Emma Miller's Union Flag
Old Salem Museums & Gardens CollectionCross-stitched motto on a small flaghttps://www.oldsalem.org/item/collections/american-flag/11600/The label stitched to the flag reads:"First Flag Raised...
View ArticleLadies' Aid Album Sampler: Links to Free Patterns
The current appliqued Block of the Month at CivilWarQuilts isbased on a large group of album quilts made in New York after 1850 or so.Ladies's Aid Album Sampler features 12 pictorial blocks often...
View ArticleThe Problems with Ladies' Fairs
1858 Ladies' Fair in Boston to raise money for the poor.Doll houses were a popular feature at fund-raising fairs.The women's fund-raising fair was a 19th-century phenomenon that goes back at least into...
View ArticleAmerican Stars #1: The McKims
Block #1 Stellar Memory by Becky BrownAmerican StarsWe begin the new year with a new pieced block-of-the-month. The patchwork theme isfour-pointed stars to symbolize American Stars, a year-long look at...
View ArticleCorps Badge Quilt Puzzle
In 1949 the Vancouver B.C. Times published this spatial puzzlethat must have been syndicated from the U.S.The quilt in question (rather asymmetrical) was "Made up of shoulder patches collected by...
View ArticleSets for American Stars B.O.M.
Elsie's the first to get her American Stars Block #1 finished.She says she is working out of her stash.We should be thinking ahead to sets. Here are some basics.Set 12 blocks finishing to 12" side by...
View ArticleStarry Crazy
Detail of a crazy quilt dated 1901Collection of the Sharlot Hall Museum in ArizonaThe white cat and pink squirrel catch your eye but there's also a representation of a Grand Army of the Republic...
View ArticleLadies' Aid Sampler #11: Strawberries & Dogs
Ladies' Aid Sampler #11 Dog by Becky BrownThe next-to-last block recalls working dogs in New York where sampler albums often featured canines and occasionally canines carrying baskets.Album in the...
View ArticleMary Lincoln's Strawberry Dress
In May of 1861 the Lincolns held a Strawberry Party in the first months of the Civil War and their life in the White House. The First Lady apparently wore this dress picturing the seasonal fruit to...
View ArticleA Quilt Stolen and Rescued
Leslie's IllustratedWomen watching Sherman's troops burn cotton bales, a risky business.The town could catch fire. John M. Branum of the 98th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was marching through South Carolina...
View ArticleAmerican Stars #2: The Keys
American Stars #2: Star-Spangled Four Patch by Becky BrownStar-Spangled Four Patch recalls the Key family whose notoriety goes back to the Revolution when Phillip Barton Key, son of English...
View ArticleHonest Abe: Quilter
Woven silk portrait of LincolnToday is Lincoln's actual birthday. Honest Abe was born February 12, 1809. As one of the top three best-ranked Presidents by historians and an American tragedy in his...
View ArticleFreedom's Friends: New Applique Series for 2022
Time to start thinking out next year's Applique Block of the Month.We are wrapping up the Ladies's Aid Album on the last Wednesday ofFebruary.Look for a free pattern for Freedom's Friends on the last...
View ArticleMiriam Moses Cohen's Civil War
Star block with Miriam Moses Cohen's inked name in a quiltmade for Eleanor Solomons in Savannah, Georgia, in the early 1850s.Temple UniversitySisters Rebecca and Rachel GratzMiriam Gratz Moses...
View ArticleLadies' Aid Sampler #12: Birds They Sow Not
Ladies' Aid Sampler #12: Birds: They Sow Not by Denniele BohannonOur final New York album block recalls the women of Rochester who organized a Soldiers' Aid Society during the Civil War. They...
View ArticleMatilda Cosley Barber Blood's Civil War
In 1854 Matilda Barber entered her needlework in the Preble County Fair in Ohio. A year later the Civil War and all its heartbreak began for her. Kansas State Historical SocietyLawrence's main street...
View ArticleMore Hands All Around Finishes
Mitzi's finished two of the star samplers that wereour 2021 Block of the Month.She does a nice job on the photography too.Two sizes in this one.Flo gives us a little glimpse of Provence in her...
View ArticleFashion Notes from Shippensburg University
Pennsylvania's Shippensburg University has an impressive textile collection: 15,000 objects (Alas, they don't mention quilts.) Their Fashion Archives and Museum with its changing exhibits looks worth...
View ArticleAmerican Stars #3: The Gratzes
American Stars #3 Double Pinwheels by Becky BrownDouble Pinwheels recalls the Gratz family, North and South, and their double heritage.Rebecca Gratz (1781-1869)Miniature on ivory by Edward Greene...
View ArticleCelestine Bacheller Remembers Her Civil War Home
Gathering water liliesCelestine Bacheller (1839-1922?) is associated with this silk pictorial quiltin the collection of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.56" x 74"It has much in common with crazy quilts in...
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