For ever my husband has wanted to own a log cabin. It stemmed from a holiday we had in Dorset one year when our kids were younger and ever since he has brought up the idea again and again, but it just isn’t going to be happening unless the numbers come up on the Lotto. So instead I thought I would use up some (I many have rather a lot) of my scraps and make him a log cabin quilt instead. Obviously not quite the same, but hopefully he won’t notice!
At first it was going to be for a charity if I am totally honest. I likely have more than enough quilts around the home – at the last count 8 are draped across the back of the sofa and chairs – and my kids and family keep telling me they have enough too. To satisfy my yearning to create patchwork quilts I do try and support charity makes. Q4CL, NICU quilts and Hearts for Scunthorpe Hospital, Care leavers in Scunthorpe, Quilts 4 Carers supporting our NHS, Helping Hands – Stitching and Sewing for Good Causes and others from time to time have all benefited over the years. I have a pile of quilts in my sewing place waiting for donating which I keep adding to when the mask-making gets monotonous. Patchwork and Quilting is my happy place and in this busy place we live in it’s a place I can retreat to in my head and wipe out all the concerns and stuff we all deal with on a daily basis in our lives.
I pulled out my scraps, mostly blues (I like blue quilts), and started to put the log cabin blocks together. Believe it or not it’s my first log cabin quilt. I have discovered they are really simple and great fun to put together. I created 12 blocks and started to play around with the configuration. It struck me that there were some fabulous patterns developing as I moved them around. Not having enough to finish a balanced pattern that I liked (and that would satisfy my mild OCD) I decided to make 8 more to create a 20-block quilt with each block being 11 inches finished.
As each block was finished I popped it onto the pile. One afternoon the block I had just finished was laid on the table as we had tea (lamb steaks with salad and jacket potatoes if anyone is wondering). As I looked at it I realised how much of my quilting journey was contained in that one block – each strip of fabric represented a fond memory for me.
The UKQU website started as a kernel of an idea I had after seeing people buying fabrics online from the USA and grew further from a conversation between Juliet Nice and me. We need to support our UK shops, whether online or bricks and mortar, or else one day we will turn around and they will be gone. One of the strips in there was an interloper .. a remnant from some USA fabric I had been sent from a friend.
The ideas thrown about regarding the website became a reality when I met Abbie Searle at a workshop she was running in Lincolnshire. Abbie creates some amazing Mystery Quilts for the website, her first with us was created in time for the launch back in January 2018, “A Colourful Outlook on Life. This was my first quilt I made following a pattern, and the red centre of each log cabin is a mix of Moda Grunge and the Makower Linen from that kit. Abbie created her version of ‘Colourful’ from Makower Linen which is one of their staples and I bought the red linen to back my own take on ‘Colourful”.
This log cabin quilt of mine is much more than UKQU though .. it’s my own quilting journey.
I visited FOQ for the first time and bought a panel of Australian Fabric which I kept for a long time until I used it to back a quilt made to keep my husband warm when he was undergoing treatment for his Blood Cancer. The sterile rooms he slept in during treatment to protect him were really chilly .. triple filtered air is precooled. There’s more than one strip in the quilt’s blocks. Some memories are bittersweet but he and I still love the quilt. Even more so because it was quilted by my best mate. He spent a lot of time in hospital in 2015 .. most of the year .. and wanted to have something from home with him. The top was already made, but travelling back and forth in between work left little time for anything else. When times are difficult you really do value friendships and I didn’t even need to ask Jeannie to help. I have never managed to grab a picture of this quilt finished, and I think it’s now being used as a play mat for our youngest Grandson.
There’s some fabric in the log cabin from a quilt I created during a Circles workshop with Sheena Roberts. If you get the opportunity I would urge anyone to attend one of her workshops. I do almost everything quilty with my best mate, Jeannie, and this was where we met a lovely group of people and the germ of an idea grew into our own sewing group, Our Quilty Pleasures. I hope in the not too distant future we will be able to start that up again. There’s something joyful about spending a morning with friends, sewing and chatting.
This workshop started my love of circly things. The blue with the zingy orange circles was the start of that particular journey. The yellow one is very special as its backed with an old duvet covet that belonged to my Mum .. she passed away over 38 years ago – and I made that for my Sister. The blue one will be donated to an NHS carer who has been involved in treating people during the pandemic, the heart is my own thankyou to them. Memories are in everything we make aren[‘ they – a bit like a diary of each of our lives.
A couple of the fabrics in the Log Cabin squares were sent to me from a lady in America when we briefly exchanged boxes of fabric. It was fun whilst it lasted .. who wouldn’t enjoy surprises like that.
Some of the fabrics are remnants of fabrics donated by Makower UK for sampling by the Bloggerati of the website, and for charity makes. A good quilter never throws anything away do we.
One strip in the log cabin is quite special as it formed part of my birthday present during the first Retreat I attended in Birmingham. Every year Jonathan Dymond helps me organise this as a thank you get together for the Bloggerati of the UKQU website for all their lovely stories and blogs they create for everyone to enjoy. We arrive lunchtime on a Friday and sew almost non-stop until the Sunday afternoon. Spontaneous things begin, friends pop in, impromptu tutorials and show and tells happen. It’s just an amazing, unplanned weekend. We have had to cancel this year, but we will be meeting again next year we hope.
My all-time favourite, Moda Blue Barn is in there. My first liberty fabric is there too. We all know how pricey liberty fabric can be, but it was metre of loveliness I bought for 50p at a local car boot. I didn’t realise what I had bought until I read the selvedge at home. I can remember with fondness where each and every strip in the block, in the full quilt, comes from.
i just need to find time now to quilt the top I made. Scrappy quilts might be a way to not waste fabric, but for me they are my memories. I love them.!
What a great way to keep track of your memories. I really enjoyed reading this Sylvia and your quilt is gorgeous.
What a lovely blog. It gets to the heart of our fabric obsession: not so much sewing, as remembering.