Installment Two, Scrappy Rebuilt Log Cabin

OK, above is your block pressed, with messy edges. At this point I'm thinking wider logs might have been a better choice, but this is what I did, so I'll live with it.

Next (above), I trimmed this block to 10 1/2 inches. That was tight! But since my logs were narrow, if I trimmed to 10 inches, I would be up against the seam line when sewing the blocks together

Just look at them laid out. This was just one setting.

Below is what your corners may look like. (This is another project - not the same blocks, but you know they look like the same fabric! -- and, I took the photo against the bed quilt in the background - kinda hard to see where one project begins and ends.) There is NO rhyme or reason to how your corners will look. A little lumpy, yes - get over it and don't tell the Quilt Police. Those lumps get buried in the batting. And, it will definitely be machine quilted, with all those seams.

I posted 2 of these type quilts in September 2006, probably before I was connected to Bloglines, so you may not have seen 2 finished Rebuilt Log Cabins.

If you make one of these, or just make 4 blocks for a table runner, I would LOVE to see them. Remember, this is a great Stashbuster, not a quilt made by the rules!

Scrappy Rebuilt Log Cabin

I'll never get all these photos in one post so ... I'll have to do it in installments.

Like most of us, I have scraps -- a lot of them, and even though none of them 'match' anything else, I feel compelled to use them. I've had several days of 'I just gotta speed sew!' I have the good sense to maintain a box of precut strips and the result is these 51 log cabin blocks. You might notice I've not been very careful at the edge -- I even patched a log or two - not to worry - I have a plan.

My strips are cut 1 1/2 inch, and I made 5 rounds, with center of 1 inch finished, so the block is about 11 1/2 inches. My sewing is very casual -- I KNOW it will be wonderful when finished! I've made this about 6 times previously - it's wonderful and inventive!
See the chalk line? I made a square cardboard template of 8 1/2 inches and chalk marked around it. I put the points of the template right to the edge. You want an interesting tilt, or angle - mine was about 30 degrees. (45 degrees is too big.) Now, cut along the lines on each side. Be sure to tilt them all in the same direction either all right or all left. It gets tooooo confusing (for me) to mix that tilt both ways!

OK, now exchange each corner with the opposite side. (Hmmmm, what if I just moved each side forward one side ... (OK, Elaine, save that for another day).

I trimmed all 51 blocks, one at a time, then placed the cut-off corners on the block they came off of (so they didn't get mixed up with the next block) until I had a stack of all 51.


Sew those corners back on. It's hard to figure exactly where to start sewing with those skinny points so I found that if I lined up the large corner first, the rest sewed down well. I could almost sew all 4 down, without cutting the thread. You may want to trim off some extra seam points that get in the way.

You asked about the pencil

Many of you have asked about my chalk pencil. Here is a close-up. You can see the lines before spritzing. My deer looks a little hefty!

Deer template

This worked pretty well. My quilt is very forest-y themed. The space above the border is mushrooms and grasses, then a vine, then ???? I tend not to know what I'm doing to do until I'm doing it (no comments please - after all, we are artists of sorts and are allowed free style!).

I drew 2 different deer, and the best part about these plastic templates is that you can turn them over and get 2 images for the price of one! I purchased a new kind of inexpensive chalk pencil that holds up pretty well. The chalk is hard and sharp, and stays on the fabric well while I'm quilting. My first efforts are quite acceptable. The deer are from a book of continuous line patterns.

For those of you who are afraid to try these continuous line patterns, you know, you don't have to be exact - after all, it's a representation, not an exact duplicate. Unless you are shooting for First Place, absolutely NO ONE is going to follow your stitching, stitch by stitch, and call the quilt police to authenticate your stitches. DONE is good and I'm getting close to DONE.

There's a baby dove in there

OK, there really IS one in there. On the right side of the photo, a dark blob, is the young dove eye. That's about as good as the photo gets! This was taken about 10 days ago. Despite me 'checking in' at least 10 times a day, and me sitting many hours on the deck watching for dove activity, not once have I seen the parents change duties, nor have I seen any little flapping of wings, heard any dove noises, seen delivery of any type of sustenance. This morning both the parents and one little dove, are gone - empty nest! No sign of them anywhere. No little hungry dove in the yard, none on garage roof, nor telephone wires. I'm happy they brought another little dove into the world, but hey, I've been watching for a long time and wanted some satisfaction.

Oldie but Goodie

Don’t laugh ... I’m suffering from sewing machine overload and need to eliminate this machine. Before it goes, I wanted to play with it a bit. It’s a little ‘stiff’ from sitting in a corner unused for 2 years.

I will tell you how I came into ownership of this old Touch and Go, Singer. I work at a church, and the ladies hold a frequent Rummage Sale. The stuff that shows up?- you wouldn’t believe it, and in no time at all, the storage room is full! During my effort to help make more space in the storage room, one of the sorting ladies found this old sewing machine, and said, “Elaine, why don’t you buy this for $5.00 to make more space for other stuff?” Now, those ladies do a lot of good work for the church, and so I forked over my $5.00 and one of the men carried it out to my car trunk where I totally forgot about it.

The next grocery shopping day, I was surprised to find this machine in the trunk, and being a believer in “ya gotta take care of stuff,” I decided to give it a try. I couldn’t make heads or tails out of its operation (no book) so I drove it to my repair facility for a tune-up and instructions. The repair shop also carries a great supply of fabric, which didn’t hurt my decision-making process!

$80.00 later I brought home a decently working sewing machine AND an Instruction Book. Among other clever features, this machine has a bobbin that you wind from the regular sewing operation - you don’t have to remove the bobbin! It has cams and zig-zag features, several throat plates, lots of gizmos in a handy storage box, and everything fits nicely in the carrying case. In it’s day, it was probably pretty great. And it’s very heavy, (yes, too heavy to haul around to classes), but that heaviness adds to it’s stability. OK, I used it for several days, and then reverted back to one of my OTHER 4 machines.

Now, I really must eliminate this machine, and hope I can find it a good home ... (because I have my eye on a Janome Gem Gold 760!) ... for classes, of course, and small enough to take on a plane).