Fleur - Paint by Numbers Inspired Quilt

Fluer

16” x 20”

A sweet mini inspired by that hummingbird paint by numbers. It is clear I am much better at quilts than paint by numbers!

In June of 2021 my kids bought me the paint by numbers for a new Morning Make activity. Each day I patiently worked my way through the numbers. It was the right kind of meditative play for me for Morning Make, but when I finished halfway through the month I declined the offer to start a new one. Just not my thing. Then a friend suggested I make a quilt inspired by the painting.

Once finished, it, like many other quilt tops of mine, sat. And sat. A few weeks ago I was in the mood to play with some free motion quilting. Having a mini on hand was fortuitous. It’s an easy baste and in 20 minutes I was stitching. Once I completed the leaves to the flowers (in a perfect olive green from Aurifil) I decided the hand stitch in the centers of the flowers and leave the rest unquilted. Simple, yet graphic.

So now they are both done. Will they hang together? Probably not. For one, I did a pretty crap job on the painting. And two, we have a no quilts on the wall rule. That’s okay, I’ll just bring her out every now and then when I need a little pick me up.

Quilters Stand for Ukraine - Resources

Like always, I and many other quilters are using their fabric to process emotions. We are in scary, depressing times right now with the Russian attack on Ukraine. Like many others I can only watch in fear and dismay. Like many other Ukrainian Canadians I can only help from the sidelines.

Whether it is donations from the sales of patterns, exclusive and free patterns, shopping on Etsy for downloads from Ukrainian creators, or making ourselves, there are many projects and initiatives within the craft community for showing and sharing support for our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. Here is a list of what I know of so far. (Feel free to email me at cheryl@cherylarkison.com if you know of others and I will update the list.)

Peace paper pieced block by Happy Sew Lucky (free download)

Dove Mini Quilt Pattern by Tamara Kate Designs (all sale proceeds to Ukraine relief orgs via Canadian Red Cross)

Quilters Stand for Ukrainian quilt block by Pat Sloan (donate and free download)

Sunflower block by Quiet Play (free download with donation request)

Rise of Freedom by Sashas Quilt (Paper pieced pattern download from a Ukrainian quilter)

My own sunflowers above are a version of the simple improv tutorial provided by Anne Larsen. My plan is to make a field of sunflowers. One of our employees is from Kharkiv herself and only today we learned that her mother and in-laws are finally safe in Germany. They will be coming to Canada as soon as they can and it might be nice to cover them with a small taste of home when they arrive. Sometimes you can’t help every person so you pick someone you can directly impact and do the work. We are doing what we can to support our employee and her family because we can see this direct impact. Being a quilter, you know there will be a quilt or two.

Faye

Faye

72” x 72”

Years in the making. Like her namesake. A fearless woman, tenacious, and patient. She knew her time would come. Moved to New York with a dream. Moved through New York with relentless energy. Meeting people, making herself just that much more, ignoring the naysayers. She persevered and found her beauty and her success.

Faye, the quilt, began life in the follow-up to making the Alturas quilt. Carolyn Friedlander’s book, Savor Each Stitch came out and I fell in love with the graphic pattern. She’d already got me hooked on needle turn appliqué so this seemed like a logical step. I started the first block back in the fall of 2014. This finish is indeed a long time coming.

One block led to two and then I might as well do four, right? The initial pattern in the book calls for one block and a great use of negative space. I never follow a pattern anyway. So over the course of a few years I worked on the blocks. Looking back, it took me about 6 hours to baste each block, then who knows how many to stitch. Appliqué is not for a quick finish. Then again, nothing is a quick finish for me.

The finish for Faye come very recently though. Our family wanted to gift a quilt to celebrate a wedding. The gift was long overdue and we decided that this quilt top matched the couple’s personality. I will admit, I had a moment of selfishness for her. Then I realized that my love for her came in the making more than anything. It was time to set her free and share that love.

I always have a hard time with quilting an appliqué project. It’s a battle between accentuating the appliqué and ease. At least, it feels like a battle. In the end I went for a straight line quilting pattern. For one, Carolyn has done this a lot in the past and it works. It provides texture and security without taking away from the graphic design. Secondly, I am hoping this will be a loved couch quilt so I wanted dense quilting to help keep her strong.

The whole quilt is divided into quarters with an X through the middle. Then I echoed that line between each triangle. I chose a pale yellow/cream Aurifil thread in 50W (2311). It isn’t harsh on the backing but disappears for the most part on the front. It might seem odd to use a creamy colour when there is so much bright white, but the reduction in contrast on the coloured fabrics makes it worthwhile and you don’t even notice it on the white.

You know me and my love for a contrast binding. This bright yellow might seem like a funny choice, but almost all of the blocks have a bit of yellow in them. Black, my other thought, seemed too harsh. I had just purchased this yellow Spectrastic by Giucy Giuce from Keystone too. It was meant to be! Such a fun pop to finish this off.

The whole quilt really is a collection of some favourite and treasured fabrics. I started the whole thing with Samarra Khaja’s amazing New York illustrated fabric. Combined with a much loved Charlie Harper print that first block set the tone for the rest of the combinations. I stuck with the New York fabric when I realized I had enough of it, then paired it with some hoarded Heather Ross unicorns, the Stendig calendar print, and a gorgeous purple from Carrie Bloomston. On the back I shared another Charley Harper treasure.

Hopefully I will get to visit Faye in her new home.

January Morning Make 2022

We’re coming up on 2 years at home. Everyone is tired, frustrated, and annoyed. Some lash out, some quietly move on. Most of us are just living our lives as best we can. I fall into the latter category and chose to use my Morning Make this past month as a moment of reflection.

Quilting as a professional author, speaker, and teacher has taken me to some pretty amazing places over the past decade. I’ve travelled all over Canada, hit a handful of US cities, and even went across the ocean to Australia. I really do hope to add travelling for quilting back on my schedule again down the line. This reflective process does have me truly appreciating even more that quilting has given me. That’s because it’s given me all the people in the places, the creativity and laughter in the room, the morning walks before the work begins, and the ability to share my love of play and fabric with so many.

The project actually began years ago. One day my oldest and I were talking about the places I’ve been and we decided to make a list. It was like the twenties version of former lovers, but this place name list is MUCH bigger. I kept adding to it too. Every now and then I would make one of the places on the list. Then, when I started teaching online during the pandemic I would pick one of these places when I was demonstrating techniques for my Make Words Not War class. Every time it was a moment of reflection and appreciation. Needing to extend those thoughts and feelings I decided to make these place names the focus for January Morning Make.

I won’t lie, I’d hoped to finish all of them. I can only get up so early and these days that isn’t very early at all. But I did get through 18 of the place names on the list. Only 11 more to go.

Frankly, I have no idea how or when this will come together. I do know it will be a massive quilt! Maybe I will make it double sided? All I do know is that it’s been fantastic to take daily trips back to these places. I’m recalling people or the weather or even specific projects from events. I’m in awe of the depth of this travel. For quilting? Yes, for quilting!