stitched them up just like the center quadrants, chain piecing everything together.  Again, I pressed my seams so they went in opposite directions to make butting them easier.

Then I stitched everything together and popped the label back on the point.  7 more to go!  Don't sew your star points to the center, just make sure you're still happy with their positioning and put them away until next week.

And that's it for this week!  Next week we'll be cutting our background fabric and piecing everything together.

happy stitching,
c

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Made in Cherry Quilt Along - completed quilts!

I've been seeing so many gorgeous examples of finished quilts and tops from the Made in Cherry Quilt Along that I thought I should share a few!

clockwise from left: Dree from a lotta bit fun, Sharon from Vrooman's Quilts,Winnie aka phrogg on flickr

clockwise from left: Theresa from sew & sews,  Bec aka beccasauras2011 on flickr, Kate from Katie Mae Quilts

I love how such a basic pattern can be interpreted by so many people to create truly unique quilts!  And I'm feeling totally slack for not having mine done!

I'd love to put together another one of these posts, so if you've got a photo of your finished top or quilt, let me know!

xox,
c

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Made in Cherry quilt along - layout fun

I thought I'd share this little Made in Cherry layout page with everyone.  You can either print it out and get out the crayons or import it into your favorite graphics program and play there.  Either way it may be helpful figuring out your color scheme.

happy weekend,
c
111 (apparently that's how Tron signs his name)

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Made in Cherry Quilt Along - cutting the background pieces

Cutting big chunks of fabric always scares me a little.  I don't have rulers or matts big enough (or a big enough table for that matter) to easily rotary cut them, and working on the floor always involves realizing how dirty the house is, which then spirals into sweeping,  mopping, exhaustion, and sitting in front of the tv eating nutella by the spoonful.  So here's how I tackled the big pieces for this quilt, with no nutella involved!  Although I don't mention it in the steps, I was constantly having to move my mat around under the fabric and move the fabric around on the table to get the best cutting angle.


For the 80 x 80 quit we need to cut 4 squares 20½" and one square 43".  The 43" square will be cut on both diagonals to produce 4 triangles, so it's a good idea to prep your fabric with some starch so those bias edges don't stretch.

Let's start with the 20½" squares.  Start with your fabric folded in half along it's length.  Use your longest ruler (mine's 6" by 24") to trim the cut edge, making sure it's square with the fold.  Now grab a pencil and mark lines about every 3" or so, 20½" from the cut line.

Now line your ruler up with the pencil markings and cut.  You should now have a piece of fabric that looks like this:

Working at the selvedge edge, line your ruler up with one of the cut edges and trim off the selvedge.

Now get your pencil out again and from that new cut, measure towards the fold 20½".  As we did earlier, make marks every few inches so that they'll be easy to connect.  Then line your ruler up along the pencil marks and trim.  You should now have two 20½" squares.  Repeat the whole procedure to get the other two.

Our big 43" square is cut quite similarly.  I'm going to switch to diagrams because I think they may be a bit easier to understand.

 Start by trimming one end of the fabric so that it's square with the fold.

Now measure from that cut you just made and make a pencil mark at 24".

Slide the ruler along and make another mark 19" away from your 24" mark.

Now line your ruler up with the 19" mark, making sure it's square with the fold, and cut.

Take the ruler and make marks all along the selvedge edge, 20½" from the fold.

 

Line your ruler up along the marks you just made and trim off the selvedge edge.  Open the fabric up along the fold and you have  a 43" square.

The next part I found easiest to do on the floor, with a quilt under my 43" square to protect the carpet.

Fold the square on the diagonal, then press the crease.  Repeat in the opposite direction.

After pressing, the diagonal creases should be nice and crisp.  Use these as cutting guides.  I found it easiest just to use my scissors and not bother with the rotary cutter.  Crazy, right>

Alright, the dog needs walking.  I'll be back later with sewing directions.

C

60" x 60"

From the background fabric cut:
Four 15½" squares for the corner squares.
One 33" square.  Cut this on the diagonal twice to yield 4 triangles

90" x 90"

From the background fabric cut:

Four 22½" squares for the corner squares.

Two  37" squares.  Cut these in half once each on the diagonal, yielding 2 triangles from each square.

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Blocks, no quilts

After the Made in Cherry Quilt along I'm feeling a little lost.  I just don't know what to start on next.  So, like a good quilter I've been playing, making blocks.

First I decided to jump on the x+ bandwagon.  Who knew it created such tiny blocks?  I guess I would have if I'd actually read Amy's post before just jumping in, cutting and sewing.  They're cute, I'll keep making them out of my scraps, but I don't see a bed quilt emerging from these.  (they're 7½" finished, by the way.)

Next was the granny square block.  Jolene started these, Heather made me realize I couldn't not make some.  I've made one.  I'll make more.

Finally the retro flower block.  I kept looking at the pattern and putting it off.  I don't really like buying patterns.  I can't be bothered reading instructions.  So it seems kind of dumb to buy them.  But this ones seemed original enough that it really would be pretty sh*tty of me to just draft it myself.  I've made two blocks so far, one using the templates in the pattern, one using slightly larger ones.  I just wanted to see how it would look bigger.  Blame it on swoon, I want to make everything bigger now.

Oh, and I still haven't read the instructions.  I'm sure they're good, I'd just rather be sewing.

xox
c

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Work in Progress Wednesday - the one in which there is some actual progress

 

I've actually finished my Loulouthi tiles quilt!  A marathon 3 hours of tv watching/hand stitching binding and it's done.  Oh, except for washing, which is very necessary as the damn thing is covered in dog hair.

I need to get a decent wide shot of it, I took a whole bunch of the quilting but didn't get one showing the whole thing!  Hopefully tomorrow doesn't rain so I can take it outside for a photoshoot.

But who cares, look at that quilting!  I'm so happy with how it turned out!  It looks hard but it's just hooks that go together to look like feathers.  Yup, this one makes me a proud mama.

not seeing much action:
hexie stars
yellow hexagons
hexie charm quilt
good folks voile crosses
double wedding ring

still in need of quilting:
swoon
Single girl
Prince Charming zig zag
made in cherry quilt along

xox
c

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