This idea has been stuck in my head for awhile, ever since I heard about how quilts were used to communicate to runaway slaves on the Und...
Here's my North Star block which is the penultimate block in this project, the final block being a story to tie all the Underground Railroad quilt together. North Star... And my story block...This came with mini photos of blocks in place but I replaced them with photos of my own blocks I've made to tie everything together. I've really enjoyed this project with my online quilting friends and have acquired some fabric for the back of the quilt which will be perfect so watch this space....but not too closely as I need some time to complete this quilt, and this is a keeper quilt so it's all mine..... Lammy with Love X
The lsquo;Underground Railroadrsquo; was a network of anti-slavery supporters in the USA and Canada, who operated safe houses for African-American slaves. It was in operation from the beginning of the nineteenth century and was at its peak of activity between 1859 and 1860. While there is no documentary evidence, in the popular American imagination quilts were used to identify safe houses on the Underground Railroad.
As promised, here are some pictures of the other Underground Railroad quilt I made using the 12" blocks from Eleanor Burns book, "Underground Railroad". Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures, but it was a little big for my design wall and is quite close to the fluorescent light at the ceiling. That seems to throw the colours off a bit and it's not hanging straight either! At least you get the idea! We had a huge pile of snow today, so I can't go outside and take a picture :-). Hopefully, someday I can get a better picture and I will add it to this post then. This quilt was done as a group project with 6 ladies that I met while living in Ancaster when DH went back to University to get his BEd degree. We lived in an apartment and came home on weekends occasionally where our son was 'holding the fort' :-). I worked at the Quilt Rack in Ancaster for those two years and met a lot of wonderful quilters. Getting together to sew in the evenings was great while DH was studying and attending classes. Each of us chose two blocks and made 6 identical ones. I did the basket block and the flying geese block. We sewed the log cabin blocks together one evening and each person did their own label block. I didn't have quite enough of the border fabric so had to get creative with the corners. I ended up having to piece the last 1 1/2" tan strip as I was running out of fabric! I put a solid blue strip in the center of each border and just managed. There are many fond memories in this quilt! I love this block! In a moment of insanity, I thought it would cool to handquilt a cable in the sashings! It took quite awhile to do this, but I really like it. But, now I really should handquilt the border too! I may quilt some feathers in the outside border. One of the blocks that I sewed: The label was copied onto fabric at a copy shop using the same process as printing on a Tshirt. I added leftover bits from my mini Underground Railroad quilt to make the block 12". Picture is a bit crooked, but here you can see the corner block. The colours are much more accurate on this picture.
Welcome to month 12 of the Underground Railroad BOM. The last block in the quilt is the basket block. As you know, I have based this BOM on the book Hidden in Plain View – which is an account from Ms. Ozella McDaniel Williams in which she explains the story that was handed down from...
Here's my North Star block which is the penultimate block in this project, the final block being a story to tie all the Underground Railroad quilt together. North Star... And my story block...This came with mini photos of blocks in place but I replaced them with photos of my own blocks I've made to tie everything together. I've really enjoyed this project with my online quilting friends and have acquired some fabric for the back of the quilt which will be perfect so watch this space....but not too closely as I need some time to complete this quilt, and this is a keeper quilt so it's all mine..... Lammy with Love X
By Madison Petrella This week we’re taking a look at “Freedom quilts.” Quilts were often created to send a message, each uniquely embroidered to tell a story. Before and during the Civil War, peopl…
a quilt representing symbols from the underground railroad
Welcome to Month 5 of the Underground Railroad Block of the Month. Month 5 is the Log Cabin block. Once the slaves reached the crossroads they dug a log cabin on the ground. The log cabin was the fifth block in the code that the slaves would look for on their journey. In the book, Hidden...
