Bushel Basket/Log Cabin Squares

So pleased with this top, I cannot save it for Friday!  I had so much fun (and made quite a mess!) making the blocks and playing around with colour combinations.  Blogged about it here first (scroll to the end of the post).

It is so satisfying to take a bundle of skinny strips and make neat little blocks which stack up nicely ready to be stitched together.  I worked on them over a few days, here and there in between all the other tasks which needed doing.  Stitch a few, press a few, repeat.  Each time I got to add a new colour I felt a little burst of excitement. Simple pleasures...

I am including lots of pictures so you can see the variety of fabrics I was able to use (and use up!). The palette is predominantly country/traditional (though I think it would look fab in modern brights too) as those were the oldest scraps, the ones I was most keen to use.

You may be able to spot lots of Thimbleberries fabrics left over from the two Thimbleberries scrap quilts I made last year, which in turn were left over from another Thimbleberries quilt I no longer have (I always over-purchase fabric for projects...), but I also managed to slip in a few batiks in murky colours, and some checks and simple stripes which always give a bit of life to a quilt, I feel.

And how perfect is this floral backing I had in my stash, bought in a sale a year or two ago because I loved it so much.  So this really is a quilt top from stash - best kind for assuaging my guilt over past excessive purchases...

Some vital statistics to finish off: the top measures 56" x 64"; there are 168 x 4 1/2" blocks (finished size) set 12 x 14 blocks.  Most of the centre squares are 1 1/2" finished with three rounds of 'logs', but about 20 blocks have 2 1/2" finished size centres and only two rounds of logs.  The logs finish at 1/2", having been cut  from 1" strips.

The block is a classic Log Cabin variation where the logs are added in opposite pairs (as for Courthouse Steps) but with just one colour/fabric in each complete round.  I was inspired to make the quilt by the Bushel Basket quilt in Edyta Sitar's book, Scrappy Firework Quilts published by Landauer in 2012, but I decided not to include the 6" strippy border.

Hope to get this one quilted quite soon: I have a bit of a quilting backlog...