I made this quilt using Eleanor Burns' Quilt in a Day book on making log cabin quilts. OK, maybe a day is exagerating, but not by much. I love this method and would love to have more of her books.
Log cabin quilts were traditionally made using a small red square in the centre to represent the hearth. Then three dark strips and three light strips were added around the hearth in an alternating pattern to make up the house. Each square could then be sewn together in a variety of patterns. I love Barn Raising, which is square.
For my quilt, I adapted her basic Barn Raising pattern by a.) making more narrow strips, b). using four light and four dark colours, and c). by using all of the same fabric for my light strips. I think it has quite a pleasing effect and it made cutting and piecing that much easier to not have to deal with too many patterns. The Quilt in a Day methods are so great, and with rotary cutting, quilts are really quite easy to make.
Once you have learned some of the basic rotary cutting methods, piecing methods for making the blocks, AND piecing methods to sew your squares together in a jiffy, you can use these techniques for life. I have made several other quilts, designing them myself once I learned these basics.
The way this quilt is made gives you a couple of leftover squares. This is handy in case you have made a mistake. But it is also handy to make some additional cushions to match your quilt or use as gifts.
These have been jumped on a fair bit! I added more strips as borders to these two using leftovers.
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