This idea has been stuck in my head for awhile, ever since I heard about how quilts were used to communicate to runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. Their patterns and blocks were a code, providing direction, signifying safety, and issuing warnings (according to some historians). Before my son and I played the game I made, we read the perfect book to pair with this activity - The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom by Bettye Stroud. Having already read a biography on Harriet Tubman, my son had a basic foundation of knowledge on the Underground Railroad. Stroud's book filled in the rest - explaining how quilt blocks held messages for Hannah and her father on their journey from a Georgia plantation to freedom in Canada. What You Need to Play the Game PDF of the 3-page game board and 7 pages of playing cards Cardstock to print the 10-page PDF on Tape to piece the game board together Pictures of slaves who found freedom on the Railroad (I printed images of Henry Bibb, Frederick Douglass, Josiah Henson, and Harriet Tubman on cardstock and laminated)* Medium-sized binder clips Paper cutter to cut the game cards Prep Cut the pictures so that when they are inserted into a binder clip, the faces are visible. These are your game pieces. If necessary trim the white border (this depends on how your printer prints full-bleed pages) on your game board pages so that the map image butts up against each other. Affix the pages with tape on the back. Cut the game cards apart and shuffle. The Objective Be the first to move your game piece along to Cleveland, OH (the Underground Railroad station nicknamed "Hope"). How to Play Each player picks their game piece and places it on the start star. Everyone should be dealt three cards, which they turn over on the table to look at. (Secrecy is not important.) Before a player can move to the first space on the game board and leave the plantation to begin their journey on the Underground Railroad, they must play the Monkey Wrench card. If it is not in their hand, they draw and discard either the card drawn or another card in their hand. Play continues this way until they draw the Monkey Wrench card and can start their journey. The same is true for the next quilt block space (Tumbling Blocks). It may take awhile to get these cards. If you suspect that your child will grow impatient quickly, print more of page 5 and 6 on the PDF so there are more Monkey Wrench and Tumbling Block cards in the deck. Likewise, if you have more than two players, additional cards will be necessary. Anytime a space along the railroad has a quilt block next to it, the player must play that very same quilt block card in order to move there (and beyond it). A player can move to any space not designated with a quilt square by playing either a Log Cabin or Flying Geese card. If a player has multiple Flying Geese or Log Cabin cards, they can all be played on his/her turn (e.g. if two Log Cabin cards are played, the player can advance two spaces). The player must always draw more cards to maintain three cards in their hand. BEWARE! If you draw the Drunkard's Path card, you must move back 1 space. You cannot play any other cards during this turn. NOTE: if you move back to a space before a quilt square space, you do not have to replay that same quilt block card again to move forward. A Log Cabin or Flying Geese card grants you passage forward. If you run through the entire deck of cards, simply grab the pile of cards already discarded or played and turn them over to reuse. VARIATION: Use colored binder clips so each player has multiple game pieces (i.e. all the game pieces for Bobby have blue binder clips, while Sarah has game pieces with red clips). Every time a Monkey Wrench card is drawn, the player can begin moving a new game piece on the journey. Decide to play for 45 minutes (or so) and when the time is up, see how many game pieces for each player made it to Cleveland. The player to free the most slaves is the winner. This is a great strategy game that piques kids' interest in history, codes, and folk art. Got a kiddo that's interested in quilts? Or looking for a math extension of this game? What about our Quilt Square Fractions? *Due to copyright protection, I'm not providing you with printable game pieces. A Google search should result in MANY choices, though.
The African American Quilting & Doll Making Guild will present “Threads of Freedom” at the West Park branch of the Cleveland Public Library, 3805 W. 157th St., Saturday, Feb 11 at 2 p.m.
Civil War reproduction quilts are incredibly popular and offer history lessons wrapped around sewing and piecing. The best of both worlds!
Welcome to Month 8 of the Underground Railroad Block of the Month. This month we take a look at the drunkard’s path block. Following the drunkard’s path is a clear warning for the slaves to move in a staggering fashion so as to allude any following slave hunters. For fugitives, quilt patterns provided directions. A...
Learning about the secret codes of the Underground Railroad is always interesting to kids. You can use this product by itself to study the quilt codes and what they mean or you can use it with the book The Patchwork Path to work on comparing fiction and non-fiction. Includes Activities For -Biog...
People have long believed that the symbols used in quilts of the South during slavery were actually used as secret messages for slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Come and learn the meaning of the blocks said to have lent the slaves a helping hand to freedom.
