Cheri Chatter

Cheri Chatter

Sunday, October 26, 2008

When Life Hands You Limes

I had a cutting accident the other day while cutting out the rest of my sister's pink and brown quilt. The good news is that my fingers are intact (not always so in my case), but my background fabric is now in strips one inch too narrow.

My motto is: When life hands you limes, make margueritas.

I would have taken my own advice literally the other day, but it was before noon. So I went to Plan B: buy more fabric. I called Nathan and off we went to Glad Creations for a new background fabric.

It pays not to panic. Plan B often turns out way better than Plan A. I found a fabric I like much better than the original. I think my sister, Linda, will like it better too.

Nathan and I celebrated with a trip to Matt's Bar for Jucy Lucy's and fries. (Yup, we had beers, too.)

I highly recommend this local establishment if you don't already know about it. Great food and only four blocks from Glad's. (The secret is not to go too often. That way it is always a treat, plus you'll be able to get through doors easier.)

It just keeps getting better. I've decided to make flying geese with the discarded strips, pairing them with the Jo Morton fabrics I've been collecting.

I'm going to end up with two beautiful quilts. And when I do, I think margueritas will definitely be in order!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

It's A Keeper

I've been working like crazy on another quilt for our New Year's show at Glad Creations. It's a One-Block Wonders quilt from a book of the same name by Maxine Rosenthal. Maxine is a Minnesota quilter, so that makes her piecing technique all the more special to me.

Her second book, One-Block Wonders encore!, was co-authored with Joy Pelzmann. It shows how to make the hollow cubes that you see scattered throughout the quilt top. They were time-intensive to make (at first), but so much fun. I think they add a lot.

I love how this quilt top turned out! The main fabric I used was designed by McKenna Ryan for her fusible applique patterns. It has an abstract design meant to be used as rainbow trout for her pattern series, Calling Me Home.

In addition to the main fabric, I used batiks and animals prints. Hot pink and leopard just belong together, don't you think?

Arranging all the blocks, however, was not as much fun. It took a lot of help from my friends, Amy and Nathan, to get it just right. In fact that's what I'm calling the quilt: I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends.

Because I had a few blocks left over that I didn't want to part with, they went into the quilt back along with a piece of the original fabric. I added other scraps for borders, and a final border of snake skin fabric, until I ended up with another quilt top. I think I now have a reversible quilt.

Now it's off to the long-armer for quilting. I already can't wait to get it back. And I've warned my family: I'm keepin' this one!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Mmm Mmm Goood!

I just shared my favorite ginger cookies with some quilting friends. They were hard at work sewing a mystery quilt in a class at Glad Creations. I told them I'd share the recipe, so here it is for the whole world:
Yum Yum Gingers

3/4 C shortening
1 C sugar
1 egg, beaten
4 tsp molasses
2 C flour
2 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
2 tsp ginger

Cream shortening and sugar; add egg and molasses. Mix soda and spices with sifted flour and combine with first mixture. Roll into small balls; roll balls in sugar. Bake at 350 for 12 - 15 minutes. (When the cookies have flattened out and cracked on top, they're done. Trust me.)
I'd show you a picture of the finished product, but they're all gone!

I Went Shopping - Again!!

Yup, I put a crowbar in the old wallet and went shopping again. I heard about a church rummage sale in Long Lake, Minnesota, that was rumored to have a lot of old quilting books. I figured that a rummage sale wouldn't ruin my fabric diet.

The books were indeed old. Some were golden oldies. Books by Trudie Hughes, Marsha McCloskey, and Jinny Beyer. Quilting stencils by Georgia Bonesteel.

In all I scored nine books, five patterns, two sets of quilting stencils, a set of applique stencils, and two sets of quilting patterns. Check them out.

The best part? I got the whole works for two bucks. They even threw in a quilting hoop!!

Monday, October 6, 2008

My Sister Rocks!

I am so proud of my sister. At a time when most people are getting ready to retire (or stay home and make quilts like me) my sister joined a rock band!

Foggy Notion debuted the end of September at the American Legion in Chanhassen, Minnesota. They were fabulous and are looking forward to their next gig.

Linda deserves a quilt, don't you think? Lucky for her, the new project I've started is for her. It's a queen-sized pink and brown quilt that uses mostly civil war reproduction fabrics.

I just completed my first piecing session: more than 80 nine-patches units. Here's some samples.

I hope Linda likes the final design. At this point, I'm keeping that part a big fat secret!