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Friday, December 29, 2006

It's A-Maze-ing - Progress

My theme for the Quilt Studio 12x12x4 Challenge is 'Circles'. My first exploration this year is a circular maze. I've always thought a maze would be a neat quilting design.

The design I chose is a floor pattern in the nave of the cathedral in Chartres, France. This cathedral was built in 1235 AD. The pattern is known as 'Chemin de Jerusalem' (Road to Jerusalem). Here's a picture of the floor:



In the process of investigating circular mazes, I learned the secrets of how to draw a particular type called a Cretan maze. Fascinating stuff! I decided the full Chartres maze would be too intricate for my little 12 inch piece so I used a modified version that has 5 rings instead of 11. Here is the pattern:


I used a piece of mottled green flannel to represent the green turf that a lot of mazes in Europe are constructed with. I used my old Staedtler Mars SuperBow compass from my early college days to draw the rings onto the flannel and then used pre-fused bias tape and ironed on the maze walls.

I need to stitch down the bias tape and put the on the backing and satin stitch bind...and I have a little surprise that I haven't finished yet - hopefully it looks as cute as I think it will.


5 comments:

sophie said...

Suze, it truly is aMAZEing [sic].

Kim said...

Great start. I've always like this pattern. I have considered a series "maze" quilts - thought they'd make great kid quilts!

Pam said...

Wow what a great topic for your challenge - Look forward to seeing what the end result and what you do for future months as well.. PP

Debra Dixon said...

You continutally amaze me with everything you do!

Anonymous said...

I look forward to seeing how this turns out!