Specifications
Quilt Pattern: Cherish Quilt (8″ block version) by Jodi Godfrey – website HERE
Finished Size: 70″ wide x 70″ long
Total Blocks: 23 whole, 4 half, 12 partial along edge
Construction/Piecing: Each hexagon was pieced via English Paper Piecing (EPP)
Quilt Piecing: Hand sewn together by Lesley Storts
Quilting: Custom quilting by Lesley Storts
Batting: medium weight cotton
Time frame to completion: June 2023 – August 2024

In June 2023 I started the Cherish quilt. I fondly named this quilt my “recovery” quilt because I had bilateral surgery on my feet in 2023. I’ve lived with bunions my entire adult life and over time, my feet had become more and more misshapen and deformed. I dealt with the inconvenience for a long time (30+ years!) but when the pain on the tops of my feet became unbearable, I decided to seek advice of an orthopedic surgeon. I never wanted surgery, especially on my feet, but I knew they were getting worse. It has been over a year since the left foot was done, and coming up on the year anniversary of the right foot. My feet are still improving week by week. Earlier this year I started exercising. I felt so de-conditioned and realized that the slow deterioration of my feet and body through the years was worse than I had thought. It has been a great relief to become more active and gain strength. My feet still ache at times, but I have so much more mobility and minimal pain. Because of the restrictions during the recovery, including non-weight bearing and elevating my feet for months, I planned to make the Cherish quilt to keep me occupied. In THIS post I talk about my fabric choices and the start of the quilt. I really love the color orange and pulled everything I had in my stash for this quilt. Toward the end, I purchased a few new orange fabric pieces as well as a new fabric for the binding. I used a wide-back from my stash for the back.

I was unsure how I was going to quilt the Cherish quilt. When I started the quilt I knew it would be very difficult for me to quilt on my domestic machine due to its size. Then, earlier this year, I purchased an Innova M24 longarm machine making it possible for me to finish the quilt. It took me time to decide whether to do edge to edge vs. custom quilting. I decided on a custom, free-motion design after reading Angela Walter’s Ultimate Guide to Free-Motion Quilting. Angela’s book was inspiring and informative. Her process, explanations and samples helped me form a plan for this quilt. I spent many sketching sessions doodling and playing with various designs. Each block is quilted the same way starting with a diamond pattern in the centers which is achieved through ruler work, a swirl design on the inner ring, leaves in the diamond points, and finally a wreath of leaves in the outer ring. It was a joy to make this entire quilt!

Here are some individual pictures of the blocks before they were assembled together.

Here’s the back of the quilt.

Some final thoughts about this quilt. I’m happy that I had a fairly tight palette with orange being the focal color. I feel like the black helped ground many of the blocks and create a different visual effect throughout the quilt. It was interesting and sometimes challenging to combine fabrics together. Many of them had the same saturation which made pairing them up difficult. Overall I am pleased with the outcome. I learned a lot and used a lot of favorite fabrics from my stash. This quilt feels HUGE! And since it has so much orange, it feels very dramatic – lol. One of my daughters has already put dibs on this quilt but first it is going on the road to at least one quilt show.

Lastly – have you ever used a quilt project as a companion for a healing journey? If so, what was your project and did you finish it? And for all of the bunion and feet sufferers in the world, we are bound together ♡
Happy quilting and crafting! ▶︎ ▶︎ ▶︎