A Boston Bazaar in Rhyme

If it's Christmas in Boston in the 1850s I'm heading on down to 

Faneuil Hall for the annual antislavery fair. 

There will be quilts for sale and probably 

imported fabrics donated by local merchants

and wholesalers locally and from England.

For fans of the abolitionist movement: a poem describing the 1857 fair at Faneuil Hall:

James Russell Lowell 

Poet James Russell Lowell sent it to Philadelphia friend James Miller McKim.

James Miller McKim

The poem "Letter from Boston" was printed in the newspaper The Anti-Slavery Advocate on January 2, 1858 and reprinted decades later in the Atlantic Monthly in 1884, where the editor thought it "As fresh & as racy as if it were written yesterday." Fresh and racy have not stood the test of centuries but if you are familiar with the characters---the "anti-slavery folks"--- it is amusing.

Here's a selection of characterizations:

"By way of saving time,
 do this letter up in rhyme....
The great attraction now of all
is the 'Bazaar' at Faneuil Hall,
Where swarm the anti-slavery folks
As thick, dear Miller, as your jokes.

William Lloyd Garrison

Here's Garrison, his features very
benign for an incendiary,
beaming forth sunshine through his glasses,
On the surrounding lads and lasses.

Maria Weston Chapman

There was Maria Chapman, too,
With her swift eyes of clear steel-blue,
The coiled up mainspring of the Fair,
Originating everywhere.
The expansive force, without a sound,
That whirls a hundred wheels around;
Herself meanwhile as calm and still
As the bare crown of Prospect Hill;

Eliza Lee Cabot Follen

And there, too, was Eliza Follen,
Who scatters fruit creating pollen
Where'er a blossom she can find
 Hardy enough for Truth's northwind,
 Each several point of all her face
Tremblingly bright with the inward grace,

Wendell Phillips in a sack coat

There, with one hand behind his back,
Stands Phillips, buttoned in a sack,
Our Attic orator, our Chatham;
Old fogies, when he lightens at 'em.
Shrivel like leaves; to him till granted
Always to say the word wanted,
So that he seems but speaking clearer
The tiptop thought of every hearer.

Parker Pillsbury

Beyond, a crater in each eye,
Sways, brown, broad-shouldered Pillsbury;
Who tears up words, like trees, by the roots,—
A Theseus in stout cowhide boots;

Abby Kelly Foster

Judith, there, turned Quakeress,
tis Abby in her modest dress,
Serving a table quietly,
as if that mild and downcast eye
lashed never with its scorn intense
more than Medea's eloquence....
No nobler gift of heart and brain,
No life more white from spot or stain,
Was e'er on Freedom's altar laid
Than hers, the simple Quaker maid.

You can read the whole poem here:
http://www.poetrycat.com/james-russell-lowell/letter-from-boston

or here:
https://books.google.com/books?id=GzOw4dHf5VIC&pg=PA535&lpg=PA535&dq=%22the+great+attraction+now+of+all+is+the+bazaar&source=bl&ots=wz6ytaszPQ&sig=55gXXke8tXTX1JhqmuGfWBfKvzo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWnZDTy63OAhWBNiYKHTVoBn4Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22the%20great%20attraction%20now%20of%20all%20is%20the%20bazaar&f=false

Yankee Diary: Block 11 Progress

Tonko's Block 11

Victory is Grant-ed

http://thistlyroom.blog59.fc2.com/blog-entry-984.html

Bear Necessities

http://www.bear-necessities.net/2017/12/blog-post.html

Her lower left corner

Jeanne at Spiral

Wait a minute. That's a different breed of dog.

It's Jake the Jack Russell terrier.

http://spiralj2.blogspot.com/2017/12/yankee-diary.html

Which makes me think I should have done my flag-carrying dog as Dottie---

dachshund-style.

Nah!

Next Wednesday Block 12.

We are FINISHED!

