6 Richmond

Richmond by Becky Brown

Richmond is a block published about 1915 by the magazine Hearth and Home,

 which asked readers to send in patchwork patterns for the state capitols.

The Confederate White House in Richmond.

The Davises moved into this house in August, 1861.

Varina gave birth to two children here and lost one.

Richmond, Virginia, became the capitol of the Confederacy in the spring of 1861. Jefferson Davis, former U.S. Senator from Mississippi, was inaugurated as President of the Confederate States 150 years ago this week.

A star on the floor of the statehouse in

 Montgomery, Alabama

 marks the spot where Davis was inaugurated.

A remarkable view of history. Confederate Inauguration Day

February 9, 1861

The Davis's photo at their marriage in 1845. Varina was 19.

Varina Howell Davis, his 34-year-old wife, became First Lady of the Confederacy. Varina had spent the early years of her marriage in Washington as the wife of an important Senator. When they left Washington, their family included three young children--- Margaret, Jefferson and Joseph.

Varina Davis's wit and style is reflected in the diary of her close friend Mary Chesnut.

May 19, 1861-  [at the first capitol in Montgomery, Alabama]. Drove out with Mrs. Davis. She finds playing Mrs. President of this small confederacy slow work, after leaving friends...in Washington. I do not blame her. The wrench has been awful with us all, but we don't mean to be turned into pillars of salt [in looking back.]

May 20th, 1861.—Lunched, at Mrs. Davis's. Everything nice to eat, and I was ravenous... Mrs. Davis was as nice as the luncheon. When she is in the mood, I do not know so pleasant a person. She is awfully clever, always."

The surviving Davis children after the War.

Jefferson, Margaret, William and baby Varina (Winnie)

Four years of War changed the lively young wife. Like her Union counterpart Mary Lincoln Varina Davis lost a child during the War. In her memoir she recalled the day in 1864:

“I left my children quite well, playing in my room, and had just uncovered my [sewing] basket in [Jefferson’s] office when a servant came in for me. The most beautiful and brightest of my children, Joseph Emory, had in play climbed over the connecting angle of the banister and fallen to the brick pavement below. He died a few minutes after we reached his side."

She gave birth to her youngest that year and wrote to Mary Chesnut in April, 1864.

"Do come to me, and see how we get on. I shall have a spare room by the time you arrive, indifferently furnished, but, oh, so affectionately placed at your service. You will receive such a loving welcome. One perfect bliss have I. The baby, who grows fat and is smiling always, is christened, and not old enough to develop the world's vices or to be snubbed by it. The name so long delayed is Varina Anne. My name is a heritage of woe."

Richmond in 1865

Among other names, this week's block was called Butterfly by the Chicago Tribune's quilt columnist in the 1930s. The name is particularly appropriate as Varina Davis herself embroidered a butterfly in the center of a silk quilt she made about 1870.

Her granddaughter Varina Davis Hayes Webb donated the quilt to the Museum of the Confederacy with notes describing the butterfly as a symbol of the "soul of the Confederacy beautiful and immortal." See a photo of the quilt at the website of the Museum of the Confederacy by clicking here:
http://www.moc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ce_col_digitalcollection

For more information about Varina Davis's quilt see page 111 of my book Quilts From the Civil War.
We can remember Varina Davis and her heritage of woe with Richmond.

Cutting Instructions for an 8" finished block

A - Cut 2 medium light and 2 medium dark squares 3-1/2". Cut each into 2 triangles with 1 diagonal cut.

 You need 4 triangles of each shade.
B - Cut 4 dark and 4 medium light squares 2-1/4". Cut each into 2 triangles with 1 diagonal cut. You need 8 triangles of each shade.
C - Cut 1 dark square 3-1/8"
D - Cut 8 medium light and 4 (MY technical editors---the readers---say 8) light squares 1-1/2"

A suggestion from Karen D.:

Karen sent a note on Sunday Feb 6th. "I made the block this morning and love it but I think there is a cutting change - B - 2 1/8" squares instead of 2 1/4" squares. I drew it out on EQ and it also stated the rotary cutting for B to be 2 1/8". I did this because the four patch section ended up too big."

When we originally drew the block in EQ it did say 2-1/8" but the test block turned out to be too small, so we added the 1/8" inch. The problem here is that my criteria for choosing a block is whether it is an interesting Civil War block, not whether it fits nicely into an 8" format---four patches would fit best. If this is the kind of thing that drives you crazy, redraft the blocks to 12" (which fits both a four-patch and a nine-patch format)---but what of the blocks that are divided by 5 or 7??? Ohhh dear.

