Cosy Cabins Quilt Design in Progress

Cosy Cabins. Or should that be Crazy Cabins? There’s Cabin Fever at Clever Chameleon this week and the cat is off his nut.

The monthly exercise for the Island Batik Ambassadors this November is “Cosy Cabins – Log Cabin Challenge. Incorporate a log cabin block or log cabin variations into your project“. I was so, so pleased to see this challenge on the list. The log cabin block and its almost endless variations are right on top of my favourites list. And among the fabrics given to me to work with as an Island Batik Ambassador were these. 

Beautiful, beautiful blue fabrics, including pre-cut strips, from a recent Island Batik line called “London Fog”. And I thought…. “Finally, I will make a quilt for me! My colours, my favourite block. All mine!”

hahahahahaha. I am a maestra of changing my mind. A symphony of ideas without a conductor. The only way this would have played out that way was if it had been my last idea, not the first……

So. I am not using these fabrics. And I am not making a quilt for me. Not. even. close.

Instead, I am using Paisley Dots 10″ square precuts, also given to me for use as an Island Batik Ambassador. 

And I am working on a brand new design for a kids’ quilt. At least I would be, if it wasn’t for all the help I’ve been getting…….

How far can you vary a variation until it is not a variant?

I love log cabin quilts. I know most of you don’t know me from my pre-appliqué days, but I used to make pieced quilts. Lots of them, including log cabins.  I have made traditional log cabins, wonky log cabins and miniature log cabins. I also bought the book “Not Your Grandmother’s Log Cabin” by Sara Nephew and Marci Baker a loooong time ago, with the intention of making further fascinating log cabin variations. That hasn’t happened (yet), but I still love them. 

Such resurrected thoughts about log cabin variations got me thinking…… You can vary the shape of the block, the placement of the centre square (fireplace),  the position of light and dark fabrics, the relative orientation of the blocks……  you can end up with squares within squares, spirals, twists, “curves” and off-centre designs. The versatility of this block is huge. So. How much trouble would it be to convert log cabins to a maze layout?

Well, it turns out, not that much trouble at all.

Building a Log-Cabin Maze Quilt

With a little tweaking of the log cabins, and careful placement of light and dark fabrics (or coloured and white fabrics) I was able to design a quilt pattern that is reminiscent of the maze puzzles you find in kids’ activity books. I started with the quarter-log cabin block as my basic unit.

If I wanted to join two white paths or block a pathway, I pieced the relevant “logs” from a combination of white and coloured fabrics. A variation of the variation. 

Some blocks strayed a fair distance from the basic log cabin. The underlying structure was honoured as much as practical, but piecing simplicity took precedence. Afterall, one must never become a slave to an idea just for the sake of an idea. There were only a couple of blocks that were this far gone.

Stitching out my design would have been easier and faster with precut strips or yardage, but I was able to slice and stitch my 10″ squares of Paisley Dot fabrics into the 2.5″ strips required to put together 12.5″ log cabin-ish blocks. That is one of the fun things about the Island Batik challenges – making a design work with what you have. There was more than enough fabric in one pack of 10″ squares to make the coloured portion of my large twin-sized maze.

The “white” fabric I chose is actually a beautiful batik called Egg White. It is an off-white colour with pale coloured dots….  I personally think it should be renamed Egg Shell. Mostly because that’s what I always accidently call it, in part because it looks like patterned birds’ eggs and it would make my life easier if everyone  just fell in line with my mental block…… 🙂 Anyway, Island Batik did graciously give me an extra yard of this fabric on top of my original allocation, so I didn’t make do on everything.

Here are some progress pics of my maze quilt

And some hindrance pics.

I finally got the quilt top pieceed. And laid out long enough for a quick snap while someone was napping.

Now I need to add some appliqués….. after all, maze puzzles usually consist of one or more cute characters trying to get somewhere for a reason.

Who is going to be navigating my maze?

My maze is going to feature a sleepy bear trying to get to bed (or trying to avoid bed, depending on your perspective…). There are lots of routes to bed – my maze is not difficult. But…… you have to choose what he needs to do before he goes to sleep. Have a hug, a snack, a song, a story, clean his teeth….?  All of the above?

Ted can procrastinate for a long time wandering around the maze before he ends up in bed if he wants to…….. lol.

That is unlikely to resonate with anyone!

Hopefully I’ll have this quilt finished (or at least progressed) to show you soon. If you have less on your crafting plate than I do, you might want to put your name down to be a tester for this maze quilt pattern when I get it finished. It can be made in boy or girl or gender neutral colours.

I have a whole heap of things on the go this month…… I also need to finish the sweet pea project, do some secret sewing, finish a magazine submission and write a pattern for the last Beary Colourful bear….. busy as that beaver building confused log cabins! 

Congratulations

Which brings me lastly to a small piece of business I must take care of. Thank you to everyone who commented on the Taking Time out Teal Bear post. The winners of the precut bears are Brenda who wooed me with tales of special coffee blends and Joyce C.

I have contacted you by email for your postage details.

If you didn’t win, don’t despair. I have a few things in the works between now and Christmas that you’ll be able to put your name down for!

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Would you like to keep in touch with Clever Chameleon and the fun quilty ideas I design as well as find all over the internet? You can follow directly for email updates, or through Bloglovin’, Pinterest or FB. All your follow options can be found here. Don’t forget to link up all your current quilting projects on Tuesdays at our Colour Inspiration Linky parties! And if you’d like to road test my newest patterns, I am always on the hunt for keen pattern testers.

The Chameleon turns rainbow with pleasure when he hears from you. I am more reserved, so I will respond in gratitude by email instead. Now that it’s your turn…. Scroll right to the end, leave me a comment and tell me, what do you think? Thanks for connecting!