Sunday 9 September 2018

Purple and grey quilt top!

Twelve squares sewn together!

I made one of these months ago, just to see what the log cabin pattern is like when you cut one colour group in two inch strips and the other in an inch and a quarter.

I knew this would produce an uneven distribution and that the main colour would form sort of circles, but I didn't quite appreciate that they really do?! Odd, right? It was fun to see it all take shape.

I was going to do a cushion cover with this square but had so much purple fabrics that I was very keen to use up. I'm amazed that I managed to do all eleven squares! This massive amount of sewing usually takes me lots longer.

Two of these fabrics are called Pansy by Fabric Freedom (I think it was the circle one?) and another was called Victoria, also by Fabric Freedom. I bought them separately but it's no wonder that I put the two together. The small pattern was a cotton fabric from a normal fabric shop. I don't recall where I got the batik fabric.

The grey fabrics are all Kona. Years ago I bought every single grey Kona I could find so I would know what they are like... with the logical result that there are some that I don't like very much. These are them. Except for the charcoal. I like that one a lot.


I thought the purple 'circles' would dominate and sort of pop out more than the grey crosses, - I may have chosen a slightly too dark colour for the darkest grey. This is Charcoal of the Kona Solid range (from Annie's Village Haberdasher in West Hampstead. I was very glad to be able to pick out a colour in person that went with all the others). On the other hand a lighter grey would have disappeared into the neighbouring stripes...

I'll need to figure out what to do with the free motion quilting to lift out the purple areas. It will be my first time free-motioning - I'm actually rather nervous about that.


I ended up using all sorts of odd grey fabrics for the outer stripe in the quarter squares - I totally ran out of the original fat quarter. I cut up remnants of wool fabric that I had made trousers from, and even a grey shirt with a pin stripe, both of which were roughly an okay weight and their colour fit well.

I fussy-cut the center squares: the heart of the log cabin. I know these are traditionally made from a red fabric because they signify the hearth fire of the log cabin but I didn't want to use red with these colours. Not even a brown or rusty colour.

I picked a fat quarter that had purple elements. I didn't at first appreciate how much of the background green would appear in these squares but I ended up really liking that accidental contribution to the quilt.

It adds a little something without overwhelming the other elements.

I already have the wadding (in fact I bought it a good 4-5 years ago. I'm so glad to use it), now I "just" need to spread it out, sling the patchwork top on it... and err... pin it I guess?  Not forgetting the backing fabric (which is also sitting in my stash).  I haven't looked at that one yet.

But I need to spread the quilt top out so I can see if is big enough.

Hey-ho!

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