This beautiful little wall quilt was made with Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids. The graphite black-grey creates a lovely contrast to the chalky pastels. I tested the pastels on different grays, charcoal, black, midnight blue, etc. The graphite was a clear winner, especially coupled with the coral center squares.
The blocks for the quilt were set in a straight setting. Although this is one of the traditional settings for log cabin quilts, the repetitive pattern and solid colors make the quilt look distinctly modern.
The quilt was digitally long arm quilted by Gina Perkes. She used an all-over bubble pattern. I find that with log cabin quilts, it can be nice for the quilting to be an all-over design. There are so many different fabrics and so many seams in the quilt top that the digital all-over quilting provides a restful backdrop and doesn’t steal attention from the log cabin blocks. If you are interested in hiring Gina to quilt for you, you can reach her at https://thecopperneedle.com/longarmservices/.
Quilt Size
The model quilt measures 33” x 41” after quilting. 63 blocks are organized into a 7 block wide and 9 blocks tall straight setting. I added a 2 1/2″ border around the blocks.
Tools and Supplies Needed
1. Templates
The model quilt uses 2 books of the 4-inch Paper Piecing Template. You will have templates left over if you make your quilt the same size as mine, so you can always add an extra row in each direction to make your quilt a little bigger if you want.
2. Fabric Requirements
The model quilt was made exclusively with Michael Miller Cotton Couture. We have a kit of log cabin quilt that includes all the fabric used in the original as well as 2 books of templates. Opt for this to make your quilt fabric shopping quicker and convenient.
If you would rather shop for the fabric yourself, here is the list of fabrics used:
- Michael Miller Cotton Couture: 2. 2 1/2 yard Graphite (enough for blocks, border, and binding)
- 1/8 yard of the following colors:
- Mauve
- Pink
- Mint
- Moss
- Blush
- Opal
- Ginger
- Fog
- Gold
- Khaki
- Creamsicle
- Confection
- Sage
- Flower
- Starfruit
- Straw
- Petal (Block centers)
Cutting Fabric for Log Cabin Quilt
Cut the center squares 1 ½ x 1 ½ (You can get away with 1 ¼ square as well so size is a bit of a personal preference in these projects. Some people prefer a wider seam allowance while others prefer a narrower. Feel free to adjust to your own quilting personality)
Cut the strips 1” wide. I don’t recommend that you cut all your strips right away. An enormous pile of strips is hard to keep organized. Rather, start off with cutting 2-3 strips in each fabric and cut additional fabric as you run low. It can be really helpful to drape the fabric on cloth hangers or over a bar to keep them organized though in our experience they tend to end up next to the sewing machine and in your lap as you get into your project.
Piecing the Log Cabin Blocks
You will be making 80 traditional log cabin blocks with diagonal color contrast. Start each block by making 2 white logs followed by two yellow logs as you work your way around the block.
Keep the paper on the back of the blocks until the blocks are assembled into a quilt top. Remember to keep your stitches tiny! 1.2 -1.5 is perfect for most machines
Assembling the Log Cabin Quilt Top
The model quilt sports a 2 1/2” border in the same dark Graphite gray as was used in the blocks. Cut 4 border strips 2 ¾” x WOF. In the model quilt, the corners were mitered. However, since we are using solid and very dark fabric mitering is not strictly necessary for a great result.
To guide you accordingly, you can refer to the instructional videos in our log cabin tutorials section to see how you can easily together our quilt tops and remove the paper from the back.
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