Look how great my 6 year old holds a quilt!

This month the Naperville Modern Quilt Guild had a log cabin challenge. We were all asked to make a 36″ x 36″ quilt with log cabin(s) in a modern way. Last night was the meeting and everyone came up with such great designs! Really, no two were alike. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone’s quilts and the thought that went into all of them.

I decided to make all white log cabins with tiny strips of bright fabrics randomly incorporated into the logs. The logs are various widths, from 1-1/2″ to 1/2″ finished.

This quilt was pretty improvisational. Although I had a plan for the blocks in my head, I wasn’t really sure about how to put them together. At first I was thinking about 1 giant block. Then it changed to multiple blocks. Then I decided I needed some separation to define the blocks. Ideas floated around from using neutral tan to narrow strips of color, stacked. But in the end I decided on larger color blocks.

I quilted this in straight lines, about 1/2″ apart.

The backing is one of my favorite prints from designer Anna Maria Horner.

The binding was also something that changed at the last minute. I was planning on doing bright scrappy binding, but after it was cut it just seemed like too much. So I went looking through my stash and my eyes were drawn to one of my favorites from Violet Craft’s Madrona Road – the black text print. I worked in a couple spots of bright strips just to echo the design of the blocks.

And in an Arkansas Traveler update…I finished the quilt top! It looks great and the backing just arrived. I am still deciding on the quilting, but that will be the next large project to tackle on my list.

May was the third round of The Traveling Quilts bee. (You can see more about the bee here, Round 1 here and Round 2 here. This month I worked on Dan’s quilt.

Dan started his quilt with scrappy green circles. In round one, Penny had the guts to cut one of them right in half! (She’s cool like that.) Jacquie created a moon rising section of the quilt.

So…this was the first round where I felt like I had a vision of how I wanted to combine some of the rest of the group’s blocks and start forming the quilt top. I really thought that Penny’s section and Jacquie’s section were meant to be sewn together, right where the negative space intersected. (See below where the Ash and White meet.)

Then for my addition, I added a scrappy section of diagonal turquoise piecing. I actually started working before reading Dan’s journal of inspiration, but it all worked out because in his journal, he wrote that he was inspired by Lu Summers, specifically this style of quilt. I think by breaking from the beginning theme of curves, I went in the direction of that inspiration. Also, in a nod to Lu, I add in some of her new fabric line Summersville. Finally, I think the vertical strip of turquoise echo’s the vertical strip that Penny added when she cut into one of Dan’s original circles.

The quilt is now off to Ashley!

When pulling fabrics for a child’s quilt, I seem to have a much easier time selecting prints, patterns and colors for a girl’s quilt. Part of my problem is that I tend to have a hard time finding “boy” fabrics that I like. But last summer Sarah Jane really hit it out of the ballpark with her Children at Play line. I just love her artwork, something about the innocence of the designs – paper airplanes and sailboats, hopscotch and dress up dolls, pinwheels and wagons.

I decided to take some of the little boy line and pair it with some of my favorite blenders in green, blue, yellow, orange and red.

It’s really fun to play with prints like stripes, sometimes aligning them horizontally based on the center of the block…

And sometimes vertically.

I quilted this quilt in a diagonal grid. It was the first time I used the metal guide that came with my walking foot. It was actually quite helpful! The lines are about 1.5″ apart. I marked the starting line and then just used my guide to work off from there.

The back is a lime green and the binding is a turquoise. The blocks are 12″ squares and the final quilt measures 36″ x 36″. I decided to list this little quilt in my shop – it is so lacking in boy items!

I am a true believer that you don’t always have to make an intricate quilt to make a beautiful quilt. I find this especially encouraging for beginner quilters who may not have mastered paper piecing or y-seams or perfect points (yet!), but still want to make something that catches the eye and wows their family and friends.

I recently made this quilt and pattern with all levels of quilters in mind. The underlying design is simple and one you have probably seen many times, but I decided to break the quilt into color blocks, changing the look of the quilt.

I just love these colors, perfect for a little girl I think.

I decided to quilt this using densely spaced free motion meandering, but I only quilted the white, negative space. This makes the prints pop.

For the back of the quilt, I used one of my latest favorites – FreeSpirit Designer Solid Jade as well as a print from Moda’s Hello Luscious called Blissful Floral.

This quilt measures 45″ x 60″ and the digital pattern is for sale for immediate download in my pattern shop!

And speaking of my pattern shop, if you missed out on my Prism pattern in Quiltmaker magazine, you can now buy a digital pattern for that quilt there too.