Mrs. Log Cabin for Christmas - Quilt Top

Well, thanks to a family-shared stomach flu, Thanksgiving, and putting up Christmas stuff, my poor blog has been sadly neglected. But I haven't been idle on the sewing front and have several new projects to post over the next few days.

My first is my mother-in-law's quilt top for Christmas, which is the girly version of the one I made for my father-in-law. It's much more feminine, and a little bit more modern as well due to the brighter colors. Purple is her favorite color, and after finding this pretty white, purple, and green fabric for the border, I added green as the secondary color for the log cabin blocks.

Sorry for the terrible pictures, but it's dark when I get up and dark when I get home, so no time for daylight pictures recently! Guess I'm just going to have to take some long lunches....I'll definitely have better pics for the finished product.

I have this quilt basted with a great hydrangea print that pulls in the purples and greens as well as "hydrangea blue." So ahead of time - already basted and it's not even December. This means I have no excuses for this not to be finished Christmas Eve...but I'm sure I'll think of something!

This week I am working on the in-law quilts and a few projects for the Triad Modern Quilt Guild. I'm also working on not getting sidetracked. Why is it that when you have a bunch of things going on at once that you always want to add something else? Guess life is just more fun that way!

First Christmas Gift Underway

Every Christmas, despite my best intentions, I usually end up scrambling at the last minute to figure out gifts. Over the last couple of years, nearly every member of my family has gotten some kind of handmade gift from me – with the exception of my in-laws. They are insanely hard to shop for, and I’m never really sure about their tastes and interests as they change a lot. Regardless of my probably needless worrying, I decided that this year, it’s their turn. I’ve been pretty unsure about what kind of quilt to make for them (color, pattern, traditional vs. modern, etc.), so I did finally ask them what types of colors they like while visiting them. I got "purple and some blues" from mom-in-law, and “I don't like any colors. Except green – for money!” from my father-in-law, the resident joker. Not so helpful. I debated about patterns for ages before finally deciding to do something small and simple so that they could each have their own quilt in the same pattern. I found a simple log cabin lap quilt free pattern from Connecting Threads, which has traditional log cabins surrounded by a border. I decided to do blender/tonal fabrics in the log cabins and a busy print for the border, which would determine the color scheme.

For my father-in-law’s quilt, I just wanted “manly” colors. This was actually kind of a stretch for me since I gravitate towards bright and bold colors in quilts. I found a tan/maroon/navy print – perfect.

I’ve already put the top together, and it was really fun to work with colors that are different from my norm. Despite being manly (I hope) and uber-traditional, I really like the way it’s looking so far. I can see why log cabins and all their variations are still so popular.

Now here’s hoping I can actually put a backing together and get this thing quilted before Christmas Eve!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - 36 Patch

I am a relatively new blogger, but I have admired the Blogger’s Quilt Festival for ages. I am so excited to finally have my own entry!

My quilt is called the Picnic Quilt, as named by my husband, and was created as part of the 36 Patch Quilt-Along over at crazymomquilts. This was my first QAL, and I really enjoyed seeing the huge variety created by different people putting together a relatively simple design.

I loved seeing all the super scrappy light/dark designs, but my Type A self just couldn’t go with a totally random look (I’m trying, really!). So, I chose a bunch of light prints and solid scraps and an overall off-white solid. I had been hoarding saving a pretty vintage sheet I picked up at a church sale a couple of years ago, and it turned out to be the perfect backing. I debated on how to quilt this thing for quite a while before finally settling on basic diagonals across all of the squares in a light pink thread.

The finished quilt was a great way to practice matching seams, and was made almost completely from stuff on hand. I did buy Warm & White batting and some light pink Kona cotton for the binding from JoAnn’s, both with 50% off coupons of course! The final quilt is super soft and cuddly, and I love the cheery colors. I think it will be our preferred couch quilt for quite a while, girly colors and all!

P.S. Sorry for the craptastic pictures. We've had a few rainy days lately, which was not very cooperative for quilt festival pics!