The Heart of the Home: Log Cabin Quilt Pattern

The Heart of the Home: Log Cabin Quilt Pattern

Hello Friends.

Today as we wrap up the first ever month of The Soul Mending Society I felt like it was the right time to share a quilt that will always and forever be a memorable one to me…the quilt that I made at the beginning of the Covid-19 Quarantine.

Sometime in March after schools closed, there were runs on items at the store, and most everything went on pause…I sat in my basement and sewed masks. Piles of masks….for the retirement center, the workers at the local grocery store, family members, and friends…and thought about all the things that wouldn’t happen this year for my family: concerts, performances, plays, shows, classes, lessons, graduations, parties, vacations, etc. etc. etc.

And I was sad.

Really sad.

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And I started another project.

Using only scraps.

I didn’t have a plan, exactly. Only that I wanted everything in the quilt to be from my scrap piles. For days I sat down there in the sewing room with my kids cutting and sewing and cutting and sewing.

They would work on their homework and reading and I would sew. Then late in the evening we would head upstairs to make dinner together and play board games or sit on the patio and talk.

After a week or so I found I had a STACK of crazy Log Cabin Quilt blocks all made from scraps.

Then I rooted around, found, and cut up white scraps for sashing and sewed some of the blocks into a quilt top.

(Although…you will notice in the bottom left corner…I didn’t have quite enough white…so I added some other random scraps to complete that border.)

I left it on the cutting table that night and headed upstairs with the family to make homemade pizzas and again play board games. After games we all were piled onto the couch watching a movie. It was a random week night…a night when we would have spent our time at different events like rock climbing, play practice, piano lessons, or band. But instead there we were all together, safe and snug and happy in our home.

I started thinking about that quilt top I had just finished…it was a Log Cabin pattern. I won’t give you the complete version of the history of that block, although you can hear a lot about it HERE:

…..on episode one of Stitched (our quilting podcast)…

…but I will say that traditionally Log Cabin quilt blocks have a red square in the center…representing the heart and hearth of the home.

The heart and hearth of the home…a place of safety from the outside world…the place where you are always welcomed and loved…

When push comes to shove where do we all long to be?

Home.

Together at home.

The next morning I pinned up the quilt top to the wall in the basement and took the picture that is on the cover of the pattern:

And I sat there thinking for a long time.

And knew that for me…even though we had, and were going to miss out on things both social and financial for the next while…that I had been given a gift of time with my family. These long, beautiful days now void of appointments, engagements, and obligations allowed me to gather everyone together “around the hearth” for long family dinners….games without end…family story time…hours in the garden…things we wouldn’t have done otherwise.

So while it had felt like life had handed me a pile of scraps…as it turned out it all just needed to be stitched together into a beautiful quilt.

Not the quilt I had planned on for this time in my life but a beautiful one none the less.

Who knows what the future holds? I don’t.

But as we work together to mend ourselves, our families, and our communities I know we can stitch together something truly amazing.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our first ever Soul Mending Society. Please as you continue mending leave comments. Sharing your light helps keeps to keep all of our lights ignited.

And watch for Soul Mending Society posts throughout the year. Mending takes time…sometimes a lifetime…so even though an entire month won’t be dedicated to the project until next July we will still be checking in with all our “Society Members” often.

But for now…I wanted to give you all something that was important to me…to say thank you for joining us in mending. Thank you for sewing masks. Thank you for being kind to strangers. Thank you for watching out for your neighbors. Thank you for being wonderful.

I wanted to ship something out…I wanted to gather everyone together for chips and salsa…but Elizabeth said no.

Ok, not really…she wants to do all of those things as well…but the best we could think of was this:

To give you all The Heart of the Home: Log Cabin Quilt Pattern…the one I worked on during March. The one that helped me remember what I have instead of what I don’t…the one I will remember forever.

The link to the pattern is HERE.

Then just enter the code: LOGCABIN at checkout in our shop and down load it for free from now through Sunday, August 9, 2020.

Thank you again for joining us…for sharing your stories with us…for making the world a better place.

Happy Quilting.

One last picture…taken from the porch the other night:

It’s the backside of the quilt as the sun set and light shown through the layers…I caught a glimpse of it as my husband and I were out working in the flower beds…and the kids played…and my heart sang.