"Housetop"—single-block "Log Cabin" variation

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    Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio
c. 1965
Cotton, polyester, nylon, wool-blend
72 x 77 inches
Collection of
Toledo Museum of Art
Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

Two of Mary Elizabeth Kennedy’s surviving quilts are based on a similar "Log Cabin" structure. But the earlier one, from about 1935, is composed of nine blocks of concentric strips in contrasting blue-green and white, forming a sawtooth pattern. The other, from about 1965, likewise suggestive of a sawtooth, is made of just one block of strips blown up to fill the whole quilt. In both, powerful contrasts of dark and light almost completely efface the underlying structure.