December 2, 1933

Detroit News Quilt History Project; Michigan State University Museum; Susan Salser

Detroit, Michigan, United States

A Quilt Club Corner column including letters from Quilt Club Corner members.

Quilt Club Corner.
Here’s a Log Cabin Quilt That Won Ribbon Award
by Edith B. Crumb
This department seeks to give assistance to all who are interested in beautifying their homes and will be glad to answer questions pertaining to interior decoration. In order to serve all who, seek advice promptly no more than three problems will be discussed in any one reply. Readers are invited to write to this department as often as they wish, but to limit each letter to three questions. State your question clearly, write on only one side of the paper, enclosing a self-addressed, stamped envelope, and address Beauty in the Home Department, Detroit News. Letters with their answers will be published for the benefit of all homemakers, but names and addresses will not be made public.

THE Log Cabin quilt design is a very old one and has several variations, depending upon the way in which the blocks are arranged. In the accompanying illustration is shown one which won a ribbon award at The Detroit News quilt exhibit, and if you will keep this illustration and compare it with two others which will be shown next Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, you will see what I mean by the variations.

Each block is made with a light and dark half (divided on the diagonal) and this one has been put together with a light square in the center, outlined with a border of dark, rows of this alternating with squares formed with a dark center and light rim.

The Log Cabin must have been designed because of the necessity of economy for it is a quilt in which the scrap bag may be raided and every scrap made to count as something important. In nearly every block is a row of striped or checked material looking very much like a stick of old-fashioned peppermint candy and the tiny triangle in the center of every block is the same material and color.

Anyone who made a Log Cabin quilt must have had a great deal of patience for the strips are very narrow and those toward the center also being very short. It is a matter of sewing around and around from the center block formed by tow very small triangles, each row increasing in length.

This quilt was entered by Mrs. Myrtle Wiley of 12609 Wark Avenue, Detroit. It is of wool and cotton and was made in 1859 by Frances McDonald of Euphemia, Ontario, now being owned by the fourth generation (maternal), Burton Barkers 3725 McLellan Avenue.

Some of the Log Cabin quilts were made of nothing but wool scraps, others as silk and wool, some entirely of cotton and others of cotton and wool; and anyone who possesses one is, indeed, fortunate.

Be sure to watch for the announcement of a new quilt pattern next week. So many have been asking about this that I know it will be welcomed; but you have no idea how hard it has been to select the first one. I know you will like it, for it will help you use even your very smallest scraps and be such a lovely spread when finished.

And don’t forget to write often to the Corner. Everyone is looking for letters and the more, the merrier!

Quilt Club Corner.
HERE I am, back again to the Corner. I felt so sorry that I couldn’t be at the Contest as I know you all had a good, jolly time, I was thinking of you and the Contest all the time and as soon as the paper came I looked for the quilt news.

I am sure that there were some lovely quilts. Wasn’t it fun exchanging patches? I would have enjoyed being there, but as I explained before, I have to stay home to take care of my mother. I certainly appreciated the kind offers extended by several of the members inviting me to be their guest. I would love to meet them and the other members who have written such lovely letters. I hope sometime that I can meet Miss Crumb and Beatrice, too. I hope the Corner keeps on for a long time as we all enjoy reading the letters.
MRS. VILLIA M. LUMBERT.
Route No. 1, Portland, Mich.

I am certainly sorry to think that you were unable to attend the show, Mrs. Lumbert, for you are one of the first ones who ever wrote to the Corner and it seems as if you really should have been there.

There was a great hubbub every once in a while over in the Quilt Club Corner when a crowd of quiltmakers got together to exchange patches. Mrs. Knapp of Monroe was there with a perfectly gorgeous basket to make a scrap book and keep a tiny corner of each patch with the name of the one who gave it to here, so her quilt will really represent the different members.

Beatrice and I both feel very well acquainted with you, even though we have never had the pleasure of meeting you, for we have had so many letters from Portland, and I trust they will keep on arriving so as to help the Quilt Club Corner grow and thrive.

LET me congratulate you on the wonderful display of quilts you gave us during the Contest. I do not remember of having seen so much beauty in one place before. Here’s hoping we will have another Contest next year and I’ll tell you now that I am going to have a quilt in the next display of beauty.

Of course, we still want the Corner! I should say we do and if I have to write oftener than I have to keep it going I will.

I was very glad to meet the different members and I think Gran is a lovely lady. I was so glad to meet Beatrice in person, knowing her by voice only up to now. I know everybody was delighted in meeting and seeing Frances Purcell. She is certainly an inspiration to quilters.
MRS. CONSTANCE MURPHY.

Thank you for your congratulations, Mrs. Murphy, but I think they should go to the quilt-makers who were so kind in allowing their lovely quilts help make this a colorful exhibit.

You have said what so many others said at the show—“I am going to have a quilt for the next show or I am going to have more quilts or I know of two or three antique quilts which would be interesting in this exhibit.” I think that all of the members were interested in meeting each other and next year, we will plan on having a great big Corner and more tables (small ones) with chairs around them so that there may be more exchanging and, of course, chatting. Thank you for your loyalty, Mrs. Murphy, and I hope that you carry out your promise to write often.

Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.