In January Lori Holt and Riley Blake Designs kicked off their Sweetie Pie Sew Along featuring Lori’s pretty new collection “Sew Cherry 2” and her Sew Simple Shapes and Pie Ruler. Each week a new portion of the quilt was featured, with fabulous tips and tutorials on both Lori’s blog (Bee In My Bonnet) and the Riley Blake Designs Blog. The pattern is free and the online resources are tremendous. You’ll definitely want to check this out!
During the sew along, guest bloggers have been sharing their creations, and I was asked to utilize the Fruit Salad Sew Simple Shapes to make a cherry block. (Follow this link for terrific instructions and guidelines from Lori!) Since the Cherry Pie block was completed in January, with Riley Blake’s blessing I decided to make a cheery little wall hanging featuring the cherry shapes.
I used one of my own patterns, Mini Story Stars, because it has the perfect “white space” area to feature Lori’s sweet cherry shapes. The simple star blocks also allowed me to fussy cut the pretty floral from Lori’s Sew Cherry 2 collection.
This quilt measures 27” x 27” and is available on my Etsy Shop.
This quilt measures 27” x 27” and is available on my Etsy Shop.
One of my favorite parts of this project was pulling fabrics from my stash. I used some of Lori’s new line, Sew Cherry 2, but I also included pieces from her Calico Days collection. Rounding out the grouping are pieces from Elea Lutz (Apple Farm) and Nadra Ridgeway (Bloom & Bliss). Don\’t they play nicely together?
The background fabric is one of my favorites ~ the Weekdays in White text print from Calico Days! It’s such a tender backdrop for all of the other lively prints.
To applique my cherries and leaves, I used Lori’s sew-in interfacing method. Rather than hand-stitching them in place, I decided to do a simple outline machine stitch using Aurifil 2340 Cafe au Lait 50 wt. I really like the effect. I then hand embroidered the cherry stems using Aurifloss 2340. Using all six strands gives it a nice chunky look.
I machine quilted this piece using simple straight-line quilting and Aurifil 2021 50 wt. I let the star blocks and seams lead me where they may.
Oh, and may I just say . . . the big red check from Sew Cherry 2 is just perfect for binding!
And thank you all for stopping by the blog today. I hope you get carried away quilting often!
~Taunja
