Category Archives: Log Cabin Quilt

Social Distancing

The phrase of the month.    I was looking forward to going to see the movie Emma last week…… nope.   We also had plans to go to a local flower show and get some ideas for this seasons garden beds…….. nope.   We luckily had done a good amount of shopping a couple weeks ago so our pantry and freezer was pretty well stocked.  Just needed a few things and our dear Kathryn braved the crowded stores to get what we needed so neither of us had to venture back there and  we are all set for a couple weeks now.

OK, no movie, no flower show, no shopping, no picking up our grandson after school.    What shall we do to keep busy?

Well, first of all, I headed up to my sewing room to clean up and rearrange a bit to get set for some extra sewing time.

Rearranged my jelly roll and layer cake storage cabinets,   hubby helped me add a pegboard  to the wall by my embroidery machine so I can hang my hoops there and then I organized my scissors and rulers and templates.   Ready to continue work on some projects.

After I got done with that,  I prepped some hexagons for handstitching while watching tv in the evenings.   I had finished all the ones I had brought with me for my “retreat” time at my sons’.   Emma was replaced with some Call The Midwife episodes and a Svengoolie movie on Saturday night.

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We didn’t get to go to the big flower show but we took a walk around our gardens and enjoyed the show our own bulbs gave us this week.

The weather has been fairly nice so we get to take walks around the neighborhood.  We are getting started on our spring cleaning,  we are trying out new recipes and I have already read two books since last week.

I don’t know how long this new normal is going to last.   I miss seeing our kids and grandkids.   I miss baseball.  I was looking forward to the start of the season.  I hope hubby and I don’t drive each other totally crazy.   Without the schedule of school pickups,  lunch with friends, the occasional trip up to see my sister and my sons and other plans that were on our calendar, the days seem to all blend together.   I am looking forward to when we can get back to our old normal again.

In the meantime,  we will make the best of it and if the weather continues to warm up, we will get to do more work outside in our gardens which will be great.  We will enjoy walking up and down blocks we usually just drive by.   We will watch movies on Netflix and Prime that we have been meaning to check out.   We will get some painting done and closets gone through.   I will finish the log cabin quilt and a seat cushion for a friend (although I don’t know when I will get it up to her).   I’ll plan my next quilt.

So,  as you maneuver through this new experience,  look for something to make you smile each day.  I know it will be harder on some days than others.  Like today was for me but the smiles did come.  What are you doing to keep yourself occupied?  Are you home with your children because school is closed?  How is that going?  I would like to hear about how you are all getting on.

Wherever you are,  be well.     We will get through this.

Bye for now.   See you soon.

Ginny    

 

 

 

 

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A retreat with me, myself and I

I needed to be at my son’s house for 4 days last week.  Four days with no sewing machine and just me and my granddog for a good part of one of the days?  Nope, not happening.  I packed up my trusty Featherweight and kitted up a couple of projects to take along with me —– my log cabin quilt for machine sewing time and a hand stitching project for evenings watching tv.

My bff and I have been working on the Farmer’s Wife blocks so there was that possibility but she had asked to take a break from them.  We have been choosing 3 blocks each every couple weeks or so and working on them.  When we were both finished with that set of six, we would pick out next group. And Sharon, I counted, we have finished 48 blocks so we are almost at the half way point so let me know when you want to start again.  We are in the home stretch …… well almost.

Since I don’t want to get ahead of her, I needed to pick another hand sewing project to bring along.  I had seen a tutorial on Missouri Star Quilt Company a few weeks back.  I ordered the templates and  had any number of charm packs to choose from for the project so I looked through them and made my choice.   Click here if you want to check out the tutorial.

I set up my little Emma (my Featherweight’s name) on the dining room table wp-1583108928483.jpg and I enjoyed my self-retreat.   I now have three rows of blocks made for the log cabin quilt.

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I used a Winter Song charm pack by Moda for the hexagons along with some red and green fabrics for the backs.  I have had that charm pack in my collection for quite some time and it needed to be made into something so I can enjoy it more than just looking at it whenever I see it in my charm pack drawer.   I am enjoying these and they are easy to do.  I’ve got eight more ready to go now that I’m home too.

All in all, it was a good few days of sewing, spending some time with my son, my sis who now lives close to my sons and my granddog.   I got to see some beautiful deer on a few of the dog walks which always thrills me.  They are such beautiful creatures. 

That’s what I’ve been up to lately.   I’ll be working on both the log cabin quilt and the hexagon project this week.  I have a deadline for having the quilt done so I will be dedicating a good deal of time to completing it over the next  couple weeks.   I am not sure what the hexagon’s will turn out to be.  A tablerunner or tabletopper maybe?  A Christmas tree skirt?  Time will tell.

I’d love to hear about what you all have been doing.

Bye for now.  See you soon.

Ginny

 

Scrappy and Semi- Scrappy Quilts

Scrappy quilts are the perfect way to use up all the leftover fabric from all my other projects.  Let’s face it, fabric is not a cheap investment and I don’t like just throwing my money into the trash.  Not to mention adding to landfills.  I am trying to be more mindful of being good to the planet and  would prefer to have the leftovers re-purposed into something useful and be more eco-conscience.  I have made a more controlled version of a scrappy quilt in this lattice quilt

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I used a layer cake by Benartex called Ambrosia.  I wanted to make a lightweight, summer quilt and this line said “summer” to me.  There were so many cheery colors in the line and the quilt came out great and had a very scrappy look.   Now I want to try and be brave and make a true scrappy quilt.  I am going to make a scrap quilt using Bonnie Hunter’s pattern, Happily Scrappily Irish from her book “Adventures with Leaders & Enders” .  Using Bonnie’s leader/ender method, I can be working on getting my units ready for this quilt while working on other projects.   Multi-tasking!  I was thinking about using scraps in autumn colors but I actually  have so much more Christmas fabric scraps (just ask my BFF) that I am going to head in that direction instead.   I do like the Irish Chain pattern.  I made one about 10 years ago in blues. I actually hand-quilted that one.  Please don’t look too closely at the stitching.  But it has held up for 10 years so I guess it wasn’t too bad.   I enjoyed quilting it by hand but won’t be doing that for the Christmas one.  Not if I want to have any chance of using it this year.

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In fact, now that I think about it, I have made two other versions of the Irish chain quilt; one in burgundy,  forest green and white and the other one in green and white – a true “Irish” chain quilt I suppose.   I guess I really do like that pattern.

I will be pulling out the bin with my Christmas scraps sometime over Memorial Day weekend and work on getting the fabric ready for this project.  Ok, maybe it might be two bins of Christmas scraps.    What do you think the chances are of me getting this quilt ready to be used for this holiday season?   I’m going to give it a good try.   Of course, before I left for our 2-week trip to California I did pull out the fabric for my guest bedroom quilt too which is going to be a log cabin quilt in shades of black to grey with the center square being red.  It sat on my cutting table patiently waiting for me to return so I do need to give that some attention too. Looks like I am going to be pretty busy.   Do I really need to sleep?

I should go get some sleep now since I am going to be so busy in the sewing room.   Maybe I’ll just be a midnight quilter like Angela Walters.  I can always watch her videos while working on my projects at midnight.  Quilters love company.

Be well.  I’ll be back soon.

Ginny