Yes. Better, thank you.

Glad I tried again. Two things made the difference. One, I caved and purchased a generic Bernina quilting foot, #57, from eBay. I tried to find a real Bernina #57, but no luck. This one works just fine. Take a look at the right side of the foot. See that little guide? It helps to keep the seam consistent. Moving the needle to the right one notch was the other important adjustment.

Since I stitched the test block, I have been thinking about how the quilt might look. No doubt, there are many ways to audition a quilt pattern. I let Microsoft Excel guide me. I changed the cells in the worksheet to be 30 pixels wide and 30 pixels tall. Using each cell for one inch, I colored in the cells, replicating the log cabin strips. Then it was just a matter of copy and paste to see the whole quilt.

Viewing Kaffe Fasset’s Target Log Cabin Quilt pattern on the Excel screen in bright colors was dizzying and not in a good way. Way too busy. I removed the sashing strips and liked it much better. So, that is what I’m going with. Oh, and another big change – I decided I wanted all of the strips to be random. No rings of color. Just random…and without regard for light and dark. The strip that gets used for the next row is the strip I grab from the pile, unless, of course, that fabric is already represented in the block.

I am utilizing very simple piecing as I know I need practice getting the seam allowances correct. Also, I'm squaring-up each round, not waiting until the block is complete. It matters.

While cutting the 1 ½” strips, I noticed a few of the prints were printed off-grain. I chose to use them anyway. Eh, I’ll leave them for now and see if they still bug me when I get closer to quilting.

So far, all that has been purchased specifically for this project, other than the fabric, batting and thread, is the 12 ½” square-up ruler and the quilting foot. If I tried, I probably could manage without either but I do like having them.

I have to tell you there is an incredible amount of interesting quilting out there. I stumbled across this Sandra Bruce interview and can’t get her quilt out of my head: http://www.13woodhouseroad.com/2012/10/inspiring-quilters-sandra-bruce.html#.UPySYGdICvO. Amazing. I want to try this. Not today and not tomorrow, but this technique is calling my name.

For the record, I sewed another pair of the Style Arc Linda pants. This time in a black stretch cotton mixed with some stretchy mystery fiber. Nice fabric, just don't know what it is. I absolutely love this pattern. Perfectly comfortable. Hope this pattern company sticks around.