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!
