Cherry Quilt

I can't believe the Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show is less than two weeks away!!  For those of you who don't know, the show is at Wagner's Country Inn at 30855 Center Ridge Rd., Westlake, OH 44145 from 10A-5P on Sunday, April 29th.  There will be over 100 vendors, hand-picked by Becki Cooper (who has been receiving a TON of press coverage for her efforts with this show!).  My mom and I have a table in the South Ballroom and would love to see you there.

Now that I have everything made for the show, all the sewing I've been doing for the past several days has been for fun.  I had a half (okay, not quite half) finished quilt in my "unfinished projects" bin that has been nagging at me for awhile.  The quilt is very big, about 60"X70", and is the first major project that I took on solo after I learned to sew.  I took my mom to Amish Country for Mother's Day in 2010 and we went to this amazing quilt shop in a little village called Charm (seriously, a town named Charm?  It has to be cute, which it is) called Miller's Dry Goods.  This shop holds more fabric and patterns than most big box stores, all packed into a old house-turned-quilt shop.  The pattern is called "Simply Sweet" by Me & My Sister Designs and the fabric line is theirs as well, called "Oh Cherry Oh" for Moda.  This is an older line that is very hard to find, but you can still hunt down a few odds and ends on Etsy.  I love this fabric; it's bright and cheerful and would work for a baby or a younger girl. 

I started the quilt not long after I bought the pattern.  I made all of the blocks in a few days, then pieced together the quilt top shortly after.  I abandoned it for awhile, then worked on the border.  Then I abandoned it again.  For almost 2 years.  As of last night, the quilt is finally, finally almost done--all it needs is the binding (which I finish by hand, so it's kind of a lengthy process) and the centers of each block to be tied with embroidery floss.  Shoot.  I was just at the fabric store and forgot to buy embroidery floss.

Anyhow, here's how the quilt started out way back when:

And here's how it looked last night; Howard "helped" by laying on it to hold it in place.  He's so thoughtful.

When finished, it will have bright yellow binding.

It's big.  I ended up using masking tape to secure the backing to the floor to keep everything straight and as wrinkle-free as possible.  I don't know why I've never thought of using that method before!  I usually just use my bed, but then I end up pinning the quilt back to the bedspread and getting frustrated.

My poor sewing machine table was dwarfed by this quilt:

I really love it.  It's been a labor of love in more ways than one.  I've thought about keeping it for Charlotte, or, if we have another girl down the road, for her.  But I don't know.  Charlotte has so many quilts and blankets already and I'd hate to pack it up for another number of years just in case I'd want to use it someday.  I'd rather someone get use out of it now, so I'm going to take it to the Avant-Garde show.  I hope it finds its forever home :)  If not, Charlotte will have the best beach blanket I've ever seen!

There's someone else in my house who would love to make his own:

Oh Howard.  You already have staked claim on the couches, the chair, our bed, and the patio table.  Can you part with the quilt?

I hope you're having a nice start to your week.

~Stacy