2019 BOM Here: Hospital Sketches Applique

We have one block to go in the 2018 Antebellum Album BOM at CivilWarQuilts. Time to announce the 2019 BOM here starting at the end of January.

HOSPITAL SKETCHES ::::::::::::::::::: Applique!

In 2018 we did 12 popular antebellum pieced blocks. Next year we will do 9 popular antebellum applique florals, often seen in albums.

Detail of a block by Becky Brown, 

stitched in hand dyes from Vicki Welsh

Becky Brown and I started this project with my file of fashionable blocks. She drew patterns for 18 inch blocks and appliqued them in hand-dyed brights. Then she started adding shapes for fun.

I took her patterns and subtracted a few things, appliqueing mine in reproduction reds, greens and chrome orange.

Then Denniele Bohannon got the patterns and bemoaned what with the five grandchildren---was she ever going to get them done? So I subtracted a lot more for her and made some 8-1/2" blocks. Applique Sprouts.

Thus the patterns will be about addition and subtraction. You can make them as complex or simple as you like. We encourage you to make them your own.

Janet Perkins is making a model in prints with an Arts & Crafts flair.

And Bettina Havig is making one with a class--but I haven't seen it yet.

She's coming over for lunch today. I hope she brings some blocks.

Civil War Hospital Flag from Steve Rogers Antiques

The Civil War narrative theme is Hospital Sketches (the name of Louisa May Alcott's book about her experiences in a Union hospital.) The stories will not be about nurses---although that was my intent when I started reading diaries and letters for this quilt. Women like Louisa were not actually what we would consider nurses ---assisting doctors in surgery and carrying out medical procedures.

China Beach, army nurses in Viet Nam

Our idea of wartime nursing is very different from theirs,

based on later wars (and later television.)

M.A.S.H., army nurses in Korea

Civil War hospital workers played other roles: matrons, social workers, suppliers of food and bedding, bedside visitors, laundresses, cooks and orderlies. The stories will focus on hospitals and people who worked in them.

Julia Wheelock Hires during the Civil War

I'll include photos from the era and try to identify the women in them.

The first block will be posted here on Wednesday, January 30, 2019.

We had so much fun with the Facebook Antebellum Album group this year I'll create a HospitalSketchesQuilt group.

See a short summary of Civil War nursing here at the New York Historical Society at this post:
http://blog.nyhistory.org/women-in-nursing-during-the-civil-war/

And a preview of a recent book on the topic: Jane E. Schultz's Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America
https://books.google.com/books?id=PVc85-x1p3QC&dq=civil+war+hospital&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Fabrics
Hand dyed cottons from Vicki Welsh:
https://www.colorwaysbyvicki.com/#/

Reproduction reds, greens etc. from Barbara J. Eikmeier's Manzanita Grove collection at Paintbrush Studio.
https://pbsfabrics.com/collections/manzanita-grove