Civil War Crossings can be coordinated with Barbara’s 2008 online Underground Railroad Club from C&T Publishing and her 2007 book about the Civil War entitled Borderland in Butternut and Blue. Samplers from either publication can be kitted in these fabrics.

Stock #KCS 6378

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Barbara Brackman KIT8120

Quilt Size: 68"x78"

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THE ALLIANCE FORAMERICAN QUILTSwww.centerforthequilt.org

The Alliance for American Quilts, a national nonprofit organization founded in 1993 and now headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina supports and develops projects to document, preserve, and share the history and stories of quilts and quiltmakers. The Alliance brings together institutions and individuals from the creative, scholarly and business worlds of quiltmaking to advance the recognition of quilts in American culture.

The Alliance’s four core projects are:The QuilT indexA national online database of quilt images and records bringing together institutional and grass-roots collections. Institutional partner: Michigan State UniversityQuilTers’ s.O.s. – save Our sTOriesGrassroots oral history project preserving the stories of today’s quiltmakers from all over the US and abroad. Archived at the Library of Congress’ American Folklife CenterQuilT TreasuresMulti-media portraits profiling key quilt revival pioneers including quiltmakers, historians, collec-tors, teachers. Institutional partner: Michigan State UniversityBOxes under The Bed

Rescue and recovery efforts to save quilt ephemera, preserving items families and collectors find in boxes of quilts. Institutional partner: the University of Texas at Austin, Center for American History’s, Winedale Center for the Quilt For more information, visit www.centerforthequilt.org or contact Amy Milne, Executive Director, at 828-251-7073 and amy.milne@quiltalliance.org. Mailing address: 125 S. Lexington Avenue, Suite 101, Asheville, NC 28801.

The image on the right is a close-up of a block from the Eula Parris Smith quilt which was completed during

the migration from Tennessee to Texas circa 1900.This quilt is archived on the Quilt Index in

the University of Tennessee collection.This quilt was the inspiration for the Civil War Crossings quilt.

The pattern for the Civil War Crossings quilt will be featured in Quilters Newsletter Magazine.

Kits for the Civil War Crossings Quilt (KIT8120) will include a copy of the magazine.

inspiration

Barbara Brackman

1850-1880

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Civil War Crossings by Barbara Brackman for Civil War Crossings by Barbara Brackman

8127-19 Ivory Kanawha 1860-1884

ivory

8123-14 Buff Suwannee 1850-1881

8128-14 Buff Shenandoah 1860-1880

8121-14 Buff Susquehanna 1860-1883

8125-19 Ivory Cumberland 1840-1874

8121-19 Ivory Susquehanna 1860-1885

8125-14 Buff Cumberland 1840-1873

8124-19 Ivory Tallulah 1850-1883

buff

This reproduction collection from Barbara Brackman echos the time when America’s rivers defined battlefields North and South. Each print is named for a river — the War’s lifelines, barriers and borders. From the Susquehanna near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to the Sabine near the Texas Gulf, the water-ways marked the War’s tragic progress. Colors recreate traditional natural shades---madder, buff and Prussian blue. The prints, drawn from quilts of the time, include a patriotic postwar flag print and a tiny patchwork-like stripe. Stories of the Civil War continue to fascinate quiltmak-ers who will be thrilled to find authentic updates for their reproduction quilts.

Civil War Crossings by Barbara Brackman for Civil War Crossings by Barbara Brackman

8128-18 Double Pink Shenandoah 1860-1882

8127-18 Double Pink Kanawha 1860-1883

8121-11 Madder Red Susquehanna 1860-1880

8127-11 Madder Red Kanawha 1860-1880

8120-18 Double Pink Rapidan 1860-1882

8121-18 Double Pink Susquehanna 1860-1884

8123-11 Madder RedSuwannee 1850-1880

8122-11 Madder Red Potomac 1870-1880

8124-11Madder Red

Tallulah 1850-1880

8126-14Madder Red

Sabine 1850-1882

8125-11Madder Red

Cumberland 1840-1870

8123-18 Double Pink Suwannee 1850-1883

double pink8129-14 Buff Rappahannock 1850-1881

Fabric reduced to show detail.

madder redMadder shades range from dark chocolate brown

through reddish and pinkish browns, brick reds and oranges to pale salmon.

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Designing Reproduction Fabrics

Civil War Crossings by Barbara Brackman for Civil War Crossings by Barbara Brackman

8121-12 Prussian Blue Susquehanna 1860-1881

8120-12 Prussian Blue Rapidan 1860-1880

8122-12 Prussian BluePotomac 1870-1881

8125-12 Prussian Blue Cumberland 1840-1871

The designer has to keep two major factors in mind when reproducing accurate fabrics. One is finding an authentic print; the other reproducing the colors of natural dyes.

