Civil War Quilt

One of our recent custom quilt projects was designed to showcase a beautiful piece of Civil War era fabric owned by our client. It was a 20" X 25" piece of tan and red print cotton, which had previously done duty as part of a quilt backing. Our client wanted to give the lovely antique fabric a new life and purpose and we were very happy to help her do that.

We added a 5" unbleached organic cotton muslin border to frame the tan and red. We backed it with organic cotton flannel, and bound the edges with more muslin. The original quilting lines were still visible and some of the thread was still attached. We wanted to leave these undisturbed of course, and at first hoped we could machine quilt diagonally alongside the original quilt lines, but they proved too wonky to follow.

Instead, we quilted a cross-hatched pattern through the antique fabric and stitched concentric rectangles around the border to emphasize the framing effect. We think it turned out quite nicely and that the pretty fabric's rise from its humble role of quilt backing to star-of-the-show on this quilt top is well deserved.

Coincidentally, we got to make this quilt at the same time our book club tackled Gone With the Wind—what a great read!