We made this quilt using primarily a roll of precut Tilda Fabric. The collection we used was Plum Garden which may be hard to find now. However, most Tilda fabric collections tend to exude the same type of mix of soothing pastels and chalky hues. You can of course use our directions to make a quilt with any pre-cut 2.5” jelly roll that you love. You can also use any other collection of fabrics that you choose and cut your strips.
The log cabin blocks for this quilt were set in a straight setting which is one of the classic setting patterns for log cabin blocks.
The quilt was digitally long arm quilted by Gina Perkes. She used an all-over pattern on the quilt. 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 60” x 75”. 130 blocks are organized into a 10 block wide and 13 blocks tall straight setting. I added a 5″ border around the blocks with additional yardage from one of our favorite fabrics in the fabric collection of the jelly roll we used.
TOOLS AND SUPPLIES NEEDED
Templates
The model quilt uses 5 books of the 5-inch Paper Piecing Template.
Fabric Requirements
The model quilt was made exclusively with Tilda Fabric.
The colored side of Log Cabin block: For the colored half of the block, we used a now out-of-production precut 2.5” roll of Plum Garden, but almost all Tilda collections have the same type of sweet and slightly hazy pastel feel. To add a little more variation in the fabric, we also added some strips of other Tilda fabrics that coordinated with the Duck Pond roll.
The light side of the Log Cabin block: The “light” half of the log cabin blocks were made with the light gray star basic from Tilda. You will need about 3 ¼ yards of this fabric.
Block Center: ½ yard of Lavender Tilda Chambray.
Border: 2 yards of your favorite print from the main collection. We used the pink/terracotta floral from the Duck Pond collection. We were OK with piecing the border but if you are not you will need additional yardage.
CUTTING FABRIC FOR THE LOG CABIN BLOCKS
Cut all your fabric strips 1 ¼” wide. (Cut your 2 ½” jelly roll strips in half lengthwise to create strips 1 ¼” wide.) For the sake of keeping your fabric organized and preventing the strips from getting too messy, it can be helpful to only cut 1-2 strips of each color to start.
- Cut 2” squares for the center of the blocks. You will need 130.
- Border. Cut 8 strips WOF 6” wide and piece them together in pairs.
PIECING THE LOG CABIN BLOCKS
- You will be making 130 traditional log cabin blocks with diagonal color contrast. Start each block by making 2 light logs followed by two Colored/dark 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.
- Attach the borders to the completed quilt center. We chose to miter the corners on the model quilt, but this is not necessary.
