The design I had settled on for setting the top required 60 setting blocks. Phew, what was I thinking? But over the weekend I got the last of them done (not quite, as they still need trimming up but the sewing is done) and thought that showed good progress.
So here we have the piles to date. The 53 weekly blocks on the right and the 60 setting blocks on the left. There will still be more setting blocks needed for the outer border but I hesitate to count how many I need in case all progress stops!
Propped behind the blocks is an envelope that has four fabric blocks with pictures of Civil War Generals on them. The plan is to stitch them into four blocks that will go on the outer corners.
I began to lay everything out on the floor and pretty soon made the discovery that I am going to have to move furniture around because I need a really big clear floorspace to lay this out. It is 11 blocks in each direction and the blocks are 8" finished.
Now you might notice there are four empty spaces in the center area. That is where I need four more filler blocks. I have this fabric that has various CW pictures on it. There are a couple showing young soldiers and I thought I might use them as centers in a block; I found a block called army star so that would work.
The dilemma is that since the fabric is printed in sepia and it is not very detailed I can't figure out which soldier belonged to which army. Would you be able to help me with that? If I can I would make a blue block and a grey block but I don't want to have the wrong soldier in the grey block and visa versa.
Here's soldier X above and soldier Y below. Who's who do you think?
I'll look forward to your help with my question. In the meantime I'm still trying to work out some of the glitches with my blog layout here since blogger updated itself. Sometimes there are gaps where I don't really intend them to be. Oh well.
11 comments:
I cannot give you any logical reasons why I think so, but I'm saying the top pic is confederate (very young and genteel looking) and the bottom one is union (more savvy look to his face). My husband, at first, said they were both confederates, but when I asked him why, he changed and said the bottom was confederate. We both admit that since there is no color, it is hard to tell.
Correction: husband says bottom one is UNION.
I have no idea which is which, being from NZ originally :) maybe try Googling - American civil war soldiers images and you might be able to compare images.
The CW quilt is rather a large one, yours is going to be a beauty once you have it finished, looking forward to seeing the end result.
Hey Pip, great to hear from you. I'm also a Kiwi which might explain my dilemma about which is which.I don't want to make the wrong choice here and upset my Virginia neighbors. Sherrye, that is my thinking too - soldier X was a Confederate and soldier Y was a Union fellow. I did google images and that left me even more inconclusive.
I found the photo of the young man in the first portrait - he is Georgia Private Edwin Jennison, among those killed at Malvern HIll. (July, 1862) His face has been altered - hard to know why. The original photo I am looking at is definitely the same pose as seen printed on mage 150 of Bruce Catton's The American Heritage New History of the Civil War copyright 1996. I'll keep looking.
I found only two photos in my search where the uniform had horizontal trim on the buttons, and those were on Confederate Officers' and differed from this one's. Someone who is an expert in Civil War soldiers might make a better guess about your second photo based on the guns he's holding - or even the way he's posed with them.
Oh this quilt is beautiful! That setting you have chosen is ideal, but I hate to think how long it must have taken to add that narrow blue line to the quarter square triangle setting blocks. It is so effective, I really like it. As to the identity of the soldiers, I'm afraid this Canadian will be no help!
keep at I'm anxious to see the whole!
The first illustration I've found of button trim as for the Soldier Y -
Confederate Uniforms - so I looked for the 11th Mississippi and found this link: 11th Mississippi History. I hope my links work.
Wow, Cheryl, I'm impressed with your research! I think you have nailed it closer than the rest of us!! WTG.
I love your setting Dorry! I wouldn't have a clue about the soldiers except to assume the quality of the uniforms would have been better from the 'wealthy' north with their high fa-luting factories and....can you tell I am a southern girl who doesn't like to speak of the Northern Aggression...
Back to the quilt...I think any of these wonderful photos would be appropriate on your quilt. It will speak of the block names without you saying a word. Well done!
The NYTimes blog about 1862 has the photo of Soldier X - same name, same fate, but a different unit than he was identified with in the Catton book. NYTimes Opinionator photo
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