Free Pattern Friday with Gee's Bend

I love log cabin quilts. And so do many, many other quilters. The Gee's Bend ladies made a lot of log cabin quilts using their unique improvisational style. I patterned this for Windham Fabrics in partnership with the Gee's Bend quilters. It's called Housetop Nine Block. First, the quilt made by Annie Pettway.

Housetop Nine Block by Annie Pettway

Windham sent me fabrics and asked me to come up with a prototype. Here's my first block. It's based on Annie's, top left in her quilt.

First prototype block

Then I made a few more. Put them together. Too blah! Back to the drawing board.

First prototype quilt

Then we darkened those large sashing strips and played with more colors. I finally got it right and everyone was happy!

Housetop Nine Block: 66" x 73"

Fast forward 10 years and Windham wanted to revisit the pattern (my copyright - all spelled out in my contracts for those wondering). They had a new collection called Simply White. They asked me if I could recolor the Housetop Nine Block with those fabrics. I did. Very white, but hey - that's what they wanted (and they paid me).

Housetop Nine Block quilt using grays and whites

This is the FREE pattern. You can download it from the Windham website. It is a 12 page pdf with lots of detail for each of the 9 blocks. Compare it with the one I sell on Etsy (with lots more color). And enjoy the world of log cabins once again!