spiral log cabin

A couple of you wondered how I made that spiral log cabin baby quilt.

It began right here with two little, itty-bitty 1 1/2" squares.

This pattern is also a courthouse steps block variation.

Simple. simple.

When I googled "spiral log cabin" the first thing that came up

was a free pattern here.
Another source for those of you who are interested.

The next thing I did was add two 1 1/2" wide strips to each side.

A dark and a light.

Add two more strips.

You've got to be THINKING when you do this

so that those darks and lights go in the right place.

Right?

Two more.


I find it very helpful to lay out those two pieces
as I go.





It's growing bigger.
Little by little.



I got ahead of myself and sewed those two
on before taking the picture.
But You get the idea.



This is really the trickiest part...
and it's not very tricky!

You need to divide your blocks in half
when they're completed...
and add a dark strip to half of the blocks
and a light strip to the other half.
NOT two strips to each side!

Here I'm adding a dark strip.

Was that hard?
Nah!!


This block is the beginning of another quilt project
I have going...or NOT going...if truth be told.

I cut 2" strips for this black and white quilt
instead of the 1 1/2" strips for that baby quilt.



Look at what difference 1/2" makes!!
Amazing!

Now students....look at the picture above.

You can see that I ended with the dark strip on both of these.

What if I was ending with the white or light strip?
Which side of the quilt block would you be putting that one on?

Your answer?

students: "Right side"

Correct!
You just earned an A+ today!!

TWO

I've been doing a lot of quilting over here.

I DID have some quilt tops hanging around

just waiting for their day!

I have a double baby shower coming up.....

Wouldn't want to go empty handed now would we?

The scraps on this little quilt are only 1 1/2" wide.

That's pretty tiny for me!

But I plugged along and I'm glad I did.

Deciding on what binding proved to be a challenge.

So many fabrics I could have used....

so I decided to use a bunch of...

scraps.

The perfect solution to my dilemma.


I also quilted this one.
I'm afraid I was disappointed with my quilting.
Such a pretty quilt too!!
I almost felt like I'd ruined it.
But, we won't be having a pity party today.

I echoed the boxes going around and around the quilt.
Since I used my free motion foot...
the lines aren't as straight as they could be.
After doing all the work I wanted to go back!
But you can't go back too easily.....
I decided not to go back and redo.

The new mommy will not be a quilt judge...
Or will she?........:)



I did use that cute fish fabric on the back.
As you can see though....
I didn't have quite enough.
That's o.k. I used some scraps.

I'm getting a little better at those pieced backs.

Here's a close up of my "so so" quilting and the binding.
Live and Learn.
Practice, practice, practice.

One funny thing:
Both quilts are exactly the same size! (42")
And I didn't even try!
Just wondering how that happened??

bee block.

Since signing up for two virtual quilting bees I now have

a new reason to look forward to the beginning of each month!

Two little packages came this week.

Maybe I should have signed up for more bees....??

I love getting little packages!

Especially ones that are filled with fun fabric!!

I wanted to sign up for more, but decided I better see if I could

keep up with two bees first!

This quilt block is going back to Ruth

from the modern quilt bee.

She asked for a 12.5" block.

For guidelines on How to make the block...she said,

"The sky's the limit!"

"do anything"

and,
"do something that maybe you haven't done before".

I decided to make some waves,

So that those jelly fish and mermaids

would have a place to swim!

I overlapped the first two pieces a little bit
then used my handy dandy
rotary cutter and cut
a very gentle wavy line!



They match!
Sew those two together and then
keep adding waves!


I especially like the way the very simple
embroidery stitches add dimension
to the waves!

I'm now thinking about making waves around
a four patch.
Do you think that will work??
We'll see.

blue.

Most of my quilts begin in my head.
You know I have lots of quilt images in my brain from
all those quilt books, quilt magazines, quilt shows, etc.
that I see!!
When I want to make a quilt I will sometimes go to my fabric stash
and pick a color or wild print to get me going.

This time I started with these blues.
I only have a tiny bit of that blue on the right.
And, you'll find out later..if you read this whole post ...
that I didn't end up using that one on the left.
Oh well.
Maybe that will be the backing.
I had a germ of an idea and wondered......
That's also how quilts begin with me.
I wonder "how will this look?"
"How will that look?"
And then I try it!!

I pulled a bunch of fun scraps.
They are mostly strips.


I sewed those strips together (not pictured).
Then I cut those into these 1 1/2" strips of scraps.


Here's my beginning.
A 5" square surrounded by those fun scraps.

I really like the cheery reds
and the white helps soften it.
The last baby quilt had lots of white.
This one has a little!



My next step.
Easy, right?
This border is about 5" wide.






Another border of scraps and then
another blue!!!

I like it!!

My imagination didn't fail me this time!

You can see that other sort of blue I was going to use

would not have looked very good at all on the outer border!

Thankfully I had this solid blue.

Perfect!

2 baby quilts down.

(oops! not quite because they need to be quilted!)

and 3 to go!!

library day!

Here's one of my Christmas presents.

After seeing this movie I was inspired....

NOT to be a wonderful cook...

sorry kids...

but to learn more about Julia Child.

Her enthusiasm about cooking reminded me of

my enthusiasm about quilting!!

I ordered her book from the interlibrary loan system.

What a GREAT invention!!

I picked it up today, so now you all know what

I'LL be doing this weekend!!

(and I hear there's rain coming my way...woo hoo!)

I also brought this book home.

Don't you think I'll be inspired by looking at these knits?

It looks very much like a quilt book...hmmmm.

Then there was this book:
This one's been checked out by "yours truly"

Many TIMES!!

Everything about the title screams My name...

Scrap quilts...the art of making do

That fits me to a "T".

I'm hoping it will again inspire me as I

DREAM about using some gifts sent by

a quilting-blog-friend Barbara.

Thanks Barbara!!!

Aren't these pretty?



This is one of my favorites!!!






And LAST but not least...
Do you think I'll learn anything from this one???

I can sure use the help!!!

Words

You probably knew what they were.

But, just in case,

I spelled it out for you.

And Now I think I'll.....

:)

points!

Can you believe it?

I didn't lose any points on this one!!

I know it was that fancy trianglesonaroll paper I was using
But...

I still want a few brownie points for doing it!

You just don't know how I struggle with getting things to

Match up!

truth be told...I don't usually worry about it too much.

It was kind of exhilarating to finally have a quilt come

out looking so .....well......perfect.

It is a small one.

And I did have those little triangle papers.

And I did slow down a bit.....

I really DO need to slow down!

Here's the back.

I pieced in the baby's name to the quilt back instead of

adding it as an appliqued tag afterwards.
Fun, huh?

Details for you out there who like that kind of thing.;)

• Simple diagonal quilting lines.
• Each block is 4"
• 64 blocks altogether.
• 6" wide white border.
• Quilt measures - 43"x43"

Have fun quilting today!

I'm adding this to sew and tell friday!