Little Log Cabin

Editor's Note: To celebrate the grand opening of the newly expanded Quilt House gallery, International Quilt Study Center & Museum team members are blogging about pieces in the gallery's inaugural exhibition, "Getting to Know You."

Log Cabin, maker unknown, made in United States, circa 1890-1910.
Ardis and Robert James Collection, IQSCM 1997.007.0114.

By Laura Chapman
Communications Coordinator

I grew up with fairly limited exposure to quilts. My mom and grandma knitted and crocheted, so most of my knowledge about quilts came from the Little House books and the Dove in the Window quilt Laura worked on throughout the series.

I’m truly lucky to work alongside a great team of co-workers at such a beautiful building that houses such amazing treasures. Like this one. There really is something about a Log Cabin quilt that is wonderful. Maybe it’s that connection to the Little House books. No, they didn’t make any in the series, but Laura was born in a log cabin in the woods.

Yeah. I've been there. Or at least to the replica cabin that was built on the site where the one she lived it in used to exist.

Or maybe I just like these quilts because they're versatile and can look so different based on how you put them together. This great animation created by University of Nebraska-Lincoln shows featured in our exhibition, "Design Dynamics of Log Cabin Quilts," shows those different settings.

British Mania

Editor's Note: To celebrate the upcoming grand opening of the newly expanded Quilt House gallery, International Quilt Study Center & Museum team members are blogging about pieces in the gallery's inaugural exhibition, "Getting to Know You."

Medallion, maker unknown, probably made in Allendale region,
England, United Kingdom, circa 1830. IQSCM 2007.014.0001.

By Laura Chapman
Communications Coordinator

I have been a bit of an anglophile since middle school, when I watched Sliding Doors and Notting Hill. That was about the same time my dad introduced me to Monty Python's Flying Circus, and I watched a multi-part documentary on Beatlemania with my parents. That probably prompted me to spend high school reading everything by Helen Fielding, Lisa Jewell, and Jane Austen. By the time I went to college, I knew I was a bit obsessed.

Imagine my excitement when the summer before my senior year, I had an opportunity to travel to England with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Not only did I get to see amazing things like Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station…

Hogwarts bound!

And tour London…

My classmates and I before attending Sunday
service at Westminster Abbey.

But I also saw a lot of quilts. UNL sent us to England as part of a depth reporting project on the international scope of quilts and quiltmaking. We were working on a magazine and documentary to be released in conjunction with the grand opening of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at Quilt House in spring 2008.

We went to England, because there were excellent sources for us to interview at the Victoria & Albert Museum and British Museum in London. We were also fortunate enough to meet with Bridget Long, an IQSCM associate fellow, and one of her friends in Ashwell, near Cambridge.

The main elements of our research took place at the International Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. While our friends at the IQSCM, who are now my colleagues, told us the festival would be bigger than we could imagine, I wasn't prepared for the frenzy of activity that would meet us. We saw hundreds of quilts, including a mixture of historical, contemporary, and art quilts. And we also met wonderful people, both in our interviews and by mingling in the crowd.

Though this British quilt looks different than any of the pieces I saw during that trip in 2007, it reminds me of the festival and of one of the greatest experiences in my life.