Civil War Reproduction Quilt Directions for Machine Piecers/ and Home of the Brave Quilts
For step-by-step directions to make your own Civil War reproduction quilt, please see our reinstated file at Quilter’s Muse Publications that has more photos of possible color combinations. In the hope that the wars overseas would be ending pronto, I had removed the original file that contained these directions that I had personally written and that have been used by the Home of the Brave project and state coordinators ever since that program’s inception.
The quilt is old. The directions are new. Some folks (state coordinators) chose to make their own examples in their own color choices to show on their website. I have not checked lately but many of these quilts have been made for the families of fallen soldiers. Donald Beld, a friend, quilt historian and hand-piecer/quilter, who lives in California, initiated the Home of the Brave program.
To get the ball rolling, I wrote an article that was published in The Quilter magazine. Both Jim and I sincerely hope that the quilts that volunteers have made for this charity project will be appreciated, for truly, they are gifts from the heart, just as our directions and publicity (and quilt blocks) have been.
Don has located six “Sanitary Commission” quilts, made by northern ladies for the soldiers in the field. One can only imagine how many quilts of this type were used in the battlefield to cover the wounded and dead. The surviving ones are located in various places, one or two in private ownership. He may have found a seventh quilt, and is still looking into that possibility.
Isn’t it amazing that even today we are still recovering information from centuries past, seemingly, at the speed of lightening? Of course, any findings about old quilts are especially exciting to me! I hope you enjoy the revised file!
Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications
