I love the idea of using men's shirts for quilts, and your FIL's made them really special. I'd love to see pictures if you have any! "Simple and beautiful" says it all, I think! Thanks. Of course, the Japanese were quilting hundreds of years before we were here in the West, so maybe log cabin blocks are variations of old, traditional Japanese blocks.
Originally Posted by e4
I'm not Japanese, but I love to work with Asian prints and have several books on Japanese quilts. Interestingly, many of the "Japanese" blocks are actually just simple blocks that take on a different look when used with certain color combinations or prints. Every one of the blocks in your example is a variation on a rail fence block with either 3 or 5 rails. Several members of my family made quilts from my FIL's shirts after he died and we all used a Japanese pattern (he lived in Japan for 3 years) that is nothing more than a very simple version of a log cabin. Simple and beautiful.
Here's another block I made from Briscoe's book: It's block 45, called "Kurume kasuri fukumoli" which means "good luck character." The symbol is very similar to the good luck character in Mandarin as well. The blocks are about 9" square, and the tiny squares in the bottom right piece of the block came out to 1/2 inch square--a challenge for me, especially with solid colors!