Read Varina Davis's 1890 memoir of her husband's life Jefferson Davis Ex-President of the Confederate States of America by clicking here at Google Books.

http://books.google.com/books?id=GHE4AAAAMAAJ&dq=memoir+varina+davis&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Read the 1905 version Mary Chesnut's diary Diary From Dixie online at the University of North Carolina's site Documenting the American South. 
 http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/chesnut/menu.html

But once you start reading Mary Chesnut you have to read the uncut version: C. Vann Woodward's edition called Mary Chesnut's Civil War.

Varina's wartime home now houses

the Museum of the Confederacy

See more about Quilts from the Civil War by clicking here:

http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1685

5 Kansas Troubles

Kansas Troubles by Jeanne Poore

This week's block commemorates Kansas Day. Kansas entered the Union 150 years ago this week on January 29th, 1861. For years the territory had petitioned Congress for statehood, but Southern politicians refused to add a new free state in the West. After Southern Senators paraded out of the Senate Chamber, the remaining majority finally had the votes to create the 34th state in the Union.

Elizabeth Blair Lee wrote to her husband in the Union Navy of her visit to the Senate chamber, January 20, 1861:

Mother & I went to see Kanzas enter the Union---before she was allowed to do [so] the Senators from Ala Florida & Mr. [Jefferson] Davis [Senator from Mississippi] announced the exit of these States out of it---These gentlemen were deeply moved but I never saw such an aroused audience when they left their places simultaneously---the Democratic side rose & surrounded them---But the Republicans ignored the whole scene & except 3 of them, all kept their seats & went on with business---looking stern & solemn...The ladies [in the gallery] sat calmly---thro the whole---I wished in my heart for Old Hickory to arrest them all--it might save thousands of precious lives, so I thought & felt & so I did not weep tho' my head ached and so does my heart....

A few days later the House passed the Kansas statehood bill and on the 29th President Buchanan signed it.

President-elect Lincoln

with a 34-star flag signifying

Kansas statehood in Philadelphia

February, 1861

Fair Maid of Kansas in the Hands of the Border Ruffians

Kansans (free white men who were Kansans) could vote on whether to be slave-state or free-state,

an idea that encouraged Northerners and Southerners to use voter fraud and terrorism to advance their agendas. The territory became known as Bleeding Kansas.

The Kansas Troubles increased tensions between North and South in the seven years leading up to the formal declaration of War in 1861.

Kansas Troubles quilt, about 1850, by L.B.

Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas

The quilt pattern goes back to the time of the Kansas Troubles, but we have no idea what women called the design then. The pattern name appears in print about 1890. It doesn't matter how many little triangles there are; it's the rotational repeat that makes it a Kansas Troubles.

Karla Menaugh, Kansas Troubles, 1998

We Kansans love the pattern. Lots of triangles!!!

Pam and Jean and a Kansas Troubles quilt top

Cutting for an 8" block

A - Cut 2 light squares 4-7/8". Cut each into 2 triangles with one cut. You need 4 triangles.

B - Cut 4 light squares 1-1/2".

C - Cut 8 light and 12 dark squares 1-7/8". Cut each into 2 triangles with one cut. You need 16 light and 24 dark triangles. (You might be happier cutting the squares larger---say 2-1/2" and then piecing the small two-part squares, and finally trimming each to 1-1/2" squares.)

These little squares finish to 1" for an 8" block

D - Cut 2 medium squares 2-7/8". Cut each into 2 triangles with one cut. You need 4 triangles.

The hardest thing about putting this block together

 is keeping the small triangles lined up in the right direction.

Kansas Troubles by Becky Brown

Read more of Elizabeth Blair Lee's letters to her husband in Wartime Washington: The Civil War Letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee, edited by Virginia Jeans Laas.

See a pattern for a 14" version of the Kansas Troubles on page 41 in my Borderland in Butternut and Blue, available from Kansas City Star books. Click here for more information:
https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=765

Or see this version in Civil War Women, page 42. Michelle Marvig used that pattern for her quilt with a border of Kansas cottonwood trees and New England pines. They'll print you a copy of the book on demand at C&T Publishing. Click here:
http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1857

See the quilts at the Spencer Museum of Art by clicking here: http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/collection/
and then typing the word QUILT in the search box---hundreds of quilts and quilt blocks.

