| Quilt Notes: According to Jinny Beyer's QUILTER'S ALBUM (#258-6), HOMESPUN BLOCK's debut in print is traced back to Nancy Cabot's column in the Chicago Tribune, November, 1935. It parallels so-called LOG CABIN designs in using long rectangles (or "logs") instead of triangles and squares. In its overall structure, however, it functions basically as the outline of a shape, requiring the assembly of many puzzle parts (see Cabot's hand-drawn piecing grid left), and here (top right) especially, looking like the protecting wall of a city in ancient times, or perhaps, the fortress of one's INTERIOR CASTLE (see notes on St. Teresa of Avila at MYSTIC STAR and THE CASTLE WALL).
 Compare at this site with DIAMOND NET and QUILTER'S DELIGHT, whose form relies on its borders, and quite similar to a style beloved in Japanese patchwork. For a beautifully illustrated book on Japanese geometric quilt designs, see JAPANESE QUILT BLOCKS TO MIX AND MATCH by Susan Briscoe, compare with design #17, named Kurume Kasuri Gakubuchi (FRAME BLOCK) on p.54. Compare also the squared partitioning of this pattern with HANDCRAFT and ACROBATS.
Japanese quilt pattern right:
"Kurume Kasuri Gakubuchi" (FRAME BLOCK)
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HOMESPUN BLOCK (with FRAME BLOCK)
