Elliott's Log Cabin

Just a short and sweet update for you today. The baby for whom this quilt is being made was born last night so I guess it's time to get it finished up. The top is done for now and as soon as I decide how to quilt it I'll get it basted. This is always the hardest part.

I also think it's funny that all of my quilts have fingers at the top and feet at the bottom so I decided not to crop them out this time. By the way, Jason is a really great quilt model for me. He never argues when I ask him to help me out. And he's always smiling behind there. I can tell.

This quilt has lots and lots of polka dots and letters, along with a few monkeys and giraffes for good measure. All the fabrics are from my stash (love that). It's basically a crib quilt that grew a bit because I decided to add the sashing and borders. At this point I think it would have worked either way but it's growing on my like this. Sometimes you have to live with a project for a while before you fall in love with it. I'll share more after it's finished!

Linking up this morning with SEWjo Saturday. Check it out. And also to Crazy Mom Quilts.

A Quilt Designer is Born

Prepare for lots of pictures.  (You can click on any of the images to see it larger).

This quilt finish is #3 in the Year of the Log Cabin Quilt series. It's also Sarah's first official quilt design. Sarah was involved in the project almost from the beginning because the quilt is a donation project for her school auction which is this Friday, March 7.

So I was thinking we would do something like one of these designs:

When Sarah came in and said, "can I move some, Mom?"

So I said, "sure," this being one reason I take lots of pictures during the process. We can easily change things and use the pictures to go back to a design that was better.

After crawling on the quilt for a while and moving around just a few blocks she says, "I'm gonna have to change the whole thing, Mom." Again, that was ok with me. I literally sat on the couch and watched.

She picked up all of the blocks except for the ones in the corner that she wanted to start with.

And after two tries, she ended up deciding she liked this one best.

I realized she was right. It was better than my design and since the quilt is for her school event, she should get to pick. I think a tradition is born.

There wasn't time to do the actual sewing together of all the blocks on the day we first designed it, so I had her do it again for me (below) before she went to school on sewing day.

And I sewed and I sewed while she was at school.

And here's the finished product.

Along with the official quilt label.

She's pretty proud of herself.

We like the back, too.

I'm really super nervous about how much it will fetch in the auction. If it does great, I'll edit the post to let you know. If not, well, back to the drawing board for next year, I guess.

Edit March 7: the quilt sold tonight for $250 at the auction. Sarah was beyond thrilled that someone actually bought what we made!

Tara's Log Cabin Birthday Quilt

Quite possibly, my favorite part about this quilt is the binding, so I thought I would start with a picture of the fabric I used for that. It turns out that stripes make fantastic binding. I'm sure lots of people already knew this, yet I was not one of them until now.

This quilt is for my sister's birthday. Happy birthday, Tara! It's crimson and cream-ish, right?

This quilt just happens to be #1 in the Year of the Log Cabin Quilts. I don't think I've shared here how this craziness began so ...

I posted this on Facebook in December, declaring 2014 to be the Year of the Log Cabin Quilt, then I shared it here on Twitter, and of course added Pinterest to the fun as well.

After getting so many responses I actually made a calendar and intend to send a little something to everyone who responded. I'll let you know how that goes. With two finishes in January, I'm feeling pretty good about myself, even if one was a baby quilt.

This quilt is #1 in the Log Cabin series because I started it first. I did take a little break to make Cody's quilt in the middle but thanks to the truly exceptional winter we've had here in northern Indiana, I was able to get some extra quilting time in this week (snow days, ya know).

I decided to invest in some tools for myself since I've got a rather serious year of quilting ahead of me. I bought the quilt clips to keep the excess rolled up while quilting. I'm kind of ambivalent about the clips so far. Those gloves in the picture, though? Those are my new favorite thing. They are grippy over the entire surface of the glove and help you to hold on to the quilt while you are moving it around during quilting. Honestly, I was amazed at the difference it made while I was working on this project. I can't imagine trying to quilt without them now. I felt very much more in control as I was moving the quilt around.

