Quilting the Civil War: Part 2

how my mind works and my hands follow

Jul 15, 2024

The Civil War series began with Clara Barton (See Part 1). The size of the Clara Barton quilt (20” x 30”) was determined by the vintage fabric I wanted to use as the background. Moving forward, I thought a series of 20 x 30” quilts would be lovely so I began the second quilt, made to honor Civil War photographers, Matthew Brady in particular.

Brady is known as one of the earliest and most famous photographers in American history, an honor given for photographing the Civil War and many notable Americans. Just recently, I discovered that he took very few of these photos, as his eyesight was failing by the time the Civil War started. He delegated the photography to his assistants, including Alexander Gardner, who later quit because Brady never gave him, or any other assistant photographer, credit. When I found that out I was quite mad at Brady and happy that my original had plan included Gardner in the quilt.

Gardner with his mobile carriage studio, photography tent on location, 5 gem (1”x1.25”) tintypes of women (typically carried into battle by soldiers) from my collection attached to Matthew Brady’s image (top).

I spent many hours choosing soldier photographs to use for the grid. I knew I wanted 50% Union and 50% Confederate soldiers. Each digital photo of an original tintype was downloaded from the Library of Congress, resized, and edited. It took a lot more time than I thought it would. When I determined the scale for the 20”x 30” soldier montage background, I realized I would have to fill it with duplicates of a grid of 36 soldiers rather than fill all 195 squares with individual images. The final flourishes were added - larger images of five Civil War soldiers (yes, a drummer boy), a few with added color, in replica frames you would see inside a tintype case; and five original gem tintypes.

Once this quilt was complete I knew there would be many more to follow, so I did something to complicate my life - I sent photographs to my publisher and proposed a book of Civil War quilts. They said no, it’s too narrow a focus, but yes to a book on making Photo Memory Quilts. You can guess what happened. I had to set the Civil War series aside to write the book and make 6 other quilts for it plus many samples. My objective, as always, was to share all of the how-tos so that others could make a contemporary memory quilt using today’s technology. I’d written 9 books, another should be a breeze, right? (It was.)

I was three quilts into the series when I was asked to submit a solo exhibit proposal to the Virginia Quilt Museum. Mind you, this all happened during Covid lockdown, so I said sure, I’ve got plenty of time. As it turned out, I had to delay it a year for health reasons. Thankfully my body always alerts me when I’m doing too much. As a late-blooming artist, I’m always trying and desiring to cram a lifetime of ideas and work into my dwindling remaining years.

Quilt 3: William Headley, an escaped NC slave and Union contraband

With the book complete and the exhibit date extended to October 2023, I had the time to take my vision further. I realized that the stories I was telling needed more impact, which meant larger quilts. I have always worked relatively small due to space limitations but it was time to go big or go home. I purchased some 4x8-foot foam core for design walls and set to work. William Headley began with a 30”x39” piece of hand-painted lightweight canvas and ended with a lot of the hand-stitched tall grasses he ran through.

Elizabeth Keckley: Mrs. Lincoln's dressmaker (34” x 54”)

Susie King Taylor: teacher, nurse, founder of Women’s Relief Corps (44” x 58”)

Two of the largest were Elizabeth Keckley and Susie King Taylor, a quilt so large I decided to have it professionally longarm quilted, otherwise, it would take me forever and I knew it was beyond my skill level. For the final quilt, I returned to the small, 9”x 12” mini-collage quilts I love making, mounting them on a large background quilt to form one quilt, one story. Nightingales: Civil War Nurses honors 25 volunteer nurses, identified when possible, each embellished with a hand-stitched collage as my way of saying “Thank You”.

The Nightingales: Civil War Nurses 57”x67”

Recently, I was invited to exhibit The Nightingales at the Northern Shenandoah Valley Quilt Show in Berryville, VA, which led to being asked to exhibit it in the Schoolhouse Quilters Guild Show in Cumberland, MD. That was my first time entering a judged show and I was surprised to win First Place in the Creative Art category. As I write this, I just received notice that the quilt is a semi-finalist in the judged AQS (American Quilter’s Society) Lancaster (PA) Show in September. I decided to enter because Lancaster is near Gettysburg, PA and my philosophy now is “you never know who might see it.” I want these quilted Civil War stories seen and remembered. I am a teacher at heart.

The 16 quilts in the series were made based on the availability of information, images, and imagination needed to tell the story, and in the order in which my vision and design came together. The first step in my process is photo selection and editing, followed by the decision to colorize or not. Color, or the lack of it, is an integral part of the storytelling and composition.

Composition follows. It’s the most enjoyable part for me. It’s where size, scale, positive and negative space, and all the other elements and principles come into play. It is play for me, a game and a puzzle to solve. What do I want to draw attention to? Composition leads to size. How big should the focal point (the photos) be? I used Spoonflower to print the big ones.

Fabric selection is my favorite part. Don’t tell composition, OK? Once all of that is done, the work begins. There were a few times I regretted some of my decisions because the design required me to use skills I didn’t have or hadn’t mastered (curves). Some fabrics were difficult to work with. My passion for the project got me through the hard parts. The only time I was ready to give up was when I was basting the monster background plaid quilt for The Nightingales. I tried every.single.method, shed many tears undoing them all, and finally found success with the Original QuilTak basting gun.

The other quilts in the series (to date) are:
Elizabeth Thorn (See at the Over 70 exhibit, Delaplaine Arts Center, 7/20/2024 - 9/1/2024)
Frances Clayton aka Jack Williams
Schoolchildren at St John’s Church (Richmond, VA)
Telegraph Operator
Helen Gilson
Annie Etheridge
Future Widow
Civil War Nuns
Walt Whitman
Louisa May Alcott (almost finished!)

I still have a long list of Civil War civilian stories to tell and quilts to make. I am working on more exhibit proposals and opportunities. The experience was educational and rewarding. I learned a lot about myself, my strengths, and my weaknesses. My biggest takeaway was the confidence I gained - discovering that I really do know what I am doing and that I do have the skills to do it. What matters to me most is having a means to dialogue with people, organizations and history and the joy it brings to recognize and celebrate the importance and existence of these remarkable Civil War citizens. They don’t look like your typical quilt, and that’s a good thing. It is art made with cloth and thread.

I hope you have enjoyed this closer look at an artist’s experience. Let me know if you have any questions. Please join me next week for my Ireland cyanotype workshop recap, and all the wisdom, words, and wonder I’ll share in the weeks ahead. Thank you for reading.

Further to Fly

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