Laurel Burch Fabric Giveaway Winners

December 17, 2012March 19, 201370 Comments

I’m continuing my giveaway frenzy through the end of the month! It started at the end of November when I found out about all these great blogs hosting fun giveaway blog hops. The last one ended last week and I was sort of going through withdrawals so I decided to host 2 more through the end of the year.

Today’s giveaway will go through next Monday, Christmas Eve, and then I’ll do a final one through the end of the year. It will be a fun Christmas gift for whoever wins. 🙂

To celebrate the arrival of Laurel Burch’s brand new Fabulous Felines I will give 2 lucky blog followers one of her Fabulous Feline Panels!

They come in two colorways – bright or blue. When I first started quilting I wasn’t quite sure what to do with panels, but they are some of my best sellers because of their convenience and versatility.

Here’s how to enter: leave a comment on this post giving me some more ideas about what you like to make with panels, or any other Laurel Burch fabric for that matter.

I will be accepting comments until December 24th at 9 PM Pacific Time (Midnight Eastern). I will randomly pick a winner at that time and post the name here on this blog post.

And just so no one feels left out, everyone can use the special coupon code below to save 10% on ANY Laurel Burch fabric order from my store, good through 12/31/2012.

Enter code LAUREL12 in the coupon box at checkout for this one-time discount.

I love to see and read about everyone’s creativity!! (In fact if you email me pics of any project you make using Laurel Burch fabrics or any other fabric you got from me, I’ll probably want to share it for show and tell on my blog!)

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

Updated 12/24/2012 10:30 PM

Thank you for all of your wonderful comments. It was so great to read all of your ideas and suggestions on what to do with these lovely panels. My mind is now full of ideas!!

We have our 2 panel winners!

Congratulations to Beulah who said,

“I’ve honestly never used a panel for a panel…they always end up cut apart. These panels would be used cut apart as well…many possibilities. 1 image would most certainly adorn the back of a denim jacket! Other options: book jackets or journal covers, travel pillows, tea cozy, placemats, reading buddies, wall hangings, gift bags, wall hangings, infinity scarves, art smocks…..”

and also to Barb N. who had this great idea,

“Oh goodness, I’d make a really bright lap quilt using each panel section as the focal fabric with coordinating bright colors all around. It would be a quilt to make you happy! Lots of possibilities with Laurel Burch.”

I will contact both of you immediately via email. I sure hope you make something fun and email me a finished picture of your project!

Christa’s Quilt Links – FMQ, Block of the Month, Free Patterns

December 15, 2012March 19, 2013Leave a comment

I’ve been doing a lot of machine quilting lately, finishing up a few quilts in time to enter them into some shows. That got me thinking about all of the wonderful quilting tutorials, blocks of the month and free pattern ideas there are out there.

I can only begin to post a few, but here are some of my favorites I ran across this week.

Elizabeth Hartman from Oh Fransson shows how to do easy some easy free-motion quilting with her Dogwood Quilting tutorial. This one is definitely on my list to try!

Elizabeth is also offering a wonderful (FREE!!) Craftsy class called Creative Quilt Backs. I love “back art” so this is definitely the class for me! I just ordered it (FOR FREE!!) and can’t wait to have some time to watch….

Angela Walters has a wonderful new book out and she has loads of FMQ inspiration and tips on her blog.

I’ve signed up to take one of her classes at QuiltCon and have viewed her machine quilting class on Craftsy, too. She is my FMQ muse right now 🙂

I found a super cute Block of the Month hosted by Jeni of In Color Order.

All of Jeni’s blocks feature half-square triangles (one of my favorites!) in a striking combo of Citron and Aqua.

She just posted the final block in December and you can visit her blog for the entire group. She included some setting instructions, too, along with her finished quilt. It’s gorgeous!

I found this totally modern quilt block tutorial called “Getting Ziggy With It” from Kelly at Live Love Create. Isn’t it cool? I’ve never seen anything like it before!

Speaking of fun projects, the Art Gallery fat quarter gang has a fantastic Pillow Cover tutorial on their blog. Hmm, I wonder how you become part of the “gang”??? That sounds fun!

I’ve been checking out Andover‘s blog a lot lately, considering I’m expecting Lizzy House‘s Pearl Bracelets to arrive any day now.

