Cabin Fever – a log cabin quilt revisted

The log cabin quilt block is so traditional, I loved making it my own. It feels like a life time ago that I even made the Cabin Fever quilt!

The Cabin Fever quilt pattern is available to download from the Raspberry Spool online shop now. Yay!

log cabin quilt

Reinterpreting the traditional log cabin quilt block

When the editors contacted me from Quilters Companion about submitting a quilt, following my Downtown quilt in the Under 35’s quilt challenge, I put forward a log cabin quilt block I designed for a previous Modern Quilt Guild Challenge. According to Instagram, that was 81 weeks ago. Say it ain’t so!

When I was designing this quilt, I wanted to play with the log cabin quilt block and see if I could make them into something new. I don’t remember having a plan in mind, but I just made up a couple of quarter log cabin blocks with the strips and then I combined them with free hand curves which created a completely new look which I really love. The challenge quilt curves were a little more precise, but I wanted to let go even more with the quilt for Quilter’s Companion.

Making my first ‘magazine quilt was a little bit scary, because I really wanted to get it right. This is supposed to be a representation of my best work and I really wanted to make it shine. I was kindly gifted a bundle of prints from Sarah Fielke’s Windham Fabric line, Snippets. As much as I loved the range, using all the prints was to overwhelming for an already busy quilt. After much to-ing and fro-ing and late night panic messaging, I decided that if I wasn’t happy, it wasn’t representing me. Ditching my plan at the very last minute was all kinds of terrifying and relieving. I made a dash to the local quilt store with an hour to spare and picked up a stack of solids and extra black and white prints to complete the quilt.

In my frenzy of racing that deadline clock, I somehow made DOUBLE the amount of quarter log cabin blocks that I needed. DOUBLE! I was so completely mad at myself for making such a rookie mistake. I couldn’t believe it. Gah! Panic sewing plus flying out to Quiltcon in less than 2 weeks is not ideal sewing conditions…

Fortunately Caroline Conlan from History in the Making came to my rescue and quilted the quilt for me in record time, using a pantone called champagne. Perhaps I needed the champagne more than the quilt did. I popped that binding on quick smart and sent it off to the magazine on the way out to the airport. Phew! Nothing like a deadline to get you moving, I always say.

log cabin quilt

Now that the magazine’s stipulated exclusivity embargo has lifted, I can finally offer this quilt as a downloadable pattern for you, along with all the patterns in the Raspberry Spool online shop. I hope you enjoy my latest pattern, it really is a fun quilt to make, you all know I love those freehand curves!