"Games, Music and Knitting" block

Miss Lou gave me some Cotton to knit Eddie a pr of socks. I began them, but did not get much done, most of the time playing Bagammon, Chess, or having some Music.... I bet I would finish my sock, she bet I would not, so she put the Gas out. I lit it again and finished my sock.

The Civil War sampler continues. I'm well into Rosemary Youngs' book, The Civil War Diary Quilt: 121 Stories and The Quilt Blocks They Inspired, and am hooked! The diary entries of several of the younger women tell of an often quiet home life filled with knitting, reading, games, music and other parlor activities and are accompanied by beautiful quilt block patterns.

"Knitting and Reading" block

Mother can't conquer the mystery of 'turning the heel' - there it is again - 'Emma, how many times did you say I must knit plain?'

"Parlor Activities" block

On the next page, these everyday domestic scenes will be suddenly interrupted by the story of a neighbor's son killed by the enemy or bombardments in the town. The shocking contrast and jarring realities of war are reflected in the bold blocks Youngs has paired with these stories.

"Alvin McClure" block

"Bombardment" block

Here at home, I am lucky to be able to sew and knit with no such interruptions. Well, maybe a few minor civil wars between the boys. And of course, a lot of games.

today: playing mini-chess games from the most excellent book, Chess for Children

Last week, while sewing up one of my civil war quilt blocks and thinking about my own family's history in the war, I discovered that my great-great grandfather and his father served together in the Georgia Infantry. I managed to find records of their having taking Oaths of Allegiance to the Confederacy in 1861 and of their being prisoners of war after the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863. This week, I began making quilt blocks from Rosemary Youngs' wonderful book, The Civil War Diary Quilt, which includes excerpts from diaries kept by a variety of women during the war along with quilt blocks inspired by their stories. Among the 121 blocks in the book I found, "Oath of Allegiance" and "Surrender at Vicksburg". I decided to make these two blocks first, since I could trace a little bit of my great-great grandfather's story in them.

In the diary entry associated with this block, a Missouri woman, originally from North Carolina, records that she has refused to take the Oath of Allegiance required by the Federal commander of all Union citizens and must now fear leaving her own home, for danger of being arrested. "Those who do not swear are not allowed to follow any business whatever and are prisoners at home. This oath compels thousands to swear against their own conscience or have their families to perish."

News of the Surrender at Vicksburg is recorded with amazing detail by a 14 year-old girl from Kentucky: "Pemberton has surrendered at Vicksburg but I do not believe it.... [He] surrended the northern papers say on the following conditions-he was to have all of his men paroled and given 10 days rations...Officers to keep their private property, sidearms and mounted officers one horse each."

When I first noticed this book, I thought that 121 blocks might even be too much sampler quilting for me, but I take it all back. These stories and these blocks are so fascinating that I know I'll be making blocks from this book for a while.

Oooh, I love this one! This, the latest block for my civil war sampler, is also from Barbara Brackman's Facts and Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery and is called Beauregard Surrounded. The block is traditionally called Burgoyne Surrounded after the defeat of a British general during the Revolutionary War. Brackman has renamed it to recall the Civil War, more specifically the defeat of Confederate general Beauregard at the Siege of Corinth in 1862. Beauregard, who was actually the general who commanded the forces that fired the first shots of the Civil War at Ft. Sumter in South Carolina, was surrounded in Corith, Mississippi and outnumbered 2 to 1 by Union forces. He eventually chose to evacuate the city and snuck his troops out on the trains that should have been sending reinforcements.

Reading this history got me thinking about my relatives during the Civil War. I knew there were some who fought in the war, but I didn't know much about them. I spent an evening looking through some ancestry stuff and found that practically every male ancestor alive at the time had a military record. All on the Confederate side, of course, as my family is deeply rooted in the South. In fact, I remember once trying to ask my relatives in Texas where the family originally came from and they would say, weeeellll, waaaaay back, I think the family came over from.... Georgia. Yes, Georgia, the state four states over from Texas. Way back. Turns out, "way back" was around the time of the Civil War. I found records that show that my great great grandfather joined the infantry in Georgia in 1862. He signed up at the age of 16 along with his father, my great great great grandfather, who was about 45.

 
Confederate Oath of Allegiance & Roll of Prisoners of War

Their regiment was among the many who surrendered to Grant's forces in 1863 in the Siege of Vicksburg, a great victory for the North (coincidentally, the move towards Vicksburg, Mississippi was aided by the Union's success in overtaking Corinth where Beauregard found himself surrounded). Both my great great grandfather and his father returned to their regiment after their release and were captured again, probably in 1864 in Kentucky, but survived the war without serious injury. My great great grandfather is the closest direct relative to me that I could find who fought in the war, but there were dozens of his cousins and uncles in the war as well. As I work on other blocks from the Civil War books, I hope to look more into their histories and some of the battles they were a part of.

My block may be blue, but my history is gray.