In fact, Andover has have a super funky free quilt pattern to go along with Pearl Bracelets, aptly titled, “Pearls.” Lizzy designed it herself and it features large applique circles in a rainbow of colors.

If applique is not your style, how about this awesome free pattern from Lee at Freshly Pieced?

It’s called Kissing Fish and is available as a free pattern download. Nice share, Lee!

By the way, that’s Lee who hosts the WIP linkup every Wednesday on her blog. But I warn you – it’s quite addicting and can take hours to view and read about all of the lovely quilts each week!

Wow, there’s so much to check out that I could spend all of my free time blog-surfing rather than quilting. What a tough balance!

Show and Tell – Christmas Cookies

December 14, 2012March 19, 20132 Comments

For show and tell this week I thought I’d share my oldest son’s favorite sugar cookie recipe with you! He has become quite the baker in our family and can somehow turn out a better product even when we are using the same recipe. (It must be that he’s able to be focused on the task while I am multi-tasking a million things while cooking and baking, LOL!!)

Jason Jr. made the dough while Jenna helped me roll it out and cut the shapes.

It was fun trying to get as many shapes as we could into one batch – sort of like tracing out applique shapes on quilt fabric. Hmm, that gives me an idea – cookie cutter appliques!

We decorated the cookies for family night and then dropped off a few batches for friends and neighbors. They think we were just being nice – in reality I could eat all these cookies myself which would NOT be good for my waistline, so I had to share!

Jason Sr. and Ryan really enjoyed decorating. (My hubby really does have an eye for color when helping me pick out fabrics). We have a creative family!

Here’s the recipe which my son found online from Picky-Palate.

2 Cups sugar
1 Cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup sour cream
6 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

In an electric or stand mixer, cream the sugar and butter. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream until well combined. Slowly add in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until well combined.
Chill for at least 2 hours for best results.
Once chilled, roll and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Remove and let cool. Frost and decorate as desired.

And here’s our favorite creamy frosting recipe to go with it, from AllRecipes.com. You know what the special ingredient is? Sour cream! It blends well with the powdered sugar for some yummy creamy goodness.

4 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cup powdered sugar
food coloring

In a medium bowl, mix together the butter, sour cream, vanilla, lemon juice and salt. Stir in powdered sugar and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Divide the frosting into as many bowls as you have colors. Add food coloring until desired color is achieved.

Yummy!!

Christa’s Quilt Along 3.9 – Finishing Charming Chevrons

December 13, 2012August 13, 201513 Comments

Free Quilt Pattern

Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free pattern!

I’ve come to the end of my Charming Chevrons tutorial and it’s kind of sad. I really loved every minute of making this quilt! Today I will demo binding. Scroll to the end for links to the previous steps plus my announcement for my next DIY quilt-along starting next week!

Christa’s Charming Chevrons

If you like this quilt and want to make one just like it, Charming Chevrons quilt kits are available from my shop for a limited time.

Step 1 – Trimming The Edges (10 Minutes)

When the quilting has been completed and all of your basting pins removed, it’s time to trim the extra backing and batting and square up your quilt.

Use a large square ruler for the corners and a long 6 to 8 inch wide ruler for the sides. The markings on the ruler help keep things nice and even. I use the long lines to make sure I am cutting straight.

If the quilt seems a little wavy, I will block it at the end after binding by soaking it in the washing machine, and laying it out flat on a table to dry. (I do this only if I know for sure the fabrics won’t bleed when wet – I’ve had way too many “accidents.”)

Step 2 – Making the Binding Strips (15 Minutes)

I sew continuous double fold straight grain binding strips that I make myself.

Cut enough 2 1/4″ wide strips to go around the perimeter plus about 10 extra inches.

For this quilt I cut a total of 7 strips that measured 2 1/4″ by the width of the fabric (40″-42″).

Join the strips together on a mitered (45 degree) angle to smooth out the seam formed by sewing the strips.

Join all the strips together so that you have one continuous piece with the joined seams all going the same direction.

At the beginning of the binding, cut off one end at a 45 degree angle. Then press the binding in half lengthwise (press seam allowances open).

