Rail Fence

Nobody knows the first print of the name; it is neither in the Ladies' Art Company's catalogue of 1898 nor in Marie Webster's list of 1915. A Michigan newspaper mentions a "Lincoln rail fence quilt" in 1878, but Barbara Brackman thinks it more likely was a Log Cabin, and in her picture file quilts with the strips laid this way date from after 1890.

Some museums do date strip quilts earlier: the Kansas Historical Society has a "Roman Stripe, also known as Rail Fence" of silk and velvet from 1870–1889, and Historic Stonington in Connecticut a Rail Fence of silk, satin and velvet from 1860–1880. The museum in Lincoln has Amish quilts from Indiana from 1910–1930 and 1950–1970.

The block is best sewn as strip sets: the strips are sewn together in long bands, and the bands are cut into squares. The rotary cutter, which came in 1979, made that easy, and from the mid-1980s strip piecing and acrylic rulers were common. It is simple and a good first block.

Turning every other block a quarter turn makes the strips step; with a dark strip on the outside of each block it becomes a zigzag, as in Chevron. With more and narrower strips it becomes a Roman Stripe like the quilt in Kansas.