January 12, 1863

Today's block is titled, "Battle of Springfield"  I worked on it late last night which maybe wasn't the best choice on my part since I was tired.  "Jack the ripper" was used a couple of times to correct boo-boos.  Overall I'm very happy with how the block turned out.  So follow along with me to see how I constructed this block...



I picked out fabric to match how the block is presented in Rosemary Youngs book, The Civil War Diary Quilt....



My drafted patterns... if you are drafting your own patterns to work from for your blocks, remember to make a copy so that you have the original to work from in case you make a mistake.  The center star is broken down into five paper piecing sections.  I did a combination of paper piecing and cutting  blocks to size to construct this block....

Paper piecing the center star...

My center star is pieced.... remember to square it up to size if needed...

Remember to trim up your paper pieced blocks, leaving a 1/4" seam allowance....



 I paper pieced the center star and the side triangle blocks...  cut two 1 1/2" x 2 5/8" blocks out of the pink fabric for the side pieces that fit next to the star block in the center of the squares.   To form the 4 corner red triangles, cut 2 4" squares out of the red fabric, then cut in half from corner to corner, sew onto the corners then square up to measure 6 1/2"
Your block is complete!

 To learn more about the 1st Battle of Springfield, which was fought January 8th, 1863,  I found this website;

Battle of Springfield

Next week I will be working on "Hungry Soldiers" and "Dark Gloom" A trip to the fabric store is on the to do list since I don't have a yellow or dark purple in my Civil War fabric stash....

I have been so lucky to be able to exchange emails with the author, Rosemary Youngs over this last week.  She is a generous quilter... I've enjoyed visiting with her very much!  To order her book, The Civil War Diary Quilt Book you can contact her directly.  She also has a CD companion to go with the book.  You need to have EQ 5 or 6 installed on your computer to run the CD for the foundation piecing patterns. 

The Civil War Diary Quilt Book can be bought through paypal or through the mail from Rosemary Youngs...
The Civil War Diary Quilt book is available for $22.99 plus $4.95 priority mail, (global priority mail $11.95) . You can order the CD with the book, you will need  Electric Quilt 5 or 6 to run the CD, the CD alone is $10 and there is no extra charge for postage when you order the book with the CD, total cost for the CD with the book will be $32.99 plus your postage.
Send a check or money order to Rosemary Youngs, 3704 Nicole Ct., Walker, MI 49534

Remember to post your progress on the Civil War Diary Quilt Group on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/1547598@N25/ Happy quilting!