A Lawrence, Kansas, Sesquicentennial

Four Patch by Alice Browne Bullene Metcalf (1858-1929)

Anti-slavery Lawrence, burned and grieving

150 years ago this week a group of Confederate guerrillas from Missouri rode into my home town and killed about 200 people, a large proportion of the male civilians in the town. 

All week we've been remembering with events as diverse as walking tours, Twitter feeds and souvenir bandanas. My personal sesquicentennial event was coming across this Civil-War-era quilt with a link to a family who survived the Lawrence Massacre.

"This quilt was pieced---a complete surprise for my mother---when I was nine years old.

Almost every piece in it is from dresses of members of the family.

Alice L. Metcalf"

Alice made the blocks for this quilt about 1867 as a gift for her mother Catherine. The widowed Catherine and her daughters probably lived in Kentucky at the time. Alice's father Joseph Richardson Browne had died  in 1862, the same year Alice's sister Josephine was born. We can imagine Catherine's pleasure at seeing her daughter's neat four-patches and recognizing prints from the family scrapbag.

The quilt may have been set together later but the four-patches look to be of prints from an 1860s wardrobe....

...many madder-style browns, oranges and pinks

with a few Turkey red prints.

Mother and daughter moved to Lawrence, Kansas, possibly after Alice's 1876 marriage to William Lathrop Bullene. 

Bullene's is to the right of the big boot sign.

The photo from the late 1850s is from the collection

of the Kansas State Historical Society.

William came to Lawrence as a child with his parents in 1857. His father opened a dry goods store, which is still in business here as Weaver's Department Store.

On August 21, 1863 15-year-old William and his father were lucky enough to survive the Lawrence Massacre. William's father Lathrop Bullene was in New York on a buying trip.

William somehow escaped the attention of Quantrill's raiders, who were inclined to shoot any adolescent boy they came across. William's stepmother Susan Read Bullene saved their house from burning by pleading that her elderly mother was too sick to be moved from her bed. She was forced to cook breakfast for the raiders.

Susan Read Bullene and husband Lathrop about 1890 surrounded by

their grandchildren .

Collection of the Kansas State Historical Society

Alice Browne and William Bullene had two daughters Marguerite and Frederica.

Susan and Lathrop with perhaps the same grandchildren a few years later.

Collection of the Watkins Museum.

Frederica is probably in both family pictures.

A gathering of survivors 100 years ago this week.

Library of Congress Collection.

William Bullene is likely to have attended the

reunion.

Frederica, the youngest, inherited the quilt with the note from her grandmother attached. Frederica's granddaughter Nancy Ann Woodward Myers has cared for the quilt into the 21st century. The fabrics are in excellent shape.

We might wonder if Alice's Kentucky family was Union or Confederate in a state divided by the Civil War. A flag print seems to tell us of Union loyalties.

Mike with wife Nancy and her mother Pat.

All are descended from victims of the Lawrence Massacre.

Mike showed me the family quilt.

Photo from the Lawrence Journal World by Nick Krug.

Here are some links to our Civil War sesquicentennial, recalling the raid of 150 years ago:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/aug/18/lawhorns-lawrence-150-years-later-quantrills-raid-/

http://www.lib.ku.edu/news/2013/quantrill-exhibit.shtml

http://www.1863lawrence.com/survivors/

And here's a story about the commemorative bandana that might make a good center for a quilt:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/aug/07/longtime-lawrence-resident-creates-bandana-commemo/

Unusual Civil War Fashions

Here's a tintype I found offered in an online auction.

I have never seen that kind of shield appliqued to clothing before.

A fireman?

Another fascinating outfit.

The Union case and red, white and blue painted cockade indicate a Union sympathizer, but

this is not a soldier's clothing.

He seems to be wearing a cotton print, what might be called a conversation print,

with rather large images scattered about. The compass on the left might have to do with the Masons.

The imagery may be from fraternal organizations rather than political.

There's an arm and hammer, perhaps a labor organization logo.

This one is less mysterious. I flipped the picture over so the word would be correct.

 Daguerreotypes and ambrotypes are always reversed.

Perhaps she's dressed for a pageant or parade.

Civil War Reproductions

Rally Round the Flag

Miniature quilt by

Kate Adams

2002

Detail of the center

Kate did this miniature over a decade ago, inspired by an antique quilt which is pictured on the cover of Pam Weeks and Don Beld's recent Civil War Quilts book

The original was photographed by an antique dealer.

It's an album quilt (85" x 53") from Florence, Massachusetts, with each of the

blocks bound and finished before they were joined.

See stitch size for scale in Kate's repro here.

A shot of a show in Tokyo also shows you the size of Kate's quilts.

See Kate's work here:

http://www.kateadamsfineminiaturequilts.com/

http://www.artofthequilt.com/adams.html

I keep a file of reproduction quilts. In it I found this one, which doesn't really qualify because it's made from an antique quilt and it's sculpture--- but it's a striking take on The Civil War.

Civil War Anaconda by Melissa Vandenberg

It was shown last year in this exhibit at Eastern Kentucky University.

