Rabbit Trails

One of my favorite paintings is a piece of concept art that Mary Blair created for Disney's Alice in Wonderland. I ran across it once when I was doing research on her, and when a tiny version of the painting printed out along with the text, I framed it. At first glance, it looks like a soft wooded landscape...until you look closely near the lower right edge to see a glimpse of the white rabbit hurrying off on his way, the sight that sent Alice running off on her great adventure. I've often thought that this painting reminds me so much of the way I tackle my creative pursuits. I seem to follow all the white rabbits that come across my trail.

I've been playing along with the Sunny Day Supply Log Cabin Sew Along on Instagram (#sunnylogcabinsal) since last week, and it's been such a relaxing, enjoyable project for me. I decided to make my quilt entirely from my linen and canvas stash, prints I've been collecting for years but don't use as often as I should.

I cut 3" squares from a darling teatime print for my centers and then cut a whole bunch of 1 1/2" wide strips for the rest. I wanted the quilt to have a light, airy look to it, so I pulled in a lot of neutrals to balance out the colors.

Every block felt like a new adventure to me as I lay out centers and strips on my cutting mat and played with placement as you can see above. I had no idea where I was going with each one until I finally settled on something that felt right. Sometimes I would have everything in place and then get another idea and pull it all to pieces to follow that white rabbit, which almost always seemed to lead me to better things.

My original plan was to make 9 blocks, but after sewing together 4, that white rabbit came running past me, and I had to follow it. I played around with different arrangements of blocks and strips and center squares, and this was the result. It's a small quilt, only 40" square, but packed full of fabrics that I love.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to quilt this one by hand or by machine, but that's okay. There's time. That's what I love about this sort of sewing. It doesn't matter where you go with it or how you get there or what time it takes you, just so long as you're having fun.