January Log Cabin - 1. Fabric choice (Scrap)

For January we are going to work on a Log Cabin 12" block.  The strips will all be precut which means you are going to know straight away if your 1/4" seam allowance is off. 
Rather than posting the whole instructions, we are going to work off this tutorial:
http://www.quilt.com/Blocks/LogCabin/LogCabin.html

Its well layed out with all the instructions, so those that are able to can zoom ahead.

First job - select your fabrics.  I've raided my fabric stash and decided to do a scrap block in blues and light backgrounds.  So I've picked everything out in the palette, ironed them, and cast a discerning eye over them.

You can see there are a range of blues here.  Not all the same colour, but the only one that stands out to me as being "wrong" is the light blue, 3rd from the left.  I'm concerned that if I put that one in the mix, it will detract from the blue side of the cabin.  The other ones are OK, but I will have to be careful cutting the pieces as with large prints you can interrupt the effect by putting in a huge chunk of green island!

After rejigging, this is my fabric line up - ironed and ready to cut.  There is a strong contrast between both sides without anything standing out too much.


Now if I was going to do this quilt as a properly coordinated print, I would choose a central theme or fabric.  If you look at my Northern Stars Quilt you can see that there is a theme through the blocks.  Its hard to tell until you put the border on in this case, but the central fabric is a large blue/green/cream rose floral.  Everything in the quilt is chosen around that.

So if you wanted to coordinate this, find a fabric that you like, and choose maybe 10-12 coordinating fabrics.
Next post: Fabric Choice (coordinated)