I'd guess her inspiration was the image of General Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan to blockade Southern ports. See more at this post:

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2011/05/22-blockade.html

View Vandenberg's work here:

http://www.melissavandenberg.com/

Debbie St. Germain sent photos of a crib quilt she made 

from a pattern in my Civil War Women book.

Her quilt in primitive red, tan and blues is quite different from my original. in chrome orange and green.

Union Cradle Quilt

1999

From Civil War Women

I ought to remake this quilt as a scrap quilt. Thanks for the idea, Debbie.

See her blog:

http://woolnsails.blogspot.com/

Dixie Diary 8: Confederate Silver

Block 8

Confederate Silver

8" Version

Confederate Silver, a basic patchwork design, recalls the deprivations that started to appear in Louisiana. After a year and a half of war even the basics were hard to come by .

In the fall of 1862 Sarah Morgan left part of her family boarding in the town of Clinton, while she accepted the hospitality of her sister-in-law's family at Linwood Plantation, near Port Hudson on the Mississippi, held by the Confederates. 

Linwood was photographed for the first edition of Sarah's diary.

Albert G. Carter finished building the house in 1848. His daughter Lydia married

Thomas Gibbes Morgan, Jr., Sarah's brother.

The young women were invited to view a dress parade, although the General extending the invitation warned them he could only send a "Confederate carriage," a wagon drawn by a mule.

A mule team and the driver

Drawing by Edwin Forbes

Library of Congress

September 24, 1862, Linwood, East Feliciana Parish

"Now, in present phraseology, 'Confederate' means anything that is rough, unfinished, unfashionable, or poor. You hear of Confederate dresses, which means last year's. Confederate bridle means a rope halter. Confederate silver, a tin cup or spoon. Confederate flour is corn meal….

"And what a sad sight the Fourth Louisiana was, that was then parading! Men that had fought at Shiloh and Baton Rouge were barefooted. Rags was their only uniform for very few possessed a complete suit, and those few wore all varieties of colors and cuts. Hats could be seen of every style and shape from the first ever invented down to the last one purchased evidently sometime since. Yet he who had no shoes looked as happy as he who had, and he who had a cap had something to toss up, that's all."

Linwood is the white square

Block 8

Confederate Silver

Snapshot of Sandi Brothers's 12" version with a 1" frame, set on point

The pieced block has a BlockBase number.

BlockBase #2301

But it is so basic that a name hasn't been published.

Cutting 12"

There is only one pattern piece.

Cut 2 squares dark and light 13-1/4"  (13 3-16" if you use the 1/16th" default)

Cut each square into 4 triangles with 2 cuts. You only need two triangles of each shading.

Cutting 8"

Cut 2 squares dark and light 9-1/4"  (9 3-16" if you use the 1/16th" default)

Cut each square into 4 triangles with 2 cuts. You only need two triangles of each shading.

To piece the block think diagonally and join 2 triangles to make a larger triangle.

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

Northern cartoonists satirized the Confederate solider

in 1862. Despite deprivations they hung on for three more years. 

Finishing Up the First Block-of-the-Month

Civil War Sampler

by Lori B

35 blocks

 Here are a few recent finishes to the Civil War sampler we started in January 2011, the first month of the sesquicentennial commemorations of the Civil War.

Lori used several large-scale patriotic prints and sashed it 

with the always reliable star/cornerstone pattern.

Civil War Sampler

48 Blocks

by Anita

She's finished hand quilting it and it hangs in the living room.

Peggerly's set is similar but in the opposite contrast.

Now, I might have shown you these before but I imagine you'll enjoy looking at them again.

Here is doniene's finished top with the sashing plus cornerstone set.

16 Blocks by Imaquilter Wis

Contrary to her name Msdolittle has her top done. She used the same set

Becky Brown used for her cover quilt.

Becky sent a picture of her Liberty & Union quilt

back home on its bed.

Want to see more finished Civil War samplers? Go to our Flickr page of Finished Projects:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55642760@N07/galleries/72157630080300288/

We're Over Half Done

Dixie Diary

TwelveOaks195

We've done Block # 7 of the Dixie Diary block-of-the-month, so we have 5 to go. People have been posting their progress. Twelve Oaks has added the one-inch frame to hers as she goes.

I found some of these in our Flickr photo album. Click on the photographer in the left hand column or here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/civilwarquilts2011/

I did a little photoshopping to make them look their best.

Dixie Diary

Rosemary Y

Rosemary has sashing plans.

Dixie Diary

Honas52

And Honas52 has finished a top with half her blocks.

Dixie Diary

Cookie's Creek

 Cookie's Creek has posted her first six, pieced in pink and brown.

Dixie Diary

Moose Bay Muses

She's using Jo Morton's Alexandria reproduction line. 

See her tutorial on how to applique a simple star here:

http://moosebaymuses.blogspot.com/2013/03/easy-applique-stars-mini-tutorial.html

Dixie Diary

Pinkdeenster

She's been re-purposing old embroidered linens. It's turning out quite well.

The black is just the photography background. 

It will be fun to find out what she comes up with for a setting.

Post your progress. We'll look forward to seeing how it's all coming together.