Cherish in Vivacious

I finished another Cherish Quilt top! I’m a little surprised this one is done already, but I did take a few short-cuts to make it go a little quicker.

I decided to make the 6” version of my updated Cherish Quilt with Anna Maria Horner’s upcoming Vivacious Lawns just a few weeks ago. I was given a couple of yards of each print to make a quilt and some garments, which I did here and here, to send over to Free Spirit for a trunk show. The quilt that I made, a new favourite of mine, was an applique quilt designed earlier in the year when my family was away on holidays for 10 days. During that delicious time home alone, I came up with several new applique quilts and started to dream about pattern series and clubs and a million more quilts! But then, my lovely, noisy family came home, life started backup again, and that wonderful creative flow screeched to a grinding halt. Sigh. That’s not to say I don’t love having my family around, it’s just that all that time alone made me completely forget how much head space I get for patterns and launches in my everyday life. All of those lovely new ideas got put on the backburner and I went back to cutting orders and homeschooling my kids, and chipping away at smaller jobs like updating my Cherish Pattern.

That change/slow down of plan made me want to keep the first Vivacious quilt I’d made for later when I release that pattern, and on a whim, I decided to make Cherish out of the leftover fabric for the Trunk Show. I had a month before the deadline to send the quilt to the US! I made a very crazy plan to ensure I could get it done in time. I achieved this lighting speed up by choosing the fabrics and basting four identical blocks at a time. And then I sewed 2 blocks a day. I sewed during swimming lessons, drama lessons, evening tv, homeschool, drives to the airport, and any other little crevice of time I could find. It probably sounds crazy after just saying that I had no time for new quilts. But sewing in all the noise is the easiest thing to do in my life these days.

Once I hit 20 bocks, I have to admit I was pretty over it. The small bock Cherish version has 46 blocks. I had so much longer to go and I didn’t know if I was going to make it in time! Late one night, with the creativity that only comes with boredom, desperation, and a tinge of regret, I did a quick calculation to see how big 6” blocks made into the same layout as the 8” version (only 23 blocks) would be. It was 50” square! Well, awesome! I decided to make 6 more blocks to even out the colours more, and use some of the blocks I’d already made as half blocks.

To explain myself more, the Cherish pattern comes in 2 different sizes, one using 2” and 4” shapes to make an 8” block, and the other using 1 1/2” and 3” shapes, the 6” block. There’s instructions and colouring pages for both layouts. So, following the colouring page for the larger block layout, I made this smaller version of a 6” Cherish. Is that totally confusing? I hope not, because I think it’s a really nice alternative for someone who wants to make Cherish, but doesn’t want to make it approx 70”, which both original quilts are.

For scale, you can see here that’s it’s about the same size as a short 11 year old! ;P

I feel so happy with the quilt now. It was touch and go for a while there. The fabrics are quite busy, and there’s only 12 prints, so I had to embrace the ‘cottage garden’ vibe rather than modern and crisp. I had to allow for clumps of fabric together, when I’m used to using up to 100 prints in a quilt. Going fast means that you cross your fingers when there’s a block that doesn’t turn out quite as you hoped, but you also learn quickly how to create more contrast, or which prints you like better. Spending a whole quilt-top’s worth of time with your body clenched in desperate hope (please, please, please, please work out!), is a very different experience to how I usually like to make, but the end result is all the sweeter and more satisfying. Phew! I love it! Still, I’ve rewarded myself with a little scrappy diamond stitching up next. There’s nothing quite like a new scrappy start with no deadline!

Vivacious fabrics are deliciously soft, satisfyingly extra wide, and so, so rich. I highly recommend them when they come out in August. Just take your time with them though, and enjoy them!