These teeny tiny 6" quilt blocks of my civil war sampler quilt are so darned cute, I'm going to have to start calling my quilt "cute civil war" instead of "pretty civil war". They are pretty though.

four more blocks

These are all from Barbara Brackman's book Facts and Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery. Brackman, a quilt historian who published THE encyclopedic collection of quilt blocks, has done an excellent job presenting the shameful and the heroic aspects of the period using established history and first-person accounts. She has chosen quilt blocks that reflect the facts about slavery and the fight against it either in style or name or both. These four blocks, for example, are: 1. Catch Me if You Can, "a block to recall escape"; 2. Cotton Boll, "a block to recall the slave economy"; 3. Lost Ship, "a block to recall the ocean voyage"; and 4. Aunt Dinah, "a block to recall Americanization." The North Star block above is to recall Abolition fairs in places like Boston, where Northern women would sell their needlework to raise money for Anti-Slavery efforts.

The history is fascinating and the piecing of the blocks is challenging, especially at this size. But the resulting blocks, despite what they may represent and despite the difficulty of the construction, are simply cute.

My free time is so shrinking! I wanted to blog yesterday. But the kids had other plans. Hmmmm.

My quilt blocks are shrinking!

3", 6", 9", 12"

My first block of the month blocks were 12" square. This year's block of the month blocks are 9" square. My civil war sampler blocks are 6" square. And the teeny tiny block is the 3" square center for my latest civil war block, the North Star.

And, the best of all, my stash is shrinking! This is your warning. The BIG yarn and book sale is a-coming! I'll start by posting a list of knitting books for sale tomorrow. There's newer releases in there and some oldies-but-goodies as well. All are in like-new condition and I'll be selling them at about 50% off. Then comes the yarn. There's Debbie Bliss, Rowan, Lornas Laces and way way more. It's all gonna be priced to sell, so check back Thursday for that. Oh boy!

It's the last day of first grade! The boys' classes celebrated with "First Grade Olympics", including:

the long jump

the shuttle run

badminton

and soccer

I sewed my first blocks for the civil war sampler, including:

"Lincoln's Platform" block

"Underground Railroad" block

And did the last bit of embroidery on wee one's bonbon sweater, including lilac and still that red (love that red!):

I think I finally got a good picture of the red here.

It's the first day of summer and the last day that I'll have time to take a shower and sit and write a post like this until September. Yikes!

Have you ever heard this story about quilts being used to help slaves escape through the Underground Railroad? I originally discovered this story while online searching for info on the children's book, The Quiltmaker's Gift. Amazon recommended another kids' book about quilts, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, where a young slave girl sews a map to freedom into a quilt. I clicked through from that book to another and another and found Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad.

This book takes the oral history of one descendent of slaves and pieces together a history of a system of codes which could be hung out by abolitionists in plain view in the form of quilt blocks with names like "North Star", "Wagon Wheel" and "Sailboat" to help slaves find their way to safe homes and eventually freedom in Canada. A few more clicks led me to this book, Facts and Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery, which presents the now prevalent opinion that although the idea of quilt codes is a lovely way of thinking about the time, the people, and the way that quilts and quilt blocks have always represented the important things in the lives of those who made them, it is mostly fabrication (revealed by the errors in the story and the fact that no other such narratives exist). The story is compelling though and has worked its way into classrooms, libraries, and quilt shops (check out this link for a video and explanation of some of the blocks!).

from Eleanor Burns' Underground Railroad Sampler

This is a sampler quilt of the blocks mentioned in the original narrative about the quilt codes. I have to admit that I love sampler quilts (the block of the month quilts I'm working on are sampler quilts, of course). It's so fun making a different block each time, learning new techniques, and hearing all the interesting traditional names the blocks have had. So, despite all the controversy, I was intrigued. And when knitting and quilting buddy, Carol, said she was interested in making a civil war sampler, I knew I wanted to make one along with her.

We headed off to our lqs and collected some reproduction fabrics, with the muted shades and calicoes of nineteenth century prints and shirtings. The fabrics from the period tend to be pretty dark (not like all the bright prints of the 30's fabrics) and I found myself always searching for the sweetest and prettiest of the group. Pretty civil war, I kept calling it. And it is, the whole story. A lovely story about a horrible time. It's a shame that it's not true. It's just a quilt project. My 2007 block of the month quilt doesn't say anything about the year 2007 and this one won't really say anything about the Underground Railroad. It's okay.

Speaking of pretty civil war, I really want to glance through these books, The Civil War Love Letter Quilt and The Civil War Diary Quilt.

The author, Rosemary Youngs, has chosen or invented quilt blocks inspired by the real stories of civil war women and men. Very pretty civil war indeed. But it's surely a more legitimate mixture of fact and fiction than the quilt code book and probably more interesting reading than some of the quilt lit that's out there. Still, 121 blocks? Pretty or not, that might even be too much sampler for me!