Join the 2025 Cherish Quilt Club

I came to quilting through the big, beautiful florals by Anna Maria Horner and sweet childhood scenes by Heather Ross, but I rarely ever cut into them. I cut into the fabrics I bought on clearance, the fabric I didn't really like but was happy to use up, and the fabric that had been dumped on me once people learned I was a quilter. Part of me really loved the idea that a scrappy quilt could welcome any kind of fabric and the overall quilt would look beautiful, but part of me also didn't quite trust myself not to cut into my favourites and then regret it later. Back then, I made lots and lots of quilts I didn't really love, and I put it down to the fact that I was still learning about colour and contrast and using different shapes to bring out their best. And yet, for some reason, it felt like too high a risk to cut into my favourite fabrics. For some reason, I preferred to risk an ugly quilt than the regret of using something I loved and realising I should have done it differently.

My posture started to shift when I started my business selling paper pieces in 2016. I knew that if I wanted to inspire people to take up the slow art of EPP, I needed to make quilts worth the effort! I'd been holding onto a beautiful fat quarter bundle of Heather Ross' Tiger Lily, complete with it's sweet novelty prints of cats and kids climbing trees and ballerinas, for about a year, and I knew I couldn't give it my regular and favoured treatment of cutting it all up into a thousand diamonds and stitching them together at random. I gave myself the challenge of making a quilt for the fabric, and then actually cutting into it, rather than have the bundle sit on my shelf for the next 10 years.

My experience of making Cherish Quilt changed quilting for me forever. I LOVED using fabric I loved. (Duh!) I felt pleased as punch to be trusting myself with these precious pieces. I was like my kids when they got to go to the grocery store on their own for the first time, shopping list and debit card entrusted safely in their care. I felt grown up.

But at the same time, the precious, museum artefact-like status of my fabric also shrunk as I cut into it. I learned that it was, in fact, only fabric! It was made to be used, to be cut up. I learned that it was ok if I made a wrong cut, or regretted the colours I put together. I could unpick and reuse the mistakes in a different part of the quilt, or if I couldn't, it would still be ok, and once the whole quilt was put together, I didn't really notice if that cat's head was cut off or those flowers weren't really centred.

I had been waiting for years to be good enough to cut into my favourite fabrics, but it took actually making a quilt from my favourites to learn that I could have cut into them all along and it would have been fine . Beautiful even!

I would love you to join me over the last half of 2025, as we make a Cherish Quilt together and talk all things fabric! I'd love you to dig through your stash and pick out your favourites, or pull out that treasured bundle you surely can't enjoy all tightly folded and stored in a cupboard. I'll walk you through which fabric types suit which parts of the block, cutting fabrics like stripes or novelty prints intentionally, and how to pick fabrics for pleasing contrast. I'll also walk you through how I like to prepare my blocks for smooth and easy progress, and a reduced decision making burden. Want to join me?

Often quilt-alongs (QALs) will take you through specific steps, week by week, with the promise of a finished quilt by the end of it. My EPP clubs are a little different. We'll be making our Cherish Quilts from July-November, but there's no set number of blocks you need to make per week or month (though you can if you like!). You're welcome to join at any time, and sew at a pace that suits you. And, if you already have a Cherish WIP, feel free to join us by giving it some attention! Here's the schedule of inspiration and info I'll be sharing over the next several months:

June: Buy your Cherish EPP kit

• Compare block sizes
• Get inspired by finished Cherish quilts from over the years

July: Fabric conversations while your paper pieces arrive

• Using your favourites, tricky prints, basics, and more

August: Starting your Cherish Quilt

• Decisions to make before you start
• Prepping for easy progress
• How to EPP video

After we've covered these topics, we'll move to a monthly check-in.

September 12: Cherish Blocks

• Your progress shared with the group
• Tuning in to what you love and don't love

October 10: The Overall Quilt

• What does your quilt need?
• Making your half blocks and edge pieces

November 14: Quilting inspiration and finish!

From August through November, I'll choose a Cherish quilt progress photo at random that was shared in the Tales of Cloth Substack chat or on Instagram with the #cherishquilt hashtag. In the months of Aug-Oct, the winner will receive a stitching kit complete with paper shapes, fabric scraps, thread, needles, and snips! In November, the final winner will receive a stitching kit PLUS a $150AUD (approx $100USD) voucher for the Tales of Cloth shop (just in time for the Black Friday sales)!

To be eligible, you need to be sharing photos of a Cherish Quilt you are currently working on. You can join the club with a quilt you've already started, but it can't be a quilt you finished before July 2025. Please keep in mind that due to the way Instagram has altered hashtags, not all photos shared with the hashtag will be visible. If you want to ensure your photo is seen, join the Substack chat!

1. Choose your block size: The Cherish Quilt comes in a choice of 2 blocks sizes. Check out this post here for a detailed comparison between the two!

2. Buy the Cherish Pattern and Templates: I sell the pattern and templates separately so that you can choose what you need! 

• If you're new to Cherish, grab the 3 in 1 bundle which includes pattern, paper pieces, and acrylic templates.
• If you want to go bigger than the throw sizes in the pattern (like my mum's blue, queen size version below), buy the 3 in 1 bundle, and an extra box of paper pieces.
• If you've made Cherish before and want to try a different size, you can buy the paper pieces with the optional acrylic templates. Both sizes are included in the pattern.
• If you prefer to hand-piece without papers, or cut your own paper pieces, buy the PDF pattern and the acrylic templates.
• Cherish LOVES basics! If your stash is full of floral bouquets and novelty prints, grab one of my Basics Bundles to help show off your favourites.

3. Make sure you're signed up for my weekly newsletter: I write this on Substack. You can either create a Substack account, download the app, and join in the conversation below each post and in the chat, or you can sign up here and just receive posts directly to your inbox.