Dixie Dairy 5: Tokens of Dried Roses

Block 5

Tokens of Dried Roses

 12" version with a 1" frame, set on point

By Sandi Brothers.

Block 5

Tokens of Dried Roses

8" Version

Sarah Morgan's grief over lost memories is echoed in a sawtooth star.

Dried flowers pressed in an album dated 1867

Union and Confederate armies clashed near the Morgan houses in early August. Sarah's home was severely damaged, not from shelling but from vandalism by the victorious Yankees. The women left the Asylum and  moved from friend's house to friend's house, landing at a plantation twenty miles north of Baton Rouge. At the end of August sister Miriam returned from a trip home to their battered neighborhood.

Andrew D.Lytle 

Baton Rouge with the State Capitol in the distance

August 25, 1862 Linwood, East Feliciana Parish

"She says when she entered [our] house, she burst into tears at the desolation. It was one scene of ruin. Libraries emptied, china smashed, sideboards split open with axes, three cedar chests cut open, plundered, and set up on end; all parlor ornaments carried off…. They entered my room, broke that fine mirror for sport, pulled down the rods from the bed and with them pulverized my toilet set, taking all Lydia's china ornaments I had packed in the wash-stand. The debris filled my basin and ornamented my bed. My desk was broken open. Over it was spread all my letters, and private papers, a diary I kept when twelve years old, and sundry 'tokens of dried roses, etc,' which must have been very funny, them all being labeled with the donor's name and the occasion. Fool! how I writhe when I think of all they saw…Lilly's sewing-machine had disappeared; but as mother's was too heavy to move, they merely smashed the needles."

Library of Congress

Sewing machines were considered the machinery of war because uniforms were sewed on them. Union soldiers often destroyed machines when they came upon them. Breaking the needles was enough. With the blockade Southerners had a hard time getting replacements.

The pieced block has a BlockBase number.

BlockBase #2830
Aunt Eliza's Star

Cutting 12":

A:  Cut 1 square 6 1/8".

B: Cut 4 squares 4 1/2" for the background.

C:  Cut 3 squares 5 1/4". (1 of background, 2  for star points).  Cut each into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts.

You need 12 triangles.

Cutting 8":

A:  Cut 1 square 4-1/4".

B: Cut 4 squares 3-1/8" for the background. (3-3/16" is the larger measurement if you use the BlockBase 1/16th" default)

C:  Cut 3 squares 3-7/8". (1 of background, 2  for star points).  Cut each into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts.

Make 4 corner units out of square B and the triangles. Then make diagonal strips.

Optional applique

Applique a star or a heart after piecing.

Go back to the January 5, 2013 post to see a JPG with the heart and the star.

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2013/01/dixie-diary-1-her-flag-flying.html

A soldier occupies a Southern mansion.

William Waud, 1864

Library of Congress

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