Leftovers V – Circle Log Cabin

Back in 2011  I started collecting turquoise blue and brown fabrics for my Blue Odyssey Quilt.

I ended up cutting way more fabric than I needed.  As a result, I had piles of left over strips and little pieces. First I made ‘Leftovers I’ with more than one thousand 1-3/8″ x 2-1/2″ tiny rectangles.

Then came Leftovers II.  For this one I tackled the pile of 1-1/2 inch strips.

Then came Leftovers III.  I made a good dent in the huge pile of 1-1/4 inch strips.

Leftovers IV combined the 1-1/2 and 1-1/4 inch strips to make a HST string quilt

And now there is a Leftovers V.  Initially I had planned to integrate some spare blocks from some of the previous Leftover’s series.  Then I saw this pin on Pinterest and fell in love with the block. I have always loved Log Cabins but I’ve never made one. This Pin inspired me to totally rethink my design, take the plunge and make my first log cabin.

I used EQ7 to experiment with laying out the blocks to get a design I liked.  I came up with these three:

            

Although I liked the feel of design #3, I went with the first one because it gave me a nice shape in the background that I could have some fun with free motion quilting.

I started by making log cabin blocks in 4 different colour ways.

And then arranged them into the final design of the quilt top.

I knew I was going to do a lot of dense quilting in the background so I did quite a bit of ditch work to stabilize the quilt.

I used a combination of wavy lines and a freehand feather motif in the log cabin blocks.

Then I started tackling the diamond shape in the background.

This is the finished quilt.

I incorporated a diamond and a circle into the free motion design in the background.

I like the detail of the quilting on the back of the quilt.

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