A log cabin log cabin quilt

In my recent post where I shared my quilt plans for the year I mentioned my ‘stretch’ project to complete a quilt from the test blocks from Sherri at A Quilting Life’s mystery block a month quilt. And in fairness the January block was super cute and helped the idea to form. As I said I don’t know if I’ll manage it, but then again I won’t know unless I try will I…

My third donation quilt

I’ve named this one the log cabin log cabin quilt - a simple play on words that never fails to make me smile - with a little house in the middle there really was no other name for it. For non-quilters the pattern surrounding the central house is known as a log cabin block, traditionally with half using dark fabrics and the other half using light fabrics. Even from the start, when I pulled these orange and green fabrics from my stash it made me smile.

The benefits of doing test blocks was immediately apparent, as I lost the roof point in my first block (the alphabet house, bottom left in the image above), but I worked out what I’d done wrong and corrected that for the other three blocks. So for that alone it was worth doing - and knowing how to avoid that particular mishap in my own block of the month.

I started adding the log cabin borders, which when complete means the blocks measure 18 inches, and while there’s just four blocks they are a similar size to the previous quilts I’m donating. I needed to stop and reconsider my options as I’d miscalculated how much of the plain peach material I’d need, and how much I had. Which long story short, wasn’t enough for the remaining two blocks.

I thought about purchasing a small amount of a similar coloured fabric for continuity, but this went against my plan to use materials from my stash - and as you can see, I opted to use more of the alphabet fabric in its place. And then I needed to stop again, as I happily added the white and grey flowery fabric to the dark section instead of the light borders.

Some unpicking was required!

But I was soon back on track and ready to join the blocks and add the borders - you’d never know I’d run out of peach would you?

Around this time I took delivery of my new sewing machine, so this quilt was put to one side while I got used to that - but now it’s finished, and finished using my new machine - and I couldn’t be happier.

Some of the fabrics in this quilt I’ve had for a long time, and some are pre-loved fabrics from old clothes and even old curtains - but I’m glad they worked so well together and have this new lease of life. I’ve used the orange squared fabric (which was old curtains - you may recognise it as I also made myself a bag using this material last summer)

You can see my other quilts which I’ve made to donate to Project Linus - a charity whose mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children, who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, homemade, washable quilts and blankets, including those that are part of this ‘stretch’ project in earlier posts. I’m aiming to publish an update on my progress in the last week of each month for the remainder of 2025.

Loving Lisa Leverton's Tula Pink Obsession at the Newark Quilt Show

Each January Newark holds the first quilt show of the year, this was my second year attending - and, what a difference a year makes. This year I went along on both days, once with people from my sewing group and then again with my SIL. Last year I went alone, and knew no one - it was still a great day out, but this year it was good to have company. I also bumped into people I’d met on workshops, more sewing group people and I even did a workshop too - though I haven’t picked that up since, oops!

One of the series of quilts I was keen to see, and I knew my SIL would be too, were the Tula Pink fabrics and patterns in Lisa Leverton’s quilts. I’ve been seriously influenced on Tula Pink by my SIL and my EPP hexi sewing machine mat uses her fabrics - though on a much smaller scale!

In the show notes Lisa said that she didn’t discover Tula Pink until 2019 and she’s been smitten ever since. It’s easy to see why as the fabrics and patterns are bright and vibrant and tend to focus on animals big and small, and there’s so much detail in them. Lisa said that during lockdown she found more like-minded quilters who loved Tula too - there’s quite a following, and she hopes to make a quilt from every one of the fabric collections.

What she has already is an amazing start, and each is stunningly beautiful, here I’m sharing some of my favourites.

SET SAIL QUILT - 2022, LISA LEVERTON

I love the diamonds and the colours of this one - and that how, the more you look, the more you see!

URBAN JUNGLE QUILT - 2019, LISA LEVERTON

The colours! The patterns! What’s not to like? This is Lisa’s first quilt in Tula Pink fabric - it’s easy to see why she’s smitten, but all the fussy cutting might have done me in!

