Pastel Log Cabin Top

Well, I finally got back to the pastel log cabin quilt I had been working on.  I showed you options here and here as I was deciding how to set the blocks together.  I decided on option 2 and put the center part of the quilt together and it stayed on the design wall for a while.  I finally got around to making the piano key borders and here is the result, finally pieced together.

 

 

This will eventually go on the daybed in my office.  I haven't officially moved in there yet as there are a couple of things I need to finish for the room first, but that's a future post.

 

I decided to do simple string corners on this quilt top.  Here is a close up of one corner.  They are all slightly different from each other, but all use fabrics from the interior of the top.

 

 

 

Now that this top is done, I can get back to the project I was working on at our mini-retreat!  It is a Fall colored one, so it will be fun to work on and pretend that our 102 degree days are maybe half that.  Think it will work?

 

The pastel log cabin will join it's friends in the growing basket of quilt tops I need to quilt.  I know, my friend Jo would tell me to just hand quilt a couple of hours a day and they would soon be done.   But remember that 102 degrees?  I just can't get excited about having a quilt on my lap when it's still this hot! 

 

This afternoon I'm meeting with the editor of a magazine about doing a future article.  Yay!

 

 

Hope it is cooler where you are!

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois



Antique Shopping

It is taking me quite a while to get all of the photos edited from last week, but I did get through the ones taken in one of the antique stores we visited.  Unfortunately, I did not write down the name of the shop.  Since I only bought a couple of little things, I paid cash so did not save the receipt.  Do you ever do things like that?  I so wanted to tell you the name so that if you were in Pinetop, AZ you could visit them, too!

This long table was the first thing I saw entering the door.  Wow, it was really long!  Notice the yellow ware bowl?  Oh, yes, I zeroed in on it, but it was more than I was willing to pay.  I limit myself to what cash I have and I sure didn't have as much as it would take to bring the bowl home.

This show had everything from A to Z in it.  Wouldn't these blocks be fun?

This little blue bowl came home with me.  The hand  knit cap is interesting and would be useful at 7,000+ altitude, but in the desert, not so much!

I do wish I had paid more attention to this blue toile pitcher.  It is lovely! When I'm taking photos, I often find things I wish I had gone back to later.  the nine patch quilt in the background with the double pink fabric was neat as well.

This shop had a LOT of kitchen tools, but I've never seen so many cake slicers in one place -- Ever!

This display of Campbell soup items was mmm mmm good!. It sure brought back memories of childhood.

Who knew we should have kept all of those old Vick's jars and Phillips Milk of Magnesia bottles?  I loved this display.  Sorry about the face in the window.  I could not figure out how to remove him from the background.  Anyone know how to do that in Photo Shop?

It seemed like there was more enamelware in this shop than usual.  Perhaps it was used more in the mountains than in the city.

Loved this wonderfully soft looking fan quilt.

Doesn't the bottom quilt look as if it might be Amish?  I wish I had pulled it out to see it better!

The log cabin quilt and the bow tie quilt look as if they are really large quilts.  The others seem so much smaller when folded.  Love the tea cup collection below them.

I'm not a fan of blue and pink quilts, but the wool applique quilt below it was lovely.

Loved these little pie safes.

Not sure what the jugs held, but they were quite large.  The brass kerosene lamp was a beauty as was the wooden sled.  I didn't get all of the sled in the photo, it was quite long.

The treadle sewing machine drawer could be quite useful.  What would you do with one of these if you found one? See the doorknob hanger in the background?

This wooden box was really quite pretty.  It was surrounded by wood working tools, saws and such.  If you are in the market for wood planes, they had quite a selection.

This does not look as if it would have been very comfortable for it's original use, but wouldn't a plant look cute in this child's potty?

My friend, Deanna, told me years ago to start saving wooden spools.  She was right, they did get replaced with plastic.  I have quite a few, but could have had a lot more if I'd started saving them earlier.  At least I know where to buy some more if I decided I need more.

As I was using my little camera that I carry in my purse, the photos aren't as sharp as I'd like and the battery ran out before I was ready to quite taking photos.  I did not get a photo of the lovely small cobalt blue pitcher that I bought.  It will be in a future post.

