Cabin Frost in scrappy warm reds

January 30, 2025

I try not to do this too often, but this quilt was a wild ride of improvisation and anti-planning. Once in a blue moon I'll get a wild hair, Cait shows up for work at the start of the week and BAM. I've made a whole quilt top over the weekend. She's learned to roll with it.

Since we moved to Ohio, I had worked really hard to use my dwindling fabric stash rather than buying new fabric. I found myself completely out of one of my favorite colorways - warm pinks! I headed to Red Rooster Quilts (a favorite shop of ours in Dublin, OH) and ended up with an entire stack of fabrics ranging from pink to rusty reds.

By the end of the day they had ALL turned into Cabin Frost blocks, a new pattern we had on deck that was nothing more than chicken scratches on ripped out notebook pages.

Oops.

Because these blocks don't require any background, I had a whole quilt of blocks and NO PLAN. So off I went to the quilt shop again. I found this gorgeous warm Essex yarn-dyed linen in Flax, the perfect oatmeal-y color, and a 5 yard remnant that had the perfect red-brown for a price I couldn't turn down. When do you find 5 yards of quilting cotton for $25?!

If you haven't sewn with Essex in a quilt, I highly recommend it. It's a linen/cotton blend, so it keeps an acceptable level of sturdiness you'd expect of quilters cotton while bringing the lovely soft hand of linen.

When I was all done, I decided to add some black hand-stitching to the accent color in the sashing to give it a little more contrast. Looking back, I wish I had chosen an accent color more in the saturation range of the blocks. But it was a great slow-stitching project that I toted to several gymnastic lessons.

I ended up quilting it with a color-matched thread in 2" straight lines, mostly in the ditch, so the hand stitching came through. I enjoy mixing hand and machine quilting, it's a nice compromise when you don't have the time to dedicate to an entire hand quilted project!

I see this one being a great blanket for me and Little Sister to sit on while watching Big Sister's sports games this spring.

Be sure to check out Cait's cover quilt for this pattern - it was much better planned out and a real stunner! :)

Fabric Details:

Print: Misc fat quarters
Background: Essex Yarn-dyed in Flax
Accent: Cotton Shot Petal by Amanda Murphy for Benartex
Backing: Unknown remnant

Pattern Details:

Modified classic Log Cabin blocks take center stage in this design with playful sashing weaving between - a quilt that looks more complicated that it is!

Sashing in built into the blocks for a simple and intuitive construction. ]
Choose from scrappy blocks or coordinate the entire quilt into a focal design with the uniform version - featured on the cover in Kona blues.
Utilizes strip piecing for efficient construction

Fives sizes included: baby - king

Skill level: Intermediate due to skinny strip piecing, but suitable for a confident beginner

Find Cabin Frost in the Pattern Shop - PDF Instant Download or Printed Paper Pattern