Finally, I have completed block number two for my War & Pieces quilt. I started it two days ago and appliquéd the shield and bias strips down with the sewing machine. I then hand appliquéd the rest and decided I liked how it looked with the machine stitches so I went back over the rest after I had completed it by hand. What a bone head I am sometimes. Have no clue why I did it, but I did. I am happy and ready to move on to block number three.
Here is a little history behind this block. It represents the Pre-War hope for conciliation, inspired by both a poem and a quilt. The poem was Lucy Larcom’s “Call to Kansas,” written in 1855 to inspire Northerners to immigrate to the Kansas Territory to vote for a Free rather than a Slave State. She invited women to accompany their voting men and to “sing upon the Kansas plains a song of Liberty.
The quilt was a samplar dated 1859, two years before the War. One block featured a Union Shield blooming with flowers, which the designers of this quilt adapted to become the Northern Lily and the Southern Rose. The blooms sprouting from the shield can symbolize futile hopes of compromise between Northern and Southern interests. Or this block can be a symbol of Post-War reconciliation when Union would once again encompass North and South.
So, that is your Civil War history lesson for the day. No worries you will not be tested. Here is my block:
Have a great evening!
Jennifer
2 comments:
this block is gorgeous. I want to see the other ones. Where did you get the pattern from?
Thanks Amy. I searched a very long time for this pattern because it was a very old pattern (1999) from Sunflower Pattern Co-Op, but then Homestead Hearth had it as a BOM in 2008 so I lucked out.
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