Joyce found some glasses that matched some she had already collected.  Diane left empty handed, but she made up for it at the quilt shop we visited later that day.

Hope you enjoyed a walk through the antiques with us.

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Frenchy Wreath and Sew Day

A few weeks back Debbie at Confessions of a Plate Addict painted a rooster she had found with chalkboard paint.  I loved it and remembered that I had a similar rooster tucked away in a box in the garage.  I got it out, but was dismayed to find that mine was molded a bit so writing on it with chalk would not work.  The rooster, however, looks great painted in the black chalkboard paint even if a message would be hard to do.  My rooster was formerly verdigris and I like him much better now.  Since I could not write a message on him and hang him on a doorknob, I set him down and he ended up laying on a wreath I had bought at the Dollar Tree and had not used in a project yet.

Here is the result after a little twine was added to the rooster and wreath.

This wreath will get us through until it's time to decorate for Fall.

Yesterday Diane invited Joyce and me to come for a sew day.  We sewed and laughed, at snacks and Diane prepared a lovely lunch of chicken saladon a croissant and fresh fruit - yum!

The oatmeal cinnamon chip cookies were center stage with Diane's snippet bag. Joyce takes the snippets and stuffs pillows with them.

Diane was working on this lovely fabric -- looks like desert colors, yes?

This is a group project.  She is making the square blocks and others are making star blocks.  Shhh, it's for a gift, so can't tell any more.

Diane designed the quilt in EQ 6, a  computer quilt design program if you don't know what EQ 6 is.

Joyce finished the last few pieces of one project and started another, unfortunately, there wasn't really any way to show what she was working on at the stage it was in.  Don't you love how Joyce smiles with her whole face!  I sure do!

I was working on piano key borders for the pastel log cabin quilt. It's hard to get the color right as Diane's dining room is in the middle of the house with not a lot of natural light.  The overhead light was on which made things look a little off in color - sorry about that.

Everything starts out organized, really it does.  We just get into our projects and make a mess.  Next week we are having a mini retreat at Joyce's cottage in the mountains.  Oh, I hope it is cooler! It's supposed to be 113 today!

In the afternoon we took a little trip to the nearest Goodwill.  Joyce found books for her husband and a red sheet and a black print sheet to use in a rag rug she is making for the cottage.

I found a bunch of stuff to use in future projects - a wood tray, an ironstone plate with cobalt blue flowers, and a silver goblet among other things.  You'll get to see them soon.

A day with friends is such fun.  Hope you have those frequently!

I also hope it is cooler where you are - thank goodness for AC!

Have a wonderful day wherever you are!

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Pastel Logs Option 2

I know, two posts in one day! That's a first!  But, Jo asked to see another option, so here is option 2 for Pastel Logs.  I think I like this one better than option 1.  What do you think? 

In this option, the green and purple blocks had to "help out" the blue ones to make their rows of the barn raising pattern.  Just goes to prove that value is far more important than color in a scrap quilt!

I've only made one other log cabin using this setting and I gave it away and apparently did not take any photos of it.  It was a true scrap quilt in that it used many different colors.

I've made two using the straight furrow setting -- at least that are quilted.  I have another straight furrow log cabin that is waiting to be quilted.  I told you about those here and here.  Lincoln Logs was made for my mother-in-law and does have a piano key border which I will probably do for this one too -- or not.  The jury is out on that yet.

What do you think?  Option 1 or Option 2?  You vote, OK?

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Pastel Logs Option 1

Yesterday I took a day to just do some fun things for inspiration.  I took a ton of photos and will share those as soon as I get them edited.  One of my stops was to Sweet Salvage that I told you about here and here.  This month was certainly not a disappointment!

Remember when I started the pastel log cabin at our sew day in June?  The blocks have been complete a couple of days and I put them up on the design wall in one of the ways I'm considering sewing the center part together.  I will be playing with them some more and show you those, too, but here is Option 1.

It's got a lot of pink in it.  I'm not sure how that happened, though I was trying to use up some left over pinks from some quilts I did for granddaughters.

It's also not exactly pastel.

Apparently I don't buy much pastel fabric.

Joyce and Diane had to send me some purples and greens.

They don't buy pastels much either!

