Another Log Cabin Design

Somewhere around Easter each year, I put this wall hanging up. The colors are definitely those of spring and even though our spring weather here near the Canadian border won't start for at least another month, we're all so eager for the first spring flowers to add color to our drab landscape.

I cut so many 1-1/2" strips of fabric when I was making this wall hanging that I had enough left over to make a baby quilt! This always happens when I work without following a pattern. You'd think I'd learn . . . but I don't.

Stop World, I Wanna Quilt!

I have been such a bad blogger lately. I can blame it partly on our very unusually warm spring weather up here in northeastern Minnesota. Most years we'd be still at least knee-deep in snow at this time of year but because of the scant amount of snow received over winter, and early warm temperatures, the ground has been bare for weeks now and we've been deceived into thinking spring has truly arrived early.

This has all coaxed us to get outside to get a jump-start on spring chores which, of course, means piddling little time found for quilting right now. Today was the first nasty weather day (rain/snow/sleet/hail) we've had in over three weeks.

To have something to share with you today, I'll have to rely on a little table mat I made a while back when I wanted something to go with my Easter decorations.

I was also in a period when I was making full-sized quilts, baby quilts, and wall hangings using traditional Log Cabin blocks. (But when you get right down to it, does any other block say QUILTING more than the Log Cabin Block? I think not!)

This little piece is only about 12" square and made from scraps that I thought looked both spring-like and said "Easter" to me. I wish I had a bunch in various sizes just like this one to use under plants and other Easter decorations throughout the house.

Maybe someday when I'm caught up on everything else, I can make some more. (Hahahahaha!)

Featured Quilt of the Week Hiatus

Due to unavoidable diffooculties and time constraints (read: Life!), the Monday Featured Quilt of the Week post is going to be absent from this blog for a while.

But never fear! There's usually something else "quilt-ish" going on that will be worthy of filling the page.

Since our snow has all but completely disappeared and Easter will be here in three short weeks, this past weekend I decided my house decorations revolving around the theme of "Snowmen" had to go, and Easter decorations were brought out.

We aren't holding our breath until it truly comes to pass, but it sure does seem like we will have an early spring here this year. Night time temperatures have been staying way above freezing, and we've actually had several sunny days which have pushed day time temps well into the 50s . . . whoo-hoo!

So along with the rabbits and baskets filled with eggs, I brought out some wall hangings and table runners with a spring motif.

I've had this table runner for a couple of years now.

I machine pieced and hand quilted it.

It's not an original design, but rather taken from this book, "Mostly Table Runners Two" by Jane Wnuk, Linda Green, and Kathi Mundigler.

Here's what the sample looked like in the book. A pretty simple design that would lend itself to any number of fabric choices. You could make it in colors to coordinate with each season!

I don't work with floral fabric a lot but had to stick a couple of florals in my rendition of this table runner just to make it say, "Spring!"

Frustrated But Hopeful

As spring approaches, I'm beginning to feel eager to get outside to the yard and garden but also know that it will take time away from my quilting.

I know that's why I feel a bit of frustration that the events of this past week have conspired against me spending any time in my quilt studio. So tonight I decided that even though I haven't had time to quilt, I could at least pull out a spring-ish wall hanging or two to decorate the house with. (It's definitely long past time for the snowman theme to disappear!)

I made this small wall hanging (14" x 14") several years ago when my quilt group's challenge for the year was "Baskets." I named it "Basket in the Cabin" because the background is made up of four Log Cabin blocks. I've always felt a little disappointed with it 'cause I placed the appliqued basket just a smidge bit too low. Dang. How the heck could I have missed that until AFTER it was appliqued in place?

Okay, if I'm so bummed out over lack of quilting time, why don't I just go into my quilt studio tomorrow morning with my morning latte and blissfully quilt for a couple of hours? Somehow I have the feeling that my dirty kitchen floor, pan of bars needing to be baked, pantry to be sorted, bills to be paid, and weekend's food to be prepared will be patiently waiting for me when I come out. Yupper, that's a darned good idea . . . and I'm gonna do it!

Featured Quilt of the Week - "Candy Patches"

As I started constructing this baby quilt and putting completed blocks up on my design wall, the colored patches on the neutral background reminded me of the dots of colored candy we used to get on the strips of white paper when I was small. Anybody else remember those?


As usual, I tend toward an old-fashioned feel for most of my quilts and because I randomly chose both the colored squares and the neutrals from my scrap basket, I think this one looks as if it might have been made a hundred and fifty years years ago from someones carefully saved scraps.


For the backing fabric, I used a simple red dot on a white background.


There is something about polka dots, large or small, that I find so appealing. Always good in a quilt for a little one.


I used a meandering quilting design but quilted only on the neutral fabrics leaving the colored squares to stand out on their own. I didn't want any of them to slip into the background.

This quilt, along with many others, is detailed on my website. Go there and click on "Shop Now" to see all that are for sale.

Have a great week, everyone, and I hope you have time for lots of quilting!

Glory Be!

I've decided to take a short break from turning out baby quilts and work on a full-sized quilt (well, okay, a small full-sized - only 64" x 64") that I've been wanting to do for a while.

It's a pattern I got from Bonnie Blue Quilts. They specialize in reproduction inspired quilt design patterns, kits, and fabrics.

This pattern is called "Glory Bound" and this is what it looks like so far on my design wall. I've gotten all of these 8" x 8" blocks made but that's all, so far. The rows are still not sewn together.

I probably didn't tackle the cutting for this quilt in a very smart way. I cut everything for the whole quilt before starting any sewing, and believe you me, I didn't think I was EVER gonna get it all done.

Then the construction of four gazillion half-square triangles started. That actually went pretty fast (compared to the cutting anyway) because I had the Olympics to watch while chain piecing them. (Although watching anything on the little half-functioning TV in my quilt studio is not the greatest experience!)

Anyway, I'm about two-thirds of the way through the block construction which is going very smoothly so I'm hoping to have that part of the quilt done before too much longer.

Civil War reproduction fabrics (along with 30s fabrics, of course) are my favorites, and I'm really enjoying working with the gorgeous ones in this quilt.

Featured Quilt of the Week - "Quintessential Buttercups"

What fun I had making this quilt! When I started making the eight inch blocks, I didn't know how many I would make, but ended up using twenty different traditional block patterns.


Believe it or not, I actually had trouble choosing just twenty patterns out of all I wanted to make. I'm pretty sure there's another sampler quilt coming up.


I think I used ten different fabrics in varied combinations in the blocks.


But if you count, you may come up with a different number!


For the backing fabric, I spent a long time trying to decide between one of the blues used in the front or the yellow I used for the sashing and outer front border. I thought about this for days before I made the decision to use them both in a pieced backing.


I experimented with a wavy grid pattern for the quilting and am very happy with the results. This particular quilting design adds a lot of interest to the back of the quilt.


You can read more about this quilt by going to my website and clicking on "Shop Now."