Log Cabin Update

So a few days ago I was pondering whether I should make six inch log cabins or four inch ones.  I made one of each so that I could see.

This is the six inch next to the four inch.

Now I know that if I make a six inch block, I’ll need less than if I made a four inch block.  But after making the four inch one, there really was no competition.

I can make six or seven in an hour.  It really takes no more time to do that than it does to do one.

The problem is stopping!  They are highly addictive. 

I haven’t made a log cabin in years.  I’m loving it.

Happy quilting!

Suzie

Building Blocks

Hey there.

It’s been a big week.  A sad one, but we have said our goodbyes and hopefully we can draw a line under the turmoil and just push on through.

And as I do in times of turmoil (who needs drugs or alcohol when you have quilting?) I played around with something new.

I had a feeling I was doing it wrong – I’ve made a million log cabin blocks and this one just didn’t flow properly and now I think I’ve stuffed it.  When you do your log cabins do your darks extend all the way to the end on the outside?  Or am I overthinking it?

What can I say?  My brain is cotton wool right now.

I’ve been thinking of making a log cabin quilt for a few months now and last night I came across this lovely blog with the most divine quilt:

image sourced from here

and I just knew I had to use all those millions of reproductions I have to make one like it. 

I’ve made my logs finish at 3/4” which I thought was tiny but now that I’ve made it, I think maybe I need to finish them at 1/2”.  And then I thought maybe I’m a total lunatic because how many blocks will you need to make if they finish at 4” rather than 6”?  It’s not like I’ve got nothing else to do!

So I don’t know.  I think I’ll go and make a 4” block and see if I like that one more.

Dilemmas.  First world problems of the highest nature.

See you soon

Suzie

p.s. thanks so much for all the lovely comments on my Nan.  We’ll miss her.  We already do.

Rainbow Log Cabin

I think I’ve posted this one before, but I took a photo of it with my fancy schmancy camera today as part of my aim to properly photograph all my quilts.

I’ve made two versions of this quilt.  The first one was just the inset (log cabin) part.  I knew nothing about quilting and followed the directions (in centimetres) using whatever fabrics I had on hand, which was mostly polycottons.  It was probably about 1992 when I began it.

I only ever finished the centre bit, having decided it was far too complicated to ever get involved in this whole quilting lark.  I quilted it up with a piece of fluffy, fat polyester wadding (believe me, it was as ghastly as it sounds) and promptly forgot I’d ever made such a monstrosity.

But I never forgot the quilt.  I adored that pattern and so after a few years, when I knew more about quilting, I remade it.  This time I only made it to the edge of the four borders.  That was probably about 1995.  I’d lost the pattern by then, having only a picture left and couldn’t work out the maths to make the quilt work.

Again, I put it away.

Once I retired from the quilt shop, I knew a lot more about quilting, and felt confident enough to have a go at my own maths.  And it went together really well.  I made it out to the current borders you can see.  It now measures 1.25 metres x 1.65 metres.

But that’s as far as I have got, and as far as I will go.  It’s so old that the fabrics were those deliciously light and flowery Concord cottons (only the real old timers will remember those) and they just don’t exist any more.  I haven’t enough left to make it any bigger, and I think this is an okay size anyway.

So now, I’ve pieced a back, taken a lovely photo of it, and shall put it away until such time as I am ready to quilt it. 

It remains one of my favourite quilts and has reignited in me a real need to do another log cabin quilt.  It’s been a very long time since I’ve done anything like that.

Maybe we can do a log cabin quilt along one day.  We’ll see.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie