Medieval court(house) steps

- Yes, I have to confess - I have started another quilt! As if I didn't have enough going on! Well, I'm not going to finish this one in the first couple of weeks, for sure... And I must admit that I signed up for the log cabin workshop mainly to spend time with friends and have fun, which I certainly did. It has been ages since I took time out to do nothing but sew and chat, and this was just what the doctor ordered, and I'm full of inspiration again!

Although traditional log cabin quilts can be very nice, I don't normally have the patience to make more than a few blocks before I'm bored to tears, so I must admit I cheated. Because if you look closely, these blocks aren't Log Cabin after all, but Courthouse Step blocks, in fact!
I have had this quilt lurking in the back of my mind for ages, and used the workshop as an excuse to get started. The centre squares are from a Mulberry fabric with an alphabet of illuminated letters in a somewhat medieval style. The letters have lovely illustrations of people, animals, flowers and leaves, and I had fun choosing the right kind of fabrics to go with them, while adding some rather unexpected ones. You'll find handwritten manuscripts, flowers, the signs of the Zodiac, exotic fish, for a medieval banquet, mice (because those draughty castles must have been full of them), gilded ornaments and chequerboard tiles.
In between the chatting, laughing and sharing of ideas I managed to finish these twelve blocks, and have another six on the go. I'm going to make 25 in all, so I'm more than half way there. Wouldn't you know it - after more than 20 years of quilting and having provided quilts for the beds of all my sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews I still haven't got round to make a quilt for my own bed, so this is going to be the one!
Two lap quilts and a bed quilt for myself - 2008 is turning into rather a selfish year, isn't it? ;-)