The Underground Railroad Quilt

This quilt was a start to finish quilt for Michelle and me. She pieced and bound it an I quilted it. The neighbor woman is a great admirer of quilts but she doesn't sew , so she has been a great customer of ours. She has a brother -in -law that is black and is interested in the Underground Railroad. She and some other family members commissioned us to make this for his birthday this summer. We had such fun doing it. Michelle got the patterns for the blocks from the book "Facts and Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery" by Barbara Brackman. I included the names of the blocks and descriptions from the book. Some of the blocks, as you can see, have different names than we know them by. I had a mistake in the block posts....."Birds in the Air" is a block to recall freedom.

Tim

Underground Railroad

"Jacob's Ladder"
A block to recall buying freedom.
"Slave Chain"
A block to recall the slave's clothing

"Triple Link Chain"
A block to recall family ties.

"Box Quilt"
A block to recall the abolitionist movement.

"Creole Puzzle"
A block to recall free blacks.

Underground Railroad

"Underground Railroad"

A block to recall the network of help.

"Aunt Dinah"
A block to recall Americanization.

"Lincoln's Platform"
A block to recall the Emancipation Proclamation.

"Chained Star"
A block to recall capture in Africa.

"Birds in the Air"
A block to re

Underground Railroad

"Charm"
A block to recall African tradition
"Beauregard Surrounded"
A block to recall the Civil War.

"North Star"
A block to recall abolition fairs.

"Trip Around the World"
A block to recall colinization.

"Cotton Boll"
A block to recall the slave economy.

Underground Railroad

"Christmas Star"
A block to recall the plantation Calendar

"Lost Ship"
A block to recall the ocean voyage.

"Cabin Windows"
Ablock to recall plantation housing.

"Catch Me If You Can"
A block to recall the escape.

"Rocky Road to Kansas"
A block to recall the exodusters.

Parkersburg Tornado

This photo was taken by one of the investigators. It really shows the devastation. Our prayers go out to the people of Parkersburg.

More MQS Photos from Sue Urich

I tend to look at the quilts up close to look at the quilting, so didn't
even know that this was a pictorial quilt let alone a truck!Just a different pieced quilt.

This is an Irena Bluhm student. I think she might have outdone her teacher.

One more of Sue's Favorite

More MQS Photo's from Sue Urich

Here is a great filler sampler, the gal also made a shirt that she uses as a marketing tool

Color not good but quilting shows.

Sue's personal favorite

The Back of Renae Haddidin's Best of Show Quilt

Thanks, Sue Urich for sending a photo of the back of this masterpiece.

Rookie of the Year at MQS

“Passionately Purple”
Pieced and quilted by Kristin Vierra

Thanks for the pictures, Linda.

Best of Show at MQS

"The Beauty from Within"
Pieced and quilted by Renae Haddidin

Linda's "Not so good" pictures

Thought I would share a couple of not so good pictures. These two are actually at the same place, I just wanted to show how much extra fabric there was.

Linda's Freehand

The picture Freehand Stuff is what I did in the sashing and borders

The other picture shows then entire quilt. In the blocks, I just did diagonal lines in the blocks

Linda

Linda's T-Shirt Quilt

Technique 2: I went around the letters and the crest in the center. Then the two lines with the half circles below the crest were added.

Technique 3: This was my very first attempt to do some loopy freehand stuff. I did this technique on a larger quilt after I finished this one.

Technique 1 is just a straight line meander