One Foot Square, Quilted and Bound

This is at the New England Quilt Museum, 18 Shattuck Street, Lowell Ma 01852.

It is part of Civil War Quilts display now on view. It is constructed with an unusual technique: "one foot square, quilted and bound."

Unlike traditional quilts, where blocks are constructed and sewn together, then layered with batting and backing and quilted through all three layers, these very special quilts are built like many little mini-quilts, completely quilted and bound, and only then sewn together.

Guest curator Pam Weeks, whose book on the subject comes out this fall, has spent years researching these unusual quilts. The technique seems to have originated in New England. It was a popular way for groups of women to create quilts for the Union war effort during the Civil War. Of the quarter million quilts made for soldiers during that conflict, only twelve are known to survive. Of those, ten were constructed with this block-by-block technique.

This was taken from New England Quilt web site. I thought it was worthy of sharing with you all.