Formulating a Quilting Plan

In my last post I made reference to joining in with Aby Quilts to complete an unfinished quilt each quarter. I'm actually hoping to complete three this first quarter - all of them for the Faith Circle of do. Good Stitches. Last year, with moving to our new home, I was able to coordinate the planning of these quilts from my circle, but not able to pull off getting them completed. Now that the new year is upon us I will be coordinating two quilts in 2018, so I need to get myself in gear and finish the 2017 quilts.

First up is the green and blue improv log cabin quilt. I am thrilled with how saturated the colors are in this quilt top. Yesterday I got it pin basted using a nice open space on the basement floor. It just took a little over an hour to baste this 48" square quilt. The challenge was to keep our dog from walking back and forth on it while I was working. At one point she even decided to lay down on it. Maybe that means it's snuggle worthy?

All smoothed out and ready to pin baste

As it was spread out on the floor I mulled over how I'd like to quilt it. Options considered include:

• Edge to edge straight line quilting using painters tape as a guide
• Grid quilting using painters tape as a guide
• All over meander/stipple and possibly include loops
• Flame/wood grain quilting the individual squares

It's been a while since I've done any free-motion quilting so I think it's time to give it some practice again. As I've written about before, I have a pretty small Janome domestic sewing machine. It can be a challenge to use it for quilting; however, for the most part I've been pretty happy with what I've been able to do with this machine. I decided to try the flame/wood grain design in each individual square. This saves me from having to feed large sections of the quilt through my machine as I will only be working on one square at a time. I'll start by stitching-in-the-ditch along the seams where the blocks are joined. This will stabilize the quilt sandwich, and allow me to stitch along this same line as I work back and forth in the wood grain design. 

Searching for quilting options in my reference books

I have a couple of great books I've written about before that are so helpful with learning about developing the skills needed with free-motion quilting. I pulled them out along with an old composition book (left over from my son's schooling days!) and practiced sketching out the design.

Sketching out the wood grain design

I'm thinking I will alternate the direction of the wood grain stitching from block to block. I also plan to use up various shades of blue and green thread I was gifted from a friend whose mother used to quilt. Here's to a good plan, now wish me luck as I get started! 

Bear Garden Cabin - almost ready

It's been awhile since I've shared an update on our log home. I'm thrilled to report that it is almost ready for us to move! It's been such a journey to build this home. I'm writing this post as a bit of a journal to record details for myself, so you may want to skim if you just want to see the pictures :o)

Almost all the work on the exterior is now finished

This picture was taken a month ago - since then the gravel driveway has been put down and grass seed/straw cover the bare soil. The exterior of our cabin is stained with Perma-Chink in the Lifeline Ultra 7 Cedar color. I've read that this "reddish" color is traditional for the region we live in. We actually chose it because darker stain is supposed to provide more UV protection for the logs than lighter stain. We didn't want to go with a dark brown, so we selected Cedar since it is midway between the color choices. I love how rich it looks with the green trim.

Steep drop-off behind the house

Behind the house our builder had to move a lot of soil so that there is a bit of space before it starts to drop off down the mountain. We will need to either plant ground cover, or put in some type of retaining wall to prevent the soil from eroding away. The tall corner posts up on the deck were my request. We have something similar at our current house so I can hang baskets of flowers. Currently, I also use them to hang bird feeders, however we don't want to attract bear onto our deck, so I won't hang bird seed on this deck.

Completed master bedroom

The master bedroom is the only 100% complete room so far. The exterior walls and ceiling are northern white cedar. They are finished with a clear topcoat. It's amazing how much the clear sealer brought out the wood grain and knots. I'm also surprised at how much darker they are every time we go up to see the house. I guess the wood is seasoning. The entire main level (except master bath) has 2-1/4" hickory hardwood on the floor. We chose hickory for a few reasons: it's a very hard wood so that will aid in scratch resistance, the color variations will blend together the various woods used in the house, and the color variations combined with the narrow width will also help mask the inevitable scratches that will come with living in our home. I like the almost-tapestry appearance of it. I think our dog, Shiloh, approves.

I'm so glad we decided to use a little bit of drywall in the bedrooms and bathrooms. My first inclination was to go all wood on the walls, but my husband thought we might want the option to be able to add a bit of color. Now that I see this room finished I'm glad it's not wood all around - I think that might have been a bit much.

