Inspiration from hubris

This is part of my view from my sewing machine:

I've been staring at these appliqued panels for years. I'd been thinking of turning them into pillows, but that idea never really took off. I'd also been thinking of sticking them on a back of a quilt, just to get them used, but that seemed a disservice to the hours of work I put into them.

Then it occurred to me this morning: showcase them with log cabin blocks. I recently bought Judy Martin's latest book "Extraordinary Log Cabin Quilts" and there are a plethora of patterns and settings that can be adapted to surrounding square panels such as these. This is just a sampling (the back cover of her book):

I've got plenty of whites, off-whites, grays, tans, browns, and blacks that could be used for the log cabins. Despite the fact that a log cabin block was what first intrigued me when I was introduced to quilting, I've never made a log cabin quilt!

These panels were part of a 12-month series of appliqued blocks. My bee (back in the 1990s) started making them, but the patterns had been copied so many times that the shapes were distorted and asymmetrical. The first thing I did was redraft all 12 months before cutting out all the pieces.

I made only these two before setting the project aside. When I pulled it out again years later, I realized the only reason I started these was to show that I could do a better job of "perfect" applique than the others. What a truly shameful reason for joining in! With that realization, it was easy to toss all those little black pieces and return the 10 remaining gray and tan panels to the stash for other (honest and honorable) projects.