Civil War Commemoration Quilt

I belong to several quilt lists and one of them is a group that enjoys Kathleen Tracy and her small doll quilt designs.

  smallquilttalk@yahoogroups.com  

But from that also comes other websites, projects, etc. that come around and peek our interest......such was the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge by Temecula Quilt Co.

http://temeculaquiltco.blogspot.com/  If you scroll down you will see the whole project.  There is also a kit available.  

I told myself, I was not going to get sucked into a new project......pathetically weak....what can I say.  But I saw the premise of it.....which was Day 1....1 piece, Day 2.....2 pieces, Day 3.....3 pieces etc.  Kinda clever and simple enough, then it dawned on me, I had some great civil war commemorative fabric with images.  I had bought yardage of several of these.....I would love to make my hubby a special piece at some point.  But this piece was so small, I thought I could raid some of it without ruining my chance to do a bigger piece for him later.  At least I hope so.

Can you imagine going off to war with your husband and children?  There was more of that than you might imagine.

I had been asked a while back about a quilt I had done with vintage blocks in the style of a soldier's cot quilt.  If it could be used at the upcoming Civil War Quilt Exhibit at the Grout Museum.  So as I am looking at these blocks and fabrics.....I am thinking my friend, Robin might want this piece too.  And the directions would be available for anyone to make using their blog at Temecula Quilt Co......which would be kinda cool.

I look at this young sailor and see my grandson, who is 15, many of them went off to war at this age and younger, so heart wrenching.

So last week, when I had 11 of the blocks done, I took my other quilt to her and showed her the blocks and she loved them and wanted this piece for the exhibit too......so that meant I had to get it finished this week.  Hence....my fingers are sore and not much extra happened around here.

A famous picture of Abraham Lincoln at Antietam.  We spent a day walking this battlefield where unbelievably, thousands of men lost their lives for this struggle and what they believed in.

You can see all the different patches I fussy cut.....that really make the piece. IMHO  I also hand quilted this piece, which I haven't done in quite awhile, but felt I needed to finish it in this way.

Little Round Top at Gettysburg, which is a gripping story that features one of my favorite characters from that day, Joshua Chamberlain.  The Silver Fox and I spent a fair amount of time on this rocky hill in August 2011.

If you are not familiar with the story of Little Round Top and Joshua Chamberlain, it would be worth a read!!!

http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/gettysburg/gettysburg-history-articles/defense-of-little-round-top.html

You can go and count all the pieces in each block to find each one.....No. 1-12.

The blocks are finished at 3", so they are quite small.

My plan was to use a contrasting fabric as cornerstones between all the sashing strips.  I am going to place my pins from all the civil war sites we have visited in those cornerstones.  And when I laid them out, several of them covered that area, so I decided not to bother with that.  Then as per my usual, I forgot to put the pins on it as the final step and I already took the quilt to the museum, so will have to remedy that the next time I go to town.

Here is the information regarding this exhibit at the Grout Museum in Waterloo, Iowa.  FYI  If your spouse has an interest in the military.  The Iowan Veterans Museum is also a part of it and I would highly recommend a "come, look, see."   It is a beautiful and quality museum and worth your time if you are in this area.

http://www.groutmuseumdistrict.org/