2013 Block of the Month: Dixie Diary

Dixie Diary by Sandi Brothers

Quilted by Lisa Olinger

For a Quilt of Many Colors

A few years ago I did a limited edition block-of-the-month pattern titled Dixie Diary for my Moda Civil War reproduction collection Civil War Homefront. A few shops kitted it up in that line of fabric in 2010.

Sandi Brothers pieced it as a BOM for her Indiana shop A Quilt of Many Colors. I read that she and the members of her guild Sisters of the Cloth were invited to demonstrate quilting at last summer's Smithsonian Folk Life Festival in Washington D.C. She brought the Dixie Diary sampler with her.

Sisters of the Cloth

Sandi's on the right.

 

http://www.quiltofmanycolors.com/index.html

I thought I would rework this sampler in my current repro line Metropolitan Fair in pinks and browns---one of my favorite mid-19th-century color schemes.

Here are a few pink and brown antique quilts

for color inspiration.

 

 

They are all from about 1865-1885

This color scheme was quite popular

after the Civil War.

 

 

You better join. It's only 12 BLOCKS--- once a month---first Saturday of each month in 2013---right here. And the blocks are EASY. I really designed it for beginning quilters from 8 years old on up. The blocks will be in two sizes: 12" and 8"

Each block is an original combination of simple piecing and applique. The piecing is basic (One has Y seams---but even beginning quilters have to learn to do Y seams!) and each block has an optional appliqued star or heart in the center. You can opt out of the applique because it's stitched to a finished pieced block.

Each monthly block includes a story taken from one of the great Civil War documents---Sarah Morgan's Confederate Girl's Diary, first published 100 years ago in 1913.

Do check out the first block on January 5, 2013. It'll be right here at this blog address.

If you want to start thinking about fabric: I'm going to focus on pinks and browns so you can go through your Civil War reproduction stash and pull out the double pinks and the madder browns---

I'm going to do it in new Metropolitan Fair prints

 

But any of your Civil War repros will do. I'll show Sandi's and my blocks in the blues and reds of Civil War Homefront. As we've learned from looking at the finished Civil War samplers here you can use anything---batiks, solids, WHATEVER. Put your own stamp on it.

Look for the first block on the first Saturday of January.