QUILTS & FABRIC: PAST & PRESENT


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Dixie Diary Blocks: Free BOM Pattern

#2 February
Checkered Allegiances
Star2Tia

Over at my Civil War Quilts blog we are doing a block of the month this year called Dixie Diary.
The blocks are simple and there's an optional applique star or heart for each one.

#2 February
Checkered Allegiances
RCCheryl

This is the second block I called Checkered Allegiances.
The blocks are either basic traditional blocks or basic piecework that I made up---and wondered why nobody ever thought of it before, like the block above. It's simple but quite effective.


The monthly story is based on a diary published by Sarah Morgan who lived in Confederate Louisiana.

#2 February
Checkered Allegiances
AEAQuilts

When the Civil War began Sarah was 19, spoiled and self-absorbed. The great thing about the diary is you watch her mature as the war drags on. She grows up under extremely trying circumstances. We are only to Block 3 so we have yet to see any change, but she is funny and so sincere in her self-absorption at the beginning---sort of Scarlet O'Hara-esque.

#3 March
Shouting Yankee Doodle
 Morgan Girl
I've found a few of the blocks that followers are making on our Flickr page to show you. I've squared up a few and brightened them in Photoshop so they look as great in the photos as they do in real life. 
See our Flickr group here:

#2 February
Checkered Allegiances
Honas52
 Honas52 is using the blue and buff color scheme that was so popular for cotton prints between 1840 and 1865.

#3 March
Shouting Yankee Doodle
Honas52

#3 March
Shouting Yankee Doodle
Calico Quilter

#2 February
Checkered Allegiances
Lynn Hyman
 I'm using pink and brown in my examples and stitchers are using lots of great pinks.


#2 February
Checkered Allegiances
KKline
 KKline has appliqued a detail of a Union print featuring hands.

#1 January
Her Flag Flying
American Homestead

#1 January
Her Flag Flying
ColvinKiwi
 The applique is optional---and some people are planning to add it at the end. But the blocks look terrific without it.

#1 January
Her Flag Flying
  Star2Tia
I figured this would be a good beginner series. Star2Tia and I are using prints from my Metropolitan Fair reproduction collection.


#1 January
Her Flag Flying
Lynn Hyman

#2 February
Checkered Allegiances

Thalia T is doing a "gothy" miniature----
a very interesting color choice.

#1 January
Her Flag Flying
Thalia T 

And very authentic---purple calicoes were often worn as "half-mourning" something all too common during the Civil War.

Thanks to all the block-stitchers who have posted their efforts.

See the Civil War Quilts blog here:
http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/



I'm posting a free pattern for a block on the first Saturday of every month during 2013. If you want to find the patterns already up there scroll down in the left hand column for the box that says "Search This Blog". Type in dixie and hit search over there and the results will appear at the TOP of the page that comes up. It's kind of counter-intuitive to scroll up for the search results but that's where you will find them. Click on the highlighted post and it will appear in a new window.


Many blogs have this Search blog feature which helps you navigate to what you are looking for.

9 comments:

  1. I already read your Dixie Diary blog for your own contributions, not Sarah Morgan's. But you've made it more intriguing by saying she matures over time-- I never finished her diary because I found her so insufferably ignorant and judgmental. If her character improves and she learns to think of tbe situation of other people unlike herself, good for her, I'll give it another try.

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  2. I really like that block, fabric choices can open it up to a lot of different design possibilities. I also like the X blocks, as well the simple crosses.

    Debbie

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  3. I like these blocks and I have some Metropolitan Fair. I will gice them a try. Love your fabric choices.

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  4. I've been looking for a new project to work on with all my Civil War repros! Thanks for providing a free BOM!

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  5. I instantly fell in love with the Metropolitan Fair fabric line, and decided to use pinks/reds, with the greys and blues!! It's nice to be working with larger pieces this time round, and the prints in the M/Fair line lend themselves perfectly in the 12" blocks!!! I love how the appliqued hearts/stars add a little something to these blocks too, and can't wait to start embellishing my blocks! I'm enjoying seeing what people use for their appliqued shapes too, lots of inspiration there, they all look wonderful!!!!!

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  6. Now we are learning how to search blogs and will be able to find things we have read in the past.... only thing is Google is doing away with reader and it will be back to the days of "following" 10 blogs instead of the 500 I am now following.... I don't want to tweet or thumb or other instant stuff. I like sitting down and reading with comprehension the blogs I follow.... if I wanted to tweet and be a tweet then I would tweet. I am going to miss most of "my" blogs.... whine whine whine.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. Dear Ms. Brackman,

    I couldn't locate your email anywhere, so I thought I would leave a comment.

    I am a graduate student at Rhode Island School of Design and am currently working on my thesis which deals, in part, with quilting in the United States. Last summer, I visited the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY to conduct research and saw the exhibition 'The Exquisite Stitch' while I was there.

    In the curatorial statement, Judith Schwender uses a quote from your 2011 Digital Newsletter [“The transition from whole cloth quilted pieces to patchwork quilted pieces began here [the United States] in the 1770s and ‘80s when quilting was fashionable and practical for skirts, bodices and waistcoats.”] If it's possible, I am very curious to read the rest of that newsletter to better contextualize the sentence she quoted.

    Might you be able to send me a belated copy of that newsletter? If so, It would be much appreciated!

    Many thanks,
    Lindsay
    LCarone@risd.edu

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  9. Would you please post the instructions for the February block again? I missed it or else the instructions weren't added. I need them for the measurements. Thanks so much.

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