fairytale meadow

i began this orange and green heather ross log cabin quilt in april 2021, nearly four years ago. i was working with a random pile of fabrics i decided to use together and made a few changes to my plans as i went along. i don't know exactly when i got the 12 blocks all to the state of completion i found them in, but when i pulled them out at the beginning of the year, i was pleasantly surprised to find them all in the same condition. they each had three round of fabrics around the hearth pieces completed: two wider low-volume, one thin orange-and-green. 

i now had to decided if i wanted to add more rounds to the blocks or not, and how to set them together as a quilt top (sashing, cornerstones, etc). i looked over the contents of the project box at all the fabrics collected there, including some already cut strips of more green and orange fabrics.

i'd made no notes for myself as to my original intentions for this top, which frustrated me because it meant i couldn't just get to work and finish the thing. i had to do some thinking, measuring, and planning. as i'm not hugely invested in this quilt (probably giving it to a daughter that's expressed interest), i made some quick decisions to get it to a decent size (the current blocks were a bit too small) and finished.

the decision that took the longest was where to put the unicorns. four of the 12 blocks have unicorns in the centers. i only had half a yard of the fabric to fussy cut the unicorns from, so i didn't do very many. looking at the leftover piece of fabric, there are still two intact unicorns and i wish i'd used them. i don't know what i thought i was saving the fabric for? it's cute, but it's a bright orange i don't use often and this was the perfect place to use a whole unicorn without cutting parts of it off. i should have done it. i thought about unpicking two of the blocks and inserting unicorns so the ratio was 1:1 and placing them in the quilt would be easier for me, but that was too much work.

i have a tendency to take my fabric sudoku a little too seriously - i get rather ocd about it. i want my fabrics spread out evenly and just right according to too many factors. here it was the unicorns. placing four unicorns evenly spaced in a 3 x 4 grid was next to impossible, especially because i was looking at which way they were facing/which unicorn i was using where. for crying out loud! i finally got over my silly personal hangups, just put them in imperfectly placed, and got on with finishing the top.

i added one more skinny round of color to the blocks before joining everything with sashing and cornerstone pieces. i didn't precut the strips to size; i cut them with my scissors after attaching them to the block. this is a little scandalous in the world of precision quilting but it's something i've become comfortable with after watching kate at "the last homely house" do it a lot. i discovered kate last year and have enjoyed putting her youtube videos on for company and listening while i quilt.

something else that kate taught me which is pertinent to this quilt: how to know where to put your next strip when constructing log cabin blocks. i've been really good at losing my place and getting disoriented when constructing blocks. it's a continual problem for me. kate says after you attach the first two rounds, you look for the side that already has three seams on it and that's your next side. i'll do a visual of this next time i make a log cabin quilt. it's a handy tip!

i recently got some new pins as my supply seems to have dwindled. i couldn't find the same ones i bought at joann crafts years ago, so i chose these cute pink stars from bohin and am so happy with them. (i got mine on etsy from a shop that no longer has them in stock, but they are also currently on amazon.) they are even finer than my other pins, which makes them easier to sew over when i feel like it, and they seem to be that much less-bulky by a smidge, which i like.

having soft pink stars sprinkled everywhere is an aesthetic i can appreciate!

 i used them a bunch when pinning all the backings together as i batch basted four quilts over the same weekend. the magnetic wristlet d5 gifted me for christmas a few years ago works nicely with them. i sent her a photo of the pins with the wristlet and she commented that it looked like a little bouquet of stars. yes, it does.

as for the quilt, i sashed it with two more low-volume heather ross prints in the right colors from my stash. i had several options i was considering, but when i thought about the quilt, i decided it was rather fairytale themed already with the unicorns and frogs, so i chose the toadstool print and another floral.

i made a few cutting mistakes, which resulted in some patched-together sashing strips. i was peeved at myself for doing that as i could have had pristine strips with no extra seams in them if i hadn't let myself trip up like that. but it just is now and the little seams won't be so visible as i think they are now once the quilt is in use.

i thought about making the cornerstones pink, a secondary color in several of the prints that would have altered the strong orange and green palette already present, but in the end decided to up the green quotient instead. and now it's done!

thinking about the fairytale vibe, i decided to give the quilt a name other than "heather ross orange and green log cabin quilt" not only for brevity's sake, but because it was too utilitarian. there are frogs and toadstools (semi-magical or could-be magical companions for the unicorns) and lots and lots of florals in this quilt. it seems like a setting for unicorns to rest in - not a forest for hiding in, but a beautiful meadow full of flowers and friends. 

henceforth, it shall be known as "fairytale meadow."