Finished! Log Cabin/Courthouse Square Design

Once upon a time in college my mom's friend (a very experienced quilter) helped me piece together my first quilt and then taught me to quilt by hand. I got about half way done and stopped. The process was very slow and I never put the time into it. It is still downstairs in a tupperware tub with the hoop waiting to be completed.
When Easton was born I wanted to revisit the world of quilting but I knew I needed a faster process. So the sandwich quilt was born. One large piece of fabric - batting - another large piece of fabric and sew. I had no idea what I was doing but I made several quilts that way and had a good time. (An entire quilt could be completed in one day)
Earlier this winter I started hanging out at the Among Friends Quilt Shop and going to their monthly sewing nights. It took only a few months of looking at the beautiful quilts and fabrics before I was ready to try it again. I knew this time that it was going to take more time but having 3 children has taught me patience so I was ready. I made my friend Candy a baby quilt for her new arrival (coming any day now!!) and used an actual quilt pattern. Thankfully it was a very forgiving pattern and hides most of my mistakes. And whatever mistakes were still visible were hidden by the professional quilting I had done.

I decided to try another one for Big Granny's upcoming 90th birthday party. I wanted to use a "traditional" pattern so I chose the Log Cabin/Courthouse Steps Block which uses a contrast of lights and darks of the same color family. Granny likes lavender so I found some fabric that went from a dark plum to a white with tiny rose/purple flowers.

Then I cut them into strips

Then I laid out the strips in the block design

Sewing the strips together via chain piecing (learned this one from the ladies at the shop!)

A stack of completed blocks

Laying out the blocks on the floor to decide a pattern

I used diagonal quilting lines to try and distract from where the blocks did not line up evenly. (As much as I LOVE the look from the professional quilting, I want to learn to do all the parts of the process myself - right now I'm limited to straight lines, but I'm working on learning stippling or other free motion techniques)

Binding by hand

Finished quilt!