2011 - CIVIL WAR QUILT

My top project for 2011 is a Civil War Tribute Quilt. I've been wanting to do one of these for a very long time and I've been purchasing and saving fabric just for this project. I've chosen this year to work on this project since this year is the 160th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.
I was first inspired to do a civil war quilt after reading Jennifer Chiaverini's "The Runaway Quilt".

Reading this book made me dig deeper into the quilts made during and shortly after the Civil War. I wanted to find historically accurate information about these quilts. I began to wonder if quilts were really used for "code" in-conjunction with the Underground Railroad. As I begin to dig, as much as I hate to admit it, I found the endearing tale of quilts being used as a code to help slaves escape has never been proven. There are NO first person accounts of this happening. Now, being the day dreamer, happy ending person I am I still like to sometimes think that maybe the first person account just got lost, maybe it's a secret that will never be out in the open, maybe....just maybe.....

There have been many historical fiction books written on or including the tale of quilt codes for the Underground Railroad. I love fiction probably just as much as the next person - and I love historical fiction but we have to remember as readers that authors can and do embellish their work for the sake of their stories. They have the creative right to do so but it can cause things to get a little fuzzy once in a while causing the readers to blur the lines of what is historical and what is fiction. Unfortunately in classrooms across the country as well as in several children's books, children are being taught that quilts were used as "codes" when there's just nothing to prove that it's true. Here's a quick FACT SHEET about the "quilt code".

In searching for more historically accurate information on this topic, I quickly found a woman, Barbara Brackman, who is a quilt historian. Barbara has a lot of information on her website about not just civil war quilts but all kind of quilts though out history!

If you are really interested in this controversy be sure to read Ted Pack's sermon on this topic. Ted is actually the webmaster for his church. However, he got himself caught into the middle of this controversy when simply posting a notice on the church website of a lecture on "Quilt Codes and the Underground Railroad". It really is a fun, interesting read and I actually found myself chuckling in several spots.

Because of my research I decided I would not be calling my quilt an "underground railroad" quilt. It's more of a tribute quilt. A tribute to the history of the Civil War. A tribute to those who were in slavery. A tribute to those who were lucky to be freed when the time came. A tribute to those who worked so hard to help free those who were bound in slavery. A tribute to the families who were separated; many who never saw each other ever again.

I'm using the book "Facts & Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery" by Barbara Brackman. This book has 8 projects, 20 blocks and many first person accounts of the Civil War. I will be choosing 12 different blocks - all for a different significance of the Civil War. My challenge for myself is to do 1 quilt block a month for this quilt for 12 months. Each month I will blog my finished block along with the name of the block, why I choose that block and what its significance to the Civil War is.


Here are the fabrics I have lined up for this project....aren't the beautiful! I love fabric. These fabrics were purchased at Autumn Rose Quilting, The Fat Quarter Shop and my local quilt shop.


CIVIL WAR ANTHEM by Moda

ABRAHAM'S DAUGHTER (1850-1870) by Moda

QUAKER QUILTS from Marcus Fabrics (reds) (I'm not sure about the yellow fabric but it was purchased at my LQS and is a reproduction fabric from same era)