Crocus, a Scrap Cabin Quilt

I know I’ve hardly blogged about this one, and here it is done already! Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I was inspired by a big pile of string scraps that would no longer fit in their proper basket. That pile got smaller and smaller and smaller until a whole quilt was made - entirely from long, fabric strip scraps! I didn’t use any background fabric or yardage of any kind. That’s why I’m calling it a Scrap Cabin quilt - 100% scrappy goodness.

Take a look at the before and after photographs of the scraps that I used for this quilt:

Even though I’ve been making quilts for awhile now, it still amazes me that you can create a whole, wonderful, useful blanket out of a pile of thin, fraying scraps. Really, quilt-making is fantastic!

And - bonus - my purple/neutral scrap basket and my blue/green scrap basket now fit within the proper bounds of their respective homes. Aaaah. That feels better.

Enough about the scraps; let’s talk about the quilt!

The center of this quilt is made up of log cabin blocks, sewn with value contrast. Each block begins with a warm, caramel brown square and contains all the colors in my palette: blue, purple, gay, brown and cream. In order to use my scraps to the fullest, the thickness of each log varies. When I began sewing I didn’t have a vision for the quilt other than enjoying the process.

I chose to set my log cabins in groups of four, with the dark values at center, creating a larger burst shape. A three by three grid of these dark value bursts was pleasing to the eye, but didn’t yield a large enough quilt. Toward the end of sewing the log cabin blocks, I still had a lot of scraps left ( you know how that goes), so I chose to add a border that would use them to the fullest!

This pointy, peaks and valleys border was an excellent scrap buster. I also enjoyed the challenge of designing a suitable border corner. Fun, fun!

My finished quilt is a practical 66” square. The colors feel wintry to me, with a touch of spring. And, since I don't sew with purple often, that’s the stand-out color for me. Thus, crocus - the first flowers of spring.

This one was perfect for custom quilting on my longarm. I used a medium purple thread that blends perfectly with the quilt back. I defined the dark burst shapes with a straight line motif and the low volume bursts in between with soft curves. It felt a little gutsy to quilt the purple thread on the low volume areas, but I really like how it looks on the quilt back. Quilting doesn’t always have to blend, after all.

I’m especially happy with the Crown border quilting, which perfectly emphasizes the peaks and valleys, while not adding conflicting straight lines.

Crocus quilt is backed with solid, sateen purple and bound with an older Denyse Schmidt print from my stash. The quilt feels soft and luxurious from the back and a biit crinkly on the front, since it’s already been washed and dried.

I’ve listed Crocus Log Cabin quilt in my Handmade shop today!

I’m pretty sure I’m not finished with this style. It was reeaaaallly fun to make! I’m imagining that I’ll indulge in another Scrap Cabin quilt in a more summery palette later this year.