Women's Relief Corps Quilt

A few weeks ago a woman I didn't know handed me a bundle of shattered silks in the form of a crazy quilt.

It was a wreck. Most of the silks were in terrible shape due to the metal salts and dyes that cause them to decompose. She said she wanted me to tell her it was OK to throw it out. I am the wrong person to ask this question of. "Never throw anything out," is my motto. On Hoarders they'd call me an enabler.

Right away I noticed there are WRC ribbons on it.

The WRC (The Women's Relief Corps) is the ladies' auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union veteran's association (GAR). The ribbons are from Civil War Reunions in the 1920s.

Here's one from the GAR with their symbol on it.

Well I was overenthusiastic in my praise of the ragged quilt.

Even though it was poorly composed, never finished and shedding silk like an April hailstorm in Kansas.

I told her it was a fabulous historical document.

Now it's mine. She was happy to leave it in my home for orphan quilts.

My guess is it's from Michigan

Made in the 1920s

With many silk souvenir ribbons and collectibles attached.

It was the ideal transaction. No money exchanged. I was happy to get it. She was happier to get rid of it. Now I get to spend some time tracking down those organizations.

See a quilt made by WRC members in Michigan in the Quilt Index here:

http://museum.msu.edu/glqc/collections_7547.1.html

For more about the Civil War Reunions see my blog posts

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2011/01/civil-war-reunion.html

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2011/03/civil-war-reunion-star.html

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2011/01/civil-war-reunion-memorial-quilts.html

Civil War Reunion: Just Squares

Roseanne Smith has finished a top made from the Civil War Reunion collection that's been in quilt shops for a few months. 

Ladies' Auxiliary

Roseanne Smith

74" x 88"

The quilt has a really rich madder tone, very much in keeping with the colors used in the Civil War era. For the Civil War Reunion theme we are calling it Ladies' Auxiliary, remembering all the women's groups that kept the memory of the war alive for generations.

Women's group dedicating a memorial at Gettysburg about 1930.

Photo from the Library of Congress.

Roseanne started with small packets of 2-1/2" squares we handed out at fall market last year. She added more squares cut from 2-1/2" Jelly Roll strips and some white prints from her stash.

Here's a block, 5 x 5. Twenty-five squares finishing to 2"  = a 10" finished block.

I see she didn't like this arrangement though and reversed the shading so there are more lights than darks in her finished quilt blocks (13 lights, 12 darks per square). There are 20 blocks.

She set it with the plum colorway of the two large prints.

The paisley (8187-17)  is called Women's Relief Corps.

She cut these 10-1/2" squares for alternate blocks.

The stripe (8186-17) is called Decoration Day.

She cut the stripe 9-1/4" and mitered the border.

Diagram drawn in EQ7.

I'm afraid a lot of the big prints are already sold out.

But we'll have another Civil War reproduction in shops early next year. Look for 1862 Battle Hymn in January, 2012.

Next year's line will recall the 150th anniversary of the War's first full year, the year Julia Ward Howe published The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Muted colors recall the mood of mourning and prints are named for battles in that very sad year when North and South realized the War might drag on and on.

See a preview of 1862 Battle Hymn here. The sales reps should be bringing it around to shops for pre-orders any day. 

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_1862_battle_hymn.pdf

http://www.unitednotions.com/ss_1862_Battle_Hymn.pdf

Civil War Housewives

Reproduction Housewife by Donna Di Natale

Donna's housewife buttoned up.

See the pattern for this sewing kit in Confederates in the Cornfield by Edie McGinnis.

https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=1257 

"I suppose you all know what a housewife is? It is a long piece of cloth with a number of small pockets sewed along one side, and made to fold up like a pocket-book, having separate places for buttons, thread, needles, pins, &c., such as some of you may have seen your mothers or grandmothers use."

The Reformed Presbyterian magazine. Sept. 1, 1864.

Reproduction housewife by Susan of the Homespun Quilts blog

Click here for more pictures

http://homespunquilts.blogspot.com/2011/05/huswife-i-sent-away.html

These reproductions were made with scraps from my Civil War Reunion collection for Moda---a great use for charm squares.

Vintage Roll-up or Housewife: Oilcloth or leather on the outside

Some, like this vintage example, were made in red and blue wools

Moth-eaten wool and silk from the Kansas Memory website

See more at Kansas Memory
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/224290
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/224292/page/2

"Each soldier will carry one greatcoat, one blanket, one forage cap, one woolen shirt, one pair of drawers, one pair stockings, one towel, two handkerchiefs, one line and one coarse comb, one sewing kit, one piece of soap, one toothbrush..."