I'll show you a couple of other options for block placement.  I'm pretty sure I will use a piano key border as I do like those on a log cabin quilt.

Now my studio needs some serious clean up.  I keep saying I'm going to do that, but other, more creative things as well as just life things keep getting in the way.  But it's time to clean!

Hope you are having a wonderful, creative and fun day!

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Sew Day Duet

What a week it has been.  I didn't get home until Monday afternoon from being in Tucson that I told you about last post.  Tuesday I did a little catch up and since Wednesday I've had 3 extra people in my house -- two grandchildren and their dad (our son).  There's been a lot of cooking and picking up after which leaves very little time for sewing or blogging!

The week before on Tuesday, Diane and I had a sew day.  Usually it's a trio, but this time it was a duet, just the two of us as Joyce will spend most of the summer at her cottage in the cooler parts of Arizona!

Diane was working on one of her "trailer" quilts -- so named as they are for their little camping trailer.  As you know camping trailers are lacking in space and big on multi-use spaces and almost NO storage!  New quilts to fit the space were necessary, right?

This has been Diane's "sew day" project the past couple of times we've sewn together.

It's a little hard to see, but she was adding sashing strips.

There were a few more in her container.  She has actually now made three quilts using this pattern and fast piecing method, but all were joined with different types of sash strips - one with black which was gorgeous, one with double sash strips and this one with single sash strips that are twice as wide as the double sash strips on the previous quilt top.

I had no projects at the stage I wanted to take along, so, of course, I started a new one!

I have been wanting a different quilt for what will be my office some day when I don't have grandchildren sleeping there!  And I have quite a stash of 1-1/2" strips.  As I want this to be more or less pastel, I grabbed only the lighter strips to take.  I cut 2-1/2" yellow fabrics for the centers.  I like the jagged edge these give to a log cabin.

First strips ready for pressing with my little Clover ironing tool.

Lots of yummy yellow!

Here's a chain with round 4 attached.

This is the muslin protector strip I use when I press each round.

The muslin protects my ironing board cover from all the spray starch I use.

After pressing, it's squaring time.  See those little jagged edges?  They have to come off to keep the blocks absolutely square from round to round.  I do this after all 4 sides have been added each time.

The fifth strip has been added in a chain and ready to be pressed.  Actually at this writing they are pressed and ready for the sixth strip, but I didn't take a photo of the stack of blocks.

It would be nice to have a lot more, but I'm not a quilt in a day kind of girl anyway.  I like having more than one project going at a time.  Is that weird?  I think maybe I have Quilter's ADD and need to have a new project going all the time to keep from getting bored or antsy.  I'm a bit suspicious of those quilters who can work on only one project start to finish, aren't you?  It just doesn't seem natural to do every last stitch before starting something new.

Hope you are having a fantastic Friday!

xoxoXOXOxoxo,

Lois

Dad's Logs

When my mother passed away, Dad asked me to put all of the quilts away that she had made. He wanted to save them for “us kids” whenever he was gone, too.  Even though I did it, it made me sad to see my dad not sleeping with quilts.  As long as I could remember there were quilts on our beds so the lack of quilts on his bed just didn’t seem right. 

When Dad’s 90^th birthday was approaching, I decided he needed to have a quilt of his own.  His favorite color was red and as he had been a farmer most of his life, I decided that a log cabin quilt in a straight furrow setting would be appropriate Though Mom used red in quilts, it was usually with other colors, so I decided to do a very graphic just reds and white/off white quilt.  There are many red fabrics and many different white and off white prints and solids to give a little more visual texture to the quilt.  The blocks are 10" and there are 9 blocks across and 10 rows of blocks making a 90 block quilt in honor of my dad's 90 years.  He passed away at age 93.  I'm so glad I did this quilt for him so he could enjoy sleeping under it for those 3 years.  The teddy bear on the table was made for me by my dear friend Diane when my mother passed away which was 10 years before dad.  I cherish that bear!

Since this was made as a bed quilt, I decided it would be appropriate for the picture you see to be of his quilt on a bed.

Here is a close up of the quilting in the light logs. 

The red logs were quilted in the ditch to offset the curvy, feathery design quilted in the light logs..  I don't know why I took this picture on the edge of the bed.  The block really isn't curved, it's the edge of the mattress!

