Re-Union?

Small squares of Civil War Reunion and other repro prints

April is the month the nation is remembering the beginning of the Civil War 150 years ago. My latest Civil War era reproduction is called Civil War Reunion because I thought the best way to remember that horrible event would be to celebrate the post-War reunion of North and South, the Blue and Gray Reunions of Veterans and events like Memorial Day to recall the sacrifice on both sides.

Gettysburg Reunion 1938

I was pleased to find a scrap of fabric with the word Union, which probably is NOT a print from the years 1861-1865 but more likely one from the 1870s when the country was celebrating the peace at our Centennial celebration in Philadelphia.

This Union shield and double flag stripe likely

 dates to the 1870s and celebrates the Reunion.

It was in Civil War Crossing, a collection a few years ago.

We find a few patriotic prints from the war years but most of the flags and star prints are probably from post-War era. And no one has found a Confederate print because the South grew the cotton, they had no factories to print it.
 All that said, it's always a surprise to get a mean little note like this one.

I'm really disappointed in your lack of historical mindedness when it came to your creation of the Civil war reproduction.

it also seems a little one sided. How could you make all the other beautiful creations in this line and then go and add "UNION" !!!!!
There was 2 sides to the Civil War. You Chose to only show the Union side. I personally am on the Confederate side, a Southerner if you will.
So yes I'm disappointed. To be historically correct you should have chosen to show both sides or leave them out entirely.
How many others have commented on this HUGE mistake of yours? I bet this letter never makes it to the light of day with the public. However it would be nice and Politically correct for you to comment and apologize for your error. I will be commenting publicly wherever and whenever I can as well as boycotting your Beautiful Fabric. This is a shameful Reproduction. For Moda to even enter into this with you is also shameful. They also will be boycotted.

Sincerely,
MaryDenise Roeller

I told her I'd be glad to post the note. Not everybody seems to understand the point of Civil War Reunion or reproduction fabric.
If you care to comment, do please remember we try to keep a civil discourse going here.

May Your Reds Never Run

Today is Saint Hunna's feast day.

She is known as the Holy Washerwoman and is the patron saint of laundresses and washerwomen. Other names for her are Oona, Una, Uma and Oonaugh.

She might protect you from bleeding and fading dyes.

Woman washing clothes

 in camp during the Civil War

Woman Ironing by Degas

As a child raised by nuns I believed there was a saint for every cause. I've often needed the intercession of Saint Hunna. I've made several shrines to her with collage and Photoshop.

 I am not the only one who needs some help with the reds. Here's a quilt from about 1910 when reds were absolutely unreliable.

So to celebrate St. Hunna's day: Prewash some reds and be grateful for recent inventions like the washing machine.

Federal photographers recorded this

Texas woman doing laundry in the 1940s.

Here's a book comparing painters' views of laundresses to that of this artist Jean Baptiste Greuze

Buy this book by Colin B. Bailey by clicking here:

http://shop.getty.edu/product368.html

See some disasters by clicking here:
http://juliebagamary.blogspot.com/2011/03/ugh-bleeding-fabric.html
http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-fabric.html

And check out Jane Davila's post on Willie Cole's art inspired by the iron.
http://raggedclothcafe.com/2008/01/09/willie-cole-by-jane-davila/
Here's more on his work that he calls Scorches
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=66215
See my Print on Demand book with more Saint collages from Blurb.com by clicking here:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1836309

Look at Moda's Home Page

Because I am all over it. When you click on some of the frames it directs you to my stuff.
Click here:
http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/main?openpage

Fort Sumter block by S. J. Gilbert

The blocks are from the Civil War Quilts Flickr group

Click here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/civilwarquilts2011/

I'm pretty proud of that home page! Thanks, Moda!

Which gives me the opportunity to give you some links to some actual Civil War Reunion footage on You Tube.  

Fox & Geese by Carmen Maria

Two views of the 75th Anniversary of Gettysburg, one with Franklin Roosevelt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUd4txQ8X_g&feature=related

And footage from the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIJaxu3w4-U&feature=related

Little Blue Basket by Theresia B.

London Square by Australia Sue

Old Fashioned Nostalgia

 In the 1930s Sunbonnet Sue evolved into a sunbonnet woman with a grown-up figure. In my Encyclopedia of Applique she has a page to herself with a variety of poses. Names include Calico Girl, Sunbonnet Girl, Colonial Lady and Old Fashion Girl.

The bow on the back and the French knot buttons are nice details in this quilt. I didn't find a pattern but I imagine there's a published source.

