52 Christmas Star

Christmas Star by Becky Brown

This modified nine-patch block with a wreath in the center can remind us of the first Christmas of the War. You'll find out why Becky put parrots in it below.

Christmas Eve by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly

The Davises with daughter and grandchildren in 1885

In 1896 Varina Davis, first lady of  the Confederacy, wrote a memoir about Christmas in the Confederate White House. She told of her children repairing broken toys for the neighborhood orphans in Richmond during the War's last winter.

Girl with a doll, about 1900

"While looking over the advertisements of the toys and everything else intended to make the children joyful in the columns of the city papers, I have been impressed with the contrast between the present time and the... Southern country thirty-one years ago....

"For as Christmas season was ushered in under the darkest clouds, everyone felt the cataclysm which impended, but the rosy, expectant faces of our little children were a constant reminder that self-sacrifice must be the personal offering of each member of the family. How to satisfy the children when nothing better could be done than the little makeshift attainable in the Confederacy was the problem of the older members of each household.

The Davis children early in the War.

"The ladies dispersed in anxious  squads  of  toy-hunters,  and  each  one turned over  the  store  of  her  children's treasures for a contribution to the orphans' tree,  my  little ones rushed over the great house looking up their treasure:  eyeless  dolls,  three-legged  horses, tops with  the  upper  peg  broken off, rubber tops, monkeys with all the squeak gone  silent  and  all  the ruck of children's toys that gather  in  a  nursery  closet.

 

"Some  small  feathered chickens and  parrots  which  nodded their heads in obedience to a weight beneath them were  furnished  with  new  tail  feathers, lambs minus much of  their  wool  were supplied  with a cotton wool substitute, rag dolls  were  plumped out and recovered with clean cloth, and the young ladies  painted their  fat faces in bright colors and furnished them  with  beads for eyes."

Boy with a toy dog, about 1865

Read more of Varina Davis's story about their make-shift Christmas by clicking here:

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/on-the-homefront/culture/christmas.html  

Boy with a toy boat, about 1880

The name Christmas Star was given to this block by the Oklahoma Farmer Stockman periodical, which had a quilt column in the late 1920s and '30s. The pattern (BlockBase #1806c) has other names and different shadings, among the names: Wedding Ring, Crown of Thorns and Memory Wreath. I modified it a bit so the grid based on 5 fit an 8" square better.

Same block, different shading from a 1940s quilt

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

A - Cut 4 light green, 2 red, 4 dark green and 6 background squares 2-3/8".  Cut each in half with a single diagonal cut.

You need 8 light green, 4 red, 8 dark green and 12 background triangles.

B - Cut 4 dark green and 4 background rectangles 2" x 2-1/2".

C - Cut 1 light green square 2-1/2".

A block from about 1900---be careful how you turn your triangles.

This block was one of the most popular in the early 20th century.

51 New York

New York

This week's block can recall the ladies' fairs that raised funds for soldiers' aid.

"In the Parlor: At the Fair"

By Thomas Nast

150 years ago December brought preparations for the annual ladies' fairs, the ancestors of our Christmas crafts bazaars. During the Civil War these charity events benefitted soldiers North and South.

The largest of them all was the Great Metropolitan Fair, which took place in New York City in 1864.

The fair to benefit the Sanitary Commission was held at Union Square (actually named because it was at the union of Broadway and the old Bowery Road, but an appropriate location, nevertheless.)

Fairs often sold needlework and crafts made by women, but this fair also was like an industrial exposition with states and cities showing off their manufacturing. It was resembled an antique show too with paintings, furniture and curiosities for sale.

Women organized it and "manned" the booths.

Here's a photo of the booth for the city of Hartford, Connecticut.

A blow-up of those items hanging next to a soldier's uniform indicate that one is an embroidered banner and the other possibly a four-patch strip quilt. Quilts were definitely part of the fairs.

The Fairs raised a good deal of money, although French visitor Ernest DuVergier seems to have begrudged the donations he made to the Philadelphia Fair ...

