Monday 2 November 2009

Folded Manx Log Cabin - can be done in the dark!!!



This is what Folded Manx Log Cabin looks like. I'd never heard of it until last week when someone showed me how.
History: On the Isle of Man, Britain, it was sometimes called "The Roof Pattern", and was pieced with folded strips, sewn by hand onto a fabric foundation. As well as designs made with scraps, red and white Log Cabin quilts set in a traditional zig-zag werecommonly found here, some said to be dated earlier than 1850. The island was fairly isolated and rural, without easy access to modern tools and equipment. Lacking scissors and rulers in the past, quilters tore fabric into strips and used the length of their fingers, thumbs and size of hand-spans as measurements for the parts of the block.

It's folded and the stitches don't show so without adequate light one can still make neat blocks in this style. I have to decide whether I'm going to put sashing in between these blocks but it's been a nice mobile project to take around.

Autumn draws in and the days are short. The leaves are dying but other things are growing - the spores multiply and help the decomposition of other life forms and in turn, next Spring this mattter feeds new life.
I used to find Autumn depressing but the sense of nature readying itself for another year now helps me to face the winter months.
The spores below are feeding on the aging tomatoes of this summer...

Summer wasn't has hot as we'd have liked this year but October has been warm and dry. We went down to Devon last week and never wore a raincoat or wellies! In fact we were on the beach in T-shirts every day.
The photo shows the view from the apartment we rented at Bigbury on Sea. I even stitched some blocks on the balcony at 10pm when the light was poor - just to relive those quilting days on the Isle of Man and to prove a point!

11 comments:

  1. lovely photo:-) I remember having to learn 3 ways to make log cabin blocks for c&g, practising the techniques with paper. ( cannot remember the third method at all) So strange to have a warm october, not complaining though :-)

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  2. I like making log cabin just by eye myself... beautiful colours yours have...

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  3. Nice colors! It's always nice to find a portable project.

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  4. great photos - wish we had seasons like you :)
    the folded log cabin looks great - it sounds like a stitch and flip - i need something to do in the dark, because i am too tight to buy a daylight bulb and floor lamp.

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  5. I've stopped measuring when I do log cabin, way more fun. The beach looks lovely...

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  6. Lovely colors in the unique making of the log cabin. Love the beach photo too. We are having a very nice autumn here in Texas. Been as low as 47 F. and sometimes up as high as 81 during the day, but mostly very nice autumn like weather. October and November is usually our best months here. We're even getting rain.

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  7. I love your textiles o the park bench. Textiles transform into something magical when photographed in the open alongside nature.

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  8. How interesting ~ I didn't know this and your piece is lovely, great colours.
    CKx

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  9. great , all of it but i love the little spore dots

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  10. Our weather has been very strange hasn't it? Those Indian summer days are so appreciated. I fear we have seen the last of them this year.

    Quilting history is so interesting, it must have been so difficult to do anything in the dark, we are so used to switching on the lights.

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