Fall, Finally and Artful Log Cabin

Waking up to 50 degree temps is a joy! This has been a busy week, finding time for working on my Artful Log Cabin after Katie Pasquini Masopust taught the class. She loved our Pine Belt Quilters raffle quilt, Home Tweet Home, and wanted to buy tickets as soon as they were printed. Katie is famous for Log Cabin quilts and makes lots with her sisters every year, so it was quite a thrill for her to give our quilt her stamp of approval! It was pieced by Mary Ann Scruggs and Frances Good, appliqued by Linda Flanders, and quilted by Susie Jackson.

Katie admires "Home Tweet Home" with Mary Ann Scruggs and Anne Kelley

October Thursdays are for Brown Bag Concerts in downtown Hattiesburg sponsored by the Hattiesburg Arts Council. This week's guest was the USM Jazztet led by Dr. Larry Panella, director of jazz studies at USM. Lunch was furnished by the Thirsty Hippo. It was a fun hour for a large crowd in the park with perfect fall weather.

Nicholas Brown, Ziggy, and Dr. Larry Panella (Vincent and Brandon behind them)

I finished a ghost quilting piece for our Shared Fiber Art exchange in Southern Fiber Artists. Here is the raw material and the finished piece. I also worked on an Improve piece I call Improv Zebras (because of the two strips of zebra fabric contained).

My artful log cabin will be inspired by a picture I took of one of my newly hatched black swallowtail butterflies on my portulaca. It isn't a direct representation--just a way of selecting colors for the Log Cabin blocks.

My inspiration photo

Beginning the process

It is a messy process

Tarbaby demands attention by sitting on what I am trying to work on

   Our Pine Belt Quilters are hosting the Fall Gathering of Mississippi Quilt Association this weekend. The theme of our decorating is Log Cabins and we will display some quilts made by our members. My Friendship Log Cabin quilt uses traditional Log Cabin blocks as the background behind a collection of tree blocks I received in a friendship block swap in 2005. Well, actually I won a set of basket blocks. Later another quilter won these various-sized tree blocks and I talked her into exchanging them for my basket blocks because I wanted the challenge of setting them. I had the large block left from a class in Houston several years earlier.

Friendship Log Cabin, 80" x 91"

 My Japanese Lanterns quilt is called a Courthouse Steps, which is another Log Cabin variation.

Japanese Lanterns, 90" x 105"

My granddaughter Christy Ginn stopped at a Texas welcome station on her way back home with her adopted dog Stella.