The Beast is here!

She arrived Thursday, was assembled Friday and Monday and now she's purring like a kitten.  And who is this beast?

My new Millenium!!!  Yup, I took the crazy plunge, bought her, assembled her, and now she's mine.  I never thought years of assembling Ikea furniture would pay off, but this baby required all my Ikea allen key skills!

I've been playing away,  just using a couple of layers of cheap fabric for now.  Hopefully by next week I'll be proficient enough to tackle an actual quilt.  Nothing fancy, just stippling.  For now I need to work on not getting bigger and bigger as I go, and keeping track of where the needle is!

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 quilt along–alternate sizes

So a while back I mentioned that I’d be posting yardages for alternate sizes of the quilt along.  In case anyone is looking to take advantage of post thanksgiving sales, here we go:
Smaller version
This will make a 60” x 60” finished quilt and uses 3½” cut squares.
For the squares you will need exactly 11” of 8 different fabrics (11” x wof that is).  If you’re shopping for fabrics rather than pulling from your stash, you’ll probably have to buy ½ yard of each.
For the background fabric you’ll need two yards.
Larger version
This will make a 90” x 90” finished quilt and uses 5” cut squares.
For the squares you will need exactly 21” of 8 different fabrics (21” x wof that is).  If you’re shopping for fabrics, you’ll need to buy ¾ yard of each.
For the background fabric you’ll need 4 3/4 yards.
This version can also be made from precut charm squares, in which case you will need 220 squares, about 5¼ packs (based on packs of 42 squares each).

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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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At the table

Hey, happy thanksgiving US!  We don’t seem to go as nutso about thanksgiving north of the border, or maybe that’s just my family.  And now that I’ve managed to convince everyone to come to mine for the holiday it’s become even less traditional.  We had a potato and roasted tomato tarte tatin instead of turkey and a pine nut and rosemary tart (kind of like pecan pie) for dessert.  No pumpkin!  After making hundreds of pumpkin pies over the years working as a pastry chef I just can’t do it anymore.  I did incorporate a little pumpkin into our feast though, making pumpkin pancakes for breakfast.  And just in case you have some extra pumpkin kicking around, I thought I’d share the recipe…

Pumpkin pancakes

makes enough for 4 people

1¾ cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cinnamon
pinch cloves
¼ tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup pumpkin purée
1 egg yolk
1 egg white
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp melted butter

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and spices.  In another dish whisk together the buttermilk, pumpkin purée, and egg yolk.  Stir into the dry ingredients.  Whip the egg white until it’s foamy then add the sugar.  Whip until firm peaks form.  Mix the melted butter into the batter then fold in the egg whites.

Cook the pancakes on buttered frying pans, using about 1/4 cup batter per pancake.

These freeze really well and reheat in the toaster, so I always make a double batch!

I’m linking this up over at A Quilter’s Table.  Debbie used to be a pastry chef, too, so if you’re looking for a pumpkin pie recipe, try hers.  I bet it’s good!



c

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Bee blocks, the blurgh, ack edition

Oh,man, this one sucks the big one.  I don’t know why I even attempted it today.  Yesterday I had dental surgery (nothing huge, the crown had popped off my implant, but it did involve an hour of prodding at and eventually cutting my gums) so today I’m not feeling all that great.  Add to that lots of curves, a pattern I’ve never attempted and fabric I’m not too happy with (this is the one where the fabric was missing from the package.  I tried but really don’t have anything close to the sent fabric).  So, the blurgh, ack orange peel.  Ugh.

But I think it’s good to show the things you fail at as well as the things that go right.  So lets revel in those unmatched points, puckers and waving edges.  Honesty feels good.  Ok, no, honesty sucks some times, but whatever.  Happy hump day, yo!

xox,

c

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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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