A couple of years ago, for my birthday, my sister Ashli gave me Bonnie Hunter’s Scraps and Shirttails: Reuse, Re-purpose, Recycle! The Art of Quilting “Green.” She also gave me a dozen men’s dress shirts rescued from Goodwill, bamboo batting, and other eco-friendly quilting products.
At the same time, I was intrigued by the Gee’s Bend history and the beautiful quilts produced in that region.
Inspired by both of these sources, and given my love of log cabins for their ease and versatility, it seemed like a natural choice to try my own version of a wonky log cabin, something organic with movement and, hopefully, perfectly imperfect beauty.
I started my blocks and then, of course, life got in the way. I moved to a new home a year ago and all quilting activities were put on hold.
Last weekend I decided to finally finish my half-done blocks.
My first step, way back at the start, was to cut apart the shirts at the seams and remove things like the button plackets, leaving me with fabric panels. I cut those panels into strips as I needed them along the way, starting with the sleeves for the shorter strips in the center of the blocks.
I love log cabin quilts because they are easy – all straight lines – and I like to choose beautiful fabrics then hurry up and get to the good part, when I can wrap a finished quilt around me while I watch a great movie…but I quickly learned that this log cabin quilt was not going to be like that.
I ended up choosing every strip for every log on every block one by one, balancing the colors and tones and patterns to somehow achieve that magic state of “balanced but random.” I didn’t want same fabrics touching and I wanted each block to use all 12 fabrics.
I built the blocks log by log and used my 15” block template to determine when each one was large enough. Given the angles and varying widths of the logs, it was no surprise that some blocks ended up with more logs and took longer to get to the right size, while others used larger logs and were done more quickly.
Even though it took a little longer than usual, I got my 25 finished wonky log cabin blocks.
I haven’t decided what to do next – I have a few ideas that I’m teasing out in my imagination, but you’ll have to come back for an update and more photos later!
–
If you’re interested in upcycling fabrics like shirts, Scraps & Shirttails is a great resource, and there is a new “book 2” in the series. I also always recommend Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day for log cabin magic.
Finally, if, like me, you are intrigued by how to combine traditional quilting with a modern sensibility, there are a lot of great books to inspire you. Two that I have in my home library are World of Quilts by Cassandra Ellis and Modern Log Cabin Quilting by Susan Beal.
The start of the school year is a great time for closet-cleaning and I bet you have a lot of great fabric hiding in there! Whether it’s dress shirts or t-shirts or old denim jeans, use your imagination and have fun.
–
Sew lovely,
Aimee
Well done!!