The Quilt Trail

These stories which tie into History flatten me, thank you! I'm a little suprised someone hasn't done a book on them. Stained when the Red River was being evacuated, and their wagon over turned? Please. You can't make this stuff up! I'm a little buggy on the Red River campaign anyway ( just ask Mark Jenkins or anyone over at the Navy forum I've pestered since the time I bumped into the story- can't get enough of it, one of my top 2 or 3 Civil War stories ,) stories like this just flesh it out more. That piece belongs behind plexiglass, with blinking arrows pointing the way to it. Of course, I'd own a very annoying museum.

Yes, it is batting rather than my 'stuffing.' Shows how much I know!

Anyway, I'll post once more about the Confederate Star quilt and then quit. This morning I located my g-grandmother's memoirs, written about 1925. She was the one who wore those beautiful clothes, and since she was born in 1850, had some pretty good memory of the war years. She said:

"As an aside I want to tell you about the household goods that started to Texas. When the Red River was being crossed, one of the wagons turned over. As it happened and as it often happens, it was the one wagon that was loaded with our most valuable things. There were on it all Mother's silver, the family records and business papers, including our very old Bibles and all of our better clothing. The only thing salvaged was a quilt which covered the contents of the wagon. I have it now, all yellowed and stained by the brick colored waters of the Red. It was an original pattern of Mother's, the seven stars of the Confederacy. And it was quilted in very tiny circles made with Mother's gold thimble as a pattern for the quilting. How many fears and worries and forebodings must have gone under those almost invisible stitches which were made when Mother could not sleep. She on one side of the Mississippi and my (future) husband's mother on the other often sewed all night when they heard the guns at Vicksburg. Again, I say, those women."

You can see the tiny, thimble sized quilted circles as little puffs outside the ring of stars.

IMG_0543.JPG
 
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You and your wife are not going to have to worry for 20 seconds about the next generation carrying these pieces of gold into the future. Stories like this- they'll hit them over the head at some point, nobody has those written messages from the past, containing History- connects us to them like nothing else. And each other in this massive country- my grgrgrandfather Harrison Walton, and 4 of my grgrgruncles in the same regiment, 50th Pennsylvania, were at Vicksburg.

I'm sorry, and I'm guessing Donna had the same reaction ( we're good friends, think I know her well enough ) but the story almost brought tears to my eyes- creating that quilt and all the travels, the stains, the women who went along with it each generation. Make an awfully good book, that quilt, especially since it's an original design. There's a quilt made by a woman I think in Conneticut- 1800's, copied extensively, in a Vermont museum now. The copiers call themselves ' Janeiacs ', like a faithful, nice cult of a type. Kinda cool, if one has to be in a cult! ( kidding on the cult, just needlewomen and enthusiastic about History )

Just seems to me your family story tracking through the war next to your quilt, make a super read- along with photos and an extremely pretty, fresh quilt pattern memorializing the Confederacy without the Stars n Bars. That one is very tough to fit into bedroom decor. :smile:
 
In the book, "Kentucky Quilts & Their Makers", the author states in regards to how and why people like to quilt: "Some women prefer to quilt in church or community groups, some in families, and some alone. Their ages, resources, and rewards vary greatly---from the urban-based "Cornpickers" organized in 1970s to make and sell quilts, to the lone quilter of sixty years' experience who has never sold one. But one thing they hold in common: they continue to quilt because "It gives me pleasure"."
 
I used to TRY to quilt alone- I must have 3 started, it's ridiculous! I know what will happen, one day I'll stick the three into one, call it Annie's ADD quilt, and exactly NO ONE will ask for the pattern plus the children will fight over who HAS to inherit the darn thing. I'm simply too antsy to patiently do all the teeny stitches, and refuse to ' cheat ', use a machine because if I AM going to make a quilt, by gosh, it has to be the right way. It's h*llish, being both anal and ADD, let me tell you. :smile:

I know 30 and 40 years ago, there was a revival of the old quilting bees, remember? I seem to remember there were still a lot of the women around who could teach the younger girls- they would still set up racks, go at it for charity or a raffle. I wonder if the interest could ever be revived again, with people SO busy. I truly do not think it's lack of interest or apathy or gosh, the ' kids today ' do not care. I think it's sheer TIME these days, not carelessness or lack of wishing to. Dad used to say it's become insane, watching is with all our kids- he warned us to be careful, otherwise all these commitments you can fall into- soccer, football ( well, some you just can't give up! ), PTO, PTA, Boosters, Church groups- you could be out every, single night if you're not careful. No one has time to engage in something like a quilting bee- as cool as that would be. Heck, I'd personally get one together around here, if I thought it would be of use. I frequently do classes on various things, only paid- I'd do that as a club, a historical thing, just everyone throw in for materials. Be fun, wouldn't it?
 
