A Little Cowboy Quilt
My husband is off for a scuba weekend with one of our sons-in-law, so I have parked myself in the sewing room, trying to finish projects.
Way back in January, I made a bunch of these log cabin blocks with scraps. I finally put these last nine together into a lap robe for the Veterans Administration Hospital.
I am very happy with the corners of the blue and red diamonds.
This quilt will be a dedication quilt at the local Cowboy Church. The church allows our little quilt group to use a meeting room, so we contribute quilts as a thank-you. (Quilt group members who go to that church make most of them, but I try to make one a year.)
I bought the cowboy fabric about ten years ago, but I still see it in fabric stores. Originally I thought I would put those red log cabin blocks in rows above and below this central panel, but they just didn’t look right. I like the red and blue diamonds I used instead – they remind me of bandanas.
The cowboy fabric is by Michael Miller designs.
I tried a faux piping technique that one of our quilt group members had seen at Color Me Quilty. You sew two strips of fabric together – one shows as the binding, and the other is totally hidden except for a tiny line.
The plain maroon is the binding, and the blue piping is another strip of fabric tucked inside.
I can’t decide if it’s really worth using so much fabric that doesn’t even show – but usually I turn the back to the front for binding, and use a decorative stitch, and that uses lots more thread than this technique.
You may remember that a few months ago I suddenly started having problems (more than usual) with stitch consistency. I think I have solved the mystery. I brought it up at quilt group, and in trouble-shooting, one of my friends asked,”Is the quilt catching on the edge of the table?” I said no, but later I realized – I had changed tables! I had moved my sewing machine from one of those sturdy office tables, to an antique kitchen table that belonged to my great-grandmother. I had added the center leaf to make the table longer, but I think that just made it even more wobbly than usual. I think the sewing machine was sort of bouncing around on the table. I put it back on an office table and the stitching has improved.
I am so glad to get these projects done. Now it’s back into the sewing room to re-organize before my next projects!
These are beautiful! Absolutely love the cowboy quilt!
Thank you – I was surprised to see how many fabrics I had collected that went with that cowboy fabric!