Reproduction Quilts & Fabric
Challenge Award Winner 2007 Fall Festival of Quilts at the Ellis Reference & Information Center
We've been learning in Social Studies about how slaves secretly communicated with each other. One cool way they did this was by making a freedom quilt. Each patch has a special meaning and when the quilt is sewn together it tells slaves how to escape on the Underground Railroad. You all did a great job making our quilt!
With a group of fellow residents here in Angle Vale Gardens Retirement Estate, I'm making the Underground Railroad quilt. This is using the Underground RAilroad Sampler Book by Eleanor Burns & Sue Bouchard. Published by Quilt in a Day ISBN: 1-89177613-4. I bought my book via Ebay and paid a fortune for it. You can however get it from Quilt in a Day Quilt in a Day Underground Railroad Sampler book The quilt tells the story of how Slaves were helped to escape slavery via the messages in the quilts. So far I have made the first 9 of 16 blocks. I say 16 but the final block is actually the story which I've scanned onto printable fabric and will then make into a block, as opposed to using it as a label on the back of the finished quilt. The book gives you all the instruction you need to complete each block, from the fabric qty needed in total to the individual block qty, piece cutting to step by step making of each block. Anyway, here are my completed blocks 1 to 9. Block 1 - Underground Railroad Block 2 - Monkey Wrench Block 3 - Wagon Wheel Block 4 - Carpenter's Wheel Block 5 - Bear's Paw Block 6 - Basket Block 7 - Crossroads Block 8 - Log Cabin Block 9 - - Shoo-Fly This is the story label, The quilt uses 4 Background fabrics, 3 Reds, 3 Brown, 3 Green, 3 Blue, and Black. One thing which I didn't realise until I got to block 4 Carpenters Wheel, was that the book pretty much requires you to have the Quilt in a Day flying geese ruler. Otherwise it's rather difficult to get your flying geese block trimmed to the correct size. You are able to purchase these from Quilt in a Day, or there are other stores online within Australia where you can easily purchase them without paying the exorbitant postage charges for freight from America. I hope you enjoy the journey that this quilt takes you on. I'll post the remaining blocks once they are all completed.
Due to the danger inherent in working with fugitives from slavery, many people who assisted runaways in their escapes either didn't keep records or...
We are are almost to the end of our year long underground railroad Block of the Month. This month we feature the sail boat block. When Ozella McDaniel Williams documented her knowledge of the blocks to the authors of Hidden In Plain View, she explained there were the primary blocks – which we have covered...
Underground Railroad Quilt by Kathy Briggs from the November 2009 Featured Quilt at the Ellis Reference & Information Center.
We are are almost to the end of our year long underground railroad Block of the Month. This month we feature the sail boat block. When Ozella McDaniel Williams documented her knowledge of the blocks to the authors of Hidden In Plain View, she explained there were the primary blocks – which we have covered...
Visit the post for more.
This is my finished quilt top, for the "underground railroad quilt", from the book by Eleanor Burns and Sue Bouchard. I took a class through the fall to make it, and really enjoyed the work. Some of it was challenging, as I chose the smaller scale, in which the blocks finish to 6 inches square. The patchwork utilizes a variety of cottons from my stash, as well as pieces purchased just for this quilt. Now I am ready to layer and quilt!
