Saturday, March 5, 2011

Lincoln's Platform

I always thought of this block as Churn Dash, but that's not one of the names Barbara Brackman mentioned in today's installment of the Civil War Block of the Week - she gave Monkey Wrench, Shoo-Fly and Hole in the Barn Door. I've heard of all those, but Lincoln's Platform was a new name for me.

In keeping with the story of Lincoln's First Inauguration on March 4th, 1861, I used my Lincoln Toile fabric and fussy cut a log cabin for the center focus square. Are you aware that there's a group centered in Bostic North Carolina collecting evidence that Lincoln was born in North Carolina, not Kentucky as we've always been taught? See this page for more on the story of Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks, having worked for a Western North Carolina family in Rutherford County, just south east of us in Buncombe County. The argument is pretty compelling and I haven't read anything to refute it.


I liked the idea of framing the log cabin with the directional blue stripe and my red with its interesting bias-oriented print for the triangles. I have a light blue floral print I chose for the background, but flipped it to the back side for better contrast with the stripe.

I looked at the EQ rotary cutting instructions for this nine-patch block at 8 inches and adjusted the sizes provided by a smidge here and there to get a perfect 8.5" result.

3 comments:

Heather said...

You can sew your blocks up soooooo quickly Cheryl! I am just reading the next Civil War blog post and you have completed your block!! It is interesting learning the different names for each block too. I always thought of this one as Churn Dash. I like your block btw - and fascinated that there is a range of fabric called Lincoln Toile.

Dorry said...

I'm away at retreat but I did get my block sewn today. Unlike you I did not add smidgens here and there so my block is 1/8" undersized. It's going to do. Good fabric choice for the center of your block Cheryl. And yes, when I looked at the blog this morning I too said "oh, a churn dash" which is one of my favorite blocks - just not at an 8" size as it makes the math/cutting dimensions troublesome.

Judy said...

I like the log cabin fabric. It looks like I may have to have another look at this EQ computer program. I have avoided it thus far.... but some of BB measurements are tedious, to say the least. Very clever to use the 'wrong' side of the fabric for more contrast. This BOW is so interesting.