Log Cabin Leftovers was designed in 2007 as a weekend quilt.
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| Log Cabin Leftovers ~ 2007 |
For years at Threads Galore Quilt shop we had what we called Fall Quilt Camps. These were weekend long quilt retreats. They grew longer than weekends, but that is another story.
Carol and whoever the teacher of the year was would go up to the Country Club Inn for the duration of the retreat. I would be in charge of the shop. That time of the year there were limited customers, most of whom I would deal with for the weekend would be retreaters.
What I often would do is try to start a project and bring it to the Country Club to show my progress. This particular year I had nothing planned. I needed to come up with something. I started to peruse through the bins in the shop. I came across a box of left over parts of quilts that were used in the Log Cabin room at our Quilt Inn Rangeley Retreat Center. I settled on a box of left over log cabin blocks.
I proceeded to lay them out to see what I could come up up with. I found enough to come up with some sort of pattern and added some appliqué wildlife to the mix. There was very little of the different fabrics left in stock ~ I pulled whatever I could find off the shelves. This left me with a challenge. I designed this on the floor trying each idea to see if I could make it work. Some worked better than others. Well they all worked, some just required unorthodox methods to make them work.
The log cabin blocks and very little of the fabrics used in them was what I had to work with. I decided I did not want to add any other fabrics unless absolutely necessary. I laid out four of the blocks to get the light as a backdrop for an appliquéd bear or moose. I made a total of 6 of these blocks and appliquéd the animals in place using a machine blanket stitch.
Now to figure out a way to tie them all together. The bear paw block in the center was next if I remember correctly, and using the frame around it adjusted it to hold the center together.
I liked the bear paw block so decided on the four slightly smaller combinations and placed them in the corners.
After playing around, I decided that I liked how the background with the blue 1/2-squares framed the rest of blocks. I framed the corner bear paws to pull them out of the background. I had to chop off the corners of the framing around the bear paws but had to do it an all four corners so it worked.
Sometimes I need to remind myself that there are few “rules” in quilting except those that we create for ourselves. I usually have a couple in each quilt. In this one the rule was no fabrics added that were not in the “found” Log Cabin blocks. I thought the repeating piano key border worked quite well to tie it all together.
The quilt was liked at Maine Quilts and enjoyed by many while hanging in the quilt shop. I made up a kit to make another, but have never had the need to pull it out and try to make it. There always seems to be a new idea trying to get out of my head which always seems like more fun then repeating the past.
I hope you enjoyed my rambling about how Log Cabin Leftovers came alive.
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