HAPPY OCTOBER!!! I'm tired of complaining about slow internet as an excuse for lack of blogging, so I'll skip it. You're welcome. :) Update: Change that. This is my FOURTH attempt at posting this in as many days. Sigh. Just imagine, if it weren't for our miserable excuse for internet service, you'd be reading about what actually happened YESTERDAY, not 2 weeks ago. Oy. So things are going well here in Chez Hairball, except we all miss Noel. He's still working his butt off in Utah, learning the importance of warm clothing in climates with huge temperature fluctuations, and the value of lotion in a low-humidity environment. Here in NC, meanwhile, the kitties and I are enjoying the first crisp days of autumn. The leaves haven't turned yet, but I promise to take (and post!) pictures when they do! 2 weekends ago, my mom and I drove up to West Virginia to visit my dear grandmother and 2 of my aunts and their husbands. Now, some people give West Virginia a hard time, whipping out the duelling banjos song from Deliverance (although that movie was in Georgia, heh), and thinking generally it's full of...well...not much. I heartily disagree. I have traveled much of this country (at this point 39 of the 50 states), and can say that West Virginia is unequivocally one of the most beautiful. Granted, I haven't seen North or South Dakota, Iowa, or Wisconsin. But barring the evil influences of cheese, I can't imagine they look anywhere near as stunning as WV. I say this because (1) I encourage those of you who've never been there to drive through there one day, and (2) to make up for my photos, which are...dark and, well, really a bit colorless. It was a gray day for photos, very overcast, and these just don't do the state justice. The motto for West Virginia is Wild, Wonderful. And they're right! You can drive through areas where there are no people. NO PEOPLE. No walmarts! No strip malls! No traffic jams! Just gorgeous indigenous forests festooning the rolling mountains as far as they eye can see. We had a fantastic visit with family up there. So much so that I forgot to take out my camera. Oops! Thankfully my Uncle Jim loves to take pictures, and he promised to send me a CD with the ones he took. Then I'll pirate his pictures to put up here. (You can take 50% of royalties, Jim. That'll be about....$0. Sorry). One fun thing about going to WV is that you have to go through 2 big tunnels to get there (at least the way we went). When my sister and I were kids, we would hold our breath through any tunnel we went through, because if you can hold your breath to the other side, you get a wish. These tunnels make breath-holding a serious Olympian-sized challenge. These tunnels go through an entire mountain. One is just under, and the other just over, 1 mile long. Impressive! Also there's a buckwheat festival in the town where my grandmother lives. No, not the Little Rascal, the grain. They have rides, parades, and yummy buckwheat pancakes at the fire house to raise money. We missed the buckwheat festival by 1 weekend. Sigh. Mom was happy because there would be no traffic. I was devastated, because honestly? How often do you have firemen cook breakfast for you? In addition to the impressively huge tunnels, West Virginians also boast the Western Hemisphere's longest single arch bridge! Bet you didn't know that! (Now you're ready go to on Jeopardy). It's called the New River Gorge Bridge, and it's impressive. Mom and I went to the scenic overlook to try to get a good view of it. We walked toward the pedestrian walkway to the overlook: Oooooooohhhh!!! Autumny!!! This will be a lovely little relaxing stroll through the woods. Oh wait. We sucked it up and went anyway, and the view was lovely! Here's the bridge: And way down there is the little old bridge that the new one made obsolete. Apparently it used to take people a long time to drive down into the gorge and back out again, and the new bridge has cut that time to just about 40 seconds. Here's a graph to show how tall the new bridge is: You know it's big when your currency is National Monuments. :) The scenery was really pretty from up there though. The leaves weren't really changing much there either, so at least my pictures weren't a total disaster. We finished with our photo taking and saw something really scary: The walk back up. But we made it, throbbing thigh muscles intact. At least there was pretty scenery to look at! We went to the visitors center too, and they had some quilts hanging up from the ceiling. Yay Team Quilting! So I took a few photos of them. Then we saw this on the wall, and I thought y'all might appreciate. Enlarge if necessary, but I'll type what it says: "Quilts made by slaves, free blacks, and Abolitionists were used as a means of secret communication on the Underground Railroad. Messages were hidden in plain view hanging from fences, clotheslines, and windows. Quilt patterns - including the use of specific colors, stitches, and pattern sequences - signaled escape, help, and safety. The Monkey Wrench [top left corner] was displayed when an escape was being planned. The Tumbling Blocks [top center] appeared when it was time to escape. The Bear Paw [top right] signaled a proposed safe trail through the Appalachian Mountains. The Shoo Fly [left middle row] signified a place to find clean clothing and take a bath. [Kelli: who says even abolitionist quilters didn't have a sense of humor?] The Bow Tie [center middle row] meant there was a safe church in the area. The Flying Geese [right middle row] pointed the direction to travel with a solid color band. The Log Cabin pattern [lower left corner] with a black center block signified a safe house. Drunkard's Path [lower center - my favorite quilt pattern] told runaways to zigzag and double back. It is believed that in order to memorize the whole code, a sampler quilt was used. The sampler would include all the patterns arranged in the order the codes would appear. Stitches and knots also played a role in the code. Stitches were placed to represent maps, and knots indicated a scale in miles. The messages remained hidden in plain view until everyone planning to escape had completed the signaled task." From: Hidden in Plain View - A Secret Story of Quilts & the Underground Railroad by J. L. Tobin & R. G. Dobard, PhD. How incredible is that? I adore the idea of something so humble, so easily overlooked, as a handmade quilt thrown over a fence, being the beacon of hope that some poor soul was desperate to see to guide his or her way to freedom.
