About this item:

128 Pages, Full Color.
Review by Seaside Wanderer, Portland, OR:
Quilts from the Civil War not only contains project for reproducing
numerous quilts of the 1850s and 1860s, it also contains an excellent
discussion of the role quilts played in people's lives. Barbara
Brackman describes quilts made for freedom fairs, by the Sanitary
Commission for use by soldiers, and quilts made to express patriotic
fervor. Brackman goes beyond a mere discussion of quilts, however, to
discuss the development of chemical dyes, women's involvement in the
war effort in general, the effect of the blockade on southern textile
production, the need to hide quilts from occupying Yankee forces, and
even the relationships that developed between quiltmakers and soldiers
who received the donated quilt.

Brackman
also examines the argument that quilts were used as clues for slaves
escaping on the Underground Railroad, and concludes that these tales
likely were a myth. (Nevertheless, she includes a Jacob's Ladder-style
quilt that honors the Underground Railroad.) In evaluating this theory,
she discusses the history of the Log Cabin quilt.

Period
photographs of women and children, engravings of Sanitary Fairs and
other gatherings, photographs of original and reproduction quilts and
original dresses beautifully illustrate this book. Excerpts from
journals, letters and newspaper articles and reprints of ads calling
for the production of items for soldiers add further interest.

Brackman
provides a unique timeline that combines both traditional historic
events, such as "March 4, 1864 - Grant becomes Commander-in-Chief of
the Union Army" with social or women's history, such as "August 1864 -
Ladies Christian Commission of San Francisco sponsors a Grand Fair" and
"October 5, 1864 - Mary Jones of Georgia records paying $16 a yard for
calico."

Footnotes provide directions for those interested in further research.

One
drawback is that the projects contained in the book do not faithfully
reproduce the historic quilts. Some are fairly easy to adapt to make
more authentic, such as the Underground Railroad quilt, which adds
8-pointed stars to a Four Patch in a Strip pattern. Since the book
contains a picture of the original, a quiltmaker can easily see that by
leaving off the stars, she can make a quilt that's closer to the
original. Other patterns will take a little more ingenuity to adapt,
but again, pictures of the originals should help.

Those mostly
interested in southern quilts would probably do better with "Southern
Quils: Surviving Relics of the Civil War." Brackman concludes that few
quilts were produced in the Confederacy due to blockade-caused
shortages of fabric, needles, thread and other necessities.

For
those interested in trying some of the projects contained in the book,
the directions are clear and easy to follow. Brackman provides strip
quilting directions for some of the quilts (such as the Underground
Railroad) but not for others where this technique could speed
production (such as the Log Fence). The appendix contains excellent
information on batting, quilting styles, binding and other details to
give quilts a more period look.

Overall, despite projects that
are more inspired by historic quilts than faithful reproductions,
"Quilts from the Civil War" is an excellent source of information about
textile production during the 1850s and 1860s.