Family Civil War Wall Hanging

In this sesquicentennial year of the beginning of the Civil War, I have commemorated it by participating in Barbara Brackman’s block-of-the-week series (see my efforts under CATEGORIES – CIVIL WAR QUILT on the right hand side of the page), and making a wall hanging for my youngest daughter that incorporated pictures of her family taken in Civil War costume in Gettysburg.

My latest project is a wall hanging made up of pictures of my ancestors who were alive during the Civil War.  To fill out the hanging, I added current family pictures taken in Gettysburg plus one that was taken of me in 1952 during Portsmouth, Virginia’s Bicentennial. These pictures were scanned and then printed on inkjet printable fabric.

I wanted to use some Barbara Brackman reproduction fabric I had received for Mother’s Day and included some solid pieces to make up the  blocks.

From my Electric Quilt 6 software, I chose a Sawtooth Star pattern in an 8-inch finished size.  The printed pictures formed the center of the star.

I machine stitched a feather-stitch as quilting around the blocks and through the centers of the triangles.

I decided to make the piece without a border and with white binding to draw more attention to the old photographs.

I made a label for the back with the pertinent information for each ancestor and the current family.

Paternal Great-Great Grandparents

Three Pictures of Maternal Great Uncle

Maternal Great-Grandmother

Maternal Great-Aunt

Paternal Great-Grandfather

Lillian – 1952 – Portsmouth, VA Bicentennial

Youngest Daughter and Son-in-Law, Gettysburg

Youngest Grandchildren – Gettysburg

Oldest Daughter – Gettysburg

I like the idea of having the ancestors who endured the Civil War join with our present-day family in commemorating the Sesquicentennial.