Here's the binding in action as it's being sewn on to the quilt.

And the binding at the end. Seriously, I love the binding. It added a lot to this quilt.

I did free motion quilting on this quilt (aka free style, free range). In case you're not familiar, that means that you lower the feed dogs on your sewing machine, switch out your machine's foot to a darning foot, or a free motion foot, and you move the quilt around to make the design you want on your fabric. As you can see, I got a little fancy with the heart up there. There were just a couple of solid fabric centers in this quilt, so I threw in a couple of more deliberate designs just for fun, as opposed to the all over meander on the rest of the quilt.

So here's the finished quilt. It finished at about 48" x 64". 

And the back. I've not yet added a label ... I also really loved the way that floral fabric on the bottom looked on the back. Click the image to see it larger.

And doesn't it look good on the couch in my living room (below)? Good news, I've got another one quite similar for myself so I can give this one away without missing it too much. (And I STILL have enough of this fabric left to make at least one more quilt. Good grief).

So that's two finishes in the Year of the Log Cabin Quilt series. I'm impressed even if nobody else is. Things I'm looking forward to with this series of projects are:

*adding borders

*more intricate designs

*designs on point

*attempting a larger quilt on my home machine?

*more baby quilts

God Bless Baby Quilts

Year of the Log Cabin Quilt #2

(Yes, I managed to finish quilt #2 before I finished quilt #1.)

God bless baby quilts for providing instant(ish) gratification. I've been working on Log Cabin Quilt #1 and I have all the parts ready (top, batting, back), but I just don't want to do the required basting so that I can can get the quilting done. 

Basting. It's not my favorite.

So, I made the next quilt on the list which just happened to be a baby quilt for our brand spanking new nephew, Cody. In less than 24 hours I managed to put this one together. I'm quite pleased with that fact. As I write, it's in the washing machine getting it's first spin. 

The finished size is a whopping 36" x 36". Just perfect for playing on the floor, covering up in a stroller, or clutching for security. I hope that Cody and his mom and dad will love it.

It's definitely time for me to get over the whole sorting by colors for opposite sides thing and start sorting more by value. Obviously, this quilt would have looked even better if I'd switched the browns and the greens. I need to learn to spend more time on planning and not be so anxious to just get to the quilting already. 

Also, all of the supplies for this quilt came from the supply closet, even the batting. The fabrics were all left over from the Stripes for Charlotte quilt. So, if those two little ones ever have a chance to hang out together, they'll have coordinating quilts to play on.

I'm not sure if I'll ever hand sew another binding. I'm just a really big fan of knowing that binding is going to stay secure, especially on a quilt made for a kid. I fully expect this quilt to be washed many, many times.

And I went ahead and just labeled it directly on the backing. We'll see how it holds up to the first washing and maybe I'll embroider it if it looks like it's going to fade too quickly. 

So there it is. The first finish for 2014 and first finish in the Year of the Log Cabin Quilts series. Hopefully it won't take too long to get to the second finish, quilt #1, of course.

Choices

Here's is where the choices begin. 48 complete log cabin blocks. 

Choice #1, above, this one reads as red in real life. 

Choice #2, while obviously quite similar to #1, reads as a white quilt with red diamonds.

Choice #3, the traditional Barn Raising, although off center. I'm leaning toward this one at the moment.

Choice #4. Jon says this one looks 3D.

Choice #5. We're calling this one Pyramids.

Choice #6 is Jon's attempt at "random" placement of the blocks.

And choice #7 started with a star in the middle and just kind of grew from there.

Any thoughts?

Finish It Friday, French General Quilt

I've decided this is my favorite quilt that I've made ever, so far. I'm calling it the French General quilt because that's who designed the majority of the fabrics I used. There are just one or two others that got thrown into the mix, but they all fit the theme beautifully. I used a "wibble wobble" quilting design. I tried at first to do it without drawing the lines on the fabric. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be and once I sucked it up and started drawing the lines, it didn't take nearly as long as I thought that it would to draw them all. My quilting improved dramatically after that. So what I thought would be a time saver was really a messy quilt maker.

