"Log Cabin"—twenty-block sampler variation (local name: "Bricklayer")

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    Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio
1958
Cotton and corduroy
82 x 78 inches
Collection of
The Studio Museum in Harlem
Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

The Bricklayer is Loretta Pettway’s favorite pattern, and this quilt is one of the earliest surviving examples of her work. She recalls, “Arcola [Pettway] came over to Magdalene Wilson’s house next door and saw my quilts hanging on the line all around the yard, and she laughed till she cried, and made fun of them. She said they was all made alike and they was all Bricklayers. I told her. . . my quilts going to do just what them Eight Point Stars do for you. They going to keep me and my family warm.”