A Christmas Log Cabin Quilt

This morning I sat down and thought about my posts for the rest of the year. Well, those should be about Christmas, right? So, I went to the quilt closet and pulled out the ones I thought would make good subject matter for my posts. While doing so, I thought these may be quilts that show up every year I blog, as who knows when more Christmas quilts will be made here. I do so tend to get sidetracked these days with embroidery and such!

Now, bear in mind that I have not decorated one thing in the house......and may not. It all just seems like too much to worry with at this point, at the Eaton house, this year. You know, it doesn't help that there are no small children in this family. Sure takes some of the fun out of the season when there are no little kids. (No, I don't want to borrow any right now as there isn't enough energy to handle them. But, I DO like remembering all the small children we used to have here.)

Now, on with the quilts. For this post, I chose to show you a (48" square) Log Cabin quilt that I made when we still lived on the farm. I chose red/green fabrics (in some of these photos, the red looks pink!) and actually machine pieced the blocks. That meant I actually got the top made "in no time." I took all the blocks and placed them on my working wall, trying to find the most pleasing layout. This step takes a while, as I could move the blocks around "til the cows come home" as they say. It's almost impossible to chose a layout, there are so many options. Finally, I just chose my favorite Log Cabin design of all and left it at that.

You should be able to predict what happened.....my son walked through the studio. (In all fairness to him....at that particular time, you had to come in through the studio door if you were on the carport side of the house.) Now, y'all know from my writing that Scott has given me lots of quilting advice over the years. He seems to have a talent for helping me make design decisions, etc., without even thinking about it in advance. On this particular day, he walked through the studio and said, "Oh, a Log Cabin quilt!" "Yes", I said....."now if only I could think of what to call it." "Virtual Log Cabin," he said, and quietly walked out of the room. Yes, I thought - for my computer geek son - a virtual Log Cabin quilt.

You should be able to see that I chose to quilt the "logs" right down the middle of each one. I love doing that. Not only do I avoid quilting in the ditch, which I find a waste of time, but it also 'sort of' looks like there are twice as many pieces, depending on the light, etc. I say 'a waste of time' because if I take the time to hand quilt something....I want the stitches to show!! I suppose if I machine quilted I'd think differently.

I used two different print fabrics for the centers of the blocks.....just because I liked them both and used a wonderful rose print for the back of the quilt. Just loved that fabric!!!

It was a fun quilt to make and we have enjoyed it for a long time. Scott knows he can have it at any time......a virtual log cabin quilt for my virtual favorite son!!! Y'all take care. Pat