Obsessing....... over stitching a log cabin quilt

It started back in January, when I saw the new Tilda catalogue and inside there was the most gorgeous log cabin quilt, stitched in Apple Bloom....

Then, whilst perusing on Instagram, it seemed that so many of my favourite quilters were making log cabins.  By the way, how fun is Instagram, if you're on there make sure you come and say hello, I'm 

sarahedgarprettyfabrics

So obviously you know where this is going, it was inevitable....right?  

So, Friday evening I started to pull some fabrics, the starting point being some Cath Kidston Cowboy fabric I've been hoarding..... from this I fussy cut twelve 2 1/2" squares. I then pulled some blenders, ..grabbed my Rotary cutter and from these started cutting 1 1/2" strips, a couple from each of the pieces.  

'a little happy note' ~  a traditional log cabin quilt normally has a light and dark side, however I decided to throw caution to the wind and against my usual 'need to plan' mentality went scrappy....

Unlike the Tilda log cabin, where all the pieces are precut to the correct size, I went for the easy peasy strip piecing method.....this is what I did....

I grabbed a strip at random and placed it right side to right side along the top of the centre square.  I then stitched it in place using 1/4" seams.

Using the edge of the cowboy square as a guide, I trimmed away the excess, returning the excess strip back to the pile to be used again on a later block.

 I then pressed the seam directing the seam allowance to the darker fabric.

 I then grabbed a second strip at random and moving clockwise, placed this right side to right side along the right hand and stitched in place.......

 I then cut away the excess and pressed to the darker fabric (can you see the theme going here)

 I repeated this process for the third strip along the bottom edge.....

 and the 4th strip on the left hand edge...

 and then continued round and round until I pieced 8 strips rotating in a clockwise direction as shown below

I ended up with a 6 1/2 square block.  In total I made 12 blocks, which I layed out in 4 rows of 3. To these I added some sashing ,  I cut these 2" wide and firstly added these vertically either side of the blocks to form rows and then horizontally in between to join the rows.

I decided to add a couple of borders, for the first one I used Sevenberry Polka Dot in Navy which was cut at 1 1/2" wide and then a further Architextures which was cut at 2" wide.  

To finish, I layered the quilt and for the backing a piece of the cowboy fabric in blue, which incidentally is a lovely brushed cotton..... so snuggly!  I crosshatch quilted and for the binding I used a stripe from the Oh Clemintine collection.  (If you're new to quilting, there's lots more information on borders, layering, quilting and binding on my 'quilt along' page which you can find here)

This little quilt has been gifted to my brother and sister in law and is destined for a very special new arrival due this summer...how exciting..... but I'm sure you're all wondering have I got my obsession for log cabin quilts out of my system.... only time will tell!

Quilt Stats

Fabric ~ Cath Kidston Cowboy and a jolly selection of blenders from my website Pretty Fabrics and Trims

Pattern ~ Traditional Log Cabin given 'a little happy' twist.

Size ~ 29" x 36 1/2"