My favorite quilt block and Works in Progress it creates

I love quilt blocks. In a quilt, on a barn, in a pattern.  My first quilt class was a Quilt-in-a-Day Log Cabin class, and I was hooked when I saw how many quilts can come from just one block.  The block is the same but just a turn, a twist, different size logs in the block, or instead of a center square, put a another block in the center and make logs around that block.  In fact, upon review of my project shelf, I find not one or two log cabins, but several.  This love has only grown over the years, and I have collected several different patterns that have caught my eye.  But that class quilt still graces my couch, albeit a bit thin nowadays.

So, just how many log cabins do I have ?  I have a baby quilt in perfect pastels, perfectly cut and ready to piece, in a ziploc bag (aka Project in Ziploc Bag or PIZLB).  It was intended as a welcome home baby gift for a friend that was adopting a child, but it turned out to be twins and something else was done instead.





Then there's the log cabin nine patch, a pattern by Evelyn Sloppy from Log Cabin Fever.  All the nine patches are made and I needed 9 greens for the blocks, and I've traded out a few here and there. I've made the quilt before with my fellow quilters in LeRoy, NY, and the quilt graces a friend's home after she won the raffle that year.  I have decided on the greens, but I haven't cut them yet. So that is a Work in Progress, or Unfinished Object (WIP or UFO).

Then there's the Lonestar Log Cabin in blues and yellow.  In 2004 while working at a quilt shop in Virginia, I showed the owner my favorite Amish quilt pattern. I love Amish patterns, and I was a frequent visitor in the New Holland/Lancaster area where I always pawed over the finished quilts in this pattern. When she saw it, she asked if I had ever used the Lonestar QuiltSmart foundation.  At the time I had never heard of it.  Well, I've done several quilts using this foundation now, and this quilt is closer in the project que than it was at the time.  The center lonestar is done, and I have been collecting blues and yellows for those blocks and I do believe I am now set on those colors too (and now another WIP/UFO).

And then there's the log cabin I am working on right now.  While working at that same shop, when Moda came out with the Prairie Christmas fabric line, I was in love! I definitely overbought fabric as I planned for 2 quilts, but I could make at least one more and the back to this quilt I think.  The first quilt now lives in WNY with a friend aka sister. I used a wool bat and backed it with Thimbleberries flannel -- a very warm quilt for the long cold winter there. Not so much this year  LOL   My goal after completing that quilt was to make ME a quilt and I have yet to DO it.  In 2007 when I moved into this sewing room I set a goal: Finish the projects in the ziploc bags. I have pulled ones off the shelf and completed one, or used my stash and passed the fabric on.  But of course they have moved on to other states and other homes.  Over the past few nights I have been set on a course of stripping blocks and watching this block get larger, only 2 more logs to go!

So while I may be 'on a roll' here on this log cabin project, there will always be something that will get in the way. Laundry, meals, sleep .. so I'm trying to be productive and it seems that I stay up after all the animals go to bed and I can get sooooo much more done.  But once the center is done, the borders aren't just an afterthought. I'm toying with the idea of a pieced border around the center, maybe a small evener border, then possibly pieced pinwheel, smaller log cabins or spaced squares, or ??  The possibilites are endless. I plan my quilts in my quilt design software, EQ7, and I love how I can change blocks, change color, check dimensions, check borders, use the automatic border option... so many choices .. will let you know how it comes out ..

Til next time .. stitch on !

Dee