Beyond the Cherry Trees

I can hardly believe I have finished my Beyond the Cherry Trees quilt top.  I started this quilt on January 24th 2011 so it took me approximately 15 months to complete the top.  I have no idea how I am going to quilt it there are so many little pieces and it is a very large quilt about 100 inches square.  Some of the other ladies are hand quilting theirs but at my age and the rate I hand quilt I don't think that is an option for me.

Keeping Up, Catching Up and Cleaning Up

So far I have been able to keep up with my Farmers Wife Sow Along blocks.  Now known as the Barristers Block Sow Along.  If you are interested in why you can find out  here.

  Keeping up with those Just Takes Two blocks   keeps getting harder and harder. I have been thinking about stopping but I sure am learning a lot and I do have all that red and white fabric.

I am trying really hard to catch up with the Beyond the Cherry Tree quilt.  I have completed one border three more to go.

These borders are really long but I think quite pretty.

As far as cleaning up.  I got out my scrap basket and my GO cutter and one day I just cut squares. 2, 2 1/2 and 1 1/2 inch.  They take up a lot less space.

How are you keeping busy?

Happy stitching,

Nancy

Beyond the Cherry Trees Progress

I finally got all 25 blocks of my Beyond the Cherry Tree quilt sewn together.  I like the way it has turned out even with all the mistakes.  The biggest one being trimming all the blocks the wrong size and having to redo some of the applique'.
I had a little trouble trying to decide how to lay out this quilt with an odd number of baskets and that one really red block but with a little help from a friend I think it is pretty well balanced.
Although as I look at the picture I might just have to move the second block in the top row somewhere else.  It's starting to bother me.
Now for the borders and all those cherries and leaves.
Happy stitching,
Nancy

Beyond the Cherry Trees Oh My!

It was a nasty day here yesterday power blinking on and off and I didn't want to use my machines so I decided to square up my Beyond the Cherry Trees blocks...all 24 of them.

Squaring up blocks has always made me a little nervous so I bought a 16 1/2" square up ruler to use.  These rulers are not cheap but I thought if it would make squaring up a little less stressful it was worth it.

The first few blocks were easy no problem even if some of the pieces were just barley a 1/4 inch from the sides. Then I started running into trouble.

The applique pieces were outside the 16 1/2 inches.



 







I thought I was being very careful putting the patterns together just right.  I guess I should have been checking each block to make sure but it never occurred to me they would not be correct and I didn't know what size the blocks were supposed to be until a couple of months ago.  I have 10 blocks to go back and fix.

They say we learn from our mistakes.  I think what I have learned is not to assume a pattern is correct.

To always check to be sure before you just go blindly stitching away.
All this can be fixed with a little time and patience it just means I am not as far along with this quilt as I thought.
I hope your stitching is going better than mine.
Nancy

Beyond the Cherry Trees!

Just completed Block 24 only one more block to do.
I still have the borders but I thought I would wait until I got the center put together so I could be sure of the size.  I always get so nervous when I start squaring up blocks and cutting borders.
You put all that work into the applique'  one slip of the cutter and your starting over.
I wonder how some of you square up your blocks?
Happy stitching,
Nancy

Whew!

The last couple of months have been----well let's just say different. Lot's of family matters to take care of. Things are getting back to normal again and it's nice to have a little time to spend on the blog. I missed posting and reading your comments.

There hasn't been much quilting going on but I was able to do a little Internet shopping. I found these three great books on Amazon.

I just love to get new books even if it's only to look at the pictures and dream.

I also found a moment here and there to work on the borders of Comfort and Joy my Christmas quilt.

I have gotten a little behind on Beyond the Cherry Trees.

The patterns for one of the borders and block 24 are out, but that's just fine.
 I have to keep telling myself---- it is not a race after all.

Now all I need is a little piecing time at the machine.  I have been having withdrawal systems.
I know you understand.

Nancy

Beyond The Cherry Trees

Seems like forever since I have found the time to post to the blog.

  

First,  I want to thank Katrina over at Sunshower Quilts for the nice prize I won.

She had a giveaway for a ScrapMaBob and I was lucky enough to win.

Katrina has a very interesting blog you should check it out.

I finished blocks 21, 22 and 23 of my Beyond the Cherry Trees quilt.  

It's getting close to the end  only two more blocks left to do and then the borders.

I here the  borders have hundreds of circles.  What fun!

It is always exciting when I get to the end of an applique' quilt.  When I pick all the colors for a scrappy quilt I am never quite sure how they will all look together.

Hope you are all finding time for some stitching.

Nancy

Keeping Up!

Sometime keeping up is not all that easy.

Blocks twenty one and twenty two prepped and ready to stitch on my Beyond the Cherry Trees quilt.  Only three more blocks and then the borders.

