31. Christmas Log Cabin & the Underground Railroad

While I've mentioned before that jelly rolls are pretty to look at but not the most useful to actually use in a quilt, this quilt is different--because it is a Log Cabin, which involves an insane amount of little rectangles cut to the right size, it is nice to start with strips already made.

One jelly roll creates exactly 25 Log Cabin blocks with no, I mean no, leftovers.

So if I wanted to really be able to create something more than a throw for the back of the couch at Mike's brother and sister-in-law's apartment, I'll need two that coordinate or match outright.

But this one was pretty. I set it as "Fields and Furrows", meaning the light and dark of each block created diagonal stripes.

Log Cabin quilts have a lot of mystery and tradition built up around them. Different settings that only apply to them (as opposed to other quilts, that can be set on point, with sashing, without sashing, interspersed with plain blocks, etc)--Sunshine and Shadow, Barnraising, Courthouse Steps. It is also the only block, as far as I know, that has a name for one of the pieces in the block: the center square is referred to as the "hearth" and in traditional quilts it is yellow or red. I have heard references to this quilt pattern used on the Underground Railroad (with a black hearth), but, like Aran knitting patterns and Scottish tartans, I believe we are trying to find symbolism where there isn't. I simply cannot believe there was a true meaning behind different quilt patterns flung over the clothesline, in an era when fabric was expensive and quilts were sewn entirely by hand when there was plenty else to get done. I can completely believe that a quilt, any quilt, on the line had meaning: it was a simple sign easily remembered but not easily found out by authorities. But the idea that Log Cabin meant this and Shoo Fly meant that? Seems pretty far fetched to me (especially considering a few of the patterns these researchers claim weren't popularized until the 1930s).....

But I digress. This Log Cabin isn't a sign of anything except Christmas.