Step 3 – Attaching the Binding to the Quilt by Machine (35 Minutes)

Leave a few inches of a “tail” unsewn when you begin.

Do not start at a corner, and quickly measure your binding around the perimeter of the quilt to ensure it is long enough.

Try not to end up where you have any of your seams in the corners. Adjust your start if needed.

Use a matching cotton thread in the top and bobbin and use the same thread to finish your binding (whether by hand or machine).

Using a walking foot, sew with 1/4″ seam allowances and stop when you reach exactly 1/4″ inch from the end of your first corner. Take the quilt off the machine and fold the corner like the pictures below. This will create nice crisp mitered corners when you fold them over.

Click on the pictures below to see a larger version for more detailed closeups.

Repeat for all corners of the quilt and leave a few inches of “tail” when you near the end.

Open up both folded ends and with a pen, mark where the beginning meets the end.

Cut off the excess 1/2″ away from the marked line (for seam allowances) and join the two ends together.

You can see I cut off a full extra strip’s length of binding but just barely!

It’s better to have too much length than not enough!

Once your ends are joined, finish sewing down the binding completely to the front of the quilt.

Step 4 – Hold the Binding in Place With Pins or Glue (30 Minutes)

To baste the binding in place on back, I usually use pins and Pinmoors. However, for this quilt, I wanted to try a glue pen to temporarily adhere the binding to the back of the quilt. It worked like a charm and I got to see what the quilt looked like before it was done. I was even able to glue the corners in place to form a pretty miter. That will be much easier to sew!

Step 4 – Finish by Hand or Machine (Hand Sewing 5 Hours)

Whether I finish my binding by hand or machine, the above steps are still the same. Because I finished this quilt for QuiltCon (and possibly other quilt shows), I chose to sew by hand. So I got nice and comfy on the couch and watched a couple movies while I stitched away.

For more info on both types of finishes, you can read my post about hand-binding and my machine binding tutorial.

Charming Chevrons Tutorials. Click the links below to go to that post.

Week 1 – Supply List and Introduction
Week 2 – Marking and Sewing the Charms
Week 3 – Cutting and Trimming the Triangle Squares
Week 4 – Sewing the Chevron Blocks
Week 5 – Assembling the Quilt Top
Week 6 – Marking and Basting
Week 7 – Machine Quilting Straight Lines
Week 8 – Free Motion Pebble Quilting
Week 9 – Binding and Finishing Your Quilt (today’s post above)

Here are Charming Chevron’s Vital Statistics

Original design, pieced and quilted by Christa Watson
Finished size 46″ x 54″, completed November 2012
Finished block size 8″, 42 blocks total
Made from 4 packs of Kona Cotton charm squares (2 New Classic colors, 2 Ash grey)
Pieced backing, shades of grey with pops of color
Double batting (Warm-N-Natural and Legacy Wool)
Superior Highlights trilobal polyester in top and bobbin for pebbles (18 colors)
Isacord Sterling polyester in top and bobbin for chevron outlines
Total piecing time: 9.5 hours
Marking and basting: 2.5 hours
Total quilting time: 28 hours
Total binding time: 6.75 hours

Sharing is Caring

Please share your work in progress in my facebook group: Quilt With Christa . 🙂

Paper Pieced Wreath Berry Christmas – Part 2 of 2

December 11, 2012July 1, 20158 Comments

I’m back with the second part of my Paper Pieced Log Cabin Christmas Wreath. You can see part 1 here.

Today I will demo the rest of paper piecing the blocks, finishing the top, and machine quilting my mini-quilt to finish.

Here is a refresher of the paper piecing process from last week with a few more detailed pictures. My favorite method of paper piecing uses a straight edge and an add a quarter ruler. Be sure to click the images below for closeups.

Step 1 – Paper Piece all of your Log Cabin Blocks from Last Week

(You can download the log cabin foundations for free or you can purchase a set of printed foundations on lightweight see-through vellum paper from my store.)

