"Log Cabin"—single block "Courthouse Steps" variation (local name: "Bricklayer")

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    Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio
1958
Cotton, twill, printed corduroy, denim
87 x 72 inches
Collection of
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

As a teenager, Loretta Pettway gravitated toward the "Bricklayer" pattern, popular among her relatives and neighbors in Pettway. “I always did like the 'Bricklayer' best. I saw Plummer T.'s ‘Bricklayer’ coming up. Them's probably the first I remember. After I married, I was living over past where Nazareth Major live now, in a wood house with no windows, only wooden shutters, over where Nazareth mama Arie Pettway stayed. Arie, she made ‘Bricklayers’ from the start. I used to walk to Nettie Jane Kennedy across the road, quilt with her. Back in that time I done some of everything. Later on, I went to mostly the ‘Bricklayer.’ My grandmother Prissy, she raised me. She was a Carson. Her and her sisters Louella [Pettway] and Aolar [Mosely], they made "Bricklayer" quilts. So did Aunt Candis [Pettway]. I remember that from when I live with her some when I was little. I was a hardworking woman. My husband, Walter, he worked at Henry Brick and he brought home two picture boards of bricks. I liked them and tried to copy them. I always did like a ‘Bricklayer.’ It made me think about what I wanted. Always did want a brick house.”