Vintage Log Cabin Quilt

A vintage quilt from my collection, this Log Cabin quilt shows the quintessential Barn Raising layout for the log cabin blocks.

This wonderful quilter has found a way to incorporate many, many fabrics that one initially would assume could not fit into this color palette, such as the greens, oranges, and yellows, as well as the dancing brown-and-white diagonal check.

The quilt as a whole reads pink and burgundy, and the addition of all these other sparkles makes it a much more complex and interesting work.

Vintage Log Cabin           75″ x 75″                  Photograhy by Sibila Savage

The detail view shows the bold colors, as well as the (for me) fun vintage fabrics.

Vintage Log Cabin, detail

Since many vintage quilts that I love have been an inspiration for my own work, I know that I have wanted to make one of these very, very traditional quilts myself, using my colors and fabrics.

After taking the foundation piecing class from Jane Hall and Dixie Haywood at the Houston festival, I learned all the techniques for executing such a project efficiently, but I have yet to start on such an adventure.

Still deciding whether to make the Barn Raising set or to try the more complicated Pineapple variation.  Hmmmmmm. . . . .

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Callback to a previous post about “mistakes”:

Here’s an excerpt from Richard Diebenkorn’s Notes to myself on beginning a painting, seen at the current exhibit at SF’s DeYoung:

“Mistakes can’t be erased but they move you from your present position.”

Yup.

More vintage embroideries

Well . . . the patterns for the embroideries are vintage, but these stitcheries are current.

In the post that told the story of my Redwork Revisited quilt (seen here), I wrote about all of the embroideries I had done over the years.  I thought I should post a just a few of the others here, so I could show how I was using the piles and piles of vintage embroidery transfers I have gobbled up from eBay and etsy over the past few years, and how I practiced the stitchery that got showcased in Redwork Revisited.

I still love the red on white kitchen towels, since they match my kitchen.

There’s the simple,

and the tremendously cute,

and the sweet.

Jumping out of the redwork realm,  here are a few pillowcases.

Then we move on to the various vegetable series, all of which are tons of fun and my current obsession.

These are just a few of the ones that I still have on hand.  All were sewn using the vintage transfers.

Here’s one more, which was a pre-printed vintage linen towel that I stitched.    This little lady and her cat are the best.

Enough for now.

My learning process

I am immensely proud of almost all of the quilts included in these posts and galleries, and then along comes my most recent, about which I have mixed feelings.  Not everything is successful.

Firstly, this quilt is finished, and that is always a good thing.  But only now do I notice so many changes I could have made.  Sometimes the learning experiences arrive at the very tail end of a project, too late to make adjustments.  Such is the case here.

However, since I do not support anyone drawing attention to all the things they might consider mistakes in their works, I leave it to your judgment.

This piece was made in Roberta Horton’s African-American Quilts workshop at PIQF.   It was very fun to make since it uses a template-free construction method;  just cut and sew.

Gee’s Bend Churn Dash, 2013            34″ x 37.5″

And I did find one part of this quilt that is my very favorite, and it is what I learned in the process of quilting.

Since there were so many different patterned fabrics in this top, deciding on a quilting pattern that would enhance the quilt or even be visible was a challenge.

The solution was hand quilting with Perle cotton.  LOVE IT.  Using a Chenille needle made the process very easy, since the eye of that needle is large enough to accommodate the No.8 thread, and yet the needle is sharp enough to go through all three layers of the quilt.

Gee’s Bend Churn Dash, detail

This quilting reminded me of when I started quilting back in the early 70’s, all by hand, including piecing by hand.   I think a project I’m currently working on may call for hand quilting too, so returning to my roots may be a comfortable place.

The larger lesson for me is learning to become more comfortable trying something that I don’t usually do and failing.  Historically, some of my best work has followed mistakes.

More fabric postcards