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Welcome to week 3 of the Island Batik Log Cabin Blog Hop. I hope you have enjoyed seeing the beautiful new fabrics arriving in stores this month.  This months challenge was to create a  36″ x 36″ or larger Log  Cabin quilt using any technique and featuring as many fabrics from the collection we were given.

So far Ambassadors have shared these collections:

Ancient Etchings – designed by Jackie Kunkel of Canton Village Quilt Works

Bloomers – designed by Kathy Engle

Catching Dreams* – designed by Kathy Engle for Kari Nichols of Mountainpeek Creations

Colorpop – designed by Kathy Engle

Faded Blue Jeans – designed by Kathy Engle

Forget Me Not – designed by Kathy Engle

Jewel Box* – designed by Kathy Engle for Linda and Carl Sullivan of Colourwerx

Kismet – designed by Tammy Silvers of Tamarinis

the collections you will see this week:

Mesa Verde – designed by Kathy Engle-TODAY

Prairie Skies – designed by Kathy Engle

Primo – designed by Ebony Love of Lovebug Studios

Sunset Blooms* – designed by Kathy Engle for Chris Hoover of Whirligig Designs

The collection I received was Mesa Verde and this line really speaks to me with all its earthtonely goodness. Pre-cuts are available now, yardage will ship to quilt shops this month.

I’ve never made a log cabin quilt before so trust me when I say I played A LOT in EQ, turning blocks, flipping blocks and changing fabric. etc. for about 2 weeks. Another week was spent  drawing blocks in EQ, some wonky, rectangles, diamonds and I even drew and played with hst log cabins. I had a light bulb moment while drawing the hst log cabins and this challenge allowed me to check 2 items off my  “To-Do Someday” list.

At the top of my list was a Tree of Life quilt that I have wanted to make for a really long time.  A log cabin was recently added after seeing some gorgeous quilts on blogs that I follow.

 

Photo on the left is the light and dark yardage I received. Both are part of the collection.

Photo on the right are half yard cuts of the lightest shades. These were used as ground fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo on left are the fabrics I chose for the tree top.

Photo on the right are fabrics I chose for the tree trunk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lightest in the groupings above were not light enough for what I had in mind  for the background so I decided to pull the Moo Milk which is from the Foundation Neutrals collection.and white solid. Both for contrasting fabric in the hst’s and background.  Click on the link to be taken to a higher resolution scan than I can provide.

 

Trying the Schmetz Microtex (sharp) Needles for the first time. Needles have always been somewhat of a mystery to me and I use the brand the manufacturer sent with my machine. I’m pleased to announce the sewing police did not knock on my door and my Juki took to them. I really liked these needles. The paper seemed to rip more cleanly from the fabric.

Of course I am paper piecing and the blocks below still need to be trimmed. The blocks are 5″ finished. If you’ve followed me long you will know that I love to paper piece with strips of fabric instead of pre-cutting a lot of small patches. You just measure the depth of the patch sizes, add 1/2″ for seam allowance, cut your strip x wof , stitch and trim the tail. This method is great if you are alternating your fabrics, you pull from one pile and begin a new.

Half blocks for the tree trunk

Half blocks for the tree top

One of 2 whole blocks for the tree top

 

5″ blocks complete and ready to join together

I am in love with the Mesa Verde fabric collection.

The Tree of Life is complete. It’s  35″.

1″ border added from a green I had not used in the tree top. There are still those tan fabrics left and I couldn’t decide if I wanted to add a flying geese border alternating the left over fabrics or…?

My top is now 36.5″ unfinished. DH did not care for the block sitting on it’s side so I went back to the drawing board, or EQ8 where I found an on point layout that I liked. I added my log cabin blocks. and played with colors.  Had I considered an on point finish I would have used some of the tans under the tree base.

Here I am trying to decide whether to add the light or dark yardage for a finish (corner sections not attached) Prior to taking the photo I was leaning towards a dark border but I really like the lighter look.

There was one fabric left I had not used in the top  which I added as seen below. It is more of a blue than green.

Additional photos

At this stage all 20 fabrics in the Mesa Verde collection have been used. I decided to add a solid border using the light fabric 5 photos up. The dark will draw your eyes outward instead of in,  or at least that is my thoughts.

For piecing this quilt I used the Schmetz  Microtex needles that I received in box 1.  It never occurred to me that there would be a noticeable difference and there wasn’t while I was piecing. After the quilt top was complete and it was time to remove papers is when I noticed a difference.  The paper was easier to remove, not a lie. I used the same pack of paper I have used for the last several pp quilts and the same stitch length but this time the paper ripped more cleanly and easier. Not sure how that could be possible. The only thing I can think is the Microtex puncture more cleanly where my usual needle punctures and spreads out the paper under the stitches.  Perhaps it is just my imagination so I will have to confirm this with my next pp quilt.

The batting I used is Hobbs Heirloom Natural Cotton Batting with scrim. This is my favorite of all their batting, it has such a nice drape.

There were a lot of threads to bury, no stray threads Rosanne. Around the tree I quilted spirals.

Enzo couldn’t wait to climb on this one, it’s Enzo approved. I love the texture the spirals created in the negative space. In the trunk and ground I stitched a large meander and I think it added a lot of depth.

The entire collection of Mesa Verde. Island Batik white solid and moo milk

56″ finish

Would you like the templates to make a Tree of Life Log Cabin? Click the download button below. It includes templates for 3 sizes. The border blocks are not included in the download because they finish just over 10″. Most people do not have a printer capable of printing a whole block at 10″ without taping.  So the pattern is for the section inside the blue/green 1″ border.

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