Westering Women - Block 1 Independence Square

Barbara Brackman has started a monthly block of the month on the post-Civil War westward migration. You'd think I could quote family letters on this topic, but not very many are from women, and I haven't transcribed many of the ones that are relevant yet.  That on-going project might take me another couple of years and there's no hurrying the process.  (I've done everything through 1869 but the letters go through the 1880's.)  For now for this series, I'll just make the blocks, but I do love the topic!

I like this first month's block, called Independence Square, made entirely of rectangles and squares.  Barbara featured facts and photos of the huge wagon trains that lumbered out of Independence, Missouri to make the overland trek on the Oregon Trail.  You can read about it at this link:  http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2016/01/westering-women-block-1-independence.html

I changed the value placement a little from the model blocks.

I decided to limit my color palette compared to my previous Civil War blocks, but I had a lot of fabrics left over I thought I should use. A quick stop at Pieceful Gathering on my recent trip to Chicago helped me choose which colors those would be when I found a fat quarter bundle of blues and browns.  The shop specializes in reproduction fabrics. Only one of the fabrics in this block (the dark brown ombre stripe) came from the group, so it's obvious I had plenty of material to pick from.