Add your next log to a freshly trimmed side.
Flip over and sew from the paper side following the numbered lines in order
Press your sewn seam with a wooden seam roller
Fold the paper on the next seam number that you will be sewing (use a business card or postcard as a straight edge)
Pull back your excess fabric, use the add a quarter inch ruler and trim the excess.
When all 16 blocks are sewn, trim from the paper side leaving 1/4″ seams all around

Step 2 – Sew The Top

Lay out your 16 Log Cabin blocks so that they form a wreath shape.
Sew each row into pairs and then the pairs into rows of 4 blocks
Finger press your seams open, or press with a wooden seam roller
Join the rows to complete the top
Once the top is complete, carefully remove all the papers
Add the thinner red borders to the sides and top
Add the wider green borders around the outside

Step 3 – Baste and Quilt

I quilt everything on my regular Bernina home sewing machine and I love it!

I use Pinmoors and flat flower pins to baste all of my quilts because they are so easy to remove while machine quilting.

Before basting, I marked straight lines around the wreath design with a water soluble pen. Always be sure to test your fabrics for marking removal and to make sure they won’t bleed when they get wet.

I quilted the straight lines with my walking foot. Then I added double loops in the borders and smaller loops in the background with my free-motion foot.

I used matching solid red fabric for the binding. For this quilt, I tried a Sewline glue pen to keep the binding in place on the back while finishing by hand. It keeps my binding nice and tidy!

You can see an in-depth binding tutorial here.

Voila! It’s finished!

Log Cabin Wreath, Pieced and Quilted by Christa Wason 18" x 18"

Log Cabin Wreath, Pieced and Quilted by Christa Watson
18″ x 18″

I have tons more ideas of what you can do with these blocks:

Use as the center of a larger quilt.
Sew a pillow, wall-quilt or table topper
Make more blocks for a larger throw sized quilt
Turn one block into a Christmas Ornament
Make matching placemats

That was fun. Be sure to email me pictures when you make one, too!

Blog Hop Party Giveaway! Now Through December 15

December 9, 2012March 19, 2013209 Comments

It’s time again for another fun blog hop party, hosted by Michelle from The Quilting Gallery.

Visit hundreds of blogs and enter for your chance to win.

Just click on the image at right or this link to join the fun!

One lucky winner will receive a $20 gift certificate to my quilt shop, ChristaQuilts.com to spend on anything you wish!

It’s easy to enter: simply leave a comment telling me what you’d buy if you won! While you are visiting, you can also sign up for my website newsletter and be one of the first to find out about my Daily Deals, Weekly Specials, and more.

This contest is open to friends and fabric lovers all over the world. I offer free US shipping on all orders with no minimum purchase, and a flat international rate of just $10, no matter how much you buy!

I will select one winner at random and post their name here on my blog. I’ll also notify them via email. Contest ends Saturday, December 15th at Midnight Eastern Time (9 PM Pacific).

Good luck and happy blog hopping!

Updated December 15 – We Have a Winner!!!!!!!

Congratulations to Lisa McGriff who has won a $20 Gift Certificate to my store!

On what she would buy if she won, her comment (chosen at random) was, “Probably the Hex n More Ruler!”

Great choice Lisa 🙂

Thanks to all of you who participated. It was fun to read all of your comments and participate in this hop!!

Sew and Tell QuiltCon Entries

December 7, 2012December 28, 201223 Comments

For Sew and Tell this week I thought I would share with you the quilts that I submitted for entry into QuiltCon. This was a scary step for me as I’ve never tried to enter a big show before. But it’s one of my quilting goals – so here’s hoping at least one of them gets in!

Charming Chevrons is the first quilt I knew I wanted to enter. After the time-consuming (but fun!) amount of quilting I did on it for my tutorial, I thought it deserves a shot. You can read the text I submitted with the entry below.

What is more traditional than a half square triangle? What is more modern than solid colored chevrons with irregular pebble quilting? My quilt, Charming Chevrons, is a marriage of both. Inspired by a couple of colorful Kona charm packs and the desire quilt the heck out of something, I experienced pure bliss in designing and making this quilt. I used 18 different colors of thread for the pebbles.

Next, I emailed them a picture of my Busy Hands quilt which I’ve already blogged about a few times before. But here it is in its entirety. (I didn’t even bother counting how long it took for the FMQ – I would probably need to declare myself insane if I did!!)

