Y Seam Woes

Dolores Umbridge

I must remind you that I was a special education teacher for many years and having students complain that the lessons are too hard does very little to deter me in my lesson planning.

Edna Krabappel

One must master the Y-seam.

Terry's Number 8 - Chimney Rock

Rina

Sandra's # 3

Even if it takes four tries.

Patchwork Inspiration on Instagram

Amity Quilter 1-8

Pinkdeenster on Instagram

Gone2theBeach gets extra credit for drafting her own pattern.

Stickers for everyone!

Beaver Cleaver

You'll be glad to know:

Only one more block with Y seams.

Smooth sailing down the other side of the Rockies.

Cornelia Smith Henry's Quilts

Cornelia Catherine Smith Henry (1836-1917 )

Her 1855 wedding photograph.

A few weeks ago I did a post on Atheline Henry, an enslaved girl in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Her short life is recorded in the diary of the slave owner Cornelia Catherine Smith Henry. Cornelia and Atheline made quilts together and Cornelia wrote about them as part of her everyday housework.

We can thank Cornelia for being so specific in describing the style or name of her quilt. She mentioned a "cactus quilt." We have no idea what it looked like but I added some photos of possibilities.

From the Massachusetts Project and the Quilt Index

Cornelia's enjoyment in making quilts comes through in her writing and gives us a little insight into the process in a Southern home during and after the Civil War. In March, 1861, as the war began:

"I worked some quilt pieces in evening for Atheline to piece me a rag quilt."

They struggled with a new sewing machine that year.

1861  Willcox and Gibbs sewing machine

October 1, 1861. I cut Willie out some dresses but sewed but little....I will have them to make with my fingers as all very fine machine needles are broken.

October 26, 1861. Got the sewing machine needles yesterday 8 for $1.

From a sampler

November 11, 1861. I made Zona  [daughter Mary Arizona] a quilt.

September 17, 1862. I sew up a lining for a quilt. I want to quilt it soon (my cactus quilt.)

[I wish I knew what that cactus quilt looked like!]

September 24, 1862. I have been carding bats today to put in my cactus quilt. Atheline helped some. I got it in & quilted a little on it.

September 30, 1862. I have quilted all day. I can't quilt more than half a side a day. It is very tedious work. Atheline does the cooking. Hanes attends to Willie.

Buncombe County is in blue in this map of North Carolina

October 4, 1862. I quilted till dinner & got ready to roll and after dinner Mr. Henry helped me to roll. [husband William L. Henry 1823-1900]

See more about his pattern at this post:

October 22, 1862. I finished my quilt today. I have been four weeks lacking one day at work on it. I have not quilted every day. I have missed four days besides several pieces of days as it has been so cool for the last three day.

October 27, 1862. I have bound my new quilt today with red. It looks very well.

July 30, 1863. I began Zona a bonnet today making it of yellow quilt calico.

August 1, 1863. I have been gloomy all day. My spirits are below zero smartly....Nothing new from the war. I finished Zona's bonnet yesterday & began one for myself of green quilt calico.

A block

In April, 1864, her husband is off fighting.
I began to piece up a quilt today of old dresses, mine & the children's.

I cut some quilt pieces today of old dress skirts. Atheline will piece it if she gets able.

I cut some quilt pieces today till dinner& then lay down as I had the headache. When I woke about 3 o'clock Mr. Henry was standing by me. I was so glad to see him.

June 13, 1864. Sewed some on a quilt. It is of old dresses & other odds & ends.

June 15, 1864. Sewed some on my quilt, got all the squares done.

June 16, 1864. I tore out the squares for my quilt to put it together but sewed but few of them.

June 20, 1864. I pieced my quilt today. It is pieced in single irish chain.

June 21, 1864.I sewed on my quilt today & finished it & intend piecing two like it for the crib.

June 22, 1864. I sewed on the crib quilts today.

June 23, 1864. I finished both cradle quilts today before dinner.

July 4, 1864. [Sister] Matt & I quilted one of the cradle quilts today. I bound it this evening.

July 5, 1864. We quilted the other cradle quilt today. I bind it this evening.

August 28, 1864 I finished my quilt today & Matt & I bound it this evening.

After the war:

Aug 21, 1865 Betsy and I washed out some five quilts this morning. They are damaged a good deal in the way of stain. Old Mull [a neighbor] is the cause of that. I hope he may get his just reward some day.

August 14, 1868. I put in a quilt and got it laid off in diamonds. Pinck and Zona both helped some. They done very well for beginners. [Mary Arizona was born in 1859; Robert Pinckney in 1856, so they were about 9 and 12 years old.]

August 28, 1868. Rene is carding me some bats for a quilt. I must make some this fall.

September 16, 1868. I am getting on finely with my quilt. Pinck & Zona help. They make long stitches and crooked lines. It will learn them and keep them out of mischief.

Indiana Project & the Quilt Index

Read Cornelia's diary:

Fear in North Carolina: The Civil War Journal and Letters of the Henry Family. Clinard, Karen L. and Russell, Richard, eds. (Asheville, NC: Reminiscing Books, 2008).

See a preview here:
https://books.google.com/books?id=d0FcMuU-UWsC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Read more about Atheline:
http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2016/08/atheline-henrys-short-life.html

Cornelia's grave

See more about Cornelia Henry here:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Henry&GSiman=1&GScnty=1661&GRid=22408352&

And more family genealogy here:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/HENRY/2008-08/1218307422

Thread Peddler Club: Civil War Women's Sewing Circle

Jane at Stitch by Stitch posted this Instagram

photo of a Civil War Sampler she quilted

Here's a great club idea from the Thread Peddler Shop in southern Missouri. They are starting a
 "Civil War Women's Sewing Circle" that meets monthly,  using my Civil War Sampler book for the patterns.

"This is a cutting class only and you will bring in your Civil War fabric scraps for exchanging with the "Civil War" women in attendance. We will go through the book and cutout 4-6 blocks per class. There are 50 blocks to the quilt."

http://www.the-thread-peddler.com/what-s-happening

I like the fabric swap idea.

Two posts from Silvia at silk_100

A Strip Quilt in the Civil War

Repro quilt by Georgann Eglinksi

Someone asked if a strip quilt would be an appropriate Civil War reproduction quilt.

Georgann's quilt is an interpretation of a strip quilt from the collection of the Helen F. Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas. The inspiration was a delaine (wool blend) quilt with a stripe in the strips. She chose this piece to copy because she had a pretty close repro stripe. The reproduction is all cotton.

The original, from the Thayer collection, # 1928.947

The problem in looking at fashion for strip quilts is I have so few date-inscribed examples in my picture files. The style just doesn't have the signatures and dates you see in block quilts. Here are my two date-inscribed examples from 1830-1865.

1845, Sarah Jane Robertson, Virginia

Leah Minich, 1837

This tells us little or nothing about how popular strip quilts were in the 1830-1865 period.

Here's one dated 1864 in the collection of the

International Quilt Study Center & Museum.

But that big fat date in red embroidery

and the fact that it's such an outlier in the data

makes me wonder when that date was added

and when the quilt was actually made.

With the exception of the popular Wild Goose Chase

I don't even have many date-attributed examples to those 25 years.

This particular four patch in a strip set might be the

best evidence for doing a strip set as a Civil War repro. Kimberly Wulfert's

quilt has a piece of Civil War conversational print in

one of the four patches.

This one from Maine might be of wools---

mid-19th century

It does seem to be a setting style that was fading from fashion by 1860.

So maybe they weren't being made.

But if you were a re-enactor you might very well be making a utilitarian old fashioned quilt.

And if you were a soldier you might have a utilitarian old fashioned quilt.

And if you don't want to make one....

You can own this historically accurate reproduction quilt by Georgann Eglinski.
Several years ago we did a guild challenge to interpret antiques in the Spencer Museum collection and this small strip quilt was one of the most accurate.

On the back is a label:
"This is a small interpretation of an antique quilt in the Spencer Museum of Art Collection (no. 1928.947) donated by Sallie Casey Thayer. The original: 1850-1870. Reproduction by Georgann Eglinski, Lawrence, Kansas, 2006."

It's 31" or so square. Georgann machine quilted it in the ditch and added a simple curved design. It's beautifully sewn and thoughtfully put together. The squares in the strips are 2".

Buy it at my Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/450115122/reproduction-museum-quilt-by-georgann?ref=shop_home_active_1

My dog Dottie for scale.

We are selling this quilt for a charity and the money will benefit a non-profit organization.

