QM Scrap Squad: Linkin’ Logs by Donna Amos

In case you’re just joining us, the QM Scrap Squad is a select group of eight QM readers who take one pattern from each issue and make a scrapbag version to be shared with readers here on Quilty Pleasures. The featured quilt from the Sept/Oct ’11 issue is Linkin’ Logs, a design by QM’s Editor-in-Chief June Dudley. Watch for more revealing posts on the remaining Scrap Squad quilts during September.

Today’s version of Linkin’ Logs by QM Scrap Squad member Donna Amos is among my all-time favorites. Donna is a modest person and I had to dig a little to get her story, but what a fun and nostalgic story it is! I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Donna Amos

When I was a child, Mother made all of our dresses, slips, underclothes, pajamas and so on from feed sacks. We lived close to a feed store and they had extra sacks for sale for 25 cents each. Farmers would return their extra sacks to the store for credit, so the store always had a good selection of sacks for sale.

The very first piece of clothing I ever sewed, when I was 14, was called a “broomstick skirt,” made from two feed sacks. It was just gathered fabric sewn to a waistband. I learned how to make a placket for the opening and how to sew on snaps. (We didn’t have zippers to use then.) The skirt was white, with blue and pink flowers. I can still remember it.

Most of my sacks have been from family over the years, but after the 1990′s I would pick them up at yard sales. The sacks that I used in Linkin’ Logs were bought about 10 years ago at a yard sale. I liked the pattern and even better, there were four matching sacks. I paid about $8 each, quite a difference from 25 cents!

Four matching feedsacks of this print were used in Donna's Linkin' Logs quilt.

My idea for Linkin’ Logs was to make “Something Old and Something New.”  For the old, I chose the four feed sacks for the background. For the new, I used shades of red and aqua for the logs. Fabric from an old bedskirt of white and aqua stripes forms the border.  I had fun making this pattern—I had enough red and aqua that each round is a different fabric.

I am very glad that I finally used the feed sacks. Now I can see them in a pretty quilt, not just stuck in a drawer!

Donna's finished Linkin' Logs displays beautifully on a bed in her home.

Using an active print like this feed sack for a background can be tricky, but Donna made it work by using fabrics with plenty of contrast for the interlocking circles. The quilt is interesting because there are values from very light to very dark. The red circles alternate with the aqua circles but the quilt is still unique because there is a feeling of randomness to the color placement. Achieving such a feeling is a design skill that Donna has mastered!

Once again, the photo below shows the Linkin’ Logs quilt that we featured in Quiltmaker.

Linkin' Logs designed and sewn by June Dudley. Quilted by Kim Waite. Fabric: Gallery Basics from Robert Kaufman.

Watch for more fun, quirky and interesting versions of Linkin’ Logs during September here on Quilty Pleasures.

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See Carol’s version of Linkin’ Logs

See Linda’s version of Linkin’ Logs

Visit the QM Scrap Squad group on Quilters Club of America