Quilts from the Civil War
Author: Barbara BrackmanDetails: 128 pages, color
Price: $14.99
These extraordinary quilt designs, dating from the Civil War era, will inspire contemporary quilters. The techniques are definitely modern, but the projects and patterns are based on 19th-century quilts and convey an authentic feel of that period. Barbara Brackman provides the historical backstory to quiltmaking during this period.
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The following description of Quilts from the Civil War was taken from a customer review on Amazon:
“Quilts from the Civil War” not only contains project for reproducing numerous quilts of the 1850s and 1860s, it also contains an excellent discussion of the role quilts played in people’s lives. Barbara Brackman describes quilts made for freedom fairs, by the Sanitary Commission for use by soldiers, and quilts made to express patriotic fervor. Brackman goes beyond a mere discussion of quilts, however, to discuss the development of chemical dyes, women’s involvement in the war effort in general, the effect of the blockade on southern textile production, the need to hide quilts from occupying Yankee forces, and even the relationships that developed between quiltmakers and soldiers who received the donated quilt.
Brackman also examines the argument that quilts were used as clues for slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad, and concludes that these tales likely were a myth. (Nevertheless, she includes a Jacob’s Ladder-style quilt that honors the Underground Railroad.) In evaluating this theory, she discusses the history of the Log Cabin quilt.
Period photographs of women and children, engravings of Sanitary Fairs and other gatherings, photographs of original and reproduction quilts and original dresses beautifully illustrate this book. Excerpts from journals, letters and newspaper articles and reprints of ads calling for the production of items for soldiers add further interest.
Brackman provides a unique timeline that combines both traditional historic events, such as “March 4, 1864 - Grant becomes Commander-in-Chief of the Union Army” with social or women’s history, such as “August 1864 - Ladies Christian Commission of San Francisco sponsors a Grand Fair” and “October 5, 1864 - Mary Jones of Georgia records paying $16 a yard for calico.”