Patriotic Quilt Love

I LOVE patriotic quilts. For many, many years I have admired patriotic quilts in any design. One of my very favorite Patriotic Quilts is one that was made during the Civil War by a Mother for her son that was going off to war. Here is my version of this gorgeous Stars and Stripes Quilt:

It often hangs in my entryway. I loved reproducing this quilt as closely as possible to the original quilt that is housed in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. The maker of the Smithsonian quilt was Mary Rockhold-Teter of Noblesville, Indiana in the 1860's. The pattern appeared in the July 1861 issue of Peterson's Magazine published in Philadelphia. There are thirty-four stars in the center, representing the number of states in the Union. The same numbers of stars are appliquéd around the border. Mary made the quilt for her son, George, a Union soldier. Here is a photo of Mary's quilt from the book "The Smithsonian Treasury American Quilts" by Doris M. Bowman.

My quilt has the same number of stars and is the same size as Mary's at 86" x 87". I spent many hours looking at the photo of this quilt through a magnifying glass to come as closely as possible to the original quilt. Below are a few up close photos showing the quilting on my quilt.

I also told a bit of the story of the original quilt on my label on the back of the quilt.

While I have not seen this original quilt in person at the Smithsonian, I have seen a few of the quilts housed at the museum. Someday, I'd love to have a behind the scenes tour of their quilts!