Summer Crush

a new charity quilt project

In June it’s my turn to lead the collaborative charity quilt for the Comfort circle of do. Good Stitches. I think my bee mates will enjoy an easy, feel-good project so I’ve requested quarter log cabin blocks a lá my Lake Cabin quilt pattern.

The scrap-friendly blocks are set on point and sashed, so that the background color can pull the whole thing together, just as with Parsnips quilt. That’s an easy win for a collaborative quilt.

For color inspiration, I’m drawn to these two collages, made them once upon a time for the Summer Crush fabric mosaic contest.

I’ve decided on Kona School Bus orange for my background, apparently because I’m feeling brave. Also because I have two cuts of it somehow, an accidental duplicate purchase.

Now the last time that I worked with orange as the dominant color, orange ruined everything. Have I learned anything? Have I further developed my color prowess? Only time will tell…

In any case, I’m excited by this palette! The blocks should be blue, aqua, green, yellow and pink. No purple. No red. No orange. I’ll ask my bee mates to avoid dark colors, leaning toward clean colors and the ice cream shades of summer. Each block should also include a black/white or gray/white print, plus ideally a striped or checkered element.

Lake Cabin blocks begin with a chunky square. Here are the four I’ve selected for my four example blocks.

Next I sketched out my log cabin layers for each block, just arranging scrap fabrics on the orange background.

I love cutting and sewing according to this pattern. Lake Cabin is one of my patterns where the cutting is minimal (scrap friendly!) and the pieces are oversized, so that you can easily trim the final block to a perfect square. It’s just easy and relaxed that way. I hope my bee mates enjoy it too.

Four finished blocks! Now my bee mates can really visualize the direction that I have in mind. Looking forward to receiving little packages of Summer Crush-colored Lake Cabin blocks in the weeks to come!