MISDIRECTION QUILT - 2023, LISA LEVERTON

This is the one I’d happily put on my bed - and it’s contributing to how I see my flying geese turning out, though I won’t be using Tula Pink fabrics, or these colours, but it’s helping me form what I want along with one or two other designs I’ve seen.

HIBISCUS QUILT - 2022, LISA LEVERTON

Again it’s the graduating colours for me in this one, this time against a plain light background - but if you look closely, there’s plenty of fussy cutting again in those blocks.

It’s all about the detail

In this next series of photos, it’s all about the detail in the fabrics - the quilts are equally stunning and Lisa is clearly a very talented quilter - as is Tula a very talented designer.

PART OF THE BIG BANG QUILT - 2024, LISA LEVERTON

PART OF THE BUTTERFLY QUILT - 2022, LISA LIVERTON

I think what amazes me about the fabrics is how the designs and part-patterns meld together so well and can look completely different from what it did on the bolt, or the cutting table in front of you. I guess that’s true of all fabrics, but perhaps it’s the boldness of the Tula Pink designs which makes this more prominent.

PART OF THE SPOOLS OF LOVE QUILT - 2020, LISA LEVERTON

And one final quilt

Yes, I couldn’t resist sharing this one. Lisa says this is possibly her favourite quilt of the whole collection, which she made in 2020 and her first encounter of very tiny HSTs (Half Square Triangles). The show notes say that Lisa loves how the colours pop, and the big on-point squares with the fussy-cut animals.

OPENING NIGHT QUILT - 2020, LISA LEVERTON

There were so many more inspiring quilts at the show, and many more which I want to share - so there’ll be at least one or two more posts, so look out for those. But in the meantime, enjoy these quilting works of art.

Mostly gold interiors inspiration

Unbelievably it has taken me this long to get myself back to Margo & Plum, which I first visited back in 2022 when we were still checking out if this was somewhere we wanted to move to. In that time it looks as if they’ve made Bottesford their base, and added a cafe too. Yes, I don’t know why it took me so long either, but on a particularly cold and grey February day we headed the eleven miles for lunch, and a spot of interiors spotting of the more opulent kind.

I surprised MOH by falling for this monkey clutching a bottle of wine (sadly empty) - and he’s right it’s not my usual style, but I while I left it there for now, I can see this coming home with us at some point. I think it would look great in our hallway, which is also our wine store area, but we’ve a little more work to do planning out how we can use this area better, and we shouldn’t skip straight to the ‘making it fancy’ stage. We shouldn’t, which is a shame!

They had plenty of other ‘gold’ items that would go alongside these - and that’s part of the reason the monkey stayed on the shelf, as I think there might also be accompanying purchases when the time comes, just to make him feel at home of course.

Perhaps this pair of leopard candle holders?

Though I’d put these in our lounge, which incidentally is where my ornate green vase with exotic birds also lives. MOH bought the vase as a surprise birthday present a few years ago, and he did good. It was funny though as he remembered it, and how much I liked it, but couldn’t remember where we’d seen it and so spent hours internet searching - thing is, if he’d read my blog, he would have had his answer much more easily. Has he learned his lesson? Absolutely not!

Or perhaps a pineapple? Though I was torn between the gold metal and the green glass versions…

Or the bottle stop with extra bling? Though to be fair we don’t often have much use for a bottle stop, but I don’t see that as a reason not to have this bling-y one, as you never know when you’ll need one!

I didn’t leave completely empty handed though - the coasters under the bottle stop came home with us, along with some fake eucalyptus stems which I’m using in a vintage enamel jug along with fresh stems, to bulk them out a bit!

So not my usual style, but each of the things above would easily fit into our home alongside things we already have, and which we’ve bought to furnish our new home. MOH knows we’ll be back, it’s just a matter of when!

Lunch at the Margo & Plum cafe

Having the cafe is a real boon for the shop, and it was busy which is always a good sign - especially when it’s a little off the beaten track. It also provided an extended showroom space, showcasing how their items could be used, which is also clever.

But the star of the show was this fantastic jukebox.

Isn’t it great? And it was on ‘free play’ so even better - I think we’ll be back for this alone. Well, and the monkey and a slice of cake of course!