Log Beauties: 2026 Sew-Along, Part 2

The complete project description with links is in Part 1.

Fly Geese Fly

This block had no paper-piecing. The “flying geese” units were made four at a time out of squares. This is a new method for me, I have previously just cut triangles or used paper-piecing.

Not too bad, I would use this method again if I ever need to make flying geese.

I am not looking forward to trimming the blocks to 12.5″. This is going to be one wonky square at the end.

Corn Corners

Look, I don’t name these blocks, I just suffer through them.

The foundation paper piecing (FPP) went really well, so well I was starting to think of making a few more, until I was trimming up the segments and accidentally cut off the seam allowance on the biggest one. All there was to do was make a new segment.

There are also a lot of off-cuts. If you are avoiding waste or minimizing your monetary outlay on fabric, this is not a block for you.

I don’t see corn when I look at it; I see thread cones for weaving or overlock.

Cabin Code

This is the first time I have ever done Seminole Patchwork, where strips are sewn together, then cut apart and resewn at angles to create a pattern. For some reason I associate the technique with 1970s home furnishings and dorky-looking jackets.

The early 20th-century Seminole women are praised by academics and historians for their ingenuity in using small bits of fabrics to create the patterns, but this pattern created a large amount of waste.

When I went to sew the bottom pieced row onto the block, it was longer than the top by more than a quarter-inch (which I was expecting, having seen some blocks with this issue posted to the guild FB group). The cutting and piecing of the strips need absolute precision. A note in the pattern (“Before trimming, verify that each square is 2 inches”) would have been helpful.

Instead, I unsewed the trimmed unit. Only once, though; it will have to be good enough.

Punky Beauty

Sadismus pur.

This baby is paper-pieced on a foundation made of two pages taped together, from units that have already been strip-pieced, which negates the ease of the FPP technique. Furthermore, the stitching is not done on the pattern–it’s done from the backside of the pattern. I had to undo the second and third stripey pieces four times each, ripping the paper to shreds and requiring more tape (which melted onto my iron), and an additional strip-pieced unit was required because the 15″ unit in the pattern was too short to cover.

Intellectually, can see how it all works, and the pattern-writer gave us photos for each step. Other people have made this block correctly, even people who don’t read German. But my fingers could not line up this godforsaken mess, move it over to the sewing machine, and make the thing work right.

After days of fussing, I had this unit.

There is no reason on God’s Green Earth that a log cabin block that starts with a square with a 90° angle should require a !#$%^&* set-in seam! FFS!

I have spent the last twenty-odd years being paralyzed after a childhood of being constantly punished for any result less than perfect, so I am proud of myself for fighting my programming to finish this monster (minus some applique dots that will come later). “The perfect is the enemy of the good” but this is not good. It might be too crooked to look good with the other 15 blocks. Apparently I am not the first/only person to have this issue in a Sew-Along, because there are two “bonus blocks” I could make and use in the final quilt instead of this one.

This one I finished.

We’ll see what happens with the next two.