when I made my quarantine log cabin quilt, there was a LOT of information about all the choices in that quilt. Having piled so much meaning into the fabric choices in my quarantine log cabin quilt, and having written about each block as I made it, it seemed like all those words needed to be recorded on the quilt label...
Quartered Log Cabin (Emerald version–finished!)
It’s done! This beauty started a bit differently than most of my quilts. It started with a question raised by another quilt I had made, the Quartered Log Cabin Quilt (white version), pictured below.
I love this block and teach it as part of my “favorite improv blocks” class. But the very things that made my first quartered log cabin quilt so pretty also make it not the easiest class sample to talk through. You see, the placement of the colors takes a lot of time to discuss and is a big part of why the quilt is effective. But I knew in my mind that the quilt pattern would still work even if the colors weren’t swooping across the quilt top. So I cooked up a this emerald version, which has fairly random color & print placement.
For the emerald version of this quilt, a lot of the palette was pulled from the green feature print from Lizzy House’s Catnap fabric line. House is truly one of my favorite fabric designers and one of the things I love best about her work is the colors. Pulling colors to match and play with her prints is really enjoyable and always pays off. That green feature print had a lot of things going for it color-wise, and I love how dark it is; I wanted a dark background fabric to contrast with the white of the earlier quilt. Since the dark would make the background advance, it could also carry the print forward. I think that played out the way I anticipated. What do you think?
The orchid colors were mixed in for a couple of reasons: (1) monochromatic quilts aren’t really my style and (2) I didn’t have enough of the Catnap to make a quilt of the size I desired. I was on a retreat at the time, and I had a stack of Kaffe Fassett shot cottons with me , so I pulled out the purples and was pleased that this worked perfectly.
I’m really happy with the way the quilt turned out. There’s no fussy placement of colors and the value play is different from the original, but it’s still a very effective quilt. And one I’ll be glad to show photos of to my students to show the flexibility of the quartered log cabin.
One additional twist on the tutorial…when it can time to quarter my log cabins, I did it on the Accuquilt! You can see a short video of that in my instagram feed. Specifically, here. It was so fast and accurate.
This quilt was purchased by a friend to give one of her friends, who just had a baby. This influenced my choice of binding–I went with a colorful, playful feather print.
I think it pulls out the different little snips of color really well.
The back is a vintage sheet.
Overall, I’m really pleased with this quilt. Photos of it will be really useful in my class, I raised my game on the quilting front, made a little money, and found it a good home with a sweet family!
** I am affiliated with Accuquilt and received their product at no cost.
Find the tutorial for piecing these blocks here:
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The mix in of orchid was a nice touch and I love the binding. I've never used a sheet before and always thought it was harder to quilt on but yours looks great, especially for a baby. Nice to see the same pattern with such a different visual result, they're both great.
Thank you so much! I think sheets CAN be a bit trickier if the thread count is too high, but this one didn't give me any trouble and I've always been fine with vintage sheets.
I like the binding too, it seems a bit wider which adds more interest over all…..
Thank you! Yes, the binding shows 1/2-inch on the front, rather than your typical 1/4-inch!
I love everything about this quilt–the fabrics, the quilting, the binding, the vintage sheet backing!
Thank so much!
I love the bits of orchid! And your choice of binding is perfect.
Thanks for writing such an awesome tutorial!