Western Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt

 

When I first got into quilting, and began collecting my stash, I was really interested in western fabrics. Horse shoes and paisleys, horses and cowboys, bandanas in all colors. You name it. I’ve made a couple over the years, but I still have quite an extensive collection.

 

 

While working on another scrappy quilt, I came across some dusty pink fabrics and I thought they’d go well with my dusty pink western fabrics. I bunched them together to wait for an idea.

 

 

Then, while working on a different project, I had leftover blue bandana fabric. An idea began to brew! What if I put my dusty pinks with a bunch of western blues? I’ve never tried a log cabin pattern before and decided this would be a good collection to try it with.

 

 

True to my form, I couldn’t use a normal pattern. I wanted the center blocks in tan and oversized, and I wanted the strips to be 1 ½ inches. Why not? It creates the balance I was looking for between the pinks and blues, and it helps the center tan pieces pop more.

 

 

I thought I’d cut everything out right, but when I started sewing I found they were all too long. There was several scraps, which was a bummer because I hate wasting fabric but it was a learning experience for sure.

 

 

After I got all of my blocks together, I played around with the layout a bit. I debated whether I wanted a diamond setting, or lightning bolts…

 

 

In the end, I chose zigzags. It just looked fun, and I wanted this quilt to be about fun. For the backing, I went back to my stash to try and find something that would match and follow the theme of the front. This beautiful blue piece with horses running on it was perfect! Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite big enough so I added some tan from the front to finish it off. 

 

 

Once again, a basic meander for the quilting seemed to work best. The star of this quilt was the scrappy log cabin, not the quilting. I used the tan once more for the binding, and it was all finished.

 

 

When I showed my husband, he insisted it was red, not pink. I am sticking with that story for him because it’s happily displayed on our couch and I want it to stay there.

 

 

This was such a great project. Always learning! What’s next!