Nine-Patch Quilt on Hilton Head Island

Eliza Ann Summers (1844-1900)

Soon after the Civil War 23-year-old Eliza Ann Summers volunteered for a difficult job. The American Missionary Association needed women in Georgia to teach freed children on Hilton Head Island. In January, 1867 she left her home in Woodbury, Connecticut with friend Julia Benedict for a six-day coastal voyage.

Hilton Head was a sea island, blessed with a climate perfect for cultivating rice and cotton but cursed by slavery. When Union troops landed in November, 1861 planters abandoned the land leaving slaves to declare themselves free---if hungry and terribly poor.

Fish Haul/Drayton Plantation, 1862

Hilton Head

Eliza taught these people and their children.

The American Missionary Association, an abolitionist organization, changed direction and hired teachers, agriculturalists to change the island farming and missionaries to preach hope. After the war the Freedmen's Bureau and the American Missionary Association continued to teach literacy and self-sufficiency.

When Eliza landed she was still suffering from sea sickness and shock at the conditions people had to live under. In a weekly letter to sister Sallie she mentioned one comfort.

"I want to tell you about the bedquilt of mother's. Tell her I think of home every time I look at it, and I think how Aunt Ruth and we all worked to quilt it. It is on the outside of the bed and is the greatest ornament of the room"

Missionaries in Beaufort during the war.

She taught children, held adult classes and made friends among the island's African-American leaders and the Northern teachers and administrators.

She wanted to teach the children to sew but sewing required tools, thread and fabric. She asked Sallie for help. Finally in May a box arrived with used clothing for her ragged friends and students, gloves for her and fabric donated by her relations including "a little bit of dark green of Lib Hirtland's."

"The ladies went right to work and helped me cut out some patch work so that we can commence our sewing school next week. The children are very anxious to learn to sew."

Teachers at Beaufort

"I had my first sewing school today...Have not done much else but cut that calico since the box came, and have it cut nearly up. The children are piecing a bed quilt for me of it. I knew that a block a piece or two would not do them any good, and they are perfectly delighted at the idea of doing it for me. They have pieced five whole blocks and parts of several others this afternoon. The blocks are just a plain nine square, five dark and four light....

"a plain nine square, five dark and four light"

I wish I had some more light [fabric]. Could you not send me a little in a paper? But I guess the best way will be to buy a half a yard at the Head...."

Freedmen's School on Roanoke Island, Virginia

Eliza taught only one spring term on Hilton Head. In June before the malaria season she returned to Woodbury with her "nine squares." She wondered if she should take the blocks with her when she left but as she had no way to quilt it there she decided to pack it.

F.F. Hitchcock (1844-1925)

In 1869 she married Floyd Frost Hitchcock and had 5 children, 4 of whom survived her when she died in her mid-fifties in 1900.

What happened to the nine-patch stitched by her enthusiastic students on Hilton Head? Four Hitchcock children may have done it in.

Husband F.F. Hitchcock and son Henry ran a large hardware store in Woodbury. F.F. Hitchcock is still in business.

The family tombstone in Woodbury

Read Eliza's letters:

Summers, Eliza Ann. “Dear Sister”: Letters Written on Hilton Head Island, 1867. Edited by Josephine W. Martin. Beaufort, S.C.: Beaufort Book Company, 1977.

Stars in a Time Warp: Finishes in 2017

Hartwell Stars

2015-2017

Cynthia's Second Stars in a Time Warp

The Stars in a Time Warp Quilt Along ran here in 2015. Some people finished quilts or tops this year.

Cynthia at Wabi-sabi Quilts

She alternated the 6" stars

with a half-square triangle block.

Hannah Robinson did the machine quilting.

This is Cynthia's second quilt from the Stars blocks. 

http://wabisabiquilts.blogspot.com/

And I found Barbara Goetz's top on Instagram.

Old fashioned shirtings for the alternate blocks;

new-fashioned border.

Scrappy Squares by Barbara Schaffer.

Barbara had some left over stars, so this is her second I think.

And I have found my stack of stars. I didn't get very far. Here are fifteen

I thought about setting with an alternate chrome yellow or Turkey red

square but I don't want a quilt that big. Sashing may be the answer.

