Originally Posted by lue
It's beautiful. I see "Civil War" quilts on the board sometimes and wonder what makes a quilt a Civil War Tribute and is the tribute to the war in general or does the quilt take sides?? LOL These really are serious questions so I'll wait for an answer.
What makes a quilt a Civil war quilt is that the fabrics used are supposed to be reproductions of fabrics used in that era. I believe the blocks used should also be one known to have existed in that period. The reason so many Civil War tribute quilts are going on right now is to commerate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War which started in 1861.
Very few quilts survived from the period, the most famous being the Jane Stickle quilt (Dear Jane). Shamefully I live only a few miles from Bennington Museum where the quilt is displayed every fall and I have yet to go see it. I wanted to try and stay somewhat "period" with the quilting motifs I used but that was no easy task as no images were available on the internet. Even googling mid 19th century graphics, architectural elements etc didn't give me to much fodder. However this period was also the Victorian era and elaborate designs using elements of nature were most definitely in vogue. Feathers, sea shells, leaves all ornately stylized were popular motifs used to decorate buildings, picture frames, furniture even wrought iron. I am very fortunate that I have a civil war era tin daguerreotype mounted in a leather case that is very ornately decorated with embossing. Even though it is only about 3" x 5" I was able to get a good feel for what would be "period" embellishment so I used a bit of artistic license and am going heavy on the Victorian style feathers and stencils that seem to have that flavor to them.
I am using Isocord thread on the top in a cream color and bottom line in the bobbin.