Yankee Diary 12: Yankee Mourning

Block # 12 Yankee Mourning

by Denniele Bohannon

Boy wearing a Lincoln mourning pin 

From Carrie's diary:
April 15, 1864.

"The news came this morning that our dear president, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated yesterday, on the day appointed for thanksgiving for Union victories.... How soon has sorrow followed upon the heels of joy! One week ago tonight we were celebrating our victories with loud acclamations of mirth and good cheer. Now every one is silent and sad and the earth and heavens seem clothed in sack-cloth....

Portrait of Lincoln from a mourning ribbon

"Thursday, April 20.—The papers are full of the account of the funeral obsequies of President Lincoln. We take Harper's Weekly and every event is pictured so vividly it seems as though we were eye witnesses of it all....What a dear, kind man he was.

CDV with illustration of the devil whispering

to assassin John Wilkes Booth backstage

"It is a comfort to know that the assassination was not the outcome of an organized plot of Southern leaders, but rather a conspiracy of a few fanatics, who undertook in this way to avenge the defeat of their cause. It is rumored that one of the conspirators has been located.

Lincoln' funeral included stops at major American

cities as his open casket traveled west from Washington to Springfield, Illinois. 

From Harper's Weekly

"April 24.—Fannie Gaylord and Kate Lapham have returned from their eastern trip and told us of attending the President's funeral in Albany, and I had a letter from Bessie Seymour, who is in New York, saying that she walked in the procession until half past two in the morning, in order to see his face. They say that they never saw him in life, but in death he looked just as all the pictures represent him.

Waiting to view Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois, May, 1865

"We all wear Lincoln badges now, with pin attached. They are pictures of Lincoln upon a tiny flag, bordered with crape. Susie Daggett has just made herself a flag, six feet by four. It was a lot of work. Mrs. Noah T. Clarke gave one to her husband upon his birthday, April 8. I think everybody ought to own a flag."

Mourning painting with black framed flag

The Block

Block 12 by Becky Brown

The block with its five-pointed stars was inspired by one in a quilt made by Isabella Lucy, dated 1859, recorded by the Nebraska project.

See the whole remarkable quilt here at the Quilt Index:

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=57-90-849

#12 by Barbara Brackman

The circular composition can remind us of a mourning cockade.

A cockade is a rosette or ribbon knot.

Cutting a 12" finished block

Cut a 12- 1/2" square or larger (trim to 12-1/2" after applique and pressing).
Fold the background in half and half again and then into a triangle and press for guide lines for placement.

Print this JPG out on an 8-1/2" wide sheet. The cockade should fit in an 8" circle.
Add seams and cut the pieces as indicated.

A tiny picture of Lyn Van Dijk's block

Note: Becky added another flower to the center star by fussy cutting a circle.

SETTING

Add two 6" finished Double Tie blocks from month 3 along the bottom.

Add the word from Block 1 and four 3" finished squares at the top.

This strip goes in the center of the top section.

And we are finished!

Without the border it's 42" x 54"

Becky's finished top

Denniele's top---she talks of a border....

And Lyn finished hers early and put two borders on it.

Looks like the light blue finishes to 1-1/2" and the dark to 6" =

57" x 69" finished quilt

Homemade mourning badge

with a dressed picture of Abraham Lincoln

from Cowan's Auctions

Tomorrow: How to Set the Quilt

And remember you can buy the whole pattern as a PDF here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/554367078/yankee-diary-bom-civil-war-quilts-all?ref=shop_home_active_2

Or I'll mail you the pattern sheets on paper:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/568169213/yankee-diary-bom-civil-war-quilts-all?ref=shop_home_active_1