Lovely Little Logs

You might remember me blogging about the Mini Quilt in a Bag swap group over on Flickr a few weeks back. I really enjoy it because it's one of the few swaps where you actually have some influence over the fabrics that appear in the final product.

Swap leader Tracy keeps it interesting -- every round of the swap has a different theme. For this last round, the theme was "Lovely Little Logs", and the rules were as follows: send your partner a small swatch of fabric, which they in turn must use as the center squares of a log cabin-themed quilt. Using that center square as inspiration, the quilter selects the remaining fabrics in the quilt.

I was fortunate to be paired with bloggy friend Sudi-Laura (aka Isaacsmama on Flickr). She sent me a solid red fabric to use for her block centers and, as you can imagine, there were a million and one ways I could have gone with that.

I decided to dig deep into my stash and found a bunch of leftover "Swell" jelly roll strips from this bag. Along with a few more coordinates from Amy Butler, Sandi Henderson, and Heather Bailey, my idea was born.


Rather than traditional log cabin blocks, I decided to made quarter log cabin blocks ... a variation that I've really been loving lately.


For my quilt, I send Sudi-Laura a 1/4 yard cut of an older Urban Chiks print from their "Blossom" line. It featured little teal birds, and I couldn't wait to see the direction that she would take with it.


Another non-traditional take on the log cabin block! It's so graphic -- I love it. And what you can't tell from the picture is that the thin white strips are actually 3-D -- that is, they're like piping that's sewn into the seam. It really adds some visual interest and gives this quilt a little extra "oomph"!


I know it's hard to tell, but I just had to show the backing because the bird print I sent has tiny little coral-colored dots in it, and Sudi-Laura managed to draw that color out and find a backing that matches it PERFECTLY!


Thanks so much, Sudi-Laura! I hope you like your little quilt as much as I like mine.