Need Quilting help for Log Cabin top
 

Hello! I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what pattern(s) to use for this log cabin quilt top for my mother. Its 96 x 96 so not a small quilt by any means.....at least for me its the largest one I've made. My mother doesn't care what I put on it so she's no help to me. I've tried to find other log cabin quilts for ideas but still nothing is catching my eye. I have a robotic system which I use most all the time.........in fact all the time as I had an 18 inches machine and just got a new 26" Innova this past Tuesday. I still have lots of practice to do but that's all the fun of a new toy. I'll be getting the robotics installed on her in December so I won't be starting the log cabin till the new year. Any suggestions would be helpful. Here's a photo of it. Sorry if the photo is so large. Haven't posted much here to know how to do it correctly. It was so large I had to lay it on the driveway to photograph it back when I lived in Florida. I'm now in Iowa.

Thanks,

Suz in Iowa

Hi, I've made several log cabin quilts and this is how I quilt them. I quilt around the center square (some times called the chimney) then around each row of logs. What I end up with is a square within a square with in a square etc....I hope you can understand this. The finished effect is quite beautiful.......

I can't help with quilting ideas, but wanted to tell you your quilt is beautiful.

Love Log Cabins and you have a winner there.

I've seen a number of log cabin quilting patterns that quilt each block, in 2 patterns (one for the light, and one for the dark section). For example, a stitch-in -the-ditch for one side, and a feather in the other. I think something like this would be beautiful to accentuate your pattern.

Feathers would look great in the white space. Here's a close-up picture I took at Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in 2008 of Judy Martin's Snake River Log Cabin. I've put feathers in my log cabins, never quite this successfully.

Charisma has a number of log cabins on here and her website and she does lots of feathers like the image above. It almost looks like a river flowing throught he light space.

My log cabin is similiar to yours, and Charisma did mine. Love how it turned out.

These Log Cabin Quilts are all just wonderful. Anybody that thinks Log Cabin Quilts are plain janes should look at these posted!!!

Chris

The quilts posted are just marvelous!
But if you'd like to use a more traditional design, the Baptist Fan was commonly used on these quilts over 125 years ago.

Jan in VA

Shoot, wish the photo was larger.

I'm no help as I have the same problem once I finish a top. I just wanted to say that your LC is very lovely. The suggestions so far are wonderful.

Same here... very pretty!!

I totally agree!

i would probably do feathers in the white area & baptist fans in the colored areas...it is beautiful!

Very beautiful log cabins, Will have to look up that Snake River pattern and see the whole thing. When I hand quilted my log cabin, I went around the center square and then around the logs. I liked how it turned out.
Pat

I'm a feather girl and think every quilt needs a few feathers. I was just looking at a magazine that had feathers that looked like the went under one block and came out on the other side. Very interesting. Hugs.

My avatar is a log cabin quilt that I had professionally quilted. It's done with an all over large meander/stipple. The borders are done in feathers and curves and the corners are outline quilted. Hope you get some good ideas from all the posts.

I think feathers in the white make a very striking quilt. The quilting on the colored part is not as obvious so you could do SID or any other design of your choice. I'm a feather fan.

Thanks to all who responded to my plight. This morning I went thru the quilt photos for all the log cabins and saw such beautiful quilts there. I'm in awe!!!! After so many suggestions, I'm considering the baptist fan for one half with a feather in the white half. Of course the borders have to have feathers as one person stated all quilts should have feathers. Yes, I love feathers to but am unable to free motion them so will have to rely on the robotics to do the work for me. I haven't been in the quilting hobby that long but I keep trying new quilt patterns and then design the quilting patterns to go with them. I think that's the hardest part of all excluding deciding on the fabrics. I did notice one quilt had a special feather type medallion in the center block and then some fluid motion pattern on the remainder of the quilt. Another suggestion I might consider. Will have to put it all in my ProQ Designer program to see what it will look like. Love that program as you can lay out the entire quilt with a photo of your actual quilt behind it to give you a almost real idea what is could look like.

Again, thanks for all your suggestions.

Suz in Iowa

I agree with the above. With the log cabin design being so linear, I think any curved design would help to offset the totally linear design.

AWESOME. BrendaK

I wish I had seen this sooner. I did my first feathers just last night on a table runner. It turned out ok but now I see how they should be done.
I have to admit I cringed when I saw your quilt on the driveway. Of course, I am thinking of my dirty driveway!
Your quilt is gorgeous!

I recently completed one (handquilted) that was 98x85 and did the simple outline stitch in each log and center....1/4 inch from each seam on all seams. It was very simple but in keeping with the barn raising design used. Loved it. It was for a fundraiser and raised $1050. Yea! :)

Magnificent quilt, love the colours will be interesting to see how you decide to quilt it, I would keep it simple, the design has its own beauty.

No suggestions for quilting but just have to say: what a beautiful quilt!

Since you have a quilt robot...I'd Choose a pretty design for the white areas...feathers or a meandering flowering vine...and then a motif for the center in a matching design. The blue areas are not going to show quilting as much...so maybe a wavy ribbon around the dark blue area. A ribbon effect is easy to achieve..do a meandering line, and go back over it and cross over the curve in the meandering line at the same place of each curve...try doodling one. I have one that I did in my software..added a bow I found online to each corner...worked up nicely. Even ditch stitching would work in the darker area...especially to seperate the white from the prints. Extra work, but it's for your mom!

Your quilt is awesome. As for the quilting I like what crazythread suggested. Have to admit I'm not into lots of heavy quilting but it would seem a shame to me to detract from your beautiful quilt

beautiful...............

I wouldn't presume to advise you on the quilting, bur just want you to know that your quilt is beautiful.

I too like the Baptist Fan the curve with all the straights. But I like the feathers also.