Meet Sarah Lauzon

Feb 29, 2016

3 min read

All, I’m Sarah

. I go by

Cera

too but that’s a

tangential

story

I joined

the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild

August

2015

I’ve been quilting for about ten years, off and on. I began a few years before the modern movement was formalized, but could see the beginning (especially in retrospect) from participating in Flickr groups back then. Work, grad school, starting a family,

and

multiple moves all

seemed to

put this hobby on the back burner.

However, I did

a count and I’

ve averaged 1.5 quilts per year over ten years, so I guess I wasn’t

entirely dormant on my sewing even though I was pretty much radio silent about it.

The idea of quilting started for me as it did for my mother – in the firm affirmation tha

t we would never do it. As in, “t

hat quilt Grandma made is amazing but I can never imagine having the time/

skill

/patience to do something like that

”

Then my mom started, and

quite a while a

fter that I was making some art collages with cut out magazine squares and my mom

says to me

“

ou know what you’re doing, right?

”

It should have been obvious. So I sat with her at her house and she showed me, step by step, beginning to end, how to make a quilt. Now I’m a fourth

generation

quilter.

I’m

very

thankful for that lesson.

t gave me a creative outlet that stuck.

I’ve always felt like a creative soul trapped in a business person’s body so having an outlet is just like a kind of freedom.

A lot inspires me –

s a kid my best friend was an amazing illustrator

and

because of her I

have always admired

artists’

abilities. My mother, grandmother, and aunt were always up to something crafty so that was

supported

. I married an architect who taught me how to see things in a whole new way.

Fashion, interior design,

fine

art…

even

flower arranging all feed into the images that decompress and rearrange in my mind.

Attending

the Victoria Findlay Wolfe class the

uild

hosted

in December 2014 sparked a creative resurgence for me. Other quilters who

inspire me

are Sherri Lynn Wood, Meg Callahan,

Sarah Nishiura, Eleanor McCain, and Hillary Goodwin.

And j

ust hanging out with the

uild the last six months has really upped my game. There is so much talent in this group and I’m excited to get to rub shoulders with all of it.

Current project is deciding

on the quilting for

“Teal Number 2”.

I was working on a wedding quilt for some friends

and the design took

two different directions.

The second

direction b

egan with the

same

teal

and

grey color palette and took inspiration from art by Sven

Markelius

and the flying geese score from

Sherri Lynn Wood

. I started with

eight

teal toned large flying geese

blocks

, then iterated some more, decided to add in a little bit of jewel tones, then felt really

right

when I figured I wanted to dip the whole design into greyscale at the top and the bottom.

So that quilting…

I think I have it

now

but it sure is the

part that is hardes

t for me both in concept and execution.

My favorite

creation

was my first original design called

“For Elisa”. It was one of those happy creative moments that just poured out so fluidly it seemed like it really wanted to be made. The medallion center is based on a scarf of mine that my good friend liked. The outer blocks are a based on a pattern that I noticed in bench upholstery at a diner.

She says she still uses it all the time and that makes me

happy.

I may remake it one day.

reative process

? It

has many manifestation

. Usually it is based on

the recipient, so thinking about that person drives design choices around a fabric I want to work with, or a design concept. Sometimes I get an image in my head and I run to the sketchbook. Lately, I’m feeling creatively inspired by design challenges and

improv

concepts.

My bachelor’s degree

in Philosophy so I get really excited thinking and talk about the art vs. craft

distinction, whether a quilter thinks

they are

an artist, and

I’m fascinated

with the discussion surrounding the schools of design

in quilting

. Don’t be surprised if I ever use those topics as an

iceb