My great aunt, Emma, gave my mother some fabric on a recent visit. There was a particular pattern that we thought was a bit strange, to say the least. Rather than passing it along to someone else, I decided to make something I liked out of the fabric I did not like.

Center: focus fabric for “Alice’s Cabin” mini-quilt

What was wrong with the fabric, you might ask. Cobalt blue is my favorite color, and I’m often drawn to blue fabric. Toile in and of itself doesn’t bother me, and mushroom fabric can be fun. The fabric feels a bit like linen, or a linen blend. All that said, I don’t really dig the scale of the full color mushrooms alongside the scenes in blue and white. Furthermore, the up and down direction of the print is not appealing. The small bunnies upside down next to the large mushrooms are difficult for me to visually reconcile. Certainly, taken on their own, I like parts of the fabric. But, as a whole, it doesn’t excite me. I added additional blue and white fabric, and decided to pair it with orange.

Log cabin blocks are fun to make, and really lend themselves to improvisational piecing. I wanted to fussy cut parts of the fabric I like, such as the mushrooms and the bird and bunny. As I was piecing and quilting, the mushrooms drew my mind to “Alice in Wonderland,” so naturally I named this one “Alice’s Cabin.”

“Alice’s Cabin”

Detail: Flower on “Alice’s Cabin”