Because print styles changed with fashions and technology, the designer needs a large file of fab-

ric with different images and sets. Designers call these old fabrics “document prints”. For Civil War Crossings I was thinking of the decades from about 1860 to1880 when popular styles included foulard prints (regularly repeated small figures that often form a diagonal grid), paisleys (India-inspired designs), patriotic themes and striped sets. I find my document prints by collecting old blocks, fabrics and quilt tops. Several friends contributed to this line. Katy Christopherson gave me a block with the patriotic flag print, probably from the mid-1870s when the Centennial exhibition celebrated national unity. Collector extraordinaire Arnold Savage gave me the large paisley stripe. I am always looking for prints that are not only authentic but marketable. For example, some foulard prints that were so popular during the Civil War for

women’s clothing can look too spotty to appeal to today’s quilters. A fabric perfect for a hoop-skirted dress might be hard to incorporate into harmoni-ous patchwork. I balanced the Civil War Crossings collection with a few stripes, a few gridded repeats and a few of the all-over repeat that designers call “tossed”.

Accurate coloring requires a compromise between what was available 150 years ago and what is pos-sible today. Nineteenth-century mills using natural dyes for cotton prints were limited in the colors they could obtain as well as in the color combinations possible. Today’s synthetic dyes can give us any color in any combination---a true luxury. But sometimes it’s difficult to obtain the old look. For example, the

8126-12 Prussian Blue Sabine 1850-1880

Designing Reproduction Fabrics

Barbara Brackman

Civil War Crossings by Barbara Brackman for Civil War Crossings by Barbara Brackman

8124-12 Prussian Blue Tallulah 1850-1881

8127-12 Prussian Blue Kanawha 1860-1881

8128-15Prussian Blue Shenandoah 1860-1881

8125-22 Dark Blue Cumberland 1840-1875

Prussian blue

unusual yellow-green we love in old applique quilts was produced by over dyeing blue and yellow, a two-step process that produces a vibrancy hard to capture with synthetic dyes. Then time added another step to the process. The old fabrics faded with light, washings and decades of wear resulting in a variety of quirky greens which are just about impossible to replicate.

But we are able to copy many of the authentic colors. Civil War Crossings captures well the

warm browns popular in the mid-nineteenth century, colors known as Madder Style because they were dyed with the root of the madder plant. Madder shades range from dark chocolate brown through reddish and pinkish browns, brick reds and oranges to pale salmon. Madder dyes also produced a clear pink in a style that dyers called Double Pink because they usually printed two different shades of pink on a white ground. Civil War Crossings offers several copies of the classic fashionable for quilts and little girl’s clothing throughout the century.

Mid-century blues came primarily from indigo or Prussian blue dye, both of which give a

range from sky blue to the dark blue of a Union sol-dier’s uniform. Prussian blue was often printed with a neutral tan shade called buff. The buff and blue color combination was in vogue for clothing and decorating from about 1840 to 1865. Civil War reproductions are popular not only because of their link to the war, but also because the mid-nineteenth century was a time of clever design, harmonious colors and technological innovations that produced cotton fabrics with classic appeal.

8129-15 Prussian Blue Rappahannock 1850-1881

Double pinks and quilts of the last century,look for Barbara’s new bookMaking History: Quilts and Fabric from 1890 to 1970 from C&T Publishing. (Stock #10569)

To read more about

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Civil War Crossings by Barbara Brackman for

8120-13 Chocolate Brown Rapidan 1860-1881

8122-13 Chocolate Brown Potomac 1870-1882

8124-13 Chocolate Brown Tallulah 1850-1882

8127-13 Chocolate Brown Kanawha 1860-1882

Delivery: September, 2008 Asst. 8120-10 10 Yards of Each-Prints Asst. 8120-15 15 Yards of Each-Prints Asst. KIT8120 15 Yards of Each-Prints 8120AB Bundle: 40 Skus 8120JR Jellyroll – (40)2½"x45" Strips – Pk 4 8120LC Layer Cake – (40)10"x10" Squares – Pk 4 8120PP 5"x5" Squares – Pk 25KIT8120 –Kit includes fabric, pattern & bindingSkus: 40 PrintsContent: 100% Cotton

chocolate brown

8129-13 Chocolate Brown Rappahannock 1850-1881

8126-13 Chocolate Brown Sabine 1850-1881

8121-13 Chocolate Brown Susquehanna 1860-1882

8123-16 Rust Suwannee 1850-1882

8125-13 Chocolate Brown Cumberland 1840-1872

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