Here’s my dad’s Christmas present.

All of the prints, except for the red center prints are from Windham Fabrics The Brick House line.  The solid black is also from Windham, but it’s from the Gee’s Bend line.  The red and black print that is at the heart of some of the blocks is something special my mom picked up at the Museum of the Fur Trade’s shop.  It’s a reproduction of one of the five fabrics that William Clark took with him as presents for the Indian tribes he met on the Lewis and Clark expedition.

I love this quilt – the color, pattern, prints, the wool quilting, the whole thing, love love love!

I chain pieced the log cabin blocks.

Chain piecing sped up the process since there were so many blocks.  The pattern is Straight Furrows, from the book, The Classic American Quilt Collection – Log Cabin.  Yes, the price on that link was right!  I paid a dollar plus shipping for my copy of the book.

Here’s the back of the quilt.  It’s pieced with large sections of the fabrics that I used on the front.

I quilted it in a diagonal pattern through the heart of each block.  I used aurifil 12 wt wool in ivory.  It wasn’t trouble free because the thread split on me a few times, but I found if I lengthened the stitches, used a 90/14 quilting needle, and kept a steady speed I had much better luck.

I love the fuzzy look of the wool thread in this quilt.

It adds a sort of homespun feel to the project.

I know some people would probably want to avoid that, but I say enjoy what you are making.  I like fabric – modern, reproduction, print, solid, whatever – I love all of it!

Tags: block, log cabin, quilt