Although I’ve been a quilter for quite a few years, this is my first modern quilt. I discovered this eclectic style earlier this year and have been thoroughly smitten! “Busy Hands” embodies everything I love about modern quilts: bright clear colors, bold geometric shapes, and clean lines with lots of negative space for detailed quilting. Making modern quilts is a great way to keep my hands busy! I did all of the quilting my regular home sewing machine.

And finally, just for fun I included my Baby Bricks in pink. I was able to submit 3 quilts so I figured more quilts would increase my chance of at least one getting in! (Yes I will be sad if none make it into the show, but no matter what, it was an amazing experience to at least try.)

Baby Bricks

I designed Baby Bricks as a way to piece a quick modern quilt with simple shapes. I took a classic stacked bricks design and modernized it by adding negative space between the rows. This allowed me to showcase some fun fabrics while balancing the straight lines of the quilt with whimsical double loops. I love the way the batting poofs up in the areas that are not over-quilted. This gives some extra dimension to the piece.

Updated December 28th – I’m in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so thrilled I can hardly speak (or type). I just found out that my Charming Chevrons quilt above got juried into QuiltCon. This is so exciting!!!!!! I’ll post more later in a separate followup post. Yay for me (giving myself a big hug and pat on the back….)!!

Christa’s Soapbox – 300 Words About Quilting Published

December 6, 20124 Comments

I am very excited that I am actually working through my list of quilting goals that I listed at the beginning of the month. I will post updates every month or more often if applicable.

One of the goals I stated was #2. Get Published in a Quilting Magazine.

Although this goal has not been achieved exactly as planned yet, I am getting closer! An essay that I wrote about Dreams and Goals for my quilting was accepted by Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine as part of their Web Extras for their December/January 2013 issue. While there wasn’t enough room for my essay in the magazine, they published it on their website along with a few others. What a thrill!

What I learned from this is by setting goals, I may actually take steps to accomplish them! Here is my essay below. You can read other essays here, with rules on how to enter.

SECRET DESIRE by CHRISTA WATSON

Whenever I see a beautifully quilted masterpiece at a show, my heart skips a beat. I can feel the pounding in my chest and I have almost a shortness of breath. The painstaking application of precision piecework or applique, combined with the most intricate of quilting designs literally takes my breath away. While others around me exclaim, “I could never do that!” I secretly whisper to myself, “I can’t wait to do that.”

To say quilting makes me happy is an understatement. I never feel such peace and serenity as when I’m stitching alone with needle and cloth. I do have other habits that are supposed to help me stay balanced – I keep fit and healthy, spend quality time with my family and read a lot of good books. But is it too selfish to say that sometimes I just want to toss all my cares aside and make my masterpiece quilt? My magnum opus?

My award-winning masterpiece of a quilt is somewhere inside me, just waiting to escape.

So why haven’t I made it yet? In a word, FEAR! Fear of failure. Oh sure, I’ve entered quilts into my local guild’s show and have accumulated my fair share of colorful ribbons to show for it. But I’ve never entered a quilt into one of those big-time, knock-your-socks-off, national or international shows.

This is my secret desire—to enter and win a prestigious award at a major judged and juried show for the entire world to see. Do I dare say that out loud? What if my dream never comes true? I guess I’ll never know until I try.

Christa’s Quilt Along 3.8 – Quilting Chevrons Part 2

December 5, 2012August 15, 201312 Comments

I love quilting pebbles! I have stippled my quilts like crazy for the last 10 years, but just recently got the hang of pebbling. Jut in time, too, as I was on stipple burnout!!

Pebble Quilting

The time it took to finish the pebbling on my Charming Chevrons quilt was a little ridiculous though – it took 23 hours!! Yes, that’s right. The pebbling took more time to do than every other part of the quilt combined. It gives new meaning to the term Quilt-in-a -Day, LOL!!

Since I don’t really expect everyone to spend that much time quilting this quilt, I will first talk about pebbling in more detail, but then give you an alternative so that you can actually finish this quilt. (But by all means do the pebbling if your heart desires – mine did!)

Step 1 – Doodle on Paper First

Just like you had to learn your alphabet before you could write, so it is with quilting any FMQ (free-motion quilting) design. When I was in kindergarten my penmanship was terrible! (And it hasn’t really improved much since!) You need to practice your quilting “penmanship”, too!

