I tend to think of appliqued eagles as a symbol more popular before the Civil War than during.
But this trio of border eagles indicates that an eagle border might be perfect for
a Civil War reproduction quilt.
The blue eagle is from a quilt date-inscribed 1865
in the collection of the
International Quilt Study Center & Museum.
# 2006.043.0157
Four Block Quilt # 1 from IQSC
From the James collection. The Jameses thought it was probably an Ohio quilt.
Quilt #2 is from the Ohio Historical Society
Made by Eliza Jane Secrest (1838-1924) of Mt. Zion, Ohio. Estimated family date, about 1858
Quilt #3
I thought these red & green examples were the same quilt. Careful looking reveals the block patterns are similar, but the border leaves are different. This quilt, which I found on Pinterest, has only two eagles in the border at top and bottom. I bet these are all from Ohio. Notice the doves in all three florals.
I'm quite familiar with the eagles as I drew a pattern for one years ago for our Sunflower Pattern Co-operative.
It was based on the 1865 red, white & blue quilt.
Barbara Fritchie Star pieced by Shirlene Wedd, appliqued by Jean Stanclift
and hand quilted by Anne Thomas. 2000, 90" x 90"
Karla Menaugh & I did a couple of Barbara Fritchie star quilts with our friends at the Sunflower Pattern Co-operative.
Karla did the all-pieced version below. You can barely see the inscription we embroidered into the border, but it's a line from John Greenleaf Whittier's Civil War poem Barbara Fritchie.
We still have a few of the pattern packets available in our Etsy Store. Once they are gone (soon!) we are planning to do a digital download but getting all 7 paper pattern sheets into a printable PDF is still confounding us.
See more here:
Read more about the Civil War symbolism in a Barbara Fritchie Star at this post:
A long URL to see the Ohio Historical Society's quilt.