New Quilt: Cantilever Log Cabins

Cantilever Cabins quilt 34 x 60 inches

Another small quilting project completed last week which I am calling Cantilever Cabins because of the layout of my units makes me think of modern architecture's modern buildings made from units that are stacked and sometimes cantilevered designs that defy gravity. It's a riot of colors and finished around the time the gay rainbow flag is flying in lots of big cities commemorating the Stonewall Riots of 1969 in New York City. I missed them by five years when I moved there in 1974 to study art in Brooklyn. Eventually I found my way to the parade in the summer of 1975 marching up 7th Avenue to Central Park where we

playing with the rainbow strips on my design wall 

had a blast dancing to a disco radio truck at the Bethesda Fountain and watching men strip naked and climb the fountain angle's shoulders to wiggle and dance displaying their pride while clearly under the influence of some mind altering chemicals we didn't have...
I digress, this quilt is all cotton and made from lots of scraps of colors and neutrals. I used inspiration from an antique wool suiting quilt pictured here for the blocks shape using a triple bar log cabin block.

antique triple bar log cabin wool quilt

I chose a different way to stack my blocks which is where the cantilever came from in the title. I organized my colored blocks as darks and the lighter ones as background. The binding is a scrappy mix of strips from the same fabrics in the brightly colored blocks. 

My backing consisted of left over strips which I assembled in different lengths alternating warm and cool sets stacked up like a pile of books surrounded with off white print scraps for a background.

The quilting is using multi colored pearl cotton #8 around the squares on the top/front and showing up nicely on the whites of the back side and the stack of multi colored bars.  

In the final stages I had to make two labels. The first label on a strip of patchwork didn't work on the quilt because it was different scale. 

 This first label looked great when I started but once the wash away was gone the coral pearl cotton threads didn't read very well, so I began again. 

failed label embroidery

I am happy with this coral on white in a square format like the quilting from the front.
Sometimes simple really is the best choice.

Thanks to the Modern Quilt Guild for the idea to mix lots of neutrals with bright colors in a new way using old fashioned block design.