2020 Survival Sewing: Log Cabin Block

 One day I'll get back to my garment sewing; when Covid has subsided and I can go places.  So for now I continue my sewing with my quilting.

My next design uses the log cabin block.  

As usual I scanned in my fabrics and played with quilt layout using Electric Quilt 8.  

After some playing I came up with the final layout: 

Line Drawing of the final quilt layout.

I chose to set the blocks on the diagonal. Once I had my fabrics scanned in, the final quilt design turned out to look like this: 

My original design used 3 borders of 1" in width.  I decided to switch to single border 2" wide.

Here's a preview of the design in Electic Quilt 8

Now for the final completed quilt (Sorry for the lighting, had to do my photo's inside due to the cold weather): 

The FINAL QUILT!!!!

I love me some Electric Quilt!  Before I would have done this using paper and color pencils!  

Talk about saving tress!!!

Now onto my next quilt.  I'll be making the infamous John Lewis quilt seen in this photo.  

Photo from Reddit.com

I've already drafted my pattern in Electric Quilt.  I figure this would be great for using scraps.

On to the next quitl.

Happy Sewing!!!

2020 Survival Quilting (continued):

This is emotional and trying times for all of us.  So as I've said before my sewing has become my therapy.

Initially, I was making lots of clothing; but decided that wasn't going to work for me. When I make clothes I feel the need to wear them.  Well since I've been working from home since March, 2020; there really is no place for me to wear them.  I don't leave my house unless I have a need.  So having all of these garments with no pl
ace to wear them, was just making me more sullen.

So quilting to the rescue!  

I visit one of my local quilt shops almost every weekend.  The store is "A Quilter's Corner" located in Eric, CO.  They have some of the most amazing fabrics.

Well I fell in love with the M&S Textiles Australian Aboriginal fabrics.  They have some of the most beautiful colors and prints!

From A Quilter's Corner website

From A Quilter's Corner website

The prints are so vibrant!  I knew I needed to use them in a quilt.  My concern was that thy might be too busy.

So I decided to try to do something that would allow me to use the different prints.  Something like a scrap quilt, but I'd use the aboriginal prints instead.  Then I was inspired by the "Diamond Luau" pattern by Bluebear quilts.  It looked like the perfect way to use all of these prints.  I purchased 1/4 yd pieces of 25 of the prints.  I used a somewhat muted tones of red, black, and white for the background and the alternating block.

Of course my Accuqult Qube came in very handy for cutting the quilting pieces.  

As usual I enter my designs in Electric Quilt so that I can get a feel for the look of the pattern, and then I did two test blocks, and then was on my way.

After the first 3 rows, the layout looked like this: 

 

Needless to say I just feel in love with it!  

After another week, the quilt was completed and will be going to the quilters with the others.

Completed Quilt!

Closeup of quilt layout

The completed quilt is approximately 90 x 90.  The quilt design used, allowed me to use all of the prints in a single quilt without it being overwhelming.

I've got some left over of the 1/4 yd pieces to consider making another quilt from the pieces,

Happy Sewing!

Quilting Part 3 (2020 Survival Sewing).

So I have decided to call these quilts my "2020 Survival Quilts" .  I don't know about everyone else, but everything that has gone on this year is taking its toll on me mentally.

So sewing has become my therapy.  I've been averaging a quilt top every 2 weeks or so.  Ive been doing this since about September timeframe.

I call this part 3 but this is actually my 6th quilt top.  The first 3 were lap quilts.  But for some reason I just don't feel like that size is very usable for me.   I tend to do quilts that are queen/full size. These latest quilts are 80 inches in size or larger.  I like for my quilts to be "used" by the people that received them.  I learned that I am a "UTILITY" quilter; meaning that I like for my quilts to be "utilitized".  (Don't you love the sound of that 😀).

My husband asked me what were we going to do with all of these quilts.  I told him I haven't thought that far yet!  However, I do think I've just about got him convinced that he needs to invest in a Long Arm quilting machine for me.  My husband even mentioned that it could be an investment towards retirement.  Plus with as many quilts I'm making, its cost well over the monthly note for a long arm quilting machine.

Now onto quilt #3: 

I saw this pattern on a stroll thru instagram, and fell in love with the pattern.  It's called "Bright Hope" from Blue Bear Quilts": 

Image from www.bluebearquilts.com

Althought the quilt design looks very involved is based on one block.

Image from www.bluebearquilts.com

I did some "reverse engineering" (The engineer in me creeps out every once in a while). I entered the design into Electic Quilt 8 (Quilt design software). Then I added images of my fabric and was able to get a preview of what the finished quilt would look like. This is my variation of the design from my Electric Quilt software..

During my 2020 survival journey I've had a couple of goals in mind: 

1. Learn to use my Electric Quilt 8 software
2. Use my Accuquilt cutter to cut out my design as much as possible (I own all of the qube sets, so I can create just about any block design.
3. Use as many of my exsting fabric stash as possible.

I used my Accuquilt quilt dies to cut out the block pieces.  This reduced my cutting time tremendously!

If you want something that looks complicated, but is simple to put together definitly visit Blue Bear Patterns and give this pattern a go.  They have some really interesting quilt designs.

This quilt along with the previous one, will be going to the quilter by next week.

Maybe by Christmas I'll get that long arm quilting machine 😉

Happy Sewing Everyone!