As you can see, this was a quilt that was used up until my dad died.  It is on the bed pictured 11 months of the year.  In December a Christmas quilt is on that bed and the log cabin quilt is draped on the back of our family room sofa or on a chair in the family room. 

Since I can't count, I had extra blocks that with just a few more made a twin sized quilt top.  On that top I put a piano key border in just the white/off white fabrics and machine appliqued farm animals around the border.  So far it is still a top.  I should quilt it.  I should quilt all of the quilt tops sitting in the quilt top basket.  This weekend I started putting another quilt on the design board and cut parts for another since I was cutting.  Oh, yes, I really should stop making tops and quilt the ones I already have and I will after I get these two tops finished.

Do any of you make tops and let them sit for maybe even years unquilted?  Do I hear a "guilty".  Thought so! 

Lincoln Logs/Log Cabin Quilts

February is the birth month of two presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  I'm sure you knew that since we celebrate Presidents Day in February.  Though Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, he spent much of his life in Illinois.  In fact one of my favorite childhood experiences was going to New Salem to see the log cabin village where he spent time reading by candlelight -- at least that's what the guides used to say to the school groups who took field trips there.

I also enjoyed seeing his home in Springfield, IL, but that was from his later life and was a much ore formal home.  I think I preferred the log cabins.  There are also stories about his first law practice in Lincoln, IL.  It's been a long time since I've seen it, but in my memory his first law office was also in a log cabin.  If that isn't right, please don't tell me.  I like my memory of a log cabin with a historical marker saying it was Lincoln's first law office.  Memories from childhood are tricky -- sometimes a lot of it is imagination and I had a GREAT imagination as a child.  Hopefully, I still do, it's more fun that reality sometimes.

I've made several log cabin quilts.  This month, I plan to show some of them to you.  Two of them are still in the quilt top stage, but that's okay.  They WILL be quilts eventually.

For Christmas 2006 I made a blue and yellow log cabin quilt for Gary's mother who passed away this past December.  That is why the quilt is back in my possession.  I made the quilt as a lap quilt as her legs and feet were always cold.  She told me she slept under it.  It's a small quilt (49" x 49"), but she was a tiny woman having shrunk from her original five foot four inches to probably less than five feet.  Still, I wish I'd made the quilt bigger so it would have covered her better, but then, it was made to be a lap quilt not a bed quilt.

It's bright and cheery.  I like it a lot.  I'm very glad that she enjoyed it.  Here is a picture of the quilt I now call Lincoln Logs since she lived in Lincoln, IL while growing up and she had moved back to Lincoln a few years after Gary's Dad passed away and she spent that last years of her life in Lincoln.

Lincoln Logs is set in what is called a straight furrow setting for log cabin quilts.  As Gary's parents farmed for many years, it seemed to be a fitting set for the blocks.  I have done 3 quilts in this setting.  One was for my dad on his 90th birthday and the other was made from the "overs" blocks that I made while making Dad's quilt.  I'll show those in a later post.

Here is a closeup of the feather quilting that wanders through the yellow part of the blocks.  Have I mentioned that quilting feathers on the machine is one of my favorites?  No?  Well, I do and this probably won't be the last time you hear me say that.

I have a lot of logs already cut for another log cabin quilt.  They were left overs from a scrap log cabin that, unfortunately, the pictures I took are among the lost photos.  It was given to a missionary who stayed a couple of nights with us.  She mentioned that she used to have a log cabin quilt that she loved, but that she had loaned it to another missionary family who apparently thought she had given it to them as they took it with them when they went to another mission field.  She didn't have the "heart" to ask for it back.  The story tugged at my heartstrings so my next quilt was a scrap log cabin to replace the one she "lost".

Tell me about your log cabin quilts or share stories about log cabin quilts you've seen and loved.  I'd love to hear about them.  It's a great way to use up small pieces of left over fabric.  All the log cabin quilts I've made except the very first one were made from 1-1/2" strips.  I have two drawers full of 1-1/2" strips pus a couple of other containers with either strips or logs already cut waiting to be sewn into the next log cabin.

Itchin' to Stitch,
Lois