Sky Cabin SAL - Week 1-5

Week 1 - Fabric

This marks the first week of Toad & Sew’s Sky Cabin sew along and it is all about picking fabric. Seeing that I am running low on both space to store fabric and gift cards to my local fabric shop I am opting to try and use some from my stash/left overs from other projects. That being said, most of the (solid) fabric I have on hand is (surprise) green. 11 shades of green to be precise. Since I don’t have the yardage that the pattern calls for in any one shade I am trying to make scrappy work. I made some mock-ups on QuiltInk to see what it might look like and I am kind of in love? But I am also kind of on the fence because going off script makes me very nervous and will likely require me to cut piecemeal, instead of sub-cutting strips, and that can take forever…

I tried to base my mock-ups on the amount of each color I have but there will definitely be some improvising along the way.

The fabrics I have at my disposal in various amounts are as follows:

Kona Cotton Solids - Eucalyptus, Tarragon, Celadon, Ivy, Cactus, O.D. Green, Palm, Basil, Avocado, Hunter Green, Evergreen and Putty, the background fabric (not green but also from a previous project).

There is an electrical panel in our spare room that I would like to hide from prying eyes so I might make the wallhanging size but I also want to make this pattern into either a throw or bed size quilt because… I mean just look at it! Luckily, the wall hanging and throw-size both use the same sized blocks so if I get to the end of my four wall hanging blocks and I have the mettle (and fabric) to keep going, I might!

It’s kind of fun looking at the various projects that these colors were originally selected for and how differently they look when combined with other palettes.

Week 2 - Cut & Log Cabin Blocks

Due to some books I wasn’t able to put down, I was worried I wouldn’t get this week’s task finished on time but I pulled myself out of reading long enough to get my pieces cut and my log cabin blocks sewn together.

I was able to follow the written instructions to cut the log cabin pieces since I was sticking to the fabric requirements there. It all went a little sideways after that. Somewhere in the depths of my brain I knew that I needed to cut two of the same color strips for each quarter of the “stars” because when you make half square rectangles you end up with two identical ones and you can’t rotate them like you would a half square triangle (if you rotate them they end up in the orientation as you started). I made a note for myself about this and how many of each color I would need to cut but when the rotary cutter came out I forget everything and didn’t cut enough. I will need to go back and cut some more before next week.

Putting log these log cabins together was incredibly relaxing. Strip piecing each block made it go by quickly and the colors I picked make me calm. Maybe that is why I always gravitate towards them.

Week 3 - Half-Square Triangles

Sine making the HSTs was a breeze I combined weeks 3 and 4 and made (and trimmed) all of the HRTs as well. When I was calculating the DIY cutting requirements for this scrappy-ish version of the Sky Cabin Quilt pattern I actually did it right. But only because my fabrics are solid/double-sided. Had I been using a print that only one side could be facing up I would have needed to cut some extra pieces to make the pattern correctly.

Week 4 - Half-Rectangle Triangles

For the first time making HRTs I think they turned out pretty well. Even with my ruler marked incorrectly for the first couple of trims.

When I started trimming my HRTs I was not wholly prepared for how much needed to be cut off! I thought I would need to remake the first unit I trimmed because it became so much smaller but the measurements were correct.

Please enjoy a still life of all the trimmings I made while making this quilt.

Week 5 - Finish Top

Other than the pattern itself, I didn’t buy anything new for this quilt. All of the fabric, for the top and backing, was from previous projects and the batting was frankenstein-ed together to making something big enough to fit. We have been working on the airstream rather consistently these last few weeks so I wasn’t able to completely finish my sky cabin quilt but the top is done, basted and ready for quilting.

I am really happy with how this turned out. Going off script always scares me but I have yet to be disappointed with the outcome.

Stay tuned for the finished wall hanging!