The whole idea of a girl in nostalgic dress has been traced back to a taste in the 1880s for illustrations by Kate Greenaway. Here's a Kate-Greenaway-style figure floating into a piece of faux patchwork (we'd call it cheater cloth) from the end of the 19th century.

The idea of a girl with an umbrella persisted into some of the 1930s patterns.

This old-fashioned girl often did a lot of old-fashioned work.

Sunbonnet Sally here is busy all week with housework and gardening.

Sometimes the girl was more an adolescent than a woman.

What makes her old-fashioned is the Sunbonnet hiding her face. Unlike Sunbonnet Sue she has a waist.

Part of the old-fashioned costume is a hoop-skirted dress, sometimes with pantaloons peeking out. She is often called a Colonial lady, but the dress style echoes the Civil War era, with a lot of Scarlet O'Hara thrown in. It's more nostalgia than history.

The image could be done in feedsacks or calico for a homey look, or lace and gauze for a boudoir pillow.

Notice that her face is revealed here.

As with the younger Sunbonnet Sue---a lot can go wrong. Especially when seamstresses started drafting their own patterns.

Now you see why the sunbonnet is a necessary accessory; it's so hard to embroider faces.

And then there's a weight problem.

Below we have a weight-distribution problem. This is drawn right from the Laura Wheeler Baloon Girl pattern, shown above, but the original design had a bell-shaped skirt---not a maternity outfit.

Another pattern without a source. Some kind of manic offshoot where the balloon has migrated into the skirt.

This one kind of reminds me of Kate Middleton wearing the see-through skirt as a dress.

Sort of.

Sorry, Kate.

And see one more home-drawn variation at Deb Rowden's blog Thrift Shop Quilts:

http://debrowden.blogspot.com/2011/03/kansas-quilt-bibliography.html

"Lately Arrived From London" Sneak Peek

Here's a preview of a Moda reproduction collection that will be in quilt shops late summer or early fall, 2011. Roseanne Smith has been making a star out of the first yardage printed for the sales reps to show to shop owners.

Roseanne uses a strip method to make these large stars, which she loves to do.

They go together well except for occasional operator error.

A little ripping...see the results at top.

She still has to piece the border but I thought you'd like to see it as of last weekend.

If you're a shop owner look for your Moda rep to be carrying the preview of Lately Arrived from London any day. The collection reproduces fabric from about 1780 to 1820. The name refers to the advertisements for ships carrying imported fabrics into American ports in that period.

There are large and small scale prints with a pillar print

and a large chintz. It's a small line of 28 skus. (Sku is commercial jargon, a word that means a single item---so 28 different items: prints/colorway combinations)

The colors are rather limited as the fabrics reproduce an early look when dyes were the basic natural colors and print styles were constrained by technology and taste. The colors range from white grounds through tan and beige to plum as in the chintz above. There's also a little red.

Roseanne added blues from my current Civil War Reunion line for her star.

I'm going to be doing a small Print-on-Demand book to accompany the fabric collection. More about all this later.

A draft page spread from the Blurb book (print-on-demand.)

Wedding Ring Tile

Toni brought a quilt by the other day to see if I knew the pattern. At first I was stumped but I did a little digital breakdown of the units.

It's an octagon with strips around it pieced to a plain square

I found it in an obscure section of my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns that I called Multi-Patch, which means there isn't a square block but there is some repetitive design unit.

There are not very many of these designs based on an octagonal grid, but this pattern is one of them. Workbasket Magazine published it in 1941 as Wedding Ring Tile.

It was supposed to be colored in scrappy 30s style but the alternating red strips give it some punch.

I don't know that I've ever seen that pattern made up before.

But I knew where to look and I found one in the marvelous Quilt Index. It was recorded by the Wyoming quilt project, made by Katy Doty in the late 20th century---just like the pattern.

Click here:
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=51-8C-84

I can't give you a pattern and it's not in BlockBase because it's not a block---or anyway not a square block. It's way beyond my drafting skills.

Added on April 4th

Mary Jo has posted some pictures of various patterns on her Picasa site.

https://picasaweb.google.com/MJinMichigan/WeddingRingTileQuilt?authkey=Gv1sRgCK7R1tTm74z3UQ&feat=email#

Added on April 5th

One reason some of us love quilt patterns so much is the puzzle aspect. We are determined to solve it and figure out the repeat. Sarah from Pacifica has been busy in Electric Quilt, drawing the design as 2 blocks, a square and a rectangle, so there are no set-in seams. Many thanks to Sarah.