"Nothing is more ingenious than the way they get money from visitors. They have discovered an infinite number of different temptations and traps. I pay to get in, I pay to get out, I pay to see a museum where well-varnished examples of run-of-the-mill native painting shine by gaslight; I will pay if I want to take part in the vote which will award a silver vase to the most popular politicians...."

Hey, Ernest, it was all for a good cause.

The block named New York was published in Hearth and Home magazine about 1910. The pattern featured a pieced star in the corner. This week's block is adapted for an 8" pattern with a star print in the field area.

Last year at Quilt Market Cindy Rennels showed off her patriotic quilt that alternates a version of the New York block with a larger star.

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

A - From a star print cut a square 4-1/2", focusing on a star if you like.

B - Cut 2 white and 1 red rectangles 1-7/8" x 4-1/2"

C - Cut 1 white and 2 red rectangles 1-7/8" x 8-1/2"

This easy block might make extras for the corners of your quilt. We're getting down to the end of the 53 blocks here and you are going to need 56. I'll give you another corner option at the end of the month.

Many of the Sanitary Commission fairs published newspapers every day they were open.

See The Canteen, the publication of the Albany fair by clicking here at Google Books:

http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA8&dq=canteen+albany+sanitary+commission&id=H2hUAAAAYAAJ#v=onepage&q=canteen%20albany%20sanitary%20commission&f=false 

And The Drum Beat from the Brooklyn Fair by clicking here:

http://books.google.com/books?pg=PT23&dq=drum+beat+brooklyn&ei=9TMvTtSTCrC30AHWgv2tAQ&ct=result&id=qKk-AAAAYAAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Embroidered silk pillow top with a history

that it was purchased at the Metropolitan Fair



50 Grapes of Wrath

Grapes of Wrath is a modification of a traditional pattern called Grape Basket. The block can remind us of a new version of the "John Brown Song," written in late fall, 1861.

Julia Ward Howe's biography tells the story of how she came to write the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" on a visit to Washington City.

"Returning from a review of troops ..., her carriage was surrounded and delayed by the marching regiments: she and her companions sang, to beguile the tedium of the way, the war songs which everyone was singing in those days; among them – 'John Brown's body lies a-moulding in the grave. His soul is marching on!'

The soldiers liked this, cried, 'Good for you!' and took up the chorus with its rhythmic swing. 'Mrs. Howe,' said [a friend] 'Why do you not write some good words for that stirring tune?'
'I have often wished to do so!' she replied.
Waking in the gray of the next morning, as she lay waiting for the dawn, the word came to her.

'Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord – '

She lay perfectly still. Line by line, stanza by stanza, the words came sweeping on with the rhythm of marching feet, pauseless, resistless. She saw the long lines swinging into place before her eyes, heard the voice of the nation speaking through her lips. She waited till the voice was silent, till the last line was ended; then sprang from bed, and groping for pen and paper, scrawled in the gray twilight the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic.'

The first draft, pictured in her biography.

She was used to writing thus; verses often came to her at night, and must be scribbled in the dark for fear of waking the baby; she crept back to bed, and as she fell asleep she said to herself, 'I like this better than most things I have written.' In the morning, while recalling the incident, she found she had forgotten the words.

The poem was published in the Atlantic Monthly for February, 1862. 'It was somewhat praised,.... I knew and was content to know, that the poem soon found its way to the camps, as I heard from time to time of its being sung in chorus by the soldiers.'

Julia Ward Howe in 1861

She did not, however, realize how rapidly the hymn made its way, nor how strong a hold it took upon the people. It was 'sung, chanted, recited, and used in exhortation and prayer on the eve of battle.' It was printed in newspapers, in army hymn-books, on broadsides; it was the word of the hour, and the Union armies marched to its swing.

Her song still has a strong hold upon Americans.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

Her poetic phrases, many drawn from her knowledge of the Bible, have become icons in the American language. The Grapes of Wrath (borrowed by John Steinbeck for his book about the Great Depression) comes from a description in the Book of Revelations of fruit pressed into "the great winepress of the wrath of God."

The Ladies' Art Company pattern business sold this design as Grape Basket (BlockBase #712) beginning in the late 19th century. Similar patterns date back to the time of the Civil War. This week's block has a similar look with fewer pieces.