Paper Practice

If you doodle on scraps of paper every day before you begin quilting, it will help you develop muscle memory between what you are drawing with your hands and what you are stitching out on the quilt. This will form a mind body connection so that eventually you will be able quilt without thinking. Think of FMQ as drawing with your sewing needle.

Step 2 – Practice on Scraps Next

I took a few FMQ classes at Road to California 2 years ago. For most of the class, we just made practice samples. If you really want the feeling of completing FMQ on a quilt, practice on charity quilts. You will get great practice and the recipients will love your efforts!

When I began free-motion quilting, my first efforts looked pretty bad. It took a while for me to put together different combinations of fabric, thread, batting, needles and tension settings. A few quick things I learned while practicing FMQ on my Bernina:

Select a needle with a large hole so that the thread doesn’t shred, like Superior Topstich needles. The size depends on the thickness of your thread (size 90 for the heavier polyster thread). Change every 8-12 hours of quilting. I used 3 of them on this quilt.
Loosen the bobbin tension slightly.
Use the same thread in top and bobbin for most quilts – it hides mistakes and makes for more even tension. I used Superior Highlights polyester in a rainbow of colors.
Break your quilting up into sections and don’t rush the process. Although it took a long time to quilt my pebbles, it really worked out to about 33 minutes per chevron block. Quilting one block a day is not a bad goal.
Use a free motion slider, quilting gloves, and bobbin washers for the best quilting combo.
It’s Ok to “travel stitch” over your previous lines to get into all the nooks and crannies.

Step 3 – Apply your practice to your actual quilt

For this quilt I changed threads with every fabric color. I never could find a neutral that blended in with everything so I used a total of 18 different colors.

When I didn’t have an exact match, I used something close. It gave the quilt some interest without being overpowering.

I quilted the pebbles in sections first.

I quilted a batch of greens, then oranges, then reds, then blues, etc. This helped me from getting too bored. Usually I like to off each my stitches between thread changes. However, because I stitched over many of my quilting lines to form the pebbles, it hid most of my stops and starts. Therefore, I cheated a little and used really small “anchor” stitches at the beginning and end of each color change to avoid tying off.

Step 4 – Alternative Quilting Motif – Loops

If you are not crazy like me and don’t want to spend this much time quilting your chevrons, try a simple meandering loop instead.

This is my other “go-to” design and it covers your area pretty quickly. In fact, this motif would look great quilted all over the surface if you want to skip the straight line background quilting.

Here’s a little background quilting I did using loops on an earlier quilt. Click to enlarge.

Because I used so many threads, my quilt back turned out just as colorful as the front!

Other Resources

Please visit Leah Day at the Free Motion Quilting Project. Her blog has so many in-depth tutorials on stitching particular FMQ designs. She has a video tutorial showing how to do pebble quilting and loops.

Yes, it was a little crazy to quilt that much, but honestly, I loved every minute of it! Next week it will be time to finish the binding and then I’ll start on another brand new tutorial. Isn’t this fun?? Be sure to check out my other two quilt-alongs here and here.

And, please continue to email me pictures of your Charming Chevrons quilt. I love to see how you are doing, no matter how you quilt it!

Quilt Along Schedule (Links are active once each step has been completed.)

Week 1 – Supply List and Introduction
Week 2 – Marking and Sewing the Charms
Week 3 – Cutting and Trimming the Triangle Squares
Week 4 – Sewing the Chevron Blocks
Week 5 – Assembling the Quilt Top
Week 6 – Marking and Basting
Week 7 – Machine Quilting Straight Lines
Week 8 – Free Motion Pebble Quilting (today’s post above)
Week 9 – Binding and Finishing Your Quilt

Paper Pieced Wreath Berry Christmas – Part 1 of 2

December 4, 2012July 1, 201518 Comments

Paper Pieced Log Cabin Wreath This is a Christmas Wreath quilt I designed and made from paper-pieced Log Cabin blocks.

Since I can’t make anything anymore without feeling the need to write a tutorial for it, here you go:

I will demo making the log cabin blocks today. Part 2 covers completing the top and machine quilting.

The finished block size is 3″. The finished mini quilt (or table topper or pillow) is 18″ x 18.”

Step 1 – Gather Your tools and supplies. These are not a necessity, but as with any project, they make the job easier!

