Half a Log History and Free Pattern

Housetops by Deb Rowden

2010

Deb's wall quilt is one of my favorite quilts.

Vintage quilt top---1950s

Her inspiration was a four-block quilt based on the half-a-log cabin

much like the one above.

Wool Half-a-Log, about 1910

Now a Half-a-Log is actually a quarter of a log cabin block.

The pattern doesn't have a BlockBase number because I indexed

published patterns and nobody published a name until after 1970

after I stopped indexing.

But the pattern did exist back into the 1880s or so.

Here's a top I own from the 1940s or '50s

And a similar shading arrangement from perhaps the late 19th-century.

It's one of the vernacular patterns or folk patterns

that was passed around outside the commercial pattern network.

You don't see many vintage half-a-log-cabin quilts

although it's an easier pattern than the traditional full log-cabin block.

No set-in seams.

This one looks to be about 1890

Here's a fabulous example from around the same time.

A great asymmetrical composition from the 1940s or '50s with extra-

wide sashing strips.

 

Chrome orange and white, 

a tied version from about 1900 in which she

actually used a ruler.

The pattern is very popular today because we've all been inspired by the Quilts of Gee's Bend,

Which is why we call them Half-A-Log. 

That's what they call them in Gee's Bend, Alabama.

The pattern seems to have been a favorite of the Pettway family.

The quilt above was made by Lillie Mae Pettway.

Here's one by Rita Mae Pettway,

about 1975

And a full-size quilt made of one block by

Lucy Pettway in 1945

I have a lot of 2-1/2" strips so I am thinking of making one using my

Civil War Jubilee repros for the darks...

 and adding lights from the Moda line Mill Book Series Circa 1835,

plus a Turkey red repro from Moda's Bella Solids line

(Christmas Red #9900-16).

My inspiration is Becky Brown's log cabin below.

Courthouse Steps by

Becky Brown

Each month Becky comes up with a block for her quilt group to stitch. She made up 30 kits (2" cut strips) so her friends could make 4 blocks each for their quilts for vets project. Yay, Becky! Yay, Friends!

14" Finished Block

Add the logs in the order shown beginning with the square 1

Here's the cutting information---if you wanted to use a ruler.

You cut the strips one width (2-1/2") or use a Moda Jellyroll precut pack.

There's a formula here. You add to the length of the strips in 2" increments (6, 8, 10 etc)

1 - Cut 1 square 6-1/2"

2 - Cut 1 strip 2-1/2" x 6-1/2"

3 & 4 - Cut 2 strips 2-1/2" x 8-1/2"

5 & 6 - Cut 2 strips 2-1/2" x 10-1/2"

7&8 - Cut 2 strips 2-1/2" x 12-1/2"

9 - Cut 1 strip 2-1/2" x 14-1/2"

Rather than measuring you could just add the 2-1/2" strips and trim.

And keep going the way Lucy Pettway did for her one-block bed quilt above.

A mid-20th-century version from the Quilt Complex

See a contemporary version by Linda Nussbaum here:

http://creativentropy.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-space.html

And for a whole different direction see this collage by Sandy Donabed:

http://www.sandydonabed.com/collagequiltsDetail.php?siID=190

Here's another post I wrote about the Half-a-Log here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/05/quarter-log-cabin-or-half-log.html