General Orders 1862. General Orders, Headquarters. Dist. Of Southern California, No. 3. J Los Angeles, February 11, 1862.

A South Carolina soldier's sewing kit

"...a housewife which Helaine's uncle had carried all through the Civil War. The outside was made of oilcloth, and this was lined with silk. The pockets were also of silk, and bits of black flannel formed leaves for the needles. The edge was bound with narrow black silk, and it all rolled up into a compact case, which was fastened with a rubber band."  New York Observer, Sept. 29, 1898

The roll up with pockets was a traditional form used for centuries.

My favorites are the scrappy versions

Fastenings included buttons, ties and elastic bands.

Roll-up from about 1830

It's important to realize that housewives or sewing roll-ups were used by women for centuries, so not all roll-ups were for soldiers. The kits were known as housewives, husswifs, etc. 

Silk roll-up with seam covering embroidery from about 1880.

Contemporary soldier's sewing kit

Soldiers still go off to war with sewing kits.

Links to more information about reproduction and antique sewing kits. Scroll down the pages to see some great examples. 

http://thehumblestitcher.blogspot.com/2011/05/housewife-for-my-civil-war-soldier.html

Donna Finegan Antiques has two kits for sale. http://www.donnafineganantiques.com/shoesandaccessories.html

http://www.nps.gov/museum/treasures/html/S/gett31096.htm   

http://www.tapr.org/~wa1lou/whs/news201106.html  

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~orphanhm/equip.htm  

http://www.civilwarmo.org/gallery/item/CWMO-71?nojs=1

Northern Lily Southern Rose Block 4

Midlands Lily

by Ilyse Moore

Nineteenth-century variations on the layered triple lily

The fourth regional applique design for the Northern Lily/Southern Rose Block of the Month is a triple lily reminiscent of the applique quilts from the area cultural historians call the Midlands, which is centered in  Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio. Midlands Lily seems a good name for a pattern quite popular in the area around the time of the Civil War.

Midlands Lily by Susan Stiff

Susan used pieces from my Civil War Reunion collection with a Moda Bella Solid green.

debi schrader is making her blocks out of a 10" square Layer Cake package of the Civil War Reunion prints with a solid background from Blackbird Design's Antique Fair from Moda. (#2677-17). Click here to see more solids and prints from this collection:
http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_Antique_Fair.pdf

This triple floral design is often interpreted as a tulip but lilies were also depicted  in profile.

Angel by Leonardo DaVinci

 Lilies have a long history of symbolic use in Christian iconography. Renaissance painters often depicted the Angel of the Annunciation handing Mary a white lily, a symbol of purity.

Angel by Botticelli

Triple arrangements of  flowers seen in profile are a staple of Germanic folk arts. Here is a Pennsylvania redware plate dated 1789 with three-lobed flowers arranged in threes, a possibly symbolic reference to the Holy Trinity. 

This shot of the digital sketch shows the colors in Susan's version better.

Here's my version in the traditional Germanic folk art colors of red, green and yellow.

I stuck the leaves in where they fit.

I don't think it matters as long as the design has some balance to it. (You can see why I am glad debi, Ilyse and Susan are making these blocks too.)

This is one of nine regional applique patterns in the Block of the Month Northern Lily/Southern Rose that Moda and I are offering in the year of the Civil War Centennial.

Rambler from Civil War Reunion

Here's an old top I have had for years. I bought it in Pennsylvania.

I'd guess its 1840-1860 by the fabrics. The pattern has several names, among them Rambler and Railroad Crossing.

It isn't the best constructed quilt ever made. I've been removing pieces and sending them to be copied for Civil-War-era reproductions. Then when the repro comes back I replace it where the original was. I think the floral above was in Civil War Anthem years ago. 

I made a pattern for my friend Roseanne Smith who thought she could make one that would lay flat. So we drew it out in EQ for the Civil War Reunion collection from Moda.

Roseanne made paper-pieced geese for the corners

A zillion of them. Her patience occasionally wore thin.

But she persisted. She cut the large triangles large and then trimmed them. She used her scrap bag of monochrome prints for the light triangles.

She mitered the stripe for the borders and used the red paisley for the edge triangles.

She's binding it. We'll take a good picture when it's done. Hers is a lot squarer than the original.

You know if that seamstress had been better at sewing the blocks the old top would have been quilted in 1850 and used up. The only reason such a utilitarian top is around in such good shape is that everybody knew that "It will never quilt out."

Here's a PDF file with a free pattern.

https://acrobat.com/#d=pOYFSd3OwGVfRFEDy7V75g

UPDATE The cloud has failed.

Here are the parts of the PDF with the pattern.