"Housetop"—four-block "Log Cabin" variation center medallion

Among Henrietta Pettway’s surviving compositions is a four-block, center medallion "Log Cabin" variation in the form known among some local women as the "Hog Pen Pole." Dating from around the late 1920s and made of cotton and cotton sacking, it is beautiful even in its faded condition. It suggests how well used these quilts were; it also reveals how far back in the Gee's Bend quiltmaking tradition the improvisational approach can be found.