Log Cabin Quilt
Attributed Artist: Margaret Smith (possibly)
Location: Gaston County
Technique: Pieced cotton and wool
Date: 1884
Quick Facts
This Log Cabin quilt is composed of 100 carefully crafted blocks, each formed from sewing scraps and arranged into a bold pattern. The design’s visual balance and technical skill speak to the maker’s artistry and care. Donated in 1994, the quilt was remembered by the White donor as a childhood gift from Margaret Smith, a Black woman who worked for her family.
About the Artist
If Margaret Smith was indeed the quilt’s maker, she was likely born into slavery in the 1830s and lived through emancipation and the Jim Crow era of segregation in North Carolina. Census records place a woman of that name near the donor’s family home in Gaston County during the time the quilt was made. But inconsistencies—between oral history and written records—make it difficult to confirm.
Like many African Americans of her era, Smith’s life is obscured in the historical record. But if her hand created this quilt, it stands as a rare form of documentation: an enduring, tangible legacy of Black artistry and labor.