Maple Leaf Quilt Blocks

I sewed these 9" blocks together over the week.  Quick and easy - I love making blocks!  I had cut the fabrics back when I was in Canada and had access to my fabric stash, so everything was cut and ready to sew.  I just love making my own "quilt kits!".  Sewing the blocks is the easy thing - the hard thing is deciding upon a setting... at least for me. 
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My computer with EQ is in Canada.  Soooo - that means I have to do the design options the old-fashioned way if I want to experiment with layout before actually sewing...
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I want my Maple Leafs inside of a Log Cabin.  I love log cabins!  And the log-cabin pattern works perfectly with all the pre-cut strips I brought with me.  It is really easy to pencil in a 9 patch Maple Leaf - I just used a 3" grid.  1" for the 3 log cabin strips - so to scale that will make a 12" block.  My little paper blocks are 4".  While my son does homework - I color!

But then I thought maybe I want to turn the logs this way and that...  so I cut everything apart and played some more...

Finally I think I have a design that I like...  in order to keep track of which side to sew the logs on - because it varies by block - I draw myself a very small scale drawing.  Now, DH has no idea how I can tell what is what on my drawing - he is wondering if I could make it any smaller?  But I know what this all means - so I pay him no mind.

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In the end I change my mind again - and now I have this small quilt drawing that I won't be using.The leaves and logs will be put away for another day.

My son thinks that he has found the PERFECT use for that itty, bitty scrap of paper.  His Lego man now has a quilt.  Don't you love it?!

While I really do like the above design - I am going to save it for when I can expand it into a bigger sized quilt - add a top and bottom row of blocks and maybe even seperate some of the units with Flying Geese. 

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For this set of blocks, I first rotated the paper logs around in design I liked (just a simple Greek border - why reinvent the wheel?) and then plopped the Maple Leaf blocks down into the centers.  My leaves will be willy-nilly - like they are blowing in the wind.

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With the issue resolved, now I can get back to sewing!  Don't you love traditional blocks and all the designs you can come up with using them?!