Courthouse Steps Log Cabin Quilt

I was about to ship a fairly recently finished quilt to its new owners when I realized that I hadn't taken any photos of it. Now that I've done that, I thought I'd share them.

The quilt is a modern take on the classic "courthouse steps" variation of a log cabin. It has a modern feel to it because each block, at eighteen inches square, is unusually large. It took only twenty blocks to make a full-size quilt!

My fabric choices, a combination of contemporary graphics, batiks, stylized images and low volume backgrounds, further contribute to the modern feel.

I quilted it on an APQS long-arm machine (thanks once again to everyone at Over the Top Quilting for their help), using the block by block feature to ensure the quilt design perfectly aligned with the pieced blocks. The resulting secondary diamond pattern turns out to be more prominent than the original star design. I added circles between the stars to fill in a large open space and to give a little relief from all the straight lines.

I finished it off with a crisp blue on blue striped binding.

I hope this quilt's new owners are as pleased with it as I am! It's making me think it might be time to start yet another log cabin quilt. 

Three Little Quilts

Over the course of the last year I pieced a dozen quilt tops, but never quilted any of them because Covid temporarily closed the studio I where I was planning to rent time on a long arm machine, and then I got in the habit of staying home and didn't re-book time to quilt. Now that establishments are opening up and I have one vaccine in my arm I am venturing out more and finally made it into the studio. 

I spent a long afternoon at Over the Top Quilting Studio in Cedar Park, Texas, and got three small tops quilted. (Photographing your children in the bluebonnets is a springtime ritual in Texas, so naturally I photographed a couple of these babies in the bluebonnets.) The idea for this first one, a cross quilt, came from the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild and was a great way to use up a bunch of larger scraps and some not so favorite fabrics.

I've previously shared a photo of this one, called "Blues Around the World," when it was just a finished top. I hand pieced it, using up a lot of scraps, during various travels before the world shut down due to the pandemic.

I think this cheater panel from Denyse Schmidt makes a really fun back for it.

Speaking of Denyse Schmidt, this next top is from the Free-Wheeling Single Girl quilt along she led last year. It's a little wonky because I sketched my own paper templates and pieced the circles by hand without being terribly fussy about accuracy. I've finally made myself honest by buying a set of the acrylic templates -- Denyse deserves to be paid for her creative work. I know I should have made more of an effort to pay sooner, but better late than never.  

As for the quilting, I used APQS's QuiltPath on a Millie long arm machine to quickly and accurately quilt closely spaced straight lines. Just set it up and let it go.

Now that I've got these three completely finished, it's time to reserve another block of time at the quilt studio. I should note that I felt completely safe spending hours at Over the Top Quilting Studio because they follow strict health safety guidelines to protect themselves and their customers. It doesn't detract at all from the fun of quilting with like-minded crafters.

Moosely Mornings, Snowy Days

One Thursday evening last month we arrived in Jackson Hole in the midst of a snowstorm and I was more impressed than ever with the skills of pilots who fly large jets in and out of the Jackson Hole airport.  Situated within Grand Teton National Park at about 6,000 feet of elevation, surrounded by mountains (hence "Hole" in the name Jackson Hole), and having only one short runway, which, by the way, cannot be salted due to park regulations, the airport has more than its share of exhilarating landings, especially when the weather is bad.

Fortunately, Jackson Hole has plenty to entice the winter visitor to put up with potentially scary travel.  Abundant wildlife, magnificent scenery, and fabulous skiing combine to set Jackson Hole apart from other ski destinations.

So much of the valley is national park, national forest, or other protected land that it has an abundance of wildlife.  During our short stay we saw a variety of waterfowl as well as deer, elk - both inside and outside the National Elk Refuge - and moose.  In fact, we saw moose every morning of our stay, the most notable being a large bull browsing right outside the house in which we stayed.

Moose are incredibly well adapted to cold climates.  With seemingly leisurely strides, their long legs move them rapidly even in the deepest snow.  More remarkable is how they survive by eating the young parts of trees and shrubs.

Bull moose browsing on aspen branches

Cow moose on the lookout for tasty branches

Jackson Hole is, of course, well known for its scenery.  During this visit heavy snow obscured the big peaks of Grand Teton National Park and made us focus on the valley's more intimate scenes. 

Dinner time along Spring Gulch Road

Bar BC Ranch fence

I used the snowy day palette of pale blues and white with brown and green highlights to make another top to practice my long arm quilting skills.

Practice quilt, machine pieced and machine quilted

As a ski area Jackson Hole stands out for its extensive, varied, and steep terrain and for its snow.  We were fortunate to have from 6 to 18 inches of fresh snow each day that we skied.  Wow!  With almost non-stop snow the light was rather flat so we stayed mostly in the trees, which afforded better visibility and numerous beautiful lines through uncut powder. 

Along "Slalom," one of the few open runs we skied

I imitated the sinuous curves of ski tracks for some of the quilting.