Secret Santa present

On Christmas eve, as is the tradition in my family, and very often in France, we opened the presents. It was after Father Christmas managed to sneak in the living room while we were in the dining room (it was my 15 years old nephew this year). The youngest boy still believes and we all indulge him.

I opened my present from Secret Santa on BQL and was very pleased to find a log cabin bag. Thank you Secret Santa, whoever you are.

I hope you all had a great day.

September Calendar

And here we go again with my square for September in the British Quilters List Challenge for 2009.

This is a small interpretation of Log Cabin. The logs are cut at 3/4" and end up at ...oups ! 3/8" instead of 1/4". at the end my block measured 13 1/2" so had grown 1". But then when it is on the wall by itself nobody will notice.

I made my 16 log cabin squares and played with possible designs. Here are a few photos.

I chose the last design, partly because I had never done it.

And here it is pieced together.

And I wondered how to quilt it.

I opted for some kind of leaves, accentuating the diagonal lines. There are 3 in 2 corners of each little square.

They look almost like butterflies, or hearts.

Little hens

I have seen this design many times on the net, even a video on Quilters TV.com, and I wanted to try it.

Our quilting group theme was log cabin, and I knew what to do with my little blocks.

There are 2 log cabin blocks, the center of the block is 1"square finished and the logs are 1/2" wide around it. The finished block measures 4" plus the seam allowance.

Then you need to prepare:

- the beak of the hen (I used a 2"square of fabric folded on the diagonals),

- the comb (draw the shape on paper, put it over the fabric doubled and sew around. Cut around with 1/8" seam allowance and dent the round parts, turn around),

-and the tail (same technique as for the comb).

Place the beak and the comb on the right side of a block, seam allowances aligned, on the light part of the log cabin for me. I did a quick seam to maintain them in place, hidden in the seam allowance.

Put the other log cabin block right sides together against the first one, pin and sew around 3 sides that will be the back, the front and the belly of the hen. Leave a gap on the belly to turn your hen out.

Then pin the tail inside the hen, centered on the seam, you are giving your hen its shape. You open the hen bit that is not sewn, and move the seams you have just made so that they are opposite each other. Sew across as on the photo.

Now you just need to turn you hen the right way out, and sew some eyes if you want to make it safe to be used by children, or sew some buttons if you want a bigger effect.

This hen can be used as a toy or as a pincushion.

It was so easy and nice, I made another one straight away.

Quilting by hand

I have not put many posts at the moment as I am enjoying some quilting by hand. It is likely to take many more hours before I have finished, so I will only show you some photos of a work in progress.

I think the final effect is worth the effort. You may remember this quilt as my jelly roll log cabin, where I asked you which design you preferred to put my blocks together. And yes it took me that long to start quilting it...

I bought a platic template for the feather pattern. I tried to make my own template with some plastic and a special cutter with 2 parallel blades, but it was too much hard work. Tell me if you ever succeeded with that.

It is a very good thing to do in front of the tv at night, but it will take me a long time.

End of the vote

I had great fun following the vote for my log cabin quilt.

The result is your preference for the design "Barn raising", as on the photo.

There was a point a intense competition with "Furrows", very nerve racking, and I want to thank all who voted on my blog, that was 40 people.

Nobody liked "triangles", and "strikes of lightning" only got 2 votes. After that came "windmill" with 5 votes, it does look a bit messy. In third position was "Light and shadow", which was one of my favourites, before I tried all the combinations with my blocks on the floor.

I'd better start working now I suppose, I've got to put all these blocks together.

Help me choose a design

In Bath I bought a jelly roll of fabric. My first one ! I had been tempted for some time, with all these adds I receive everyday from shops in America. I succumbed.

For those who have not yet be confronted with this new temptation, jelly rolls are bands of fabric 2.5" large (6.5cm) by the width of the fabric, they are really easy to use and open up lots of possibilities, as they cut down the preparation time.

I started to make a log cabin quilt, and now wonder which arrangement to choose.

There are 24 blocks, about 10 1/2" unfinished.

I spread the blocks on the floor and took lots of photos, and would like you to vote on your favourite. You can do that easily in the column on the right.

I think this one is called "Sunshine and shadow" (l'ombre et la lumiere).

This display is called "Furrows "( les sillons), all the light and dark follow a diagonal.

I would mix the blocks and colors as in the photo.

I believe this one is called "Strike of lightning"(les eclairs du tonnerre), but of course the photo should be the other way to see it more easily.

This one is called "Barn raising" (construction de grange).

"Triangles", I suppose you could imagine many more names for this one.

"Windmill" (moulin a vent), the name provides a good description, but I wonder if my colors are strong enough to sustain this design.

This is the book I used, called "Log cabin", it is also translated in French. But I cannot seem to find it at the moment, no doubt it will reappear as soon as I have finished this post.

So go on, give me your opinion by voting on the right handside.

I shall make a quillow with my finished quilt, with my patchwork group.