Country house

History

Again, it is time to introduce my fourth quilt of this year’s Fifteen by Fifteen group challenge. The assignment was to make a quilt, showing typical architecture of the chosen country. My chosen country was my own Lithuania, and I decided to go with Lithuanian country house.

In Lithuania, especially in our cities, we have all architectural styles, where some buildings are dating centuries ago, and we also have modern buildings. The most traditional architecture in Lithuania used to be wooden architecture. That’s how Lithuanians built their houses for centuries, using available local materials.

Driving in the country it is still possible to see some old country houses, others are preserved in open air museums.

I myself took a photo of this small house a few years ago. It was build as a sauna at the end of 19th century but later redone into the house, where German Army unit had their office during WWI. It was convenient because of the railroad being close by:

The quilt

In this challenge, as in previous, and those to come, I kept my promise of using Lithuanian linen fabrics. No machine sewing and, if possible, no commercially dyed fabrics. My promise determined what type of Lithuanian architecture I was going to show.

I made a wage sketch that helped me to decide on the size of the house and proportions of the quilt:

Walls of country houses usually were built from logs:

The triangle under the roof at the end of the house (tympanum) was made from boards. Boards were arranged in different designs. There also could be a little window to lighten the attic. The same triangle was framed with rake boards that crossed each other at the peak. The loose ends of rake boards at the peak of the roof served as decorations.

In old times the roofs usually were made from straw. The windows sometimes had window shades, usually painted with white paint.

Almost every house had a fenced flower garden.

In my quilt I combined features of country houses from different regions of Lithuania. I used Lithuanian linen fabrics: unbleached commercial linen and my own rust and plant dyed linen. There is no sewing done at all (except binding), all pieces were layered and stitched together by hand.