Quilting Bees are still going strong in many states. See the ones in Kentucky at:

http://www.quiltguilds.com/kentucky.htm

This site also references many states who have guilds. There are many in Pa.

I am glad to see the making of quilts is still going strong. It is a craft and art form that needs to be preserved forever.
 
An update on Boone County Barn Quilt Trail and other Quilt Trails: On March 20, Joyce Foley, the lady who started the Barn Quilt Trail in Boone County is giving talk at our local library. It is at the Boone County Main Branch at 7 pm. The Barn Quilt Trail project has been ongoing for 10 years. It now exists in 40 states and Canada.

I think this will be a very interesting talk and hope to go. Quilts are so much a part of history. The main branch is located at 1786 Burlington Pike, Hebron, Ky.
 
Donna, thank you for bringing up this thread again! I have only noticed in the middle that it is from September. Must have missed it then.
How very interesting - what great stories! And you mentioned the book "Quilt stories" which features among others the work of Charlotte MacLeod. Is that the Charlotte MacLeod who wrote these lovely crime stories, situated in Balaclava College and the other series in Boston? I have all her books, enjoyed them very much.

Quilting is popular in Germany, too, we try to imitate you.
Each winter before Christmas we have a "hobby exhibition" here in my office where everybody can show everybody else what he/she is doing in his/her leisure time. And last winter we saw among other things (paintings, collections of various objects - postcards, small boxes etc.) a beautiful large quilt, all hand sewn, as it has to be, and also very tiny pieces of different clothes. So lovely to see! But unfortunately I'm with Annie, I lack patience to try to do it myself.
 
Yes, thanks for bringing this back up, Donna! Of course, it got me back on the track of something I'd benched for a bit- Confederate Gunboat Quilts. I couldn't decide whether or not to use the 5 year old thread from here ( found one ) or make a new one- decided to make a new one, no disresepct intended to the 5 year old thread. If it's not ok, perhaps someone would glue them together.

Found a Confederate themed quilt which did not fit, while looking for examples of the Gunboat quilts, however.

Confederate Appliqué Quilt. Susan Robb, ca. 1863-1865, possibly Arkansas, Texas, or Mississippi. 77” x 81” cotton, appliqué, reverse appliqué, and embroidery. Collection of the Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX. Pictured in Ramsey and Waldvogel, Southern Quilts, 19-22.
‘Susan Robb depicted Confederate battle glory in her intricate appliqué quilt. Careful stitches illustrate ranked soldiers marching under two versions of the Confederate flag. The image of a stork overpowering an eagle is reminiscent of an emblem on Constitutional currency and represents the power of the South early in the War.’
http://www.cliohistory.org/visualizingamerica/quilts/quiltdesigns/

quilt susan robb.jpg

Susan Robb Quilt
 
Beautiful! And the image of the stork overpowering the eagle is also very interesting. I didn't know the meaning of the stork earlier. And the other animal, the one in the upper left corner of the insert, is it a dog or sheep? There's certainly something behind that image also, do you have any ideas about the meaning of that animal? I wouldn't have thought twice about it, just admired it, but now, with the explanation given about the stork/eagle image, I think Ms. Robb wanted to express something with that other animal also.
 
Yes, it is batting rather than my 'stuffing.' Shows how much I know!

Anyway, I'll post once more about the Confederate Star quilt and then quit. This morning I located my g-grandmother's memoirs, written about 1925. She was the one who wore those beautiful clothes, and since she was born in 1850, had some pretty good memory of the war years. She said:

"As an aside I want to tell you about the household goods that started to Texas. When the Red River was being crossed, one of the wagons turned over. As it happened and as it often happens, it was the one wagon that was loaded with our most valuable things. There were on it all Mother's silver, the family records and business papers, including our very old Bibles and all of our better clothing. The only thing salvaged was a quilt which covered the contents of the wagon. I have it now, all yellowed and stained by the brick colored waters of the Red. It was an original pattern of Mother's, the seven stars of the Confederacy. And it was quilted in very tiny circles made with Mother's gold thimble as a pattern for the quilting. How many fears and worries and forebodings must have gone under those almost invisible stitches which were made when Mother could not sleep. She on one side of the Mississippi and my (future) husband's mother on the other often sewed all night when they heard the guns at Vicksburg. Again, I say, those women."

You can see the tiny, thimble sized quilted circles as little puffs outside the ring of stars.

