Trade you!

Some of you may remember my gushing over the Daiwabo fabrics, design, and ultimately, the finished quilt top.  Man -- I love this!

But, these are fabrics well out of my price range and quite frankly, out of my normal comfort zone when it comes to color and tone.  So -- how did I get so lucky?  I'm glad you asked.

A few years ago, I posted about falling out of love with this quilt block.  When I saw the original quilt (made from old kimonos) in a Quilters Newsletter, I fell madly in love with it and knew it was how I wanted to use up my scraps from the Wavy Log Cabin I had made.

I sort of believe that these beautiful Asian fabrics can't really go on your shelves by color -- like Kaffe fabrics (in my little world), they have to stay together.  So, I had a tote of every little scrap as I couldn't bear to throw them away. But I got tired of it.  I fell out of love.  I don't really like paper piecing and the process was taking the joy out of the design.  I thought the blocks were fabulous and the potential for the quilt was great -- but I was losing any mojo for finishing it.  And into a shoe box it went!

Wavy Log Cabin

At the same time, mom22smartchix was losing her mojo for the Daiwabo quilt.  These little blocks look so simple. Ha!  Lining up 1/2" strips after you have sub-cut is not easy and there is a lot of ripping involved.  Whether it was a pity swap or a joyous swap, I'll never know for sure -- but last year during a visit, we gladly gave each other our shoeboxes and walked away from our projects.

I am still doing the Snoopy Happy Dance that I don't have to paper piece all those strips -- and now the Daiwabo top is done and making me smile every time I walk by it.  It's in the living room -- never even made it upstairs to the quilt top closet.  I have chosen not to fret about how to quilt it or what color thread as those decisions are far far away -- instead, I am tickled it's done and happy to have it to look at and all the little snippets remain isolated (of course) in their shoebox!

Tired of something that you started -- find a friend to trade with -- it's a blast!

Jan

A Walk thru the Neighborhood

I have to say that the Log Cabin block is just about my favorite traditional block.  I like Ohio Stars but I love Log Cabins.  And I particularly love the Barn Raising setting.  There are so many different options but after playing with the blocks -- this is the one that that always makes me the happiest.  Check out all the different settings in the link to Big Horn Quilts.

I just finished this quilt and it's ready to gift to a soon-to-be-first-time-grammie.  If you're a periodic reader of this blog, you may remember that this was made from her sons' boxer shorts.  I hope she will like it and it can become a floor quilt for Baby A when he gets here.  It was fun to do but the cutting of boxers is not nearly as efficient as cutting from men's shirts.  Logs finish at 1" and the blocks are 7" finished.

This is the first log cabin I ever made.  The logs finish at 1.5" and it's made of lots of scraps.  It's been a constant on my guest bed for years and it always makes me smile when I wash it and put it back on the bed. It was quilted on my Bernina when I had no idea what to do -- and my plan was to quilt the lights in a neutral thread and the darks in an Aurafil variegated that.  The variegated didn't cooperate for some reason and that plan was abandoned.  The quilt was heavy, I didn't do a good job of supporting it while quilting, and it torqued something important.  Lesson learned.

This is my second log cabin and maybe my favorite.  The logs finish at 1" and I made long before "latte quilts" were trendy.  Actually, I made it long before I knew what "latte" even was!  It was also quilted on my Bernina and I think the quilting overshadows the piecing - which is not what I wanted.  I do love it and plan to do another one of these day. Nothing uses up those strips and bits of left over fabric than cutting logs.

This quilt was made for my sister, Tuthfairy, and is out of Christmas fabrics.  She has always loved this block and when it was time to make a Christmas quilt for her -- there was only one block to do.  Logs finish at 1" and I really like this quilt as well.  It's always fun to see it come out during the holidays.

This quilt is similar to one that I saw in a quilt shop in a Chicago suburb.  It's called Curved Log Cabin (I think) and is with Asian fabrics.  I collected those for a while before starting this and then I got the "bug" out of my system to use them.  I do love their richness but I never could really bring myself to combine them with other fabrics in quilts.  For the first time, I switched thread colors on Sadie Gammill as I was quilting.  What a pain!  But I wanted a light thread in the white area but not in the darker logs. The scraps went into a paper piecing project that has gone to live elsewhere.  More on that at another time.

These are special Log Cabins and are placemats made by my sister.  She was not a quilter before this but has wanted log cabin placements for a long long time.  Her kitchen is brick red and the colors are perfect for her breakfast bar -- as is the binding she chose.  All I did (other than cutting and putting the binding on) was show her what to do and she did the rest.  I think they are magnificent and I'm hoping she will want to do more quilting.  It was fun having her in the quilt room!  Nothing like sharing what you love to do with someone you love.

So what's next? I'm wondering about one in all grays -- lites to charcoal much like my neutral quilt above.  And I have to do one with 1" strips that finish at 1/2".  I think those are unbelievable quilts and I want one.  I've also thought about my Cherrywoods but don't think I can bring myself to put so much of those incredible fabrics in the seam allowance.

I always keep logs in "inventory" and periodically make a few log cabin blocks as part of my leaders and enders.  I have about 10-15 that I've done in the past.  Some day I'll get serious about those -- but for now, they are in a tote and I'll keep cutting logs as I work with my scraps.  In looking at the tote -- maybe I should spend some time sorting them!

What about you?  What's your favorite block or quilt pattern than you've duplicated over the years because it's just "perfect"?

I hope you're finding time to sew and create during these crazy, busy days!  Jan

Asian fabrics

 Don't you just love them?  There is something so wonderful about the saturation of color, intricacy of design, and the absolute beauty of most Asian fabrics.  I don't know about you but I find them hard to cut into and then I want to use every little piece to make sure there is no waste.

I saw this quilt at a LQS and fell in love with it.  I knew it was just a matter of time until I had to make one.  But it was hard to cut those beautiful florals into strips and the leftovers are still together in a small shoe box. I just can't mainstream them yet.

I do believe that I could start a buying frenzy all over again if I got in the right "mood". 

For this quilt, I tried something I had not done before and will not rush to do again.  The quilting thread is white for the "white" portion of the quilt and dark for the patterned portion.  That was a lot of changing as I rolled the quilt up and down the frame.  In the end, it was probably worth it because I wanted the "purity" of a white-white and I didn't want a light thread to take away from the deep rich colors of the florals.  But it was a pain!

I do like this pattern and am considering it again in scraps so that the lights and darks are not so controlled.  What do you think?  Will that take away from the pattern or just change the "feel".  I have made a lot of log cabin quilts (neutrals, Christmas, scrappy, and have another scrappy in the making).  I do love using those strips I've cut from leftover fabric!

I hope you're piecing and quilting to your heart's content, Jan