Chocolate covered cherries

As I stood looking at my design wall last night a sudden craving for Chocolate covered Cherries came over me.  To be honest I don't even like cherries( it's a texture thing, I can't stand the way they feel in my mouth, crazy, yes).  The Cherry is spit out leaving the chocolate and delicious creamy center to do its little magical dance on my taste buds.  Brach's brand was the best, that center would just run out like syrup!  YUM!  But they are hard to find these days.  Anyway enough of the daydreaming about food.  Do you see why this wall reminds me of chocolate covered cherries?

It took me about 30 minutes to figure out this block after seeing a picture.  Then last night while doing my normal 2 a.m. insomnia web surf I found this tutorial in Spanish.  I hit the translate and well I'll be darned!  And here I wasted all that quilty brain power.  

They go together quickly.  (4) 10 inch squares make 2 blocks, a positive block and a negative block .  The gingham is the background fabric.  The strip sets below are for one block.

 Layering all the strips sets together and calling on June Taylor to help me with accuracy. Rarely do I  use the Shape Cut, but after I do I think why don't I use this more often? It such a handy tool!

 ZIP, ZIP ,ZIP, ZIP and 5 perfect sets, 1 has been set aside for a possible border.

 Arranged for sewing together.  Cherry in the middle and four little gingham corner pieces.

Making four at a time, chain piecing, takes about 45 and that includes the final pressing of the blocks. These blocks can wait till after I run to town for eggs, coffee creamer, and Chocolate covered cherries! 

~Lea Anne~

Linking up with Freshly Pieced Modern for WIP Wednesday.

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Lots to share DWM

I'm taking momma to the doctor tomorrow, so lets have design wall progress  today.  

After a day and a half of hand stitching the small red circles in place.  This quilt came together quickly.  I took so many pictures!  Luckily for you I picked out just a few.

 Some of the perfect circles didn't come out quite as perfect as I would have liked.  They were perfect before stitching.  What I found is that needles make all the difference.   My first needle of choice was one of those quick threading kind.  Bad choice, the larger eye pulled my circles out of whack.  After changing to applique sharps needle things looked better.  

 If you not familiar with the how to make a perfect circle you can find a tute here.  

 LOVE LOVE LOVE the border fabric.  It took about a month to find just the right color indigo blue to match the blue of the oak and reel block.  I know it looks darker but really its not.  The small print on the blocks makes it appear to be a different shade of blue.    Since the border fabric is such a large print I had to do some fussy cutting on the length of the fabric instead of cutting on the width.  Lots of scraps were made by doing this but the outcome is worth it.  

 I wanted to share this pattern with you but the oak and reel has a copyright.  After searching for hours to find where the pattern, I finally found it in Inspired by Traditions by Kay Mackenzie.  Mines just spruced up a bit with the circles.  The alternating block is just a basic Irish chain block that can be found on my tutorials tab.  

Inspiration has struck and I'm stuck in the darker colors.  Here's what I've made today from a Primitive Gatherings layer cake and some yardage.  Those little squares finish at 1.5.   The red center fabric is from the oak and reel quilt, and don't tell anyone..... but that gingham.....its a baby sheet I scored at the Goodwill for $1.  

 Hopefully I'll have time to shop for the sashing fabric after momma's doctor appointment.

 You know I can't go very long with out playing with the brights.  I made this itty bitty cutie(5.5").  It's a freebie tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts that you can find here.  If you have EQ7 it's one of the basic patterns.   This will become my leaders and enders project.  Some of you may recognize it from Jenny Doans Youtube Tutorial from last week.  Jenny requires you buy her papers and a template to make the quilt.  Red Pepper lets you print it out for free!  I set my printer up for fast printing which makes it use less ink.  Either way it's going to cost something.  

Want more quilty inspirations?  Its just a click away!  Judy at Patchwork Times hosts a link up every Monday morning.  Anyone can enter their blog.  So hop on over, link up, and check out others Design walls. 

~Lea Anne~

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Still in the Dark

Since I've made a color change on the frame might as well pull out a UFO in darker colors.  This was started umm...a couple of years ago maybe.  Hand appliqued, not sure where I found the oak and reel block pattern.

Kinda plain and boring huh?

Needs more color, so I had the brilliant idea to just add some simple circles.  By using Kay Buckley's Perfect circle templates they're much easier and the finished circle is Perfect!  Cutting a strip of fabric the width of the unfinished circle, then sub cutting, and using the circle as a guide for cutting.  108 unfinished circles cut in less than 30 minutes.  4 layers can be cut at once, speeding up the process tremendously.  My finished size circle is the ones at the top left corner of this picture, they are almost out of view.  

 TADA!  3 down 105 more to go.  I'll spend the afternoon doing the running stitch around each circle while doing laundry.  After they are stitched its back to the quilting frame. 

 Tomorrow I can start the starching and ironing of each little circle and glue them in place.  Yes glue!  Its Roxanne's basting glue, or if you're cheap like me Elmer's Washable school glue refills the fine tipped bottle.   If you interested in a tutorial on how to make these perfect circles go here and here.   

The added 3(needs 9 more) finished to the block, I suppose they could be the acorns.  Gives the block a much happier look, don't you think?

 Using EQ7, I scanned in my border and inset fabrics, used EQ's version of the Oak and Reel and here's the plan.  Yep another quilt with the simple Irish chain block.   It goes together quickly and can be done by strip piecing and sub cutting.  All 16 blocks could easily be made in a short afternoon sewing spree.

I'm linking up with Connie today for Linky Tuesday.  Hop on over check out what others quilters are stitching up, and add your own link.  Its a great way to meet new quilty friends and share ideas.  There's always new and free tutorials being link up.  

~Lea Anne~

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Color change

Good Monday morning!  Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday.  

After 3 days of not stepping foot in the studio it was full steam ahead yesterday.  My MIL's home was decorated for the holiday and it inspired the darker side of my quilty brain.  My regular followers know that I change style and colors about as often as I change my pants.  Instead of digging through the scraps and designing I went to the flimsy drawer.  This was designed over a year ago for the Master bedroom.  King size!  Lonestar quilts are my go-to pattern, its a love affair.  

 There was no plan for the quilting.  I just grabbed the arc ruler and used my blocks and seams as a guide.  The only markings made so far is one centering dot on the yellow square, and it was eyeballed.  Makes the quilting go so much faster if there's no marking.

Do you have a go-to pattern, one that you really like?  Most quilters go-to pattern is super simple, but when thinking of go-to, I think it's one that everyone swoons over.  And by changing the colors it can take on a totally different look.   They make great gifts, because everyone recognizes them.  Although they look hard, once you've made a Lonestar by using the strip method or Quilt Smart, you'll wonder why you never made one before.  

Here's another one I made for my dad, called Four Directions.  The border design is fusible applique.  

 And this one was beautiful until I tried to get the bleeding colors to stop.  Lesson learned on pre-washing all fabrics.  

Link up with Judy and strut your stuff on Design wall Monday.

~Lea Anne~

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