Okay, here goes…

I have been procrastinating, and for once it is not about a sewing project. I have a tendency to procrastinate, especially when I don’t know how to proceed. Whether it is from starting a new sewing project because I don’t know what pattern I want, or when it comes to the actual quilting because I don’t know what pattern to use for the stitching. Today, I am ending the procrastination on my first blog post. I have been struggling for a few weeks now, since I started working on my website, blogs seem very scary to me. But here I go.

This first blog post will be about deciding my next project. My cousin has asked me to make a red, white, and blue quilt. No specific pattern or fabrics, except that I use red, white, and blue in the fabric choices. I have made many quilts for her and her kids, memory quilts from each of her three children’s high school t-shirts, a wedding quilt for her daughter, two baby quilts for her daughter’s babies and a children’s quilt she asked me to make as a Christmas present for her grandson. She loves all of the quilts I have made and I try to do something unique for each of them. This quilt request is for her, so it needs to be extra special as she has been incredibly supportive and appreciative of my quilting hobby.

Each of the quilts I make, I try to learn something new, and the pattern for the quilt top is a great way to learn something new. I have always wanted to try a log cabin quilt pattern. The blocks are generally set up the same way, the picture below is the general idea for log cabin quilt blocks…

The width and length of the fabric piece used, as well as the colors used varies greatly. How you layout the colors in each of the blocks and then how you layout the blocks for the final piecing determines what the overall design of the quilt will be.

For this project, I wanted to pick a pattern that utilized three colors, red, white and blue. Whenever brainstorming for any part of a quilting project, I turn to my best friend, the one that started me on my quilting journey. She always has great advise and loads of encouragement, a perfect combination when trying to work through any step of the quilting process. I highly recommend getting yourself a best friend like mine, she is amazing (but not mine, because I don’t want to share). And with her great advise and encouragement comes a great library of patterns, makes shopping for a pattern much easier when I can shop in her sewing room! So off I went, to go shopping for a quilt top pattern, log cabin quilt blocks using three colors.

This book contains patterns to some amazing quilt tops, it was so hard to choose just one! The last image above is the pattern that just spoke to me. I debated with myself over several other choices but I just kept coming back to this one. The background beige will be white, the browns will be blues, and the purple will be my reds.

I knew that I wanted red, white, and blue fabrics, and I have quite a few stashed away in my sewing room. The next step in getting this project started is picking out exactly which fabrics to use, stay tuned for another blog about fabric choices, it will be published shortly!