Cotton Bolls, Quilts and a Little History!

The cotton boll is really something of beauty.  My 2 year old grandson went to the field in front of the house and picked some.  He loved looking at and feeling it.  Really who doesn't love feeling it?  Do you live in an area where cotton grows?  If not I hope one day you get to see some growing in the fields.  At just the right time it's as if the fields are full of scattered fluffy snow.  Today we are talking cotton, the cotton boll itself in patterns, cotton fabric, a little quilting history among other things.....

I was looking for an old cotton boll applique pattern online and found some very interesting patterns/articles.  This first Free pattern comes from Civil War Quilts

Free Quilt Pattern and Instructions HERE

This Blog has numerous Free Quilt Patterns along with some history.

The Cotton Boll Block Remembers Dolly Lunt Gurge (1817-1891) and the slaves that made it possible.

 Documenting The American South 

This book in Kindle is FREE at this moment!  Click HERE Amazon.. 

Dolly Lunt's diary was first published in 1918 as A Woman's Wartime Journal: an Account of the Passage over Georgia's Plantation of Sherman's Army on the March to the Sea, as Recorded in the Diary of Dolly Sumner Lunt (Mrs. Thomas Burge). There is a recent edition pictured at the top, edited by Christine Jacobson Carter.

Read the 1918 publication at the Documenting the American South website: HERE

 *this photo is shown because it is historical nothing more*

 

Charleston, South Carolina

"We owe them all a great big thanks for the very clothing we wear along with everything we use made from cotton! History, even though we may not agree with all that happened, is a part of why we have the present that we have. I wonder what we would be sewing with if it weren't for my personal favorite fabric Cotton?" dolly of dolly's designs

Another tidbit:

Cotton was the basis of the Southern economy and the basis of North/South trade. Raw cotton went North to be processed into printed calicoes. With wartime trading stopped, cotton prices escalated and cotton fabrics became impossible to find, particularly in the Confederacy.source

 Cotton Boll, Chestnut Bud, Pineapple.....Quilts of Tennessee source

The Quilt Index 1876-1900

C. 1875 made in Tennessee (USA)

Another View

"Look at the detail and hand quilting"

The Frequent Flyer Cotton Boll Quilt

The Frequent Flyer Cotton Boll Applique Pattern picture source 

I just thought this was a stunning quilt and wanted to share.

 "This quilt pattern below might have been the inspiration for the quilt in the photograph above...what do you think?

Pieces of History

Quilt Patterns from the North Carolina Museum of History

Cotton Boll ca. 1851-1860 from collection of North Carolina Museum of History source

There is a book with twenty-five Full Sized Patterns with History...

Pieces of History combines the knowledge of the North Carolina History Museum curators with the skill of noted quilting expert Jane Hall, presenting the known history and full-sized patterns of twenty-five mostly 19th century quilts selected from the museum’s extensive collections. source

"Pieces of History is absolutely wonderful --- The style is so rich in character.  I love the way it is bound and presented ... an excellent teaching tool."   Georgia Bonesteel, host of PBS’s “Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel.”

Check out Georgia's Website Now..HERE"

"That last quote was from one of my favorite quilters Georgia Bonesteel with her Lap Quilting.  I so enjoyed her PBS Series and have several of her books. I treasure them.  Many years ago I made her Cotton Boll Quilted Pattern in Pillows for gifts.  MY personal Favorite Cotton Boll Pattern.  I think since I found those books the other day I will be working on some of them! The pattern is found in New Ideas for Lap Quilting by Georgia of course."

"Also who knew of this hand bound book above "Pieces of History"?  Not me but I do now!!!  

I'll be in the craft room creating.  What are you working on?