handwork

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.

The Big Blue Blanket

While Improv may be my Love Language I have a kid who is all about physical touch. That means she loves anything soft and cozy. Fleece, yarn, or anything fuzzy. Sadly, quilts don’t make the grade. Despite having 2 giant robes, an Oodie, and two faux fur blankets she felt the need to make herself the blanket above.

With nine skeins of super thick acrylic yarn from the big box craft store and this short You Tube video she made herself a blanket in an afternoon. She loves it so.

This blanket would make an excellent gift, and she has done that for a friend. I strongly recommend finding all the coupons when buying the yarn though, the cost can add up.

This blanket provides an excellent amount of coziness. And it is a hug, truly. She is curled up with it currently as she deals with Covid and the subsequent quarantine this week. She’s double vaxxed and only experiencing symptoms like a bad cold, thankfully. We should all take comfort in anything we can these days. So if a big blanket of synthetic but soft yarn is the thing you need, then so be it. It also helps that Mama is delivering you treats on a tray every few hours.

November Morning Make 2021

Oh, what a month!

It is a very good thing we live in a small house because after a month of mornings spent weaving I am dreaming of a large loom. Just a dream though, because that small house thing. Weaving is a delightful discovery for me.

Like many of my Morning Makes, the challenge of being a beginner was there. You can definitely see the progression between day 1 and 20 in my simple coasters. Learning set up, tension, and patterns was a lot at once but the pursuit of improvement drove me. As did the meditative aspect of this. Those two things combined made this a perfect Morning Make for me.

See? Look at that improvement in technique from right to left. Learning tension was a key thing. So was understanding patterns. Some I picked up more easy than others, some still confused me at the end. There is so much more to try.

These coasters were made on the small frame loom. I bought a kit from Anne at Flax and Twine. I already had her book, Weaving Within Reach, but you can buy that from her too. In fact, everything I made came from her book and all supplies from her. It was a nice one stop shopping opportunity. She has loads of kits and video classes too.

While I could have made coasters endlessly I had purchased supplies for some other projects so moved on.

The Bento Bag pattern really appealed to me for its modern styling. I also, frankly, thought it would be easy. While it wasn’t difficult, it was a bit tedious. I do quite love the results. You can buy handles and turn it into a purse even. In the book it is styled as a yarn bag which, I think, would be quite lovely. The bag doesn’t stand up without anything in it and the fruit from our dining room table isn’t quite the right filler! I’m sure it will find a good home soon enough.

The month ended before I finished the next project so I’ve just continued into December with it. Using a rope twine I am making a basket. This is another meditative project and I can see more in my future. I am even contemplating dying some of the rope to see what happens. Stay tuned.

August Morning Make 2021

Morning make Euroa Quilt Cheryl Arkison.jpg

August was set to be a busy month with a lot of motion. Camping and a vacation in between the reality of working and caring for kids. I started the month wanting something portable and to keep scratching the hand stitch itch. Committing to the Euroa quilt was an obvious choice.

Morning Make Euroa Quilt Cheryl Arkison.jpg

From start to finish in the month I made 7 whole blocks. That might not sound like much but considering that, on average, I made 20 blocks per year for the past 3 years I think that is pretty good! This gets me to 70/100 in my goal for this quilt. I started the month cutting fabric and prepping to baste and piece the first block. I worked one or two blocks at a time, the same way I’ve been making the entire quilt. So some days I was prepping, some basting, some assembling. Some days I had an hour or more, some days only 20 minutes. But like always, I was doing my Morning Make before consuming anything - social media, caffeine, the news, or even hot water in the shower.

Morning Make Cheryl Arkison.jpg

We had the opportunity to go camping a few times in August, once to the Jasper area and once to the Sheep River. It was about connections with family we haven’t seen and connections with the outdoors. I still started the day with Morning Make though! Then we could hike and kayak and and swim and wander the forest and laugh together. The best of all worlds, even with the dirt and outhouses. Later in the month we visited Waterton for more of the same, but we splurged on a hotel. This was to make up for a cancelled lake vacation because of forest fires. Still more family connections, kayak time, forest time, and sewing in a fancy lodge while tourists stared at me slightly less than the magnificent scenery!

Morning Make is often portable, unless I commit to a sewing machine project, so there is no excuse to miss it. Besides, while vacation is also good for my mental health, the daily creative practice of Morning Make is even more important.

Morning Make Cheryl Arkison