Time to start thinking out next year's Applique Block of the Month.
We are wrapping up the Ladies's Aid Album on the last Wednesday of
February.
Look for a free pattern for Freedom's Friends on the last Wednesday of each month starting on March 30th, 2022---and a true story about the Underground Railroad as it operated out of Philadelphia.
The history comes from William Still's book about fugitives on
their way from slavery to freedom.
William dedicated the book to "The Friends of Freedom," the "Heroic Fugitives" and their descendants.
The Underground Rail Road, published in 1872 provides many historical vignettes with absolutely nothing to do with codes and secret messages incorporated in quilts---that once-fictional tale frozen now as historical bunk by those who know little about quilts, runaways or antislavery activism.
Pook & Pook Auction
The blocks will be relatively simple, drawn mostly from Delaware River Valley samplers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey made in the 1840-1860 period.
Attributed to Mary Higgins (1811-1860) New Jersey, 1850
Garth's Auction
And if you'd like to buy all the patterns now for $12 in a PDF to print yourself here's a link to my Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1155035028/freedoms-friends-applique-quilt-bom
We model makers the Killer B's have picked our fabrics and finished a few blocks.
B for Bohannon
Denniele begins with a rather conservative color scheme for Denniele:
Traditional reds and greens.
We shall see what she makes of it.
B for Brown
Becky's using a bright palette of hand-dyed almost solids with
a dark blue background
B for Brackman
I am using a winter landscape look with various
grayed light backgrounds and muted reds and greens from the
box of "Pieces too small to save."
You'll need the usual range of lights to darks for applique shapes.
If you are buying fabric you can plan on about 6-1/2 yards for a single background (and borders)
and 8 fat quarters for applique.
Reproduction print ideas
Yesterday by Jo Morton
Di Ford's Oak Alley
This line from Edyta Sitar is intriguing.
And there is plenty of Ladies' Legacy in shops.
William Still's hand-written records
Collection Temple University
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Still_s_Underground_Rail_Road_Records/KD9LAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=william+still+underground+railroad&printsec=frontcover
2 comments:
Thank you for your comments about the myth of the quilts used "on" the Underground Railroad. The local TV news here in Vermont and the Adirondack region of NY state is all agog about a project of the Franklin County BOCES (NY school) which is using various quilt blocks as symbols for a tour of sites of the Underground Railroad. There is no doubt that there are sites in this area on the border with Canada. However, it sets my teeth on edge that they are talking about making quilts and using the quilt blocks. No matter how often quilters who have read the history try to dissuade the unknowledgeable - especially teachers who should know better - this ugly myth keeps popping up. Sigh!
There is a story of someone cleaning out an old house where someone died of old age, and in the attic, they found a box marked "String too short to keep". I told this to my hubby, then of your fabric scraps too small to keep, and he laughed! We definitely understand that way of thinking.
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