More Show And Tell

A million years ago, when I was working in the quilt shop, I made a log cabin quilt.  I do believe it was the last ‘whole’ quilt made with log cabins that I have done. 

I stuck some borders on it, and threw it in the UFO pile for another day.  I don’t know why, it was so close to being finished.

As part of my Get Stuff Done year, I dug it out of the UFO box and decided to finish it.  I may not know why I didn’t finish it years ago but I am glad I didn’t – the quilt couldn’t lay straight if its life depended on it.  I’m wasn’t convinced my blocks were all the same size, and the borders were stretched and made the whole thing billow like a cushion.

I decided to take the borders off and restitch them, but even that didn’t look like it was going to fix the problem.  There was only one thing to do – completely undo the blocks and start over. 

I unpicked all my rows, remeasured my blocks (and lo and behold, they were all different measurements) and recut them to size.  Then I stitched them back together again, put the small red border on (thankfully I have a stash you could see from space and I found the matching fabric) and stitched a cream border to the outside.

Finally, I’ve appliqued some flowers on the outer borders.

I still need to buttonhole stitch them down, but a few nights in front of the tellie and that will be easily accomplished.

So, I’m pleased now.  The quilt lies MUCH flatter. Thankfully I was able to shave a little from the blocks and not have it effect the pattern too much.  Good old Log Cabin blocks – so versatile.

Here’s an arty shot. 

It’s amazing how time clarifies the picture.  I know if I had finished this when I started it, I wouldn’t have fixed what are now glaringly obvious faults.  Sometimes putting projects away is the best thing, even if it’s only for a couple of weeks.  Do you find that?  Have you ever remade a quilt because you know you just won’t be happy with it otherwise?

Okay – now I’m off to do some ironing.  Hip Hip Hooray. 

Happy quilting!

Suzie