Quilting display to be featured at "Thunder in the Park" June 8-9

During the upcoming "Thunder in the Park" Civil War re-enactment, June 8-9 at Waukon City Park, visitors to the event are encouraged to stop by the gazebo being occupied by local quilting enthusