My First Instagram Block Swap

It seemed that they were the never ending blocks. I sewed round after round, but they never seemed to get any bigger. Finally after three full days of sewing, my Bonnie and Camille Log Cabin Block Swap blocks are complete and in the mail - with two days to spare on the October 1 deadline.

I loved the look of these wonky log cabin blocks when Moda Lissa - Lissa Alexander, Director of Marketing at Moda - started sharing photos of her log cabin block swap this summer on Instagram. She invited her Moda designer friends to make red, white and blue blocks, cut them up and swap them with each other to create quilts. So when I saw that an Instagram log cabin block swap was happening using Bonnie and Camille fabric, I couldn't resist. I have never participated in a block swap, but decided I was up to the challenge.

The block starts with a 5" square - I used a charm pack of Hello Darling by Bonnie and Camille. Strips of varying widths (1" to 2 1/2") are sewn around the center square to form the log cabin. I used a jelly roll of Miss Kate and one of Hello Darling. Strips are added until the block is slightly larger than 16 1/2", at which point they are squared up to 16 1/2". A final round of 2 1/2" strips are added to make the final block 20 1/2" square. Then the block is cut both vertically and horizontally down the center to create four quarter blocks.  The block instructions are found in the  book "Sunday Morning Quilts" by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison.

I made a total of 12 big blocks. After cutting, I kept one square from each block and the other 36 remaining blocks were mailed to the swap hosts, who will mix the blocks all up and redistribute 36 blocks back to each of the participants. I'm excited to see what fabrics are in the blocks I get back. I also like blocks with a good variety of fabric widths in the strips, so hopefully I'll get back blocks that will create really wonky finished log cabins.

I do think that the uncut large blocks would make a very pretty quilt too!

This would be a great scrap busting quilt. I have seen a couple of different layouts from this block swap, so I may have to make more than one - yup, another idea to add to that never ending to-do list!

Are you participating in the Bonnie and Camille Log Cabin Block Swap on Instagram? Give me a shout out! Have you seen a cool layout using this log cabin block technique? Please share a picture or website addy!

~Sharla

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