A beautiful small box made for sewing tools, embroidered on four sides with classic Log Cabins and a row of Courthouse Steps Log Cabins can be found in the National Museum of Scotland. In Great Britain, a square perfume bag (sachet) worked in lattice silks in the pattern is shown in a 1926 book. Log Cabin patterning on the other hand, has been found in very early inlaid wood designs, in weavings, and in embroideries. The British Quilt Heritage Project found extant Log Cabin quilts made as early as the Our earliest signed/dated Log Cabin quilt was made in 1869, according to Barbara Brackman's database begun with the Kansas quilt project in the 1980's. Log Cabin quilt designs, however, have been found across the Atlantic quite a bit earlier than we have documented them in the US. It too derives its design from the placement of dark and light values The graphic Pineapple Log Cabin design, is a classic log cabin with strips laid on the diagonals in addition to those on the horizontal and vertical planes. The heydey of the Log Cabin in this country was in the third and fourth quarters of the 19th Century, corresponding to the widespread trek Westward after the Civil War, so the "little-house-on-the-Prairie" figure fits nicely. Quilters are told that it represents log cabins on the prairie with red center squares for the hearth, light values on one side for the sunny side of the house and dark values on the opposite side for the shady side of the house. We Americans have long considered this pattern the quintessential American design. These foundations were often waste fabrics of different weights, perhaps recycled, and in the days before sewing machines were widely available, would be almost impossible to quilt through by hand. Once I began to collect old quilts, I understood why. When I began quilting, I was told with great authority that Log Cabin quilts were always tied, never quilted. Since the blocks were made of narrow strips of fabric, sewing them together on a foundation provided the necessary precision as well as stability. The older Log Cabin quilts are often scrappy rather than color coordinated. Simple to construct and easily made with either scraps or planned yardage, the pattern appeals to beginning and advanced quilters alike.Įarly blocks were almost always pieced on fabric foundations. The blocks can be set together in too many ways to list, although there are a number of named designs such as Barn Raising, Sunshine and Shadow, and Straight Furrow. Beginning with a center shape, usually a square, the traditional design is made by sewing strips in sequence around the sides of the square, varying the values between light and dark. For more Log Cabins, view Design Dynamics of Log Cabin Quilts and Log Cabins by Luke Haynes.Log Cabin quilt designs are among the most popular and easily recognized of all quilt patterns. To see more Nebraska-made quilts, visit the online exhibition for Nebraska Quilts & Quiltmakers. While this was likely a mistake, Blackstone purposely made the blocks on either side of the quilt narrower by eliminating two rows of strips, which resulted in a rectangular quilt rather than a traditional square Log Cabin quilt. Naugle (University of Nebraska Press, 1991)ĭespite her years of practice, one block at the top of the quilt is sewn in the wrong position, interrupting the usual perfect symmetry of Log Cabin quilts. Nebraska Quilts & Quiltmakers, edited by Patricia Cox Crews and Ronald C. The dark centers of the blocks stand out, unifying the quilt.” The maker carefully distributed her scraps making a small amount of wine-colored fabric go a long way. The wines, blues, browns, and blacks are hard edged, each strip of color distinct. The light fabrics, in a variety of checks, stripes, and small prints, blend together softly in muted tones of pink, pale blue, tan, and white. “Log Cabin quilts depend on the manipulation of light and dark fabrics for their effect here in an everyday quilt, the contrast is almost textural. The blocks are sewn in a Barn Raising setting that, according to Blackstone’s great-granddaughter, she made exclusively throughout her life. The parallels between her straight and narrow lifestyle and her quilting are embodied by the Log Cabin quilt pattern. Abba Jane Blackstone’s life was governed by her strict Methodist beliefs.
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