A Log Cabin Guild Challenge

Posted on October 1, 2018 by prairiemoonquilts in Challenges, Guild Stuff, Quilts

I belong to the Hands of Friendship Quilt Guild in Kirksville, Missouri, and every year, we issue a challenge to our members. We have some really fun challenges!

This past year, my friend, Andrea, and I were in charge of the challenge. Andrea said she’d been wanting to do a Log Cabin, so that’s what we did. To make it a bit more challenging, we specified that the center square of all the Log Cabin blocks had to be the color of your birthstone (along with a few other rules about size, etc.)

We got 19 entries in the challenge! They were all pretty fabulous, and eventually, there will be photos of all of them on our guild website HERE, if you’d like to see them all.

For now, I’ll show you the quilt I made for the challenge. My birthstone is peridot, for August. I looked it up, and it said it was a bright olive-y green, even tho I have a ring that has really light green stones in it — so there are varying shades of peridot, but I went with the olive-y green for my centers.

I’m on a mission to make lots of large quilts out of lots of tiny pieces, so this is just another accomplishment in that direction for me, even tho this one only measures 48 inches square.

Here’s my quilt:

And here are a few close-ups:

I quilted it with swirls and feathers in the light half . . .

. . . and straight lines in the green half. My little Log Cabin blocks finish at 4 inches square.

I used my center square fabric as my binding, too. It’s a Moda Weave — one of their basics.

I even put some greens from my stash on the back side.

I did not win any prizes in the challenge, but with so many other quality entries, I didn’t expect to. My quilt will hang in our guild challenge category at our quilt show next year.

And now I can move on to making the next really large quilt out of really tiny pieces! Oh, yes, I DO have it started!

13 responses to “A Log Cabin Guild Challenge”

  1. Darlene says:

    Shelly, that came out beautiful!!!!! What a fun challenge. I recently joined a local guild so I am looking forward to some fun things.

  2. Thelma says:

    My daughter has always scolded me for giving birth to her in August, “the worst birthstone month ever”. LOL. I love your green log cabin, I’ve never pieced a quilt using green as the dominant color, I think greens are hard to work with, so many shades, but your quilt is a beauty. I have a friend who only pieces log cabin patterns, I can’t imagine.

  3. Sherry V. says:

    Wow, Shelly! Your quilt is gorgeous.

    I always said that I don’t like green. . . but then I started going through my stash and found one green after another. . .I was amazed that I had so much.

    But the strangest thing is that I don’t remember ever buying green fabrics. LOL Guess my “evil twin” was at the quilt stores when I did not realize it. LOL

    Thank you for sharing your quilt. And I may steal your idea for a challenge for my guild. . . if you don’t mind.

  4. It was a really fun challenge to plan with you and make! I am so glad we had such a tremendous turnout of quilts that people made for it–it will definitely be a nice display next summer at our quilt show!

  5. Danice says:

    What a gorgeous quilt Shelly! Green is not my birthstone, but is my favorite color. Your quilting is superb.

  6. Virginia Smith says:

    Beautiful and used lots of small pieces.
    With the strips finishing 1/2 inch did you use less than 1/4″ seams. I have read that is what you should do but I question that idea.
    It is challenging. Having made some tiny things that were about that same size pieces I realize it. Mine were small thought and glad for it.

  7. Wendy says:

    Love that green, Shelly, and what a cool design! I’m taking notes, since I’m the new Activities director for our group (ack!). This challenge looks like fun!

  8. Rose Marie says:

    I am so surprised actually that you didn’t win. But then again, this really was a hard contest to win. I was not surprised at the winners when I saw the quilts even without knowing who made what!!! You and I are lucky to belong to participate in such a great contest!!!
    Next year we’ll win!!

  9. Suelynn Williams says:

    I love your quilt and was so surprised when it scrolled into view–I don’t know what I was expecting–the usual, I guess! So fun. aI can’t wait to see some of the other quilts in this challenge.

  10. Cindy S. says:

    Wow I really like your quilt. I intended to make a challenge quilt this year, but didn’t get it made in time. I bet yours did use up a lot of scraps.

  11. Barb says:

    Shelly, your quilt was a winner in my book!!

    The pictures from the challenge are now up on the Blog. When you posted this on October 2nd, they were only on Facebook. As of today, they are ready for viewing on the “HOFquiltguild.net” blog. I hope your followers will check out the link to our blog.

    Thanks so much!

  12. Angie in SoCal says:

    Spectacular!

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