Hi edie here I did 2 small quilts for my grandson from the Civil War Letters, they turn out great I gave them to my grandsons when they were home on leave.Most of them are 6" paper piced blocks. good luck

A nice simple, but old, pattern is the Log Cabin. I'm sure it was around in CW days. It would be a great scrappy quilt and all you would have to do is cut those fat eighths down some and you'd be ready to go. You can make logs as big or small as you like, and they go very fast too. I love CW fabrics, I made a CW quilt for my husband with names of his relatives on the blocks. It will serve as a family history of sorts.

1 1/2" cuts look great. Not to small to work with and not so large as to look funny. Just remember to ALWAYS turn your blocks the same way as you're making them. If you start by turning them clockwise, keep going the same direction on all of them that what they'll all have their corners the same.

My Aunt made a quilt using civil war fabrics. She used 9 inch square in a square and 9 patch alternating blocks. I don't know if those were around then but it was one beautiful quilt.

Here's a book on Civil War Quilts that I found:

http://www.amazon.com/Quilts-Civil-W.../dp/1571200339

Hope this helps!! :D

It's funny that you should post this now. I too was all hopped up to do a DJ quilt. Started collecting fat quarters and some half yard cuts. I don't have quite as much as you but still have a good amount. I didn't buy my sashing and background fabric yet though. Phew! Anyways, after looking over the DJ quilt several times, I started losing interest. I noticed a LOT of the blocks were applique, and due to their size would have to be done through needle turn. I like working with my machine and really have no desire to do a bunch by hand. So needless to say, I lost interest in Jane rather quickly.

Like you I now have a bunch of Civil War reproduction fabric that needs a project to go with it. Last night I was looking at the book The Civil War Quilt Diary. It has stories and letters that go along with the 121 blocks in the book. Most look like they are pieced which appeals to me much more. There's another book, The Civil War Love Letter Quilt, that also has 121 different blocks and contains love letters sent during the Civil War. I think a lot of those blocks are paper pieced though so I probably wouldn't want that book. I very well may get the first book though. I searched all evening through lots of patterns but none really appealed to me. I'm pretty certain I want to do a sampler of some sort. Just haven't found the perfect one. :)

Good luck with deciding what you'll do with your fabrics!

Look into a book called Nickel Quilts and another called More Nickel quilts - lots of designs in there that will lend themselves to repro fabrics. No paper piecing.
You could always do a sampler quilt.

One of my grandmother's quilts was a nine-page set on point with the nine-patch squares the size of postage stamps. That was the entire quilt, and it was quite striking. You can use the colors in your fabric to make a color design. It's one of my favorite quilts. A lot of work, but worth it. If you want to see it, do a search on this board for "quilts my grandmother made." It's the first one pictured.

A friend of mine just came back from the big Quilt Show in Lancaster, PA. BonnieBlue Quilts was there. She said it was by far the best booth in the whole show and she told her so! I went on line, and guess what! I zeroed in on this exact quilt!

hi edie here I did the CIVIL WAR LOVE LETTERS, they are paper piece, but the letters are so great to read. We did them as a BOM and did 2 a month. We just picked out some of our favourite
letters and did the blocks lot of fun.