So what you’re saying is that by harmonizing all these different elements,
you’re creating kind of continuity in the piece?
No, what I’m saying is I don’t want to end up with some damn ugly quilt.
– How to Make an American Quilt
Who remembers my recent log cabin post?
In which I made a log cabin block, and, in a fit of ambition, joined a log cabin challenge and swore I’d have a log cabin quilt, made up only of scraps, at the end of the year?
Well, I tried. I really did. I made the February block. And I didn’t like it.
So I made another February block. Once again, I did not like it.
I don’t know if I’m just short on the number of scraps required to make a log cabin block actually look like something other than a hot mess, or if I just don’t have an eye for the log cabin. But, I am, as they say, so over it.
Hambone asked me what I thought I was doing wrong. I told him that everything would look fine during assembly, but once I had two or three blocks, the whole thing would look messy and disjointed.
“I think all log cabin quilts look that way,” said Hambone.
“You do? Well then, to hell with log cabins!”
I value Hambone’s opinion in that, when I ask his advice on a quilt, he tends to point out something I haven’t thought of, and that leads me to make good decisions. Never mind that I usually do the opposite of what he suggests - it’s the discussion that matters, right?
So he was pretty shocked that I swore off log cabins then and there.
“You’re going to stop making a quilt because I don’t like log cabins?”
“No,” I said. “I’m going to stop because I don’t like the quilt. I’m not going to start again because there’s no point in making a quilt you’re not going to like. I can just make something else.”
By the way, I quite like what Jenna is working on at the moment. But I wouldn’t choose to make that myself, which is a pretty good indication of why the log cabin-along was a bad idea from the start. Every now and again, we quilters have to admit to ourselves that there is not time in a lifespan to make everything we might want to. It’s not a fun realization, but it is part of what makes a handmade item beautiful and special.
The original, cute block, by the way, was easy enough to make into a pillow, and is now on sale at Angelfish & Co. I may be a quitter, but I’m a resourceful quitter!