We could have a show of Stars jut made by people named Barbara. I think there are 7 Barbaras in the files. But that would mean I'd have to get mine finished.

Lincoln in Quilts: Log Cabins, Flags and Roses

Silk quilt made with campaign ribbons featuring Abraham Lincoln
by Maggie Frentz, of New Albany, Indiana.

This fragile quilt takes a lot of room to display horizontally so the curators at the Indiana State Museum decided to give it a place of honor in it's own show---and then they invited some other Lincoln quilts for a Lincoln extravaganza this winter in Indianapolis.

Lincoln in Quilts: Log Cabins, Flags and Roses is at Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis through February 19, 2018.
https://www.indianamuseum.org/lincoln-in-quilts-log-cabins-flags-and-roses-

Read more about Maggie and her quilt:
http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2016/04/maggie-frentzs-flag-quilt.html

Here's an honored guest on loan from Kent State University's Museum:

Elizabeth Keckley's silk quilt using scraps from

Mary Todd Lincoln's dresses.

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2012/02/keckley-quilt-on-display.html

Also featured, a Log Cabin quilt made by Mrs. William Latta of Indiana, with the family story that the black crepes were recycled from mourning drapery on the Indiana State House during Lincoln's nationwide funeral.

Embroidered Lincoln portrait quilt by Lucy Frost of Dubuque, Iowa

The Museum is showing their basket quilt with a Union flag by Martha McFeely Fry, which was the inspiration for Block #5 in this year's Yankee Diary quilt.

See a post about that quilt here:
http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2017/05/union-baskets.html

The show looks to be a feast for Civil War quilt enthusiasts.

Lincoln Museum Quilt Kit Giveaway

The Lincoln Museum Quilt

84" x 96"

Deb Rowden and Friends

THE GIVE-AWAY IS OVER. Lori is the winner. I picked an arbitrary number (not a random number) of 24 and she was the 24th commenter. Since I read her blog at Humble Quilts I feel like I know her. So Deb & I will pack up some fabric and send it to her to add to her stash.

I read all 167 comments! Thanks so much for writing.

If you want to buy a box of plaids and a 7-page pattern let me know by emailing me at MaterialCult@gmail.com.

The starter kit is about 2-1/2 yards of woven fabric pieces in lights & darks for $33 (includes U.S. postage.)

A representative selection of wovens from our tubs which we will

press, compress and send to you. 

Here's more about the pattern:

I love checking the details in the bedding of Jane Austen movies, Civil War re-enactments and museum period rooms. As a busy-body, I am not above writing a note to offer unsolicited advice to film directors, fantasy corporals and curators. About ten years ago Deb Rowden and I wrote to the Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois, telling them that the vintage quilt covering young Abe Lincoln's parents’ bed in the cabin exhibit was an anachronism---vintage, but the wrong vintage.

We were thrilled when they took us up on our offer to make a reproduction quilt more in keeping with the time period. We made a quilt for the bed there.

Here it is covering the 20th-century quilt that was on the bed.

And we wrote a pattern booklet for Kansas City Star Books

about the experience with a pattern for the star and squares quilt

pieced of woven plaids and stripes.

People made their own versions...

of plaids and stripes and checks.

This is Kim's stash at Thread Heads Unite.

And her blocks.

The Lincoln Museum Quilt: A Reproduction for Abe's Frontier Family is now out-of-print. Neither of us has any extra copies. So we digitized it.

You can buy it as a PDF for $5 to print yourself in my Etsy shop.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/556543112/the-lincoln-museum-quilt-a-reproduction?ref=shop_home_active_1

Or I'll print it out in black and white and mail it

to you for $8.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/556541890/the-lincoln-museum-quilt-a-reproduction?ref=shop_home_active_1

Lynn Schumaker's version

If you don't win you can buy a starter kit with the pattern and about 2-1/2 yards of woven fabric pieces in lights & darks from us for $33 (includes U.S. postage). Just send me an email
MaterialCult@gmail.com.