View attachment 21129

I'm hoping this will bump this quilt again, since I was looking specifically for Confederate themed quilts lately. Hadn't forgotten this one, the design of which is super, plus the reason it's dyed reddish is even MORE super! Not for the family at the time, who wants all their belongings dumped in a river, especially in those days, but for this generation to have THAT History?? Whoa. I'm extremely happy with our family tree and history- have to say if this one were mine ( LOVE the Red River, the campaign, all stories connected to it by now- it's grown from the Red Rive Dam! ), would have a billboard! :smile: ( featuring the quilt, to begin with... )
 
Tell you what's pretty funny, Faraway Friend! We have several reasons that quilts became THE way to stay warm, and an art form and point of pride in so many cultures. African American families, for instance, while in bondage, had very, very little by way of possesions- scraps of fabric could be collected and made into those crazy quilts, with incredible stiching- not sure which others typify the cultural quilts- those are extremely rare, worth a gazillion dollars! A LOT of the famous quilts are from German immigrant tradition- currently you see the Amish ( who dislike being called PA Dutch, they're Pennsylvania Germans, sure- but as you know, I'm sure, a distinct religion which came over here as opposed to the Platte farmers who settled the area ) taking advantage of the American love of quilts- they're good at it, plus have never lost the craft through their generations the way a lot of cultures here have.

Plus, our ' other' German influx, the afore-mentioned PA Dutch ( does it drive you folks crazy they are called ' Dutch' instead of Deutsch? ), tend to also not have lost the craft as much- I learned in a group of older PA Dutch women, as a child. Obviously I can't DO it, they just taught me how! Anyway, funny to think your women ' imitate' us, when we got it a lot of it from German cultures to begin with! I said ' alot', do not wish to start an argument- many other pockets of Early American cultures have quilting traditions.
 
Plus, our ' other' German influx, the afore-mentioned PA Dutch ( does it drive you folks crazy they are called ' Dutch' instead of Deutsch? ), tend to also not have lost the craft as much- I learned in a group of older PA Dutch women, as a child. Obviously I can't DO it, they just taught me how! Anyway, funny to think your women ' imitate' us, when we got it a lot of it from German cultures to begin with! I said ' alot', do not wish to start an argument- many other pockets of Early American cultures have quilting traditions.

Ha, yes, you're right, that's pretty funny and I have indeed never thought of it! An early form of globalization :D
 
It's always interesting to see the women who had a great deal of artistic talent that was expressed in their quilts, as they didn't have many other outlets for that level of creativity. The Confederate Star is certainly among those.

Also always interesting to note the differing colors from various regions of the country. There seem to be far more quilts with a white background from Texas, Louisiana than you'd find along the eastern seaboard.
 
I never thought about that- you're right! Wonder why? I loked around a little for the answer and came up empty- search words containing the words in various combinations ' white, old south, cotton, ' ( etc, had more ) , well, you can imagine, even with the words about the coloring processes in there you get a LOT of economic and political articles- good ones, too! Was wondering if white cloth was harder to come by, more expensive possibly for some reason in the North, maybe you could obtain it closer to the source in the South? These backgrounds look to have been originally proceesed into white cloth- 'white', as opposed to natural cotton ' white'. It's possible tradition played a role?

Funny, never noticed this before, cool question!
 
Ok, not that this is interesting enough to warrent a look by anyone, but in case anyone DOES come looking- Im going to have to venture a guess on background color and quilts, and say you folks in the South just did not use them as frequently as in the North so didn't hesititate to pick the light colors? Can't seem to find any difference whatsoever having to do with dyes, etc, and we know that ' white' isn't natural cotton ' white'.

If you don't have to worry about washing these pretty things so frequently, because they haven't been used for such long winters, there's be the luxury of being able to use a color which showed the dirt- the Southern quilts weren't getting very much, or as much, as their Northern counterparts, getting piled on top of each while coal and wood stoves battled the elements.

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/bed-quilt-regiment.76699/

Of course, hate to have seen the quilts after these fellows were done with them, wouldn't you? The 26th Alabama was known as the Bed Quilt Regiment, went to war sans winter clothing, just their family quilts. The only mention of them I could find just now exists on an old CWT thread.
 
An interesting book I just found: "The Civil War Diary Quilt: 121 Stories and the Quilt Blocks They Inspired" by Rosemary Youngs. This book would appeal to quilters and historians as has diary entries from 10 women living during the Civil war and 121 related quilt blocks.
 
A quilt by Sgt. Stephen A. Lewis of the 104th Ohio Volunteer Infantry ("Barking Dog Regiment") is on display at the New York Historical Society. He made it from scraps of blankets and uniforms while recuperating in a Union hospital from wounds he suffered at the Battle of Franklin.

http://behindthescenes.nyhistory.org/quilting-not-just-for-women/

The museum's blog entry also contains a brief reference to Lewis's escape after Confederates took him prisoner at Franklin, how he was saved by a slave woman, and in his later years, remembering how she risked her life to save him, sheltered an African-American during a period of racial conflict in Oklahoma.
 
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