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Log Cabin Quilt

Modern American log cabin quilt, 2000. Modern American log cabin quilt, 2000.

A log cabin quilt refers to a patchwork quilt made of blocks made up of narrow strips of fabrics (logs) formed around a central square. Blocks of the log cabin quilts often consist of light and dark coloured strips, repeated throughout the quilt. Materials could vary according to the quilter’s economic status, from silk and velvet to wool and cotton.

Log cabin quilts were made in England and Ireland in the second half of the nineteenth century, but the pattern has become associated with North American quilts. It was very popular in the USA from the 1850's onwards, where specific patterns of light and dark were given names such as straight furrow and barn raising. It was popular, too, in Canada, in the 1860's (where it was sometimes called loghouse quilting) and in Australia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Modern quilters have revived this style.

Sources:

  • COLBY, Averil (1972). Quilting, London: B.T. Batsford.
  • ROLFE, Margaret (1987). Patchwork Quilts in Australia, Victoria: Greenhouse Publications.

Digital source of illustration (retrieved 30 June 2016).

SA

Last modified on Tuesday, 24 January 2017 17:04