All the blocks with gold an/ or green in them in these two quilts are the same. The dark strip patterns are all created using the corner block in the border of the second design.

What a difference a bit of twisting and turning can make when you want to increase the size of a quilt from  a double bed topper to queen size!

This series now has it’s own Virtual Album Page where you will see all of them together, one after the other as you scroll down.

Here is a preview of what is to come sometime in the future! It is not exactly what I had planned, but ……

…………… it is what happened after I stopped swearing when I had realized what I had done!

Somehow, a few days ago, about the time I was interrupted by surprise visitors, I managed to delete all my Electric Quilt project files. By the time I realized what I had done, I had been very good with the housekeeping in the computer ………. and cleared out the garbage in the process. Without checking what was in there!

Thankfully most had been backed up onto an expansion disk, but I was sorting out two large project files of Log Cabins.  The two Christmas project files I was using to add a little touch of the season on my blog were also new and hadn’t been backed up, plus a couple where I was playing with something which may have become new series!

Total quilt designs lost ….. about 500 in about five project files!

Not to worry ….. there are probably thousands in the backed up folders, and that includes all the folders I have been using for bloggers apart from the Christmas ones.

I had to redraw many of the blocks I wanted, and I also picked out new fabrics. And I have replaced one of the project files which had about 200 Log Cabin designs in it with another ….. which has grown to 500. And the other one missing in action will be replaced with an even bigger file!

But not today!

Look out for two new series, Log Cabin Curves and Log Cabin Fever, sometime soon.

But in the meantime, back up your files so you only lose the most recent ones!

Burgoyne might be surrounded in this first offering for the day, ………………

………………………but looks like Burgoyne got the upper hand in the second one!

I like the first one best.

Sigh! I think I am in love with this one ……. just beautiful! In my never humble opinion anyway.

The difference between using these blocks in straight settings and on point is amazing, then by using a few blank spaces and some narrow sashing/borders  …………………. well, just keep watching to see more of what is possible, keeping in mind that I have used just twelve block designs to create all these quilt designs.

Like this one too ……. but they both have that bottom left hand corner border block facing the wrong way! I have probably saved dozens of designs in this series with this fault.

Maybe one day when I have time on my hands I will remember to go through the project file and turn them around. I won’t promise anything though, as I am writing this post half way though the first coffee of the morning, which is probably the sort of circumstances I was working under when I designed all these quilts with the corner facing the wrong way.

Did I tell you I really love the first one?

Same collection of blocks, same fabric choices …………………

…………….. but the quilt designs are just a little different!

Don’t have any real preference for a favourite between these two ….. what about you?

Do like the fact that they look quite at home amongst the Christmas offerings this month!

A few blocks and a little bit of swapping, twisting and turning, and the variety of designs is endless!

Today is the day.

One of these two is quilt design number 500.

Which one?

Work it out for yourselves while I take my Dad and sister out for lunch.

PS I haven’t included every quilt in the count. Ones like Log Cabin in a Barnraising setting aren’t my designs, so even though they have been shown, I haven’t counted them.

PPS I can’t remember if I included table runners and wall hangings in the count or not!

Rather like this one……………..

……..but I must have had a bad day when I saved this design!

A few times over the last week or so I have read comments that there are no new designs out there.

Wrong!

There are zillions of new designs out there, but we do have to sort through some designs, like the one above, to find the good new ones, ones that will show off our piecing and quilting skills and our ability to chose the right fabrics to make a design come to life. Ones like this one are enough to put you off your dinner, let alone looking past it to find something new, different and appealing.

There are probably millions of Log Cabin quilts out there, but I bet most of them are one of the first variations I showed you when I started this series. Which means most, maybe all, of the fourteen I have added to this series are new, and there are the other series of Log Cabin variations I am showing you as well.

I have to admit that I don’t buy many magazines any more, because I really do not need another pattern for Ohio Star or Log Cabin in the Barnraising setting. I also have to admit that I have designed some awful blocks, and even more awful quilts. But that’s OK, if a design doesn’t work, I don’t have to make it. I am allowed to make mistakes, like the one above, because from every mistake I learn something, and the next design could be a winner.

More like this………………

Ah, I am going to call this one number 14, and hope you can all get over seeing the first offering without too much counselling required.

PS. Don’t tell anybody, but I had to make a final change to this design because I had one block facing the wrong way!

Learned to look carefully at designs before I post them.

Now all I have to do is remember the lesson!

I am designing all these quilts with a Christmas theme despite the fact that I live in a country which is hot at this time of the year ……….. and getting hotter towards the end of December. So do we need quilts? Some nights we don’t even need a sheet. Our Christmas quilt doesn’t have wadding, and it is just perfect when a sheet isn’t quite enough but a quilt with wadding (or a blanket) is way too much. Forget about a doona!

We don’t have a single bed in the house anymore, though there are a couple of single air mattresses, so I don’t think about rectangular quilts a great deal. When our kids were at home I made single bed quilts for them, including quite skimpy ones for bunk beds. I even have a single bed size Christmas quilt somewhere in the house ……. must find it to give it an airing between now and the end of the month!

Edited

Visitor number 30,000 arrived here about 7.30- 8.00pm Greenwich Mean Time …………………… WOW!

Here in Australia that is a few hours after I celebrated my 60th birthday, (surprised by a small group of family and friends) but it will always be noted here as December 2nd ……. Thank you to everyone who has added to the visitor numbers anytime over the last 15 months.

The next magical number will be reached in a couple of days time when I post quilt design number 500!

What a week!

PS The champagne was great!

PPS And just to cap it off WordPress have turned on the snow! Thank you! My Christmas decorating is complete!

If you look up the top of this page you will see a tab labeled Links to Lessons.

It has been there for quite awhile, but I have been doing some housework, dusting everything, vacuuming and washing floors, ………………… sorry, that was around our home address ……………….. adding new links, renewing a couple which didn’t work properly. Hopefully everything works, and there maybe a link there to some information you really want!

Also spent some time working on the blogroll too ……….. added a few, deleted a few , lost a few I meant to keep, but they are out there somewhere!

Sometimes things just work. This design is just one of those times. Delicate, dainty, pretty, romantic ……. its got it all.

This one is nice enough, but just doesn’t work like the one above.

There are so many steps to making a quilt, including what it is going to look like in use. Maybe the second one would look perfect on a bed with the framed blocks in the centre of the bed, and the ‘filler’ blocks filling in the space around them and falling over the edge of the bed. The first one would perhaps win more votes in Viewer’s Choice.

Just another decision to make about each quilt project ….. do you want it to be a winner on the wall or on the bed? I design most projects with an end use, small projects for the wall, medium sized ones to have strewn around the living spaces to use as knee rugs, and bigger ones for beds.

With bed quilts I try to keep the main focus on the top of the bed, and although I love borders, I keep the borders fairly simple because in the average bedroom there isn’t room to see the borders properly.

For most of us the huge bedroom with room to waltz around the bed, and see the borders of the quilt, are a dream. I have made a couple of king size quilts which have been auditioned on our queen size bed …… wonderful effect but totally impracticable, especially as I am the one who would have to fight my way past the bits which have half fallen off the bed in the middle of the night for a night time visit to the littlest room in the house!

(It doesn’t help that the biggest bedroom of each of the houses we live in becomes the sewing room/studio!)

PS …………. Ann’s Album has it’s own special Virtual Album Page