An Upcountry Legacy: The Black Family Quilts
Laurel Horton, Seneca, SC
History:
The Log Cabin pattern first developed in the 1860s as a technique for silk patchwork, but it quickly achieved wide popularity and was reproduced in cottons and woolens as well. Quilters of later generations incorrectly assumed from the rustic name that the pattern had originated among early settlers on the frontier. For instance, a writer in 1935 stated flatly that "No Colonial home was complete without one or more" quilts of the Log Cabin pattern. In the nineteenth century, the Log Cabin pattern was constructed as a form of "pressed" patchwork, in which fabric strips were sewn, one at a time, to a foundation square of fabric, then pressed back over the seam, building the pattern outward from the center.
Log Cabin quilts can be made from a limited number of fabrics, but quiltmakers more often took advantage of the pattern's versatility to incorporate a variety of fabrics. As long as the majority of darker fabrics are separated along the diagonal from lighter fabrics, the resulting blocks can be arranged to form a dozen or more different visual effects. In this example, the light and dark blocks are arranged to form a "checkerboard" design of alternating dark and light diamonds.
Log Cabin quilts can be made from a limited number of fabrics, but quiltmakers more often took advantage of the pattern's versatility to incorporate a variety of fabrics. As long as the majority of darker fabrics are separated along the diagonal from lighter fabrics, the resulting blocks can be arranged to form a dozen or more different visual effects. In this example, the light and dark blocks are arranged to form a "checkerboard" design of alternating dark and light diamonds.
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