Put on Your Sunglasses . . .

and grab yourself a margarita. You guys asked for it, so here it is! The working title is Bad Cherry Tequila. Or maybe Cherry Tequila Hangover.

And I have to tell you that for once, the photo looks better than the quilt top in "real life"!

I knew when I was piecing it that it was awfully busy, and I think if I had used one constant fabric in the hourglass blocks--like maybe the black I used for the background of the cherries--with the other fabrics, it would have calmed it down a bit. But the pattern itself called for scrappy fabrics and I was trying to stick to the pattern as much as possible. Still, by the time I got a pile of the hourglass blocks made and up on the wall, I knew it was waaaaaay too chaotic, so I thought maybe simpler corner blocks would help--and they did a little bit but not enough, I think. I've also been thinking that a plain outside border using one of the fabrics might help, but I hate to use more of this cute fabric in this project right now. So I think I'll hold off for awhile until I can get around to making the other quilt top I want to make with this fabric line and then I'll see what I have left--maybe I can rework this project a little bit so I'm happier with it.

And here's a peek at the cherry blocks I'm making for my other--main--cherry quilt project. I only have three made so far and I'll need nine of these and then four more on a blue background.

I'm using a Valdani variegated perle cotton for the stems and I think I may want to stitch a double line to make them a little thicker. I only have one ball of the perle right now, though, and the Valdani perle is hard to get ahold of. I've put an order into an online shop, but the owners are attending a couple of stitching shows this month, and there's no telling when my order will be filled and delivered. So I'll just keep going along with the single stems for now and see how far I get with what I have.

At least it's a much calmer project to work on. Until we visit next time, I'll just be sitting here in full lotus position with my back to that cherry tequila nightmare, chanting "ooooooom" and stitching away.