Post quilting and squaring up, I had Evan hold it up to make sure that I still loved it. Good news, I did.

This is one reason I wasn't sure I still loved it. My sewing machine is small. Quilting larger projects on it is kind of ridiculous. It seems like there's just a ton of fabric to shove through. I'm going to have to start saving for a more serious quilting machine. This is great for piecing and for quilting small projects. Not so much throw size or larger quilts.

And of course, I have fabric left for at least another throw size quilt. I'm honestly kind of excited to see what I come up with next.

Audrey (the Quilt) - Finish It Friday

I've decided I'm going to start naming my quilts after people in my family. So this one is named after my grandma, Audrey (Dad's mom).

I started this quilt when I took the "How to Quilt From Start to Finish Class" at my local quilt shop. The only thing I'd been avoiding was the binding. I decided to queue up a Law & Order marathon on Netflix to "watch" and got that thing done!

Remember to enter the giveaway I posted yesterday for a copy of Seaside Home from Stash Books.

Finish It Friday

Here's a project I actually finished this week. I even have the ouchies on my fingers from binding to prove it. I've got to learn to use a thimble. Or find someone to do my bindings for me. I think I like that idea even better.

I'll have more on this next week along with a give away of the book it's from! I'm thinking about giving this wall hanging away, too. I can't keep them all, right? Not enough room in my house. Who wants it?

Artists I Adore - Jacquie Gering

I had the chance to meet Jacquie Gering at Quilt Con in February but didn't see this video until this past weekend. It totally broke my heart, and hers, obviously, as she talked about her husband's experience working in the Chicago Public Schools. I really hope you'll take the time to watch the video. You can also see two more very interesting interviews from QuiltCon at the QuiltAlliance website.

But, the way I met Jacquie really had little to do with actually making quilts, other than the fact that we were both at that place because we were quilters. Jacquie was one of the leaders for the conference and I got to spend some time with her on the first day I worked as a volunteer. Basically, she and I (and a bunch of other folks) schlepped a whole bunch of stuff from the loading dock to the quilt show floor and the office. All of the goodie bags, quilts for the show, office supplies, etc had to be brought from vehicles to the appropriate areas. I was probably counting at some point because that's what I do, but I quickly lost count of the number of trips we made back and forth from the loading dock.

So that was the first time I met Jacquie, after which of course I realized that she was THAT Jacquie Gering, the one who wrote Quilting Modern with Katie Pedersen. Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio.

The best part about meeting people such as Jacquie (and others I'll write about in coming weeks) is realizing, once again, that they are just regular people. People who have perhaps been working on something longer than I have, or had different experiences or opportunities that led them to where they are today.

So, be sure to check out Jacquie's work. Also, when you have a chance, volunteer for a conference or some other opportunity. It's a great way to get to know people at large events.

Log Cabin Conundrum

I need your help to decide which way to arrange my log cabin blocks. I tried five different sets but the choices are truly endless. What do you think? In no particular order we have ...

Straight Furrows

Unnamed

Streak of Lightning

Barn Raising

Sunshine and Shadows

The original article I wrote on this is here. I hope you'll let me know what you think.

How to keep the dining room table clean

Finish your sewing project, of course.

There they are. 49 log cabin blocks. The plan was to make 48 for this quilt. I figure this way I can throw one out if I don't like it.

The next step is to decide which pattern to use to put them together. This? Could take a while. The choices are literally endless.

AND, since I am finished with this part of the project, I removed my sewing machine from the dining room table. This is also very good news.

Edit 4/24/2014 Here's how those blocks finally got finished. And here's my sister's quilt made with the same fabrics.

French General-ish Log Cabin

Of course I started a new project.

French General is the designer of the majority of the fabrics going into this quilt. And yes, I really just cannot stay up long enough to make one more block tonight.

I've been wanting to use this fabric to make a quilt just forever and collecting fabrics as they were in the end of bolts shelf (deep discounts). It's a good start.