Chocolate Covered Cherries

I could not wait to wake up and take pictures of my new eye candy. I could not wait to wake up and blog about this quilt top. I have been looking at Irish Chain quilts for some time now, to me-they are beautiful. But, I just never got around to it. I also in my head could not decide if I wanted a color theme or make it scrappy. I have seen one that was scrappy and that was so delicious looking. Well, for a couple of years now, while I am surfing the net, I have come across this pattern. I have seen it under different names-but the original name is Chocolate Covered Cherries by Jo's Country Junction. After eye balling this pattern for a couple of years, I finally said " Oh Nadine, just print the pattern for goodness sake!"So I did. That was a few months ago. I read the directions, figured out what I needed to make this. I needed a mix of brown fabrics, red fabrics and a cream for the background. With that in mind, I kept my eyes open for any opportunity to buy these colors. Even though I was sticking to 3 color schemes, I still felt that it was sorta scrappy because I wasn't just using just 3 different fabrics. Love to mix and match. My first place of purchase was at the Westfield Quilt show this summer. I was so delighted to see vendors there. One in particular had a lot of what I was looking for. Next, stop was quilt shops. I know the directions said to use yardage, but I am a huge lover of fat quarters. I bought a few of them and just made do. I knew that I would be going to my quilt retreat this October, I planned on putting it together there. I decided to pre cut all of the pieces(that took HOURS), label them and put them in a tote--I was so organized- I amazed myself. Well- the retreat was finally here. Away I went with my tote. Opened it up, read the directions some more and saw that- Oh my God, what did I get myself into. I hate cutting fabric, I hate chopping vegetables-to me it is all tedious. Silly me, this is not one of those patterns I can get away with just slapping it together. There not only was a great deal of pre-cutting before the retreat- I was in for a great deal more. I had to make 144 nine patch blocks, 144 square in a square blocks, etc... Before I could do this- I had to make strip set after strip set after strip set, then cut-cut-cut. That took me 3 days to do. I had visions of completing this at retreat-oh foolish me. I did not. I brought it home and decided I would finish it here instead of leaving it in the tote for next retreat. I worked on this Sunday night to last night. I can safely say that I burned the midnight oil.  I was so focused. I went to bed last night with peace in my heart- I had finished it!! I wanted to take it outside and take pictures of this Irish Chain variation quilt top of mine amongst all of the fallen colorful leaves. Ahhhhh Mother Nature, gotta love her. I woke up to rain. That is OK, I settled for just laying it out and clicking away with the camera. I love it!! I can't wait to put it on the Long Arm and quilt it. I am playing with all sorts of designs in my head. I am not sure who's bed this will end up on- possibly mine. I think I deserve a new quilt for my bed!

Here she is- my beautiful Chocolate Covered Cherries quilt top!! What girl doesn't deserve chocolate and cherries?!

I am looking at this over and over--playing out all kinds of quilt designs in my head. There are so many possibilities. I am thinking of thread choices. I may use 3 different colored threads on it. I would love to buy fabric that is a mix of browns and reds for the backing. That would be so lovely. I will have to keep my eyes open when I go to the quilt shops again. I think this is a good reason to go out fabric hunting.