I am up to date with my BOM Comfort and Joy Christmas quilt.  But this months block is ready to be picked up so I guess I need to go get it.

 I managed to complete two tops for Healing Hugs a group that makes quilts for chemo patients.  Only the  quilting left to do.

 This is my progress on my GO tumbler leader and ender project.  Long way to go with this one and silly me I bought cheddar fabric to make the Bow Tie leader ender project Bonnie Hunter is hosting.

Better get off the computer and get busy.
Happy Stitching,
Nancy

Beyond the Cherry Trees Progress

I know this is not a very good picture because I just don't have enough room to stand far enough back from my design wall---but I though I would show you the progress I have made on my Cherry Tree quilt.


I also made a couple of changes to my quilt. The purple in the grapes just didn't seem to fit with all the other red and green blocks.  Some of the others made their cherries red and they fit better but I didn't want to do all those cherries over so I just put some leaves around the vine.

I never really liked the pineapple block.  To me it just looks weird and not at all like a pineapple---also there is no red in this block.  So I found another block in one of my applique books made a few changes and had it enlarged to fit.




My only dilemma now is should I change the purple basket in this block.  I will wait and see what the last six blocks are about before making that decision.

Beyond the Cherry Trees Block 12, 14 & 17

I had been putting off doing block 12 because of the little fingers not much of a seam to turn under and I am still not convinced the seams will hold.

I enjoyed stitching Block 14 it was a little easier to do.

















Block 17 was very quick to stitch....... Sometime you need something easy to relax again.

 I believe the ladies that designed this quilt all those many years ago must have been very accomplished at  appliqué.

Beyond The Cherry Trees

I know you all must think all I do is applique and for the most part you are  right.

This is my block three.  Those dreaded fingers.  I was really surprised  it didn't fall apart when I washed it.  

This is one I am not at all happy with -  putting it aside while I worked on others was not a good idea because now it doesn't seem to fit in. I changed my yellows and this one seems way too dark.  Heaven forbid I should have to do it over.

If anyone has any suggestions as to how I could make it fit better please speak up.  I would really appreciate it.

Block eight was a fun block and not too challenging just lots of  little leaves.

I didn't do the bird in the center on block nine but I did add an extra leaf.  Most of these blocks don't look at all balanced to me.

 Block ten was another fairly simple block just more leaves.   I just put one stem to each cherry. The pattern has several stems to each cherry but they were embroidered.

 I like block eleven I  made the basket purple instead of green like in the directions.  I think my quilt has enough green with all those green leaves and stems  and this is my quilt so I feel it is alright to change what I don't like about the pattern.

These are my blocks so far.....not a great picture but you can get the idea.  I  have laid them out like the original so I could see where I needed certain colors.  Don't want another block three fiasco.

I would really like to catch up so I can  concentrate on just one block a month but the blocks I have let are a little challenging.  I have finished the vines on the grape block in the center but not all those bazillion circles and I see more fingers in blocks 12 and 13.

I have other projects I need to do this week so I won't be moving as fast on this one.

Happy stitching.

Nancy

Beyond the Cherry Trees Block Seven

I finished block seven of my Cherry Trees quilt last week.  If I seem to be in a rush it's because I started late and am a little behind.  Sometime it's good to be behind because you can see what everyone else has done and it helps you make fabric decisions.  You also get good tips on ways to applique'  your block.
If you would like to see this quilt in action check out the blog
Beyond the Cherry Trees.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day...the day is beautiful here in Georgia.

I have the applique Fever

Two More Lollypop's completed..... Just a couple more and I can put the center together.

Three Beyond the Cherry Tree's blocks completed....Just 19 more  (LOL!) on this one..

I think I need to take a break and do a little vacuuming around here.

Beyond the Cherry Trees!

I believe the hardest part of any project is just starting. 
I finally got around to starting my Cherry Tree Quilt. It's called Beyond the Cherry Trees  by Sentimental Stitches.  
I have been collecting the patterns since the very beginning and really love this quilt.

I spent way too  much time trying to decide on a background fabric and then the other day I found this white fabric in my stash.  I bought it on clearance a few years back because it had a few spots on it.  I had so much of it I was able to cut around the spots----but 

once I started stitching on this background I didn't like it because it had too many little white leaves on top of the fabric and since this is a large quilt I decided to change.

I ordered some Kona cotton and really like it a lot better.

This is the first block.

There is also a Beyond the Cherry Tree blog where you can see all the great work everyone is doing on this quilt.
Looking back I am glad I did not check out the individual blocks too closely before starting.  I mostly just looked at the whole quilt and really liked it.  I think some of these blocks are going to prove to be a little difficult for me......I don't mind circles and there are lots of circles.....but all those little fingers and tiny outer curves in some of the blocks are going to prove to be a problem and I see lots of them.
Do any of you have any tips?
.