Civil War reproduction quilts are incredibly popular and offer history lessons wrapped around sewing and piecing. The best of both worlds!
People have long believed that the symbols used in quilts of the South during slavery were actually used as secret messages for slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Come and learn the meaning of the blocks said to have lent the slaves a helping hand to freedom.
Last weekend, a friend invited me to go with her to the Wildflower Quilt Guild's show in Temple. Here's a detail photo of the Best of show quilt, Anesthesia, by Janet Smith, quilted by Linda Buckner. You can see the entire quilt here: Anesthesia and all my photos from the show in my Flickr photo set, Wildflower Quilt Guild Show. When Karen and I came across this Underground Railroad quilt, by Don and Phyllis Baker, we both confessed to having block of the month kits and decided to challenge one another to finish them. She's already started work on hers . . . I won't be able to get to mine until after I'm moved and settled in. It was a really nice show and an impressive effort for a relatively small guild (about 100 members). After the show, we stopped for lunch at Las Casas, a local Tex Mex restaurant. It's well known for something called white wings–jalapeno and cheese wrapped in chicken breast meat, then wrapped with a couple strips of bacon and grilled. Made smaller, I think they'd make great appetizers for a party . . . another thing to add to the project list for AFTER the move is done.
People have long believed that the symbols used in quilts of the South during slavery were actually used as secret messages for slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Come and learn the meaning of the blocks said to have lent the slaves a helping hand to freedom.
Underground Railroad quilt for Shelley B.
This is the UGRR quilt that i quilted during a quilter's retreat in Cosby, TN this past week. I started piecing the blocks in January of this year (2009).
This idea has been stuck in my head for awhile, ever since I heard about how quilts were used to communicate to runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. Their patterns and blocks were a code, providing direction, signifying safety, and issuing warnings (according to some historians). Before my son and I played the game I made, we read the perfect book to pair with this activity - The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom by Bettye Stroud. Having already read a biography on Harriet Tubman, my son had a basic foundation of knowledge on the Underground Railroad. Stroud's book filled in the rest - explaining how quilt blocks held messages for Hannah and her father on their journey from a Georgia plantation to freedom in Canada. What You Need to Play the Game PDF of the 3-page game board and 7 pages of playing cards Cardstock to print the 10-page PDF on Tape to piece the game board together Pictures of slaves who found freedom on the Railroad (I printed images of Henry Bibb, Frederick Douglass, Josiah Henson, and Harriet Tubman on cardstock and laminated)* Medium-sized binder clips Paper cutter to cut the game cards Prep Cut the pictures so that when they are inserted into a binder clip, the faces are visible. These are your game pieces. If necessary trim the white border (this depends on how your printer prints full-bleed pages) on your game board pages so that the map image butts up against each other. Affix the pages with tape on the back. Cut the game cards apart and shuffle. The Objective Be the first to move your game piece along to Cleveland, OH (the Underground Railroad station nicknamed "Hope"). How to Play Each player picks their game piece and places it on the start star. Everyone should be dealt three cards, which they turn over on the table to look at. (Secrecy is not important.) Before a player can move to the first space on the game board and leave the plantation to begin their journey on the Underground Railroad, they must play the Monkey Wrench card. If it is not in their hand, they draw and discard either the card drawn or another card in their hand. Play continues this way until they draw the Monkey Wrench card and can start their journey. The same is true for the next quilt block space (Tumbling Blocks). It may take awhile to get these cards. If you suspect that your child will grow impatient quickly, print more of page 5 and 6 on the PDF so there are more Monkey Wrench and Tumbling Block cards in the deck. Likewise, if you have more than two players, additional cards will be necessary. Anytime a space along the railroad has