Ami's SOA Civil War Quilts: Era, Commemorative, Inspired

[chellers]

Frequently I cross paths with Civil War era quilts, and wish we had a central location for them; this thread should serve the purpose. I encourage and welcome everyone's contribution to the collection. Thank you.

 

[chellers]

G.A.R. Feathered Star
82" x 81"
Maker unknown
Nebo, Pike County, Illinois, 1894

 

[chellers]

"The Union Star, Elizabeth Holmes, 1869, 90" x 71"
"This quilt was made 1869 by Elizabeth Holmes in her 68th Year."
"Abraham Lincoln: Grant Pr: Colfax VI: & The Union Forever."

 

[chellers]

Wedding quilt. Elizabeth Skiles Ward.
Pictured in Brackman, Quilts from the Civil War, 51.

"Elizabeth Skiles Ward packed her wedding quilt, an intricate tulip appliqué, for her husband, Major Lemuel Ward of Garysburg, North Carolina. The Confederate officer spread the quilt on the ground each night"

http://www.cliohistory.org/visualizingamerica/quilts/familyandutilitarianquilts/

 

[chellers]

Mary Rockhold Teter's quilt
from a pattern in Peterson's Magazine in 1861
---now in the Smithsonian collection

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html

 

[Lnwlf]

Thanks Chellers. Functional art, the quilt. Hand quilting seems to be a dying art, and to find the old ones like those you have presented are real treasures.

 

[chellers]

Thanks Chellers. Functional art, the quilt. Hand quilting seems to be a dying art, and to find the old ones like those you have presented are real treasures.

My pleasure, Lnwlf. I like your description, "functional art." The hours, weeks, months required for hand piecing and hand quilting are what makes the heart and soul of a quilt. Treasures, to be sure.

 

[donna]

They are treasures. My cousin makes quilts for special occasions. She just finished one for her daughter's new baby. She does them for wedding gifts, birthdays and anniversaries. They are real treasures. It takes her weeks and weeks but a really special present for one receiving one.

The quilts you posted are beautiful. Thanks.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Thanks tons, chellers! We keep posting this kind of thing here and there without cohesiveness- nice to see a thread. That emoticon means it makes an awful lot of common sense and thank you! That one also means thank you, only with a smile.

I'm going to PM a member here whose lineage includes a quilt I won't shut up about, an original design for the Confederacy PLUS a story attached through the war, maybe deserves its own book. OH my gosh- maybe they should!!

This one is called The Reconciliation Quilt, it's in a thread somewhere, won't take up room by repeating. It's a theme in the makeup though .Lucinda Ward Honstain, resident of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, artist.

 

[chellers]

You are quite welcome, JPK. Glad you like the idea. The quilt above is beautiful, and I can't wait to see the member's quilt you mentioned. Thanks.

 

[chellers]

Elizabeth Keckley's quilt; pieced from scraps of Mary Todd Lincoln's clothing.

 

[donna]

Chellers love the Elizabeth Keckley quilt. It is wonderful it from pieces of Mary Todd Lincoln's clothes. What a treasure.

 

[chellers]

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/476255729317124768/

In the mid 1800s the introduction of the sewing machine somewhat altered the dependence on hand-sewing. Long before electricity became common, quilters could power a sewing machine with a foot treadle or hand crank. The invention of a separate quilting attachment for the sewing machine by Henry Davis of Chicago did not seem to be widely used; hand quilting remained the favored method for nearly a century.

http://www.quilting-in-america.com/History-of-Quilts.html

 

[chellers]

Mary E. Carswell

Grand Army Quilt
1885
19th Century
84 in. x 84 in. (213.36 cm x 213.36 cm)
silk, satin, velvet

Commentary: "The material used in this quilt has a "war record" and was contributed by friends from both North and South" (notes from the file).

http://www.mattatuckcollections.org/Obj6199$5

 

[chellers]

Thanks tons, chellers! We keep posting this kind of thing here and there without cohesiveness- nice to see a thread. That emoticon means it makes an awful lot of common sense and thank you! That one also means thank you, only with a smile.

I'm going to PM a member here whose lineage includes a quilt I won't shut up about, an original design for the Confederacy PLUS a story attached through the war, maybe deserves its own book. OH my gosh- maybe they should!!

This one is called The Reconciliation Quilt, it's in a thread somewhere, won't take up room by repeating. It's a theme in the makeup though .Lucinda Ward Honstain, resident of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, artist.

View attachment 35421

"Reconciliation Quilt" is currently part of a traveling exhibition, Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Context in the Civil War,
and on display at the New York Historical Society, New York City, until August 24, 2014.

https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/homefront-battlefield-quilts-context-civil-war

Future destinations include Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT, September 20, 2014 – January 1, 2015; and the Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, NE, February 1, - June 30, 2015.

http://www.athm.org/exhibitions/past_exhibitions/exhibition_homefront_battlefield.php

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Thanks for the head's up. Very cool to think someone thinks so much of these old things they're making the rounds.

 

[chellers]

Secession Quilt

Made by Mrs. Green McPhearson
White County, Arkansas. 1861.
Cotton
85.5” x 97”
Gift of Florence C. Spore

A Circular pattern of nine stars in each corner represents Arkansas as the ninth state to secede from the Union. There is trapunto work in the white stars of this quilt.

http://www.historicarkansas.org/collections/quilts.aspx?id=70

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

That's not only beautiful, it's in astonishing condition for how old it it, no? Whites generally become yellow as heck through time, somehow this was either spared or the experts went to work on it. LOVE to know how that would have been done ( if that's what transpired ) so close to blue and red, ruining neither.

The other thing which occurs to me is that you'd have to know it's a Confederacy themed quilt, or would assume otherwise? The red/white/blue thing seems to have been mostly Federal, except for those who would have stopped to count the stars. That is in no way me being critical, it's me being confused.

 

[chellers]

Rare Civil War Flag Crib Quilt

American, dated 1862

Composed of tiny triangles hand-pieced together; six white stars are appliqued on each of the two flags; stripes form the border. Some loss in dark brown patches. Mounted on a stretcher. 38 1/4 by 32 1/4 inches

SOLD. $5,938

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/americana-vo-n09100/lot.318.html

 

[donna]

The crib quilt is beautiful. I am enjoying the quilts so very much.