Kitchen with loft above

I've been most nervous about the kitchen. Since the house has a great room the kitchen is fully in view. It was so hard to pick out all the options (cabinets, counters, lights, appliances, sink, faucet, etc.) without knowing how the walls were going to look once they were stained, or how the hickory floors were going to look. The interior walls (and kitchen island) are all pine instead of cedar, like the exterior walls, and you can see the difference in color. I'm not sure why our builder mixes cedar and pine. It was hard to choose the stain color for the kitchen cabinets with so many different wood types. My husband did not want painted or black cabinets, so I had to choose a color to stain them. I really appreciate the advice given to me by the cabinet specialist I worked with at Lowes. She advised me not to try and match the various woods, but instead to think of them like furniture and let them all have a different grain pattern and stain color. Now that I see them all together I think it was sound advice.

Details of the kitchen

Something I've learned about log homes is that they truly are custom - each step has to be figured out like a puzzle. For instance, look at the upper cabinets - can you see there are three different cabinet heights? The cabinets above the stove and refrigerator go right up to the ceiling (the loft is above). If you look closely at the cabinet to the right of the sink you can see it is shorter. That's because the main beam holding up the second floor is huge! Because of this we needed that cabinet to be shorter. Now look at the cabinet to the left of the sink - see how tall it is. That's because a shorter cabinet would look too small and like it was floating with the cathedral ceiling above it. I was so grateful to work with a knowledgeable (and reassuring) cabinet planner! She assured me that they would turn out looking great, and she was right :o) Just to add a focal point we added one glass front cabinet door in the corner.

Trying to stay within our budget we chose Wilsonart upgraded laminate counters in a finish called river gemstone. My thought was the dark counters would make a nice contrast to all the light wood in the rest of the great room. I paired them with a Franke granite finish sink and an oil rubbed bronze Moen faucet.

The lights were another difficult decision. The three over the island needed to hang approx. 13' down from the cathedral ceiling, which limited our choices. In the end we found these simple pendants that are suspended by their wiring and allowed us to choose any shades. To provide maximum light efficiency we chose glass instead of metal shades, so light will shine up as well as down. We've been told wood does not reflect light the way that painted surfaces do, so we wanted to make sure the kitchen is bright enough.

My initial plans did not include stainless steel appliances, but during the Black Friday appliance sales I was blessed to find this set. It had been purchased by someone else who never took delivery. Because of this they were offered at a super sales price. Lowes held them for us at no cost for over four months! Such a blessing!

The great room - holding spot for all tools

Finally, we come to the great room. The walls and floors are all finished (floors are covered with cardboard to protect the wood). Just the ceiling fan and stone on the fireplace are left to complete. Stone will completely fill the area within the wall stiffeners shown in the upper right side of this photo. Once the fireplace is finished I'm pretty sure just some plumbing/water supply work needs to be done, then the house should be move in ready.

Katahdin Cedar Log Homes

It's been almost an entire year since our builder, Cabin Run Construction, broke ground in May of 2016. At times it seems like things move fast, and at times it seems like they move slowly. But, all-in-all it has truly been a dream come true to build our log home and we are so very blessed to have this experience. I'll be sure to let you know when we move in :o)

Cabin update & contest winner

I've been thinking that's it's time for a cabin update! Would you like to see how our Katahdin Cedar Log Home is coming along? Join me for a tour :o)

Loving the green shingles and window trim!

This picture was taken about a month ago. Our builders, Cabin Run Construction, are doing such a nice job! The roofing is complete and all windows are installed in this picture. The log walls are ready for the finish/protective sealer to be applied. We've decided to go with Perma-Chink in the Cedar colorway; this seems like a natural choice since our home is built with cedar logs from Maine.

Door into great room

This side door leads into the great room. I'm sure we'll use it a lot for fire wood :o) I'm so glad we decided to wrap the decking around the side of the house. The original plan was to just have a front porch and a back deck. But once we saw how the land would be graded around the house we opted to have this decking to connect the front and back. It's one of my favorite features.

Sliding glass door on back of house

From the living room to the back deck we opted for a sliding glass door instead of a swinging patio door. This decision was based mostly on my thinking that a sliding door takes up less floor space to operate.

