Nothing finished, but plenty done

So we've managed to slide head-first into the first week of June!

After finishing the last log cabin, started by someone else and supplemented by me, I wanted to make another one right away using Elaine Adair's "Scrappy Rebuilt Log Cabin" pattern. It's intrigued me for years. I also had a drawer still crammed with scraps and strips gleaned from the CF!Q bins during The Great Reorganization, and felt they'd be perfect for this kind of project.

Many days were spent cutting 1.5" strips into the proper lengths for a traditional log cabin block. Having just worked with 40 blocks that seemed to have been constructed using the 'sew it down then trim it off' method of building, and not being terribly impressed with the results, I wanted to make blocks using known lengths.

That's what I've been nibbling at these past weeks, usually able to get at least one more round onto the 63 blocks each day. This drawer had been stuffed with those scraps and strips at the end of April, designated for log cabin blocks. That's progress!

 

The other puttering project has been the Sugar Skull quilt, on which I've been quilting a block of heart meanders a day, on average.

Today though, my day "off", I had determined would be devoted to getting borders put on Celia's 'Joie de Vivre' top. I'd sewn on the final piece yesterday and was excited to get the finishing underway.

I'd initially thought my first step would be to iron the whole thing, and I was not looking forward to wrangling the queen-sized flimsy on my little ironing surface! Further contemplation led to the conclusion that only the edges needed ironing, and further contemplation led to the realization that--ironing be damned--I only needed to trim the excess from the overhanging pieces, secure those edges to the border, then proceed from there.

So I started trimming, aligning the ruler's 1/4" line to the finished edge of some of the blocks, and hacking off the rest. Nerve-wracking? You bet!

"Orange" hexies trimmed. Blue and black next on the chopping block.

After getting one long side trimmed down, I pinned the center and one end to a border piece (already cut to the length maths would indicate it was supposed to be, all things being perfect), holding it all taut on my dining room/basting table with binder clips.

Initially I had diligently marked the center, quarter, and eighth positions on the border fabric with straight pins, but it soon became apparent that most of those pins weren't going to line up neatly to anything on the flimsy. The center pin was all that was needed.

With everything taut, it was just a matter of securing the places where the raw edges came together, leaving room for the basting stitch to come.

Basted.

Now I can pick out the bottom hand-basting stitches on the full hexies, iron out those bottom edges to meet the border fabric's edge, then stitch it all down securely (by machine) using the standard 1/4" seam.

As I was working on this over the years, I had always imagined using a 7-hexie "flower" in the border corners. Recently when I realized how big of a border that would create (overwhelmingly big with all that black?) I decided to incorporate a single hexie. As luck would have it, there were four orphaned hexies just waiting for something to do and somewhere to be.

Consequently, I still have a bit of hand-sewing to do before the borders are complete, but that's just fine with me. A small project is easier to pull out and stuff away at a moment's notice, and I've got lots and lots of black kona scraps that'll be used up making these squares.

Hmmm. Another month until the borders are on and this is ready for a backing?