Friday, July 19, 2019

The Log Cabin Scrap Buster

It must just be the way I cut my fabric, but my scrap bins are always full of strings.  So I am constantly trying to find quilt designs that will accommodate these strips.  One such design is the good old log cabin block!




I made my blocks starting with a 2.5" square center in black and using 1.5" wide strips for the logs.  I focused on my blue and green scraps because the bins were overflowing!



I laid them out in this barn raising design.  

As I was laying out the blocks on my design wall, I realized I miscounted the number of green blocks I needed.  I was three short to finish out the corners.  Because I have been sewing up all my green bits into a number of other projects, I decided to add purple to the corners.




Then I pulled one of my little tricks out of my tool kit and added little purple flip corners to some of the blocks to add purple diamonds back into the center of the quilt tying everything together nicely.




You can just see in this photo, I also added them on the tips of a few of the green blocks too.  Now it looks like purple was in the plan from the beginning!

I quilted the piece with swirls in a white thread.  I also used one of the backing pieces I purchased on sale from Connecting Threads.



The quilt finished up at 48" x 64" - a bit smaller than I usually make.  I am wanting to deliver a stack of quilts this fall/winter to chemo patients at the local cancer center so a smaller lap size will probably work best for some.  I think this one will be a nice addition to that stack.

The fabrics for this quilt top all came out of my scrap bins!




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22 comments:

Libby in TN said...

I am definitely going to remember that trick! You have a wonderful eye for color.

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

Love the purple in the corners! Your trick with the flippy triangles adds a fun element, too. That will be a great comfort quilt for someone going through chemo. I wonder if our cancer center accepts quilts - I'll have to find out!

Robby said...

Love this trick! Great quilt that will certainly bring someone some comfort.

Toni Macomb said...

What a great solution. Brilliant! Love the quilt!

chrisknits said...

Those purple corners and cornerstones just make it that much more awesome!

Quiltnhen said...

I love the addition.

Jenny said...

Log cabin quilts are always great, and your one is spectacular!

Marie said...

I love your quilt and indeed, the purple appears planned

Mystic Quilter said...

Great idea to add the purple corners and the tiny squares in selected blocks, I love to see purple and green together.

Kat said...

What a beauty! I love the colors

Andree G. Faubert said...

Hi Cynthia, what a great quilt. I love how you worked the purple into it to make it cohesive. Thanks for sharing your process with us. If you have time, please consider linking up to Free Motion Mavericks this week. :-)

PaulaB quilts said...

That is such a lovely restful pattern and the purple bits give it a little sparkle. As an aside, the first three posts that we might like showed a bottle of Eclipse coffee syrup which someone had sent you from Rhode Island. I am from Rhode Island originally and couldn’t live without the stuff. In fact last winter I ordered a few bottles from Amazon just to have my coffee cabinets again, a milkshake to you.

Linda said...

You have created a beautiful Log Cabin Quilt. Love the gentle look of the green, blue and white. The addition of purple was such a clever idea, it makes the original three colours come alive somehow. Your trick of adding snippets of purple around the quilt to make the purple looks as if it was always an intended colour works beautifully.

Melanie said...

Lovely quilt! And a great idea to add the purple - sometimes the best things happen when it doesn't work out as initially planned. The small diamonds really pull it all together. Enjoy your finish! xo Melanie

www.mellmeyer.de

Chopin - A Passionate Quilter said...

Very pretty!

Lisa J. said...

It's a beautiful quilt. The addition of purple makes it really stand out and the tip for adding the colour back into the rest of the quilt is wonderful.

The Joyful Quilter said...

It's funny, Cynthia... I was just trying to work out how you added those purple on-point squares to the quilt. That trick is SEW slick!!

Vicki in MN said...

Lucky is the person that gets a quilty hug from this quilt. It is gorgeous and no one would suspect it is from your scrap bin! I love the addition of the purple 'spots' throughout.

Karin said...

Impressive swirls...did you do them on a longarm?

Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty said...

Sometimes "making do" creates a more interesting final product. That's definitely the case here ... those purple bits give the quilt personality!

Cathy said...

Lovely! And that purple was such a neat trick and really adds to the final result. Way to go. I really am going to have to try to remember that trick. I've seen you use that before.

QuiltGranma said...

What a beautiful finish, and for such a worthy purpose. Very nice trick you had up your sleeve.

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