See the inspiration quilt in the Spencer Museum of Art Collection:

http://collection.spencerart.ku.edu/eMuseumPlus?service=direct/1/ResultListView/result.t1.collection_list.$TspTitleLink.link&sp=10&sp=Scollection&sp=SfieldValue&sp=0&sp=2&sp=3&sp=SdetailList&sp=0&sp=Sdetail&sp=0&sp=F&sp=T&sp=0

Barb's Fun with Stars

Barb at Fun with Barb is setting her Time Warp Stars

in a medallion set.

See it here: (More dots than stars, I think.)

https://funwithbarbandmary.blogspot.com/2016/08/first-round-ding.html

A Curious Reference to an Uncle Tom's Cabin Quilt

In A History of Ontario County, New York, published in 1911, author Charles F. Milliken tells the story of the county fair held in 1852 in Bristol Center, where Miss Addia Fisher won a prize "for a cap and Uncle Tom's Cabin quilt, etc."

Very curious. I have never seen another reference to an Uncle Tom's Cabin quilt---and I have no idea what it looked like.

This seems an obvious reference to the brand new book by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in book form in March, 1852. 

Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly first came to public attention as a series of 41 newspaper installments in the weekly National Era from June, 1851 through April 1, 1852.

The phrase Uncle Tom's Cabin would have been on everyone's lips in those years.

I have done some web searches for the words "Uncle Tom's Cabin quilt" and the only reference that comes up is this 1911 book. Milliken probably obtained his facts from some fair records or newspapers. It's the only reference to Miss Addia Fisher too.

UPDATE
Reader Kathy Duncan did find her in the censuses. Adelia Fisher was 28 when she entered the fair.
http://kduncanquilts.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-short-life-of-addia-fisher.html

Did the quilt in question look like the familiar log cabin popular after the 1870s?

Wool log cabin quilt dated 1876 by Susan Messenger

or more like a literal log cabin as in this Baltimore Album quilt from 1849

in the Smithsonian's collection?

Cabin from a quilt dated 1847,

the Anson Baldwin album quilt made in Yonkers, New York.

Collection of the Hudson River Museum.

Bristol Center, New York, was near Lake Canandaigua

about 30 miles from that hotbed of abolitionism

Rochester, New York

The text from the book:

"The first fair was held at Bristol Center, September 16, 1852. Hon. Elnathan W. Simmons was marshal of the day and W. Scott Hicks made an address. In taking a cursory look at the judges, it is interesting to note how their specialties have been carried down and even now we are familiar with many of the descendants interested in these particular lines of stock. The judges on horses were William J. Donalson. Thomas Hunn. Seth Paul, Jeremiah Fisher. Isaac Bentley, and Thomas Gilbert; on cattle. Phineas Kent, Elisha Mather, Billings Case, and Norman Hills: on sheep, Darius Newton. Horatio Sisson, Benjamin P". Phillips. Isaiah Cornell, Orestes Case, and Royal Andrews: on swine, Ezekiel Cudworth, Judah Sisson, Alphonso G. Fisher.
Among the premiums offered to women were those for the best woolen cloth, "the best dressed flannel" fall home production), yarn carpets, rag carpets, bed quilts, butter, cheese, etc.
The following are some of the names of those who acted as judges: Mrs. Solomon Goodale. Mrs. Richmond Simmons, Mrs. Elnathan Simmons, Mrs. Orestes Case, Mrs. Billings Case, Mrs. Francis Mason, Miss Mary J. Paul. Mrs. Phineas Kent. Mrs. Norman Randall. Mrs. Elijah Jones. Mrs. Moses Tubbs, Mrs. Henry Hurd. Among the winners of discretionary premiums were: Miss Pheba Sears, for a "Duster of Peacock Feathers:" Mrs. Erastus Allen, for a bed quilt and flowers: Mrs. William Bailey, for a chair tidy; Mrs. Lucy Gooding, for a hearth rug; Miss Adelaide Mason, for a work stand ; Miss Dora Barnum, for a card basket; Miss Addia Fisher, for a cap and Uncle Tom's Cabin quilt, etc."

Read A History of Ontario County, New York:

https://archive.org/details/historyofontario01mill

See posts on the history of the Log Cabin quilt here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/03/log-cabin-how-old-is-name.html

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2011/02/7-log-cabin.html

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2015/10/llllog-cabin-quilt.html