Cheddar

Have you ever seen a fabric or a quilt and it was love at first sight?  True confession, I have seen many.  This is one of the reasons I have so many PhD's and an ever growing fabric stash.

In 2011, Judie Rothermel/Marcus Brothers released a fabric line called Civil War Chronicles.  One of the fabrics in the Civil War Chronicles line was Cheddar.  It was love at first sight.  Each time I was in the quilt shop and saw this fabric, I picked up a fat quarter.  Before I knew it, I had accumulated some yardage.

The September/October 2012 issue of Quiltmaker magazine had an article about Jo Morton and her star quilt.  It was navy stars on a cheddar background.  Be still my heart, I knew my cheddar fabric would be the perfect background fabric for this quilt.

Ahh Jo Morton quilts--the fabrics are exquisite, the quilts are beautiful and they are miniatures.  Gulp!  I have tremendous respect for those quilt makers who make miniatures--they require skill and precision and are not very forgiving with sewing or cutting errors.  I consider myself a beginning quilter who has many things to learn and I am always looking for an easier, faster, and more precise quilting method.  The points in the stars are flying geese.  While shopping at JoAnn's, I found a Quilt in a Day miniature template.  The template makes four geese at a time and the template is designed for accuracy.  The finished sizes for the mini Quilt in a Day Flying Geese is 1 1/2" x 3" and 3/4" x 1 1/2."  In my world, that's miniature.

The finished size for Jo's stars is three inches, mine finished to approx four inches. Both the Fat Quarter Shop and Quilt in a Day sites have excellent tutorials for using the template.  The instruction booklet which comes with the templates is very helpful and easy to follow instructions.

So. . .I have located my big girl bloomers, dug into the stash for blue fabric, sharpened my rotary cutter and put the quilting angel on notice.  Blue Stars, Cheddar background and a weekend with an extra day to sew--let the quilting begin.