Rotary Cutter
Wooden Seam Roller for pressing
Add a Quarter Ruler for neatly trimming while piecing
A straight edge surface such as a postcard or piece of template plastic
Vellum Tracing Paper to print the foundations on
1/2 yard of red fabric for centers, borders and binding (or scraps to equal that much)
1/4 yard of cream to tan fabric for light half of log cabin blocks (or scraps)
1/2 yard total of assorted green fabric scraps for log wreaths and border
FQ of green for outer border
Size 90 sewing needles for sewing through paper foundations
Small scissor snips for trimming
Cotton Thread for piecing
Your choice of decorative thread for machine quilting

Step 2 – Cutting all the logs. I prefer to have everything cut out before I begin my sewing. The pieces are cut bigger and will be trimmed later. Although there are 4 sizes of light logs and 4 sizes of dark logs, I cut only 2 sizes for each. It wastes a tiny bit more fabric, but it’s easier to keep things organized, especially if I change my mind on fabric placement.

A little note on cutting pieces to fit – measure the finished size of your pieces and add 3/4 inch to this measurement (more if working with triangles). The units used for paper piecing have the extra 3/4 inch added in already.

Fabric cuts are based on 20-22″ long strips for working with fat quarters.

From the red fabric cut (if you cut very carefully you can get it all from just one fq):

16 – 1.75″ squares for centers
4 – 1.25 ” x 16″ strips for inner borders (to trim down later)
4 – 2 .25″ strips for binding (2 strips if using 42″ wide fabric)

From assorted white, cream, or tan scraps, cut 10 – 1.25″ wide Cream Fabric strips. Cross-cut into:

32 – 1.25″ x 2.25″ rectangles
32 – 1.25 x 3.25″ rectangles

From assorted green scraps, cut 12 – 1.25″ wide strips. Cross-cut into: Green Fabric

32 – 1.25″ x 2.75″ rectangles
32 – 1.25″ x 3.75″ rectangles

From green border fabric, cut 4 – 2.25″ x 22″ strips (trim later)

Step 3 – Printing the Paper Foundations

You can download the paper pieced log cabin block pattern by clicking the image below. There are 4 per page, so you would need to print 4 pages for a total of 16 blocks. Be sure to set your printer to print the PDF at actual size, not print to fit.

You can print on copy paper but it is much easier to see what you are doing if you use see-through paper (vellum) instead. Cut apart your paper foundations leaving a seam allowance all around. It is printed in grey-scale so you can tell which side of the block is light and which is dark. The blocks are printed as a mirror image for this technique.

Step 4 – Sewing the Paper Pieced Log Cabins

There are a lot of pictures for this next section so I have shrunk them down in order. Just click on any picture to enlarge so you can see the details.

Line up your red square so that the BACK of the fabric touches the BACK of the paper. (Kind of tricky with solids – I know!) With right sides together, line up your first short white log on top of the red square, with about 1/4 inch overlapping your sewing line.

This first two pictures show the back side. You will be sewing from the front.

You can see a shadow where the fabric is sticking out far enough for the seam allowance.

Remember to start and end 1/8 to 1/4 inch before and after the line. Use a smaller stitch length and a larger needle. Sew on the line between A1 and A2.

Remove the block from the machine and clip threads. Use a wooden seam roller to press the newly sewn piece to the side. Flip the block back over to the front and using a straight edge (like a business card), fold over the paper on the next sewing line (between A1 & A3).

The excess seam will be exposed. (You may need to tug the fabric from the paper a bit to get it to lie flat.) To trim it neatly, use the add-a-quarter ruler to create a ridge on top of your block, paper, and straight edge. Trim off the excess. Flip the block over and add your next light log along the newly trimmed edge. Sewing on the printed side, sew the next seam.

Continue sewing in this manner until all of your logs have been added. Remember to Sew, then Press, then Trim each seam.

Once the block is complete you can trim off the excess leaving 1/4″ seam allowances.

Make your first block completely to test your process. Once you are satisfied with the results, Repeat to make a total of 16 blocks. You can sew all of the same steps at the same time to speed up the process. When you are done with the blocks, you may remove all the foundations, or keep them on until your complete your top.