Dixie Diary

Dozens of Civil War diaries have been published by women North and South over the past 150 years or so. Among my favorites is Sarah Morgan's, which was first published in 1913 as A Confederate Girl's Diary. Her personal account of living on the run in Louisiana is considered one of the great American diaries, telling the story of a girl's coming of age in extraordinary circumstances. Sarah's independent personality comes through in the vivid descriptions of her survival through shelling, starvation and grief.

For my newest reproduction collection for Moda, Civil War Homefront, I've designed a block-of- the-month sampler based on Sarah's dairy. Dixie Diary features simple pieced and appliqued quilt blocks loosely inspired by an actual Civil War commemorative sampler.

The quiltmakers appliqued hearts, stars and simple shapes over basic pieced blocks, an unusual idea and one that appeals to beginning quilters and those who love the primitive look of simple graphics. The hearts and stars define the sentiment in patterns named for Sarah Morgan's words: "Her Flag Flying", "Tokens Of Roses" and "Living Off Cornbread".

Block #3 "Shouting Yankee Doodle" below

Civil War Homefront fabric should be in the stores at the end of November. The patterns for the Dixie Diary sampler are available only from quilt shops, so ask at your local store. Shops who plan to kit it up include The Stitchery in Delavan, Wisconsin and A Quilt of Many Colors in Leo, Indiana, where Sandi did the sample in the photos. Click here for location information:
A Quilt of Many Colors.

For an online source see The Fabric Buffet. Click here to view their page devoted to the project:
Fabric Buffet.

Click on the picture below to see a larger version. To see the inspiration quilt in the collection of the Museum of the Daughters of the American Revolution click here:

http://www.quiltindex.org/basicdisplay.php?pbd=DARMuseum-a0a0z6-a

Margaret Dodge and her New York friends made a Civil War commemorative quilt using the clever idea of simple shapes appliqued atop pieced blocks.