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

A - Cut 1 background square 2-1/2".

B - Cut 1 background square 5-1/4". Cut into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts. You need 2 triangles.

C - Cut 2 background rectangles 2-1/2" x 4-1/2".

D - Cut 1 gold square and 1 background square 4-7/8". Cut each into 2 triangles with a diagonal cut. You need 1 triangle of each.

E - Cut 3 light purple and 2 dark purple and 1 gold squares 2-7/8". Cut each into 2 triangles with a diagonal cut. You need 5 light purple, 3 dark purple and 2 gold triangles.

Hear a version of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" by a chorus on YouTube by clicking here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5mmFPyDK_8

You can compare it to "John Brown's Body" by clicking here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g74t-eNWEro&feature=related

 

Read a bioigraphy of Julia Ward Howe:

Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910 by Laura E. Richards & Maud Howe Elliott. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915. It's online at this University of Pennsylvania website:

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/richards/howe/howe-I.html#VIII 

48 West Virginia

West Virginia by Becky Brown

West Virginia can recall the state created when part of one state seceded from the Confederacy. In 1861 Virginia was  a larger state than it is today. After Virginia joined the Confederacy, many in the mountainous northwestern  part of the Old Dominion believed their interests lay with the Union.

The illustration above highlights differences between Virginia life on either side of the mountains. The captions: "Life in Eastern Virginia: The Home of the Planter" and "Life in Western Virginia: The Home of the Mountaineer."

An illustration  in the New York Herald

showing the proposed state of New Virginia

with the Kanawha River running west of Charleston

Union loyalists met in Wheeling in October, 1861 and proposed a new state of Kanawha named after the river that flows into the Ohio River.  Kanawha was rejected as a name (We Kansans are glad, as a good deal of our mail would have wound up in West Virginia .) Other ideas included Allegheny, Columbia and New Virginia, but the majority of the delegates favored the name of West Virginia.

A sketch of the Wheeling Convention at the Custom House in

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, 1861.

The Custom House remains a West Virginia historical site.

The new state of West Virginia became the 35th star. The flag contained 35 stars for two years between July 4, 1863 and July 4, 1865 when Nevada became the 36th star.

The hills of West Virginia continued to be a battleground between north and south as various armies occupied territory and retreated throughout the war. Sixteen-year-old Serene Bunten wrote about Southern soldiers who came to dinner and tried to persuade her to abandon her Unionist views. The family managed to keep their cow but lost some bedding in that 1864 encounter.

"There was eleven rebels ate supper here last night. There was one Lieut. here and he kept his men straight....That Lieut. tried very hard to make Harry and I rebels but he had to give it up. They camped down at E. G. Burr's last night. Late. There was about six hundred rebels passed here today, they were driving cattle and I just expected they would take ours (cow) but they did not. They took Chet's but the girls got them back. It was a curious body of soldiers, they were dressed in all colors. They robbed the stores and houses all along the road. They took one blanket from us."


 

West Virginia (BlockBase #3798) is a variation of a block published about 1915 by Hearth & Home magazine, given that name when the editors were asking for a block for every state. The complicated design makes an even more complicated design when set side by side.

All very nice---but not at 8". This block this week uses the essential parts---a square that forms a diamond star when set side by side.

This square is BlockBase #2605, which was published in the Ohio Farmer as Star & Square in 1894.

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

A - Cut 4 red and 4 blue rectangles 5-1/4" x 1-7/8". You will cut 4 parallelograms of each color by trimming a 45 degree angle off each end as shown. All the reds go one way and all the blues are reversed.  Remember these are NOT diamonds with four equal sides but are longer on two sides.

B - Cut 1 background square 5-1/4". Cut into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts.

C- Cut 1 background square 4-1/2".

A Quilting Party in Western Virginia, 1854

See Bertha Stenge's  20th century patchwork interpretation of this illustration at the Illinois State Museum.
http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/art/collections/daisy/qparty.html

Read excerpts from Serene Bunten's diary here:

http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh48-1.html

And more about the creation of West Virginia here:

http://www.wvculture.org/history/statehood/statehood01.html