Chunky Log Cabin - Little Women Fabric

Mar 18

I’m so excited to share this new quilt with you, made from this darling new collection. Little Women–designed by Jill Howarth–is inspired by the classic novel penned by Louisa May Alcott. The fabrics are brightly colored and have the sweetest references to the book.

I don’t know how I escaped the first 20-some odd years of my life without reading Little Women, but I did! I actually made a goal to read the book before I finished this quilt…but it didn’t happen. I only made it a few chapters in, but I loved it and plan to finish it in the near future.

Shop Now

Fusion Quilt Pattern (PDF)

$12.00

Quilt Care Card 1.0

$5.00

My introduction to the four March sisters was actually Greta Gerwig’s film that came out a couple of years ago. We rented it on a Friday night and I loved it so much I watched it two (yes, TWO!) more times before our 24 hour rental was up. That may seem embarrassing to admit, but I had a sleepless newborn at the time and there wasn’t much else to do while pumping. I was so excited to see this collection coming soon at Riley Blake, and I cannot talk enough about how stunning every single fabric is!

Little Women Alyssa Coburn Chunky Log Cabin 3.JPG

Little Women Alyssa Coburn Chunky Log Cabin 5.JPG

It was hard to cut into these fabrics because they are so pretty! I love the contrast of the subtle blue, green, and peach tones with the bold pink, green, and blues. If I had to pick a favorite, I think I’d pick the Main Blush print (below). The peach color is so soothing and I love how each of the characters is depicted.

Even after I cut into these cute fabrics I just wanted to stare at them! The colors are so perfect, and have I said yet how absolutely darling each of the characters are illustrated? Darrrrrling.

The story of Little Women is set during the American Civil War. After doing some research on Civil War-era quilts, I decided on one of the most classic American quilt styles for this quilt–the log cabin. Quilt historians say that the log cabin design became prevalent in the 1860s as a direct result of the war fundraising efforts (Illinois State Museum Society), and that the name comes from Abraham Lincoln having grown up in a log cabin.

Time was of the essence when making these quilts during the war. Completed quilts were either used for fundraising efforts or for warmth/comfort for the soldiers (QuiltingDaily). Simple patterns were favored, thus a huge reason why the log cabin quilt became so widely popular. Traditional log cabin quilts use thin strips of fabric, pieced together in a contrasting manner that makes an even larger pattern as blocks are assembled.

I opted for a more random look and used a wide, chunky strip of fabric to assemble my blocks. This made for a very quick finish. I’ll be writing up a pattern here soon for this Chunky Log Cabin quilt, so stay tuned for more information about that!

Additional reading for the curious minds out there:

Chunky Log Cabin quilt pattern coming soon! Now on to baste, quilt, and bind this Little Women version. I’m trying to decide if I should spend the better part of a year hand quilting this gigantic quilt (nearly 80×80″), or if I should machine quilt it with simple lines. I’m leaning toward a mixture of both types, head over to my Instagram to follow along.