Deck off the back of the house

We kept the deck off the back of the house a cozy size. This picture shows how it covers the patio door leading into the lower level. Both panels of the patio door are functional in order to allow large items to be moved in and out with ease. We won't have a carport or garage for awhile so the lower level will need to store kayaks and garden equipment. Since the back is the shady side of the house we had a concrete pad poured under the deck to prevent a muddy mess.

Quadra-Fire Wood Fireplace

In the great room the living area is to the left and the dining space to the right. We had a wood burning insert installed in the fireplace for maximum efficiency. This unit has an internal fan and a burn time of up to 16 hours. We are going with native field stone cut to a thin veneer and hope to do a rough hewn mantle. That big pile of wood to the right is actually cedar paneling. Katahdin log homes are built using what they call the energy envelope system. The inside of the house will be lined with rigid foam insulation and then covered with the cedar paneling. So, it looks as if you are seeing the inside of the logs, but it's actually the cedar paneling. This greatly increases the R value of the walls.

Looking the other direction...

When you turn around and look the other direction you can see the other rooms of the cabin. On the upper level there is a guest bedroom to the back with a loft and 3/4 bathroom in front. On the lower level the kitchen will be to the left with the front entry hall/mudroom and master bathroom behind. To the right is the master bedroom, laundry closet, and a small office. That yellow LVL beam will be encased to make it more attractive :o)

This is pretty much where we stand right now. We'd hoped to be moving in by the end of the year, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen now. We've been busy picking out appliances, fixtures, and flooring. The decisions are both fun and a bit stressful; knowing these products are expensive, and must last a long time puts pressure to make wise choices.

Okay - now for the results of the Quiltmaker's 100 Block Volume 14 drawing! The Random Number Generator chose No. 18! The winner is Bonnie and she sent me her mailing information which I've forwarded to Quiltmakers. Congratulations Bonnie!





Thank you all for celebrating my block, Order in the Court, with me. If you end up making one I'd love it if you'd tag me! I've already submitted a design for inclusion in Volume 15 which will be published in the spring ~ wish me luck :o)

Order in the Court by Debbie Martin

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Magazine Drawing Winner!

What an exciting week this has been! I hope you've enjoyed visiting each of the blogs for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 13 block designers...I know I have :o) It's always fun to read about the design process of a quilt block ~ and get some layout options!

Flowers for the Cabin

If you make Flowers for the Cabin I sure hope you'll stop by my blog and let me know, or tag me on flickr or Instagram so I'll be sure to see it!

For the magazine drawing I asked readers to tell me about their sewing machines - what they like, what they don't like. I read about many great machines, from featherweights all the way up to mid-arm machines. Thanks for sharing your insights with me!

I used the Random Number Generator to pick a winner for an issue of 100 Blocks Volume 13 to be sent directly from Quiltmaker's. 

The winner is No. 110!! Hooray!! I've sent Karan an email to let her know she is the magazine winner from my drawing.

Our log cabin begins!

To add to the excitement of the week here is the very first progress shot of our log cabin! One of our future neighbors snapped this photo and sent it to us this morning! We can't wait to go by and see. Hopefully there will be many more pictures to share through the summer. 

Thanks again for joining me as we celebrate 100 Blocks Volume 13! I hope to see you stop by my blog again ~ If you are not already following Shadows of the Blue Ridge you can sign up using Bloglovin, Follow by Email, or Google Friends Connect. All these options are available on the top right sidebar. If you do, be sure to leave a comment so I know you are a new follower :o) Hope you have a great week!

Log Home *sweet dreams*

You probably noticed that my blog posts vary quite a bit in frequency. My best intentions are to blog on a somewhat regular basis, but sometimes other things tend to crowd out blogging. Lately these other things have been designing our new home and experiencing a book hangover! {Definition of book hangover: when you've finished a book and you suddenly return to the real world, but the real world feels incomplete or surreal because you're still living in the world of the book - quote Urban Dictionary.com} In the past four months I've read 15 novels written by Earlene Fowler and enjoyed every single one of them! I really did feel a bit lost when I'd finished the final one.

Today I thought I'd share an update on our log home. As I've mentioned in the past, my husband and I are dreaming {and planning} on building a small log home on land we purchased several years ago. When you look at the gravel road on my blog header you can see where we will be building. Our land is on the right hand side of this road. We've spent the last eight months working with a builder on the design of our home.

