Modern Logs Quilt Along Fabric Prep and Color Options

Modern Logs Quilt Along officially kicks off next week on September 2nd, but today I want to take a minute and discuss fabric selection so you’ll be ready to roll when we begin. In a nutshell, you want to use fat quarters that have good contrast between lights and darks. I’m using Good Vibes fat quarters shown below, but nearly anything you can think of will work!

Click here to get Good Vibes fat quarters while supplies last.

Remember you can use the front or back of your fabric if you need more contrast! I do this all the time. You can turn darker fabrics over to the “wrong” side for a more muted look, and you can use the back side of your low volume prints to make them a shade or two lighter. Take a look at a couple of these in-progress Modern Logs blocks below:

Notice how I’ve used BOTH the front and back of the low-volume prints in the block above. Every other fabric is light/dark but look at that light green. That’s actually the back of that print. The other low volume prints in this block are showing the front side of the fabric. Like I said, you can use either side, but this gives the block a little more variety and sparkle.

The low volume orange print on the outside of the block above is also used in the partial block below, but now I’m using the “wrong” side instead of the “right side.” All of these fabrics will look great together, no matter which side of the fabric you use!

Not only do these examples show good contrast, this gives more depth and interest to the quilt. So instead of 10 light fabrics, I actually have 20 in this quilt! After all, you paid for both sides of the fabric, so you might as well use it, right??

Other Fabric Examples

Check out this gorgeous version of Modern Logs that Laina Lindsey made and shared in my Facebook group. She pulled together fat quarters from my Fandangle and Geo Pop fabric lines. Although these two are brighter and bolder than Good Vibes, with fewer “light” prints, it still totally works because of the CONTRAST.

So you really can pull together any fabrics you like! It’s all in how you combine them. Try lights versus darks, solids versus prints, or any other combos where you can get great contrast and you’ll have a fabulous looking quilt. And remember, color value is relative. One fabric might be a light, medium, or dark depending on the fabrics that are next to it.

Check out this fabulous version that my mom made for my aunt, shown above. She wanted a more subdued color scheme so she went with black/white prints with pops of red and yellow. Don’t you just love it?? Again, it’s all about the contrast.

But you don’t have to overthink it. When you gather your fabrics, just put them into piles of lights and darks and you’ll be good to go. If there’s some crossover with the two piles, that’s totally ok!!

Fabric Prep

I recommend working with fat quarters to make Modern Logs because it’s much easier to cut wonky strips from them. However, you can use yardage or scraps, or even precut strips. Just cut them into fat quarter length pieces (approximately 18″ – 22″ long.) We will do a deeper dive into that when we start cutting up the fabric next week.

I also like to prewash and starch my fabrics ahead of time, because these blocks will definitely have some bias edges. (Another reason to work with fat quarters – they are super easy to starch!)

I recommend washing smaller cuts of fabric using a small garment mesh bag to keep them from getting tangled. The fat quarters might shrink up a little after washing, but as long as you have at least 16″ x 19″ of usable fabric per fat quarter, you’ll still be ok.

Here’s a video tutorial I created showing how I starch my fat quarters. I spray one side of the fabric and let it rest for a few seconds, then flip it over and iron from the opposite side. Then I repeat so that I’ve starched both sides and ironed both sides: