Courthouse Steps Log Cabin Quilt

I was about to ship a fairly recently finished quilt to its new owners when I realized that I hadn't taken any photos of it. Now that I've done that, I thought I'd share them.

The quilt is a modern take on the classic "courthouse steps" variation of a log cabin. It has a modern feel to it because each block, at eighteen inches square, is unusually large. It took only twenty blocks to make a full-size quilt!

My fabric choices, a combination of contemporary graphics, batiks, stylized images and low volume backgrounds, further contribute to the modern feel.

I quilted it on an APQS long-arm machine (thanks once again to everyone at Over the Top Quilting for their help), using the block by block feature to ensure the quilt design perfectly aligned with the pieced blocks. The resulting secondary diamond pattern turns out to be more prominent than the original star design. I added circles between the stars to fill in a large open space and to give a little relief from all the straight lines.

I finished it off with a crisp blue on blue striped binding.

I hope this quilt's new owners are as pleased with it as I am! It's making me think it might be time to start yet another log cabin quilt. 

Winter Adventures in Grand Teton

Most visitors to Grand Teton National Park arrive in the summer and early fall when clear trails draw hikers into deep canyons, and up to colorful wildflower meadows and high passes for close-up views of  craggy peaks. Lakes beckon sweaty hikers to cool off in their sparkling waters. And there is always the possibility of encountering wildlife, from large animals such as bears and moose to adorable and charismatic pica and marmots.

Winter offers a completely different kind of magic: snow everywhere, sparkling fairy tale scenes, and an enveloping quiet.

This year we appreciated winter in the Tetons more than ever by making cross country ski excursions throughout the park. Views of this iconic mountain range never get old!

At the northern end of the park Mount Moran dominates. 

If you are interested in your own trip, the park road from Taggart Lake Trailhead is a good starting point. Grand Teton National Park Foundation generously funds regular grooming of this road for classic and skate skiers all the way up to Signal Mountain. Here is a view from just north of the parking area.

More advanced skiers may want to venture beyond the groomed tracks. Make sure you are well prepared and good at route finding though!

Keep in mind that while bears are hibernating, you may still encounter other wildlife.

You might also come across old cabins, most of which pre-date establishment of the park. As far as I know, they are all closed in the winter, and like wildlife, they should be respected and left undisturbed.

My fascination with log cabins clearly extends to quilting. Log cabin quilts are among my favorites and my most recent quilt top finish is a log cabin.

Making it out of what happened to be available - in this case lots of scraps - seems very appropriate since real log cabins were made the same way - using the wood that was available nearby. In this case the scraps came from other quilts I've made over the years and from bits and pieces in a seemingly bottomless box of vintage fabrics that I acquired years ago at the Austin Area Quilt Guild Show. 

I started out randomly picking fabrics for each block but eventually switched to working with one color family per block so it ended up being a crazy mash up of color. At least the pattern is clear due to consistency in color values. The idea for the peaks and valleys border came from Rachel Hauser at Stitched in Color.

It was very satisfying to use up so many disparate scraps. Now to get it quilted.

Log Cabins, Real and Quilted

'"Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs." With these words Laura Ingalls Wilder began her beloved Little House series of books in which she recounted her early years and her family's search for a home in the mid-west. Wilder's descriptions of her log cabin homes helped shape my images of them as small but sturdy buildings offering shelter, warmth and security in as yet untamed places.

Some of these structures remain scattered across the United States, some in sad disrepair, others lovingly maintained as reminders of the pioneering spirit of their residents. In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, one of the iconic spots for photographers is Mormon Row, where the cabins and barns seem to be perfectly situated, their roof lines echoing silhouettes of the mountains behind them.

Sunrise at the T. A. Moulton Barn

The John Moulton Barn and the Grand Teton

More incongruous is the cabin in the middle of downtown Dallas. This one, dating from about 1850, was moved to its current site in 1971 to show where a cabin stood in the 1840s.

Some log buildings are still in use, such as the 1927 Adirondack Loj (pronounced "lodge"), which provides meals and overnight accommodation to Adirondack Park visitors.

During our early summer wanderings in the Adirondacks we spent a comfortable and quiet night at the lodge.

Adirondak Loj main room

We chose a bunk room over a conventional private bedroom.

Adirondak Loj bunk room

It is no surprise that log cabins have inspired generations of quilt makers. In many ways log cabin quilts are very like the structures after which they are named: simple, sturdy and warm.

Log cabin quilts are made of log cabin blocks. Each block starts with a center square, (representing the hearth, the literal and figurative center of a home), and then is built up, log by log, with each log oriented ninety degrees relative to its neighbors. Usually the logs alternate between two light and two dark, as though two sides of the cabin are in sun and two in shadow.

Here is a circa 1900 log cabin quilt that I purchased years ago at the City of Austin Garage Sale. The seller credited its making to an Annie Rocher, of Austin, Texas. That is unfortunately all I know of the quilt's provenance other than what can be gleaned from the quilt itself. The block arrangement is known as a "barn raising" set, and though not finely made, it has been well cared for. Many of the fabrics remain bright since it has seen little use as a bedcover and has apparently never been laundered. I think the exuberant use of red makes for a lively composition.

Annie Rocher log cabin quilt (note it is 11 blocks wide and 10 blocks high)

Annie Rocher used a large collection of fabrics including solids, prints and plaids in cotton, silk and blends, so many that it seems that every time I look at it I discover another fabric I had not previously noticed.

Detail of Annie Rocher quilt

Here is my own recent version of a log cabin quilt. I made it as a birthday gift for a dear friend and hope that, unlike Annie Rocher's quilt, it will be used until it is in tatters.

The color scheme, which is rather on the cool side and a little unusual for a log cabin quilt, came to life in the class I took with Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr at QuiltCon earlier this year. When I mentioned that I was planning a log cabin quilt Weeks and Bill quickly picked out from my stash a bunch of taupes and neutrals, some old shirtings and a few plaids, and suggested rich brown, one of their go-to colors, for the block centers.

I don't know if this is what they envisioned, but I really like the result. I think it is a subtle and fresh take on an old favorite. Viewed from a distance you can easily see the difference between the dark and light sides of each block, but up close you can't. When I was assembling it I had to keep stepping back to ensure each block was correctly oriented. In spite of its subdued colors, the zig zag pattern, fittingly called a "streak of lightening," gives the piece energy.

I made it without borders and used a black and grey stripe for the binding.

For those of you interested in the details of the quilt's construction, I pieced it by machine and quilted it, block by block, using the computer guided function of my long arm machine. I combined two corner patterns to make a square, changing the orientation of it for each block so that the dark half was quilted in the denser pattern and the light half in a more open pattern.