Design drawings for our log home

It's been a fun and educational process. We'd been dreaming of our log home ever since we started looking for land about seven years ago. As we searched for land we had two main criteria:

• my husband wants to be able to hunt on it
• I wanted to make sure it did not have a scary mountain driveway that would stress me out every time I drove on it

We were blessed to find land less than 20 miles from where we currently live. This allows us to stay with our current jobs, remain in our beloved church, and keep all the same service providers we've used for the past 29+ years. Our lot is just about a half mile off a well maintained state route. Neighboring homeowner's frequently comment on seeing bear, deer, turkey, wildcats, squirrel, and other small animals.

Work book to help plan your home

Last fall I attended a Log & Timber University in order to gain basic knowledge about the process of building a log home. One of the things they encourage is developing a priority list of features you'd like in your home. Then, as you need to make choices regarding what to include you have something to help guide your decisions.

While attending the log home show I met a builder/dealer for Katahdin Cedar Log Homes who works in the area we plan to build. A couple months later he came to meet us at our lot and look over the land. Both my husband and I liked him immediately. He has been a wealth of information and so patient as we've worked through many drafts of home plans.






One booth at the log home show is called the newsstand. Here you are able to purchase bundles of outdated log home magazines at a greatly reduced price. I've done this twice now. Most of the homes in the magazines are way too fancy and elaborate for our needs, but it is so helpful to look at things such as floor plans, kitchen & bathroom layouts, wall treatments (all log interior versus including other wall materials), porches, etc.

A few of the many magazines I've collected for reference

As with any custom home construction it is difficult to know what you want to actually afford without just jumping in and submitting a preliminary design to a builder for pricing. Let me just say I have a new appreciation for the fancy roof lines, custom windows, and elaborate floor plans we see all around us in builder/developer neighborhoods. We quickly found that plain and simple best met our needs.

When first having to face up to choosing between the dormer windows or the fireplace we've always dreamed of it was a bit hard. But, we tend to live in the practical world and found that after a day or so of lamenting that ALL our dreams cannot be included we were perfectly happy to whittle down to what we really want to afford. We had no idea how much time and doodling goes into designing a floor plan that both meets your needs, and fits into the footprint dimensions of a home...we've put many, many hours into this over the last several months.

Approximate location of our home

Anyway, at this point we are pretty much finished with our final designs and hope to be advancing to the next step of the process soon. I hope you've enjoyed this little peak into our log home journey. Hopefully in the near future there will be more excitement to share as we move forward :o)

Random Sampler & Other Progress

Hooray! I've made progress on my Random Sampler! Going with the idea to build one section at a time I took inventory of the blocks I've already made and began grouping them into a section. Then, I worked to fill in the holes. Here's what it looks like so far:

Random Sampler section one

The top row features a squash blossom, an applique branch, maple leaf cluster, and several flying geese blocks. The second row includes a basket, a wheel, Rocky Mountain Puzzle*, and finally Duck Tracks*. (Patterns for these last two blocks can be found on Quilters Cache.) This section measures 20" x 32". Due to the odd size of the maple leaf cluster I added a strip of fabric to the left side of the squash blossom block to bring the string of blocks up to the correct length. 

I'm so happy to have made a bit of progress on this quilt! Now I have to discipline myself and return to two quilts in the process of be quilted. One is the Social Climber quilt from the Faith Circle, and the other is my Mixed Flock quilt for the local show. I've made good progress on the Social Climber quilt and it shouldn't take too much longer to have it finished. 

Mixed Flock has me wondering how best to quilt it. To try out some possibilities I took a picture of the quilt top and lightened it up on the computer. Then when I print it out I used a pencil to draw out quilting ideas. Here's what I've come up with so far:

Quilting ideas

I need to stick with straight line quilting because I don't think my free-motion is where I want people giving it close inspection. I still have not figured out how to quilt the colored stars. I'm hoping that as I begin working on it additional inspiration will come. 

Finally, perhaps the most exciting progress!! On Saturday we met with a log home builder and walked over our land to select a house site! We gave him the plans we'd put together and now have to wait for a quote to come back. We'll see what comes of this once we have some solid numbers. That patch of woods up there in my blog header just may have a house on it!  For now, I need to hold myself in check and not get too excited...like that's possible :o)

Happy quilting!