Rosemary's New Book

If you haven't enough Civil War blocks to keep you busy for a while you'd better buy Rosemary Young's new book The Civil War Anniversary Quilts. She says she should have copies to ship on Tuesday, May 1st.

See how to order from her here:

http://rosemaryyoungs.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/pre-ordering-the-civil-war-anniversary-quilt-book/

She was kind enough to do a quilt for MY book of the blocks from this blog while she was in the midst of making the quilts for hers.

And on her web page you will see she is working on other blocks, other books and other wars.

Side By Side Sampler

Sandy F from Oregon sent a picture of her finished sampler.

"I have to say I loved doing the civil war block each Saturday.  After some thought I decided to go with a very simple setting, something a lady in those times might do.  I had read an article about the Sanitation Com. requesting quilts that would fit cots.  They wanted them 48" x 96".  So this is the size I made mine."

Sandy's inspiration: samplers of blocks without any sashing made by Ladies Aid Societies. This one is from the collection of the New England Quilt Museum. What looks like sashing is actually the binding of individually bound and quilted blocks whipped together.

 "I added three additional blocks to get the right amount. "
So her sampler is 11 blocks long by 5 wide = 55 blocks.

"I found this patch thru an online store and fit right in with my plan."

She also added a block from a quilt Nancy Hornback made for my book Civil War Women. We called it Jeff Davis's Daughter. See a blog post about that design here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2011/05/civil-war-memory-quilts.html

See Debbie's block here:
http://woolnsails.blogspot.com/2012/04/davis-daughter-block-two.html

The side-by-side sampler is a set you see from the mid-19th-century on. It became quite popular towards the end of the century when published quilt patterns were widely available, giving quilters ready access to new designs. The quilt above with its greens fading to a pale olive looks to be about 1890-1910

Here's another side-by-side sampler with blocks of different sizes from the same time period. The side-by-side set, especially when the blocks are sized differently, creates an energetic, informal look.

Thanks for the pictures, Sandy. It's a great look!

Strip Sets

Susi-ra

6 strips x 7 blocks = 42 blocks

Größenänderungcivil war quilt top

Strip sets were an option in the mid-19th century and here are two ways to do it. Susi-ra stacked her blocks up making 8" strips and alternated with narrower strips.

Mamifleur (who lives in France---

can you tell from the tile roof?)

She turned the blocks on point and used 60 blocks. 10 to a strip x 6 = 60.
You need triangles to fill out the strip.

For an 8" finished block you will want to cut squares 12-5/8" and cut each into four triangles as shown so you have a straight grain against the strips.

Keep those pictures coming.

Some Links

Celia's top from Janet's class

I've found some pictures of Civil War sampler quilts on blogs and webpages so I thought I'd share some links.

Janet in South Yorkshire, U.K. has been teaching a class using the blocks. Here are two posts:
http://aquiltersjournal.blogspot.com/2012/02/more-civil-war-quilts.html
http://aquiltersjournal.blogspot.com/2012/02/civil-war-quilt-progress.html

Please Do use these blocks to teach! Just give me and this blog a credit.

Cherie of Quilted Jonquil shows her Design Wall every Monday.
http://quiltedjonquil.com/category/barbara-brackman-civil-war-bow/

Connie of Connie's Crafts has her top finished.http://conniescrafts.blogspot.com/2012/01/brackman-civil-war-bow-top-done.html

And there's a new Flickr Group called Circle of Friends Take 2 because everyone got lonely once they got their tops done.
Check it out:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/circle_of_friends__take_two/pool/