July 19, 2014

Scrappy Log Cabin - Finished!!

Finally I can share pictures of my Scrappy Log Cabin quilt! I finished it back in May, but this quilt is huge and I don't have anywhere to take pictures of something so big easily. No quilt-hanging-on-the-backyard-clothesline shot for me.

So, we took it to a local park for a special photo shoot.

That rather odd looking structure behind the quilt is a reproduction of a community bread oven from the time of the early French settlers in this area.
Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt by Leanne @ Devoted Quilter
There are still lots of icebergs around, as you can see in the background.

All the fabrics in the quilt top are scraps, except for the sashing/borders and the yellow in the block centers and sashing cornerstones. Amazingly, my 1 1/2" strip container is still just as full as when I started piecing this. Do the scraps breed when we're not looking?

It took me a long time to quilt this, mostly because I kept starting (and finishing) other projects instead of working steadily on this one. It actually took about 16 months to finish just the quilting. The whole reason I started making this quilt, way back when, was to give myself a large project on which I could practice my free-motion quilting skills and it worked!

I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks and then I made the first attempt at a block. I hated it! There's not a line in there that's even close to straight, and I wasn't going for the organic look. I wasn't about to rip out all those stitches, but there was no way I was committing to doing 55 more blocks with a design that I hated.
Eventually I settled on spirals in all the blocks, except in each vertical row there would be one block with a different design. That way this first block wouldn't be the only odd one out and I could play around with a few other designs along the way. Whew, crisis averted! Some of these pictures are from the back of the quilt so the quilting shows up better.

Here are my favourites of the different designs.
Wavy cross-hatch free motion quilting design
Wavy cross-hatch

Pebbles free motion quilting design
Pebbles
As for the spirals, did they ever improve between the first blocks and the last ones!
Spiral free motion quilting
One of the earliest spiral blocks
Spiral free motion quilting
One of the last spiral blocks.
Don't you just love when you can see that your quilting has improved?

I decided the sashing strips would be a great place to work on my feathers. After all, with something like 127 sashing strips, I was sure to figure out how to stitch them by the time I finished, right?
Feather free motion quilting
One of the first sashing feathers
Feather free motion quilting
One of the last sashing feathers
 I also did feathers in the border.
Free motion quilting feathers and swirls
Because this quilt is so big, it's hard to get a good shot of the back that shows all the detail of the quilting.
Free motion quilting
 I used a Gutermann 100% cotton variegated thread for the quilting, but I won't be buying it again. It produced a crazy amount of lint and I had problems with breakage at times. I do love how it blends in with the mottled sashing/border fabric though.
Free motion feathers and swirls
When the quilting was finally finished, I dug out my 2 1/2" strips and pieced a scrappy binding. Then I did the binding entirely by machine, figuring that a practice quilt seemed an appropriate place to practice that new skill too. As a bonus, machine binding is lots faster than hand binding.
Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt
This quilt is now covering the bed in our spare room, making me happy each time I see it.

I'll be celebrating by linking up everywhere I can think of! Check out my links page.

24 comments:

  1. Love the improvement on your feathers. It's nice to be able to see yourself getting better just on one quilt. You're a fast learner! Not to mention the pebbles, swirls, and wavy lines...that's a lot of quilting! Great job, by the way.

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  2. Congratulations . . . It is really beautiful . . . what a great idea to practice the machine quilting.

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  3. If you go to
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    you will get an extra 25% off your craftsy order
    until Aug 31.
    On the order I had in my cart, I saved a lot more than I spent after I found this card inside the last box that came.

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  4. What an awesome, quilt, Leanne. Thanks for sharing your free motion quilting journey; it is really impressive that you tackled such a large project and can really see your skills improve over time in the quilt. Very cool!

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  5. WOW...what a fantastic quilt! Love the colors and the quilting. Great to see your progress. Thanks for sharing before and after photos.

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  6. That is one impressive quilt Leanne! How great to be able to chart your progress too.

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  7. Lovely quilting! Even the block you dislike so much! When I have things that turn out more organic than straight, I go for it and make it all "organic" Sometimes it's too much work to fight it!

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  8. I love how one block in each row is different. Your quilting looks beautiful, and it would make me happy every time I saw it.

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  9. Wow! That's one heck of a quilt! I love projects that grow with you. That's what Bowser is for me. They may be a little wonky, but they tell such an amazing handmade story. :) Thanks for sharing it!

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  10. Eeeep!!! It's SO gorgeous! I love how it's scrappy, but you don't look at it like it's a distracting-scrappy, but more like an intentional-scrappy? Am I making sense? And your quilting is absolutely perfect. Eep! The pebbles! You're my hero!!

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  11. Lovely, lovely, lovely! I love all the colors and the quilting. Good work and happy finishes!

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  12. It is so encouraging to see the improvement you made with your fmq. Thank you for posting the photos of early and later blocks. I am just starting to try fmq on spare orphan blocks at the moment and I try to do 20 minutes or so every morning before my main project. I am planning to make a baby floor quilt later in the summer and it will be the first item I will try to quilt myself. It must be so satisfying to see a project through from beginning to end.

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  13. Hi Leanne! Your beautiful scrappy log cabin piecing your quilting, and the settings for your photos all just take my breath away! Sew many wonderful details! I'm glad I clicked on your link from Needle and Thread!

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  14. It is just beautiful..the colors, the stitching and the photo shoot! :)

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  15. Thanks for showing the improvement in your quilting! I'm at the beginner level, so you are inspiring me. When I saw your first spiral flower, I thought, "Ahhhh. Someone's quilting that doesn't make me feel woebegone!" But then seeing how you improved is exciting. I have two quilts I've made that are going to be FMQ'd by me and now I can't wait to start them!

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  16. What a lot of work. Your quilt is lovely. I love your free motion quilting journey. Thank you...pinned.

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  17. so so beautiful, I love all the different FMQ patterns!!!

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  18. Wow! Great job with using your scraps for such a beautiful quilt. Gorgeous quilting too!!!

    -Soma

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  19. Stunning! I love this! I love that you showed your quilting progress too. It looks wonderful!

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  20. You've put a lot of work into that and it pays off! Super quilt - great quilting on it - well done!

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  21. Wow, that is so amazing and inspiring. How wonderful to see such improvement in your quilting. It's such a beautiful quilt, log cabins look great.

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  22. I LOVE everything about this quilt, it is perfect combination of Modern and Traditional. And your photography background is exquisite.

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  23. I can see how this quilt makes you happy each time you see it....you poured a lot into this and thanks for sharing all the photos. What an awesome beauty!!

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  24. Nice and pretty pictures!

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