This throw in the Log Cabin pattern was begun by Harriet Rutter in 1875, the year she married William Eagleson, but was never finished. It is a fascinating surface study in unpredictability within symmetry. The large dark squares-on-point dominate the visual field, but concentric squares emerge and interrupt the surface through masterful manipulations of bright and somber fabrics in each block. A native New Yorker, Eagleson was numbered among the students at the first New York City high, or normal, school for females. Known as the Twelfth Street girls, many of the students went on to form the first classes at Hunter College, founded in 1870. In 1949, 94-year-old Harriet Rutter Eagleson was celebrated as the oldest living graduate of Hunter College class of 1871. To this day a scholarship endowed in her name supports the academic work of Hunter College students.

Stacy C. Hollander, "Log Cabin Throw, Light-and-Dark Variation," exhibition label for alt_quilts: Sabrina Gschwandtner, Luke Haynes, Stephen Sollins. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2013.