I have spent most of my time this week making blocks like the one above for my Kona Log Cabin Quilt. I have 32 blocks completed at this time.

In addition to making blocks I have been cutting 6″ x 6″ sample pieces from the eleven fabrics that I recently ordered from the Fat Quarter shop. While making those sample pieces I remembered that I had bought two small fat quarter bundles of Kona Solids from the Pennington Quilt Works on my way back from the Slow Stitching retreat.

These bundles were sub divisions of a much larger bundle that was put together by Kona to show the 30 new colors being offered this year. The shop still had one large bundle with the complete collection on hand, but it was over a hundred dollars. Since I wasn’t sure I wanted all of the colors I snatched up the these two smaller bundles instead.

Lucky for me, my Kona sample card is current. I upgraded it this year after making do with one from 2013 for two years.

Matching the colors to the sample chips was fairly easy because Kona draws attention to the new colors on the card by enclosing the name in a box.

Here you can see a pile of sample pieces already labeled. I simply took a piece of paper, folded it in half, and marked it with the code and name of fabric and wrapped it around the piece. I’ll decide later how I want to organize these samples. For now, they will sit in a pile.

As I am cutting more strips I am making six inch sample pieces of some of the existing colors in my stash. Some of these are considerably harder to find on the sample card. A look back at my previous Fat Quarter Shop orders will help me narrow down the choices.

 

This is how I cut the samples from the fat quarters. I pressed just enough of the fabric so I could cut a piece off the short end. I cut off a six inch strip from which I cut a six inch square sample. I then cut the remainder of the strip into 1.5 inch wide pieces. That left me with a good sized piece larger than a fat eighth.

These fat quarter colors are too bright for the current project, but they will come in handy for a future log cabin project. I have a feeling it is going to take me quite awhile to exhaust the log cabin possibilities.

For now I have plenty of strips cut to proceed with my work on the current project.  I also have more pieces of fabric I can add to the mix as I need to cut additional strips. I am not worrying too much about which colors I am using in each block. Below you can see my lights at the top and my darks at the bottom.

Interestingly, the relatively light violet at the bottom of the picture was originally slated to be on the lighter side of the blocks. I actually have a couple blocks in which it is used that way. The darker orange near the middle of the photo is used in the light area even though it is probably as dark as that violet, but it seems to work well there.