Hamptons Cabin

As soon as I saw this feature fabric, I was in love! It sat for quite some time, in the company of a few complementary fabrics, just waiting for the right project to come to mind. While trawling through Linda Seward’s book Country Quilts, I spied a log cabin quilt on a bed; not an ordinary log cabin, but one with a big centre. That sent the brain into a spin, and the body to sit in front of the computer and EQ5, and here’s the result.

If you’d like to make one too, here’s how.

This is a big quilt! The blocks are 21″ finished. I made 16 blocks and with borders the quilt measures 88 1/2″ square. So it’s not an ordinary log cabin; one of this size is surely more of a Hamptons style “cabin” – hence the name!! Of course, you don’t need to make this size.

Fabric:
2.5m feature fabric
minimum of 12 fabrics for “logs” – I used 25 fabrics in fat quarters, 25cm and 30cm pieces.

This is a great stash buster! Quite a few of my fabrics were all used up (yay!). And if you run out of something, just choose another!

(As the strips are cut at 2 1/2″, you could use a spare jelly roll…or 2!!)

Cutting:
From the feature fabric cut 4 strips at 2 1/2″ along the length of the selvedge – these will become the border strips.
From the balance of the fabric, cut 16 squares at 9 1/2″. I chose to random-ish cut, rather than strict fussy cutting.

From the log fabrics, cut around 4 or 5 strips from each, selvedge to selvedge, at 2 1/2″ – these will be cut to the required lengths as you go.

There are 12 logs in each block. I cut and stitched each block individually. The logs are cut as follows.

Log 1 = 9 1/2″
Log 2 = 11 1/2″
Log 3 = 11 1/2″
Log 4 = 13 1/2″
Log 5 = 13 1/2″
Log 6 = 15 1/2″
Log 7 = 15 1/2″
Log 8 = 17 1/2″
Log 9 = 17 1/2″
Log 10 = 19 1/2″
Log 11 = 19 1/2″
Log 12 = 21 1/2″

Lay out the centre square and all the logs; I chose to start the logs at the bottom of the centre square and work anti-clockwise. No reason, it’s just how I felt at the time! BUT it is important to choose a starting point and direction and work consistently in that format!

Start stitching with log 1 onto the centre square…

a word to the wise: I found it helpful to lay the stitched section back into the surrounding logs, orienting the stitched section correctly, in order to pick up the correct next log and sewing it in the correct order!!

Sew log 2 on.

I placed a pin at the top and bottom of each seam, just to help keep the corners square and the fabrics even…

Press the seams as you go, away from the centre square…

Continue adding strips…

working anti-clockwise…

’til before you know it…

the block is complete!

Once cut, each block took me less then 10 minutes to stitch up. So it’s quick, the blocks are large, there’s not many to make, and before too long, they need to be laid out, 4 x 4, sewn together into rows, then rows together to form the top, then you’re ready for borders!

I attached the borders in log cabin fashion too, *so:

the first border was cut to 84 1/2″ and stitched to the bottom of the quilt top
the second border was cut to 86 1/2″ and stitched to the left side
the third border was also cut to 86 1/2″ and stitched to the top
and the fourth border was cut to 88 1/2″ and stitched to the right side

I haven’t decided yet how to quilt mine; I’m tempted to use perle thread and big stitch down the centre of each log and “log cabin” in the centre square……or I could send it out to be machine quilted in an overall pattern. Will update this page and let you know once I’ve decided! (Don’t hold your breath!)

I’m going to turn the left over log strips into a scrappy binding….no waste here!!

Hope you enjoy making your Hamptons Cabin as much as I did…..I’d love to see photos of what you do!!

* Please measure your top before cutting your borders in case your top measures differently to mine!