4 Tears for Texas Tears

The Polly Parrot

Well I haven't started actually crying yet, but now I remember why writing a book is a cooperative effort between author, editor and technical editor (who works with the patterns). A blog is a different thing. You readers are my technical editor and I appreciate the corrections.

When I posted #4 I put up this sketch from EQ.

Notice it is quite different from the actual block and instructions in the corners of the inner block. How did this happen? A.G. pointed the error out in the comments so I have replaced the block in the original post.

1000 Scraps

Several people ask why I don't post these patterns as PDFs. Mainly because it takes time to make a PDF. As far as I can figure out I'd have to reconfigure the page and pictures etc. in a publishing program and then make a PDF and save it in the cloud somewhere. I write these on the blog post format---which is not too flexible.

BuccoliC

So...I'm going to buck up and work on number 5. And show you some more posted blocks.

Bettina M. has all four done. She substituted a pieced star for the Seven Sisters.

As a reader said:

"I'm glad there weren't more sisters."

4 Texas Tears

Texas Tears

by Becky Brown

Texas Tears is a variation of a quilt block printed about 1890 by the Ladies' Art Company, a St. Louis pattern source. We can use it to remember Sam Houston.

Sam Houston wearing his broad-brimmed hat

and serape in the early 1860s

Sam Houston was Governor of both Tennessee and Texas. He was also president of the Texas Republic and a Senator from the state. A natural leader, proud and independent, tall and outrageously dressed, Houston defined the mythical Texan. He was well known for wearing a broad-brimmed hat at a time when top hats were the fashion. He wore a Mexican serape as an overcoat and a vest of wildcat fur. A Washington woman remembered him in the U.S. Senate: "a rather unusual sight, ...a large man, so large that he was called the 'big Texan.' He was always whittling [on the Senate floor]."

 Houston in one of his more conservative vests,

1859

Houston was a slave owner but he opposed the slave states seceding from the Union, threats that so-called "fire-eaters" had been using to hold the Federal Government political hostage for decades. As threats grew louder, Houston successfully ran for Governor on a Union platform. When Southern states played their secession card in early 1861, he refused to permit Texas to join the Confederacy and was forced out of office.

Realizing the influence Houston could muster, President Lincoln asked him to lead Union troops against a Confederate Texas, but Houston rejected the offer. Opposed to a War he knew the South could not win, he also refused to wear the Confederate uniform. Houston was a Southern politician with a realistic vision of the costs of war, a man who acted according to his conscience rather than the public consensus.

Becky's block uses the fashionable buff and blue color combination.

She said she didn't notice the T's until she photographed it.

Cutting Instructions for an 8" Finished Block

A - Cut 2 light squares 3-1/2". Cut each into 2 triangles with one cut. You need 4 triangles.

B - Cut 1 light and 2 medium squares 3-7/8". Cut each into 4 triangles with two cuts. You need 4 light and 8 medium triangles.

C - Cut 1 dark square 5-1/4". Cut  into 4 triangles with two cuts. You need 4 dark triangles.

D - Cut 1 medium strip 8-3/4" long by 1-7/16" wide.

E - Cut  2 medium strips 4" long by 1-7/16" wide. (You'll trim the ends of the strips after you piece them into the center square.)

Like most of the patterns here I found this one in BlockBase, the digital version of my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. I used the keyword search and typed in Texas. I found many ideas, but this one seemed to capture Sam Houston's Civil War experience the best. You can also find the block by its pattern number 3261.

This story is from a 2006 Block of the Month I did called Civil War Heroes. It's out of print.

Read more about BlockBase by clicking here:

http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/BlockBase/BlockBase.asp

3 Seven Sisters Posted

Stars upon stars by Donna

The reverse by Becky

Apparently I mentioned the A word, which can stand for Applique As Anathema.

But this is a relatively simple applique block.

See all the postings on the Flickr site (click on the photographer in the left hand column)

for different methods.

We did the one on the book cover by machine using freezer paper applique.

Last year Karla posted how-tos on her blog about machine applique techniques. This post on clipping inner curves could come in handy here.

http://karlamenaugh.blogspot.com/2010/02/clipping-inner-curves.html

Enquiring stitchers want to know:

Will there be more applique?

Yes!

Will there be more appliqued stars?

Maybe (I've only written this through March as of yet)

You'll want to find all your blue star fabric as there will be more flags.

This print is from my 2010 Moda collection Civil War Homefront

Here are a few others.

You can use the star prints to fussy cut if you don't want to applique.

Here are Seven Sisters cut from a star print.