My Blog Day On The New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop

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Hi Everyone and Welcome to My Blog,

It is finally my day on the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop.   The co-hosts for this year’s blog hop are Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts, Sandra @ MMM! Quilts, Tish @ Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Jen @ Dizzy Quilter.  These ladies have generously given their time and effort to give us new bloggers  guidance to improve our blogging skills in a community environment.  I’d like to personally thank each of them.  Please visit their blogs for a chance to win some wonderful prizes provided by our sponsors by following the instructions on their blogs.  I’d also like to thank the new bloggers involved who have made many suggestions and instructions to better my blog.

The participants were separated into smaller groups called hives and I belong to the Sunshine Quilters Hive.  The button that was created for our hive is by Cindy of Gray Barn Designs.

Other members of my hive are:

Dione – cleverchameleon.com.au/blog/
Cindy and Sandy – graybarndesigns.com
Wendy – piecefulthoughts.com
Tracie – ricefordstreams.com
Cate – chaostheoryquilting.wordpress.com
Sharon & Susan – mspdesignsusa.com
Ann – laughinggasquilts.wordpress.com

Week Four Bloggers

• Tracy                       @           Its A T-Sweets Day
• Joni                          @           For the Love of Thread
• Cherie B.                 @          Cheries Quilting Journey Blog  (That’s Me)
• Cindy and Sandy   @           Gray Barn Designs
• Karen                       @           The Quilt Rambler
• Sarah                       @           9658 Textiles
• Terri                         @            Meanderings Along Lizard Creek
• Liz                             @            Savor Every Stitch

Please visit everyone to  get to know them better and see what they are up to.

Now I’m going to let you know a little about myself.  I’m a mostly Cajun girl who lives in South Louisiana.  I say mostly because my Father is from Ohio, but since we’ve lived down here since I was 3 years old the culture is ingrained in me.  I do have an accent but it is nothing like what you see on TV or hear on audio books.

The culture down here is all about food and fun.  There is always a fresh supply of seafood with which to make wonderful Cajun dishes.  We have wonderful meat markets with custom seasonings.  If seafood and meat are not to your liking there is always a farmers market nearby on Saturday mornings.

We have wonderful festivals nearly every weekend starting in the spring and lasting through fall in different cities that celebrate their crops and other good reasons to have a good time.  A couple of my favorites in the area are the Rice, Sugarcane, Shrimp, and Crawfish Festivals.  You can come and get delicacies from each and dance your feet off.  There is also my very favorite one, Festival International where musicians from all over the world come to share their music culture with us.  This festival was just a few weeks ago.  We brought our lawn chairs and found a spot in the shade.  It was quite warm.  Here are a couple pictures from the festival.  Never mind the photo bomber behind my husband and me.  I couldn’t really ask him to get out of the way.

I first learned to sew from my Mom who has sewn from before I was born.  She mostly sews garments.  I wasn’t really into sewing when I was younger.  I just relied on her to do all my sewing for me.  A couple of years ago I was feeling like I wanted to learn her skills so I purchased an inexpensive machine.  I sewed garments for a year, but it wasn’t very gratifying to me.  I tended to choose difficult patterns.  Collars, sleeves and zippers are yucky.  I was never completely satisfied with the results.  That being said, I’ve just bought fabric to try to make a new shirt.  Oh well,  let see what happens.  We all need a change of pace from time to time.

So then I came upon quilting.  It has been a great adventure for me.  I wanted to chronicle my creations in a place where they could be easily reached and notate what techniques I learned in order to monitor my progress.  I am hoping my blog shows those who are interested in making quilts they can do so.  I am not afraid to show mistakes (buggers) so others know that they are bound to happen and we can learn from them.  I am on a first name basis with my Rip Rip Ripper.  I call him Rip for short.

My first quilts were a log cabin block in which I was really surprised with all the 1 1/2 inch strips came out pretty squared once they were sewn together.  This was my first encouragement that I might like to continue to do this.  I had two fat quarter bundles and I just made blocks until they were all gone.  I then had quite a few blocks and was able to play with the blocks until I ended up with 2 quilt tops.  I didn’t know much about the quilting part yet so I just stitched in the ditch with monofilament thread.  I didn’t know that the quilting part could add such a flair to the finished product.

After many “You Tube” videos and blog readings I moved on to bigger and better things. I had a friend who was getting married and another who was having a baby.  So I thought  both would be a wonderful excuse to continue quilting.  On these I just did straight line quilting with my walking foot.  After these, I invested in a better machine with a bigger harp space that I could stuff the quilt through easier.  The blue quilt was quite difficult to fit through the machine.

My next excuse for a quilt was because my in-laws were flooded a couple of years ago and lost everything.  So I thought it would be nice to give them something I had made.  The second quilt was for myself “just because”.  These were my first attempts at free motion quilting.  I’m not very good at it but with practice I’m hoping to get better.

My favorite quilt as of yet is my Stained Glass Quilt.  Maybe because it’s my most recent finish.  You can see what I’ve done on this here and here.

It is my one year blogging anniversary on May 16th.  Now I feel I am really out there for all to see.  Please do not hesitate to reach out to me.  I am having a great time making new friends.  I have found the quilting community is loving and generous and I am very happy to become a part of it.

I have one request for you.  In your comments for a chance to win a prize, please let me know what your favorite tip or technique is or any suggestion you may have to help me on my journey.  I can’t wait to hear from you.

That’s all for now,

Cherie