Tree of Life Vintage Quilt Inspiration

What better way is there to spend a late winter day than immersed in a vintage quilt collection? Back in March I had the opportunity to explore part of Heritage Park’s collection of donated and gathered quilts. It was all in anticipation of the Festival of Quilts, taking place in August. Delayed twice because of Covid it was a special experience. My goal was to identify a quilt to inspire a modern interpretation for a special class at the Festival of Quilts. Let me tell you, it was hard to narrow it down!

In the end I chose this pastel version of the Tree of Life pattern. I took a million pictures then came home to sketch. My goal to was make a straightforward version of the block, one easily made with a rotary cutter and one that lent itself to play. I wanted students to be able to play with colour, fabric, and scale, creating their own modern version of the block.

The first version I made tested the pattern. It was also an opportunity to play with fabric and scale. This particular block finishes at 36” square! I dug into the stash of both purples and the low volume black and whites. I love the combination of warm purples and cool purples. Together they make the block very dynamic.

This size proved popular in the class itself. It’s a great way to get far with a project.

The block itself can be set with a straight set like this or on point. It’s hard to decide what you want until you make the block. For example, I debated making 3 more blocks this size to make a four patch in this straight set, maybe all pointing to the four corners. However, I think I will add another round of black and white patchwork squares to make it a bit bigger and turn it into a baby quilt.

Here’s what it looks like on point, like in the original.

You can see I am having fun playing with fabric. Exploring variations in the colour green and playing with value placement keeps this from being boring. The entire block is made from half square triangles and squares. Super easy to make! But also a bit tedious. So having some excitment with the fabric sure helps. So does a good show in the background (I am currently watching Sex Education on Netflix.)

In the class itself students worked in all sizes and with a wide range of colours. It is always so exciting to see people play!

A huge thank you to Heritage Park, curators and staff there, as well as the Festival of Quilts volunteers for making this happen.

PS Don’t follow those pattern instructions, it contains errors that I fixed later.

Quarantine Quilt 2

Quarantine Quilt 2

45’’ x 54’’

We’re in a Polar Vortex right now. Or, as I call it, proper winter. Perfect time to be finishing a quilt AND to make your children hold it up for you to take a picture before the sun sets.

This is the scrap quilt from Quarantine Quilt 1. In the midst of Morning Make in April 2020 I realized I had a stack of cut triangles and that begged to be used right then and there instead of being relegated to a scrap bin. My one block a day that month became two blocks a day when I started turning those triangles into Sawtooth Stars.

Two quilts for the price of one month.

This quilt finished up as a sweet little baby quilt. It is pretty and cute and soft and exactly what you want a baby quilt to be. And that was before I quilted it! Simple loops in a variegated 50W from Wonderfil give it the perfect texture for a piece that will hopefully get well loved one day.

While I usually go for a higher contrast binding the whisper of the low volume fabrics called for something quieter. I picked the peach crosshatch from Carolyn Friedlander this time. It was a total coincidence that I also had used some of her fabric on the backing. What can I say? She makes good stuff!

Now that this quilt is done and the weather is still frightfully cold I need to get another quilt done so I can sit and bind it while watching the world pass by. Mostly I will dream about babies that family and even friends could have so that I can bestow this sweet quilt upon them. I promise that by the time I give it away it will have a better name.

Morning Make September 2020

Another month of painting. More focus this time.

With the kids returning to school I really, really needed something both a bit quicker than my doodles of last month but also still meditative. I decided to draw and paint a series of quilt blocks and turned them into cards.

My knowledge of traditional quilt blocks is not terribly deep so I pulled some classics off the book shelf for inspiration. I still used my quilting ruler, but wielding a pencil instead of a rotary cutter. My trusty watercolours and a black marker for outlining rounding out the supplies.

For the most part I limited myself to just a single block in the painting. Sometimes, however, you need a few repeats for good effect. With each block I played with colour in my paint choices, but not really anything fancy. I am no watercolour artist, but I am definitely improving. At the very least I am capturing what I want and that makes me happy.

Now I have a collection of 30 cards!

Which really means, now I have a collection of letters and notes to write. Would you like one? We could all use some happy mail these days.

The first 25 people to send me an email to cheryl@cherylarkison.com with a return mailing address and a short request will get a card. Please include a bit about yourself or your online presence so I can truly personalize these.

Modern Mills and Stars from Perfectly Pretty Patchwork

Back when we could hang out with other people I had a lovely breakfast with Kristyne Czepuryk. We are lucky enough to live in the same city and get to hang out when our schedules allow. She shared a copy of her latest book with me. It is pretty and perfect and so bang on for her style, I love it. And right now, a lovely distraction from the real world. She asked me to make something from the book and share it as part of her book tour.

I chose the Mills and Stars pattern, one that has always appealed to me yet I’ve never made a single block. Because it is me, I changed up the colours quite a bit from Kristyne’s typical pastel palette. It works with the patterns in the book because they are classic, traditional patterns that be played with.

Mills and Stars can also be known by Hummingbird as well as Periwinkle. In fact, I remember Kristyne telling me the story of the block at that breakfast but it has slipped away from my brain.

I won’t lie, this quilt was a lot of work, especially for me. I am decidedly not a template person. Yet there I was cutting out hundreds of pieces for 73 blocks, each with 12 pieces of fabric in them. (I watched/listened to Fleabag, Dr. Thorne, and Austenland while I worked on it. Whatever it takes!) In the end, however, it was welcome work. A respite from the world to just get lost in someone else’s decision making. Once all the cutting is done it just becomes assembly line production. I always forget how fast the sewing goes when you’ve cut everything in advance. I did eventually finish.

The final quilt is a slight adaptation from the original pattern. I made it one row of stars all the way around smaller. My intention is to gift this as a baby quilt so I didn’t need it to be 60” square. I also used a single piece of the background around the center section, rather than what the pattern called for. Just to show off that cool Carolyn Friedlander fabric.

So often we think things aren’t ‘for us’. I won’t lie, the book is delightful and pretty, but it isn’t something I am instinctively drawn to. More often than not, however, it is about seeing shapes or projects beyond the fabric. Kind of like viewing a house you want to buy and ignoring the colour on the walls. I’m not a basic beige person in my house, but someone else may love it. I’d rather have lime green and that can turn off a whole new crowd of people. I think we all need to look at shapes and patterns more than fabric and colour when we see a book or a new quilt. That’s why I was drawn to this pattern myself. It was the mix of block sizes and the graphic nature of the block itself that grabbed me. I just had to add my own spin on it.

The books is full of classic designs and some really cool projects. For each block design there is a quilt pattern as well as a small project. And who is to say you can’t mix and match one block with another project? The instructions are attentive to detail, templates are included in a tear out sheet, and the photography is well, pretty. Kristyne has made a lovely book.