"FIRST LOG CABIN" for Daniel completed 11/05

This is my first log cabin, and as always I didn't follow a pattern. I did buy a bunch of books on log cabins that I had been drooling over for months, and I love how quickly this top went together using Elenor Burns' method of sewing two strips together for the first two colors, then cutting. I don't like how large Burns' blocks are - I feel the pattern gets lost. Another book I purchased touched on this, but wanted the blocks even smaller than this quilt. It definitely looks nicer when the blocks are smaller, but I have 4 kids folks, and needed this to come together before Daniel begins school.

"First Log Cabin" was made from fabrics already in my stash, even though I shopped and shopped. The one thing I knew when I started this quilt was the red jacobean print was a must, and preferably the focus, as it really represented Jane's decorating style. After a couple of months trying to find the right fabrics, I gave up and forced myself to be a bit more creative with my stash. I have lots of fabrics, but not lots of yardage of each fabric. I really didn't think I'd meet the challenge to come up with something that worked from such a limited selection, but then I looked deeper into that special red.

Why did I like it so much?
What made it such a pleasure to look at?

The answer was so simple that it seems quite obvious to me (and I'm sure to you) now. I simply pulled the colors of the quilt out of the fabric. The brown and yellow, the blues, the greens - it was all there. Somebody clearly gave it much thought, and probably had plenty of formal training too. I liked the combination already, so why not? Again I had to fight the voice inside of me that made me hesitate, "but I don't necessarily like these colors together, but I would never put these colors together, but I don't LOVE it." Finally, I shut myself up long enough to just start it, and while the color combination doesn't necessarily knock my socks off, it works, and it works well.

To date, I've had the most fun making this quilt. I was finally able to bring myself to the point where I didn't need it to be perfect, either in color or in workmanship. Most of this was because Jane is so amazingly supportive, and I knew that when I gave it to her she would only think of what really matters: how much l0ve went into the quilt, not what the end result is, although she loves that too.