Week 15: Shroud, Chapter 3: Raleigh, North Carolina 1954-1986

Chapter 3, a log cabin quilt of homes...

  This week's book is Chapter 3 of the book, Shroud. Titled Raleigh, North Carolina 1954-1986, the four quilt square panels (the pages) are organized as addresses of the Raleigh homes lived in by the artist between 1954 and 1986. The classic quilt template chosen for this series is the log cabin pattern. A vintage Raleigh, NC map, Thai kozo paper, Japanese chiyogami print paper, and paper dyed with walnut, osage orange, cochineal, indigo, and brazil wood were used to construct the 36 inch by 36 inch paper quilt.

The letterpress title...

   The title reads like the chiseled epitaph on a grave stone... where the name of the deceased is followed by the dates of the lifespan. In this case, the chapter title is letterpress printed with 30-point Bookman type onto the central area of the four quilt panels. 

  This pattern was chosen because of its simple complexity as well as its reference to houses... and also to death and antiquity. Similarly crossed fabric strips were found in Egyptian mummy wrappings and early tile mosaic patterns dating back thousands of years. In recent history... say the last 200 years... the log cabin quilt pattern was very popular among Colonial American quilters... largely because of its simplicity and economy of materials. There are many variations in the design... with names like Barn Raising, Sunshine and Shadow, Straight Furrow, and Pineapple.  By arranging the multicolored pieces in different ways... many different variations of the standard design can be created. For this piece, the traditional layout was used.

traditional log cabin quilt pattern

   The addresses of the four homes lived in during the time period were typed onto the (red) central square of each log cabin quilt piece. An 1978 Olivetti electric typewriter was used for the typing.

2324 Lyon Street, 1954-1963

1631 St. Mary's Street, 1963-1971

3133 Stanhope Avenue, 1975-1978

319 Wilmot Drive... 1978-1986

   There are some missing links in the timeline. Those are the years when the artist resided in other places, became a nomad, or was in transition... but that is another chapter... or two.

...floor plan  and scale drawing of an historic log cabin