a quilt block next to it, the player must play that very same quilt block card in order to move there (and beyond it). A player can move to any space not designated with a quilt square by playing either a Log Cabin or Flying Geese card. If a player has multiple Flying Geese or Log Cabin cards, they can all be played on his/her turn (e.g. if two Log Cabin cards are played, the player can advance two spaces). The player must always draw more cards to maintain three cards in their hand. BEWARE! If you draw the Drunkard's Path card, you must move back 1 space. You cannot play any other cards during this turn. NOTE: if you move back to a space before a quilt square space, you do not have to replay that same quilt block card again to move forward. A Log Cabin or Flying Geese card grants you passage forward. If you run through the entire deck of cards, simply grab the pile of cards already discarded or played and turn them over to reuse. VARIATION: Use colored binder clips so each player has multiple game pieces (i.e. all the game pieces for Bobby have blue binder clips, while Sarah has game pieces with red clips). Every time a Monkey Wrench card is drawn, the player can begin moving a new game piece on the journey. Decide to play for 45 minutes (or so) and when the time is up, see how many game pieces for each player made it to Cleveland. The player to free the most slaves is the winner. This is a great strategy game that piques kids' interest in history, codes, and folk art. Got a kiddo that's interested in quilts? Or looking for a math extension of this game? What about our Quilt Square Fractions? *Due to copyright protection, I'm not providing you with printable game pieces. A Google search should result in MANY choices, though.
Civil War reproduction quilts are incredibly popular and offer history lessons wrapped around sewing and piecing. The best of both worlds!
Each month beginning February 2021, I will provide the instructions for one quilt block that was used in the underground railroad quilt code. These blocks aided slaves on their path to freedom. Quilts were often hung outside to air out on porches or windows and were visible to those looking to escape, without alerting the...
Help children and students learn about Black History Month with these DIY freedom quilts. Tell students about how the quilts helped slaves escape slavery.
The lsquo;Underground Railroadrsquo; was a network of anti-slavery supporters in the USA and Canada, who operated safe houses for African-American slaves. It was in operation from the beginning of the nineteenth century and was at its peak of activity between 1859 and 1860. While there is no documentary evidence, in the popular American imagination quilts were used to identify safe houses on the Underground Railroad.
People have long believed that the symbols used in quilts of the South during slavery were actually used as secret messages for slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Come and learn the meaning of the blocks said to have lent the slaves a helping hand to freedom.
Barbara Brackman –– Did Quilts Really Lead the Way to Freedom? • What role did quilts play? Barbara explores the stories surrounding the Underground Railroad • Read about the people who were there! First-person accounts, newspaper and military records, and surviving quilts all add clues • YOU decide how to interpret the stories and history, fabrication and facts as you learn about this fascinating time in history • Excellent resource for elementary through high school learners - curriculum included! Recall an unforgettable phase of our nation's history with America's leading quilt historian. Barbara Brackman presents the most current research on the role of quilts during the time of slavery, emancipation, and the Underground Railroad. Nine quilt projects combine historic blocks with Barbara's own designs. * Important Notes About PRINT ON DEMAND Editions ALL SALES ARE FINAL: PODs are non-returnable and non-refundable. This title will be printed after purchase and will arrive separately from any in-stock items. Allow minimum 2 weeks for U.S. delivery; add additional 2 weeks for international shipments. Expedited shipping not available. PRINT QUALITY WILL VARY FROM ORIGINAL EDITION: PODs are printed on uncoated (non-glossy) paper and the color may appear more saturated. Information presented is the same as the most recent printed edition. Pattern pullouts (if applicable) have been separated and presented as single pages. #10474D 114p color print on demand edition 8.5 x 11 ISBN: 978-1-57120-364-9 (eISBN: 978-1-60705-386-6)
