Habitats: log cabin tours the biosphere

Detail, Habitats, 2015, by me, adapted from Karen Stone's Summer Nights, 1992

After completing Priestess for my grandmother, I wanted to continue working with log cabin blocks in browns. (Warning: this may become a long-term obsession.) The layout I chose for Priestess, which I blogged about here, was quite static, and for the next quilt in the series I wanted more movement. I am still learning the many possibilities of log cabin blocks. A google search on "stunning log cabin quilts" turned up this breath-taking creation by Karen K. Stone, called "Summer Nights" (1992).

Karen K. Stone's Summer Nights, 1992, the inspiration for Habitats

I instantly fell in love with this design. The play of light and dark that is foundational to the log cabin block is extended into the design of the whole quilt, which gradually shifts from light to dark as the eye moves from the upper left to the lower right. Dark squares recede, creating an illusion of depth, while colorful pinwheels occupy the foreground and spin outward in an optical dance.

I had found my next project. Keeping Karen Stone's optical design, I shifted the palette from energizing summer to earthy autumn. I kept some black fabrics in the design, but blended them with a variety of browns and taupes, and I lightened the overall color scheme. I sacrificed some of the optical effects in the process, but the result felt softer to me and a bit more organic.

All credit for this ingenious design is Karen's. Yet it was important to me to add something new. I imagined the quilt as an expression of the biosphere, a mosaic of natural habitats ranging from forest to desert, jungle to ocean. I included numerous animal prints among the dark strips, and worked to allow each section of the quilt to convey the colors and textures of a distinctive eco-system during day and night. The effect is subtle, not overly literal, and I was absolutely delighted when my son saw it without my prompting.

The quilt contains forty-nine blocks - seven rows of seven. Seven is a number of perfection and totality. In the biblical book Leviticus, forty-nine years culminate in Jubilee, a time of celebration, renewal, and liberation for the land and all who live in it.

Habitats, quilt top, by me, 75" x 75"

Here are some details for the curious: each log has a finished width of half an inch, and there are ten logs on each side of each block. This is a scrap quilt, incorporating hundreds of different fabrics, mostly quilting cotton but also silk, linen, a touch of velvet, and designer decorator blends. It will be a little while before I have a chance to finish this quilt, but I'll be sure to report in when I do.

Do you have unusual log cabin layouts to share? How have you made them your own? I hope you will share some of your favorite creations.