Restoring Log Cabin Quilt for The Clearing

This summer I spent another marvelous week of quilting at the Folk school in Door County. On the property there is a small Cliffhouse, a small hide out embedded in the cliffs and tree roots, overlooking the beautiful lake. Inside there is some rustic made furniture and a bed. Guests are allowed to spend a night there, there are no facilities except a fireplace (and I'm told you need to keep the fire going if not the bats will pay you a visit!).

During our stay no one did sleep there and Mike, the manager, joked that it was because there's no quilt to entice the people. All the cabins have lovely quilts on the bed. So I thought it might be a nice idea to make one as a token of appreciation of the wonderful times I've spend at the Clearing.

A log cabin seemed the logical pattern to choose and I suddenly remembered that I had purchased a vintage top through the internet years ago. When it arrived it was badly damaged (rips and holes) and had some big stains and the colors were more drab than the photo showed. I was disappointed but still I couldn't throw it away, someone had put time and effort and maybe love into making it. It daunted on me that it might be the perfect solution to restore the vintage top because it suits the style of the Cliffhouse and the Clearing is all about preservation.

I have no idea of the date, it is an eclectic match of of colors and fabrics (flowers, paisley, dots, plaids, geometrics) that seem to range through a lot of decades. It is machine pieced and the blocks are fairly big (15") and have the traditional red center symbolizing the fireplace.

What is remarkable is that the individuel logs are very often pieced together from several pieces which indicates the maker was very frugal and probably had to use every little piece she had.

From a distance on the wall you clearly see the half dark and half light sides which create the diagonal stripes (this setting is called furrows). When it's on the bed it's less visible because some blocks play with darker values in the light part and vice versa. Though it's very scrappy it has a thought out balance of the colors throughout the quilt. I love a little zing in a quilt and the 3 hot pink logs in the third row from the bottom definitely deliver. Can you tell I love to pour over a vintage top :-)

I have to replace/repair 5 center squares and have to make sure the red doesn't bleed (I can't wash the top til it is repaired). There are about 8 logs I have to replace, I've ransacked my stash and came up with close look-a-likes. Some will need tea dying because the white in the B&W fabrics is too bright. I'm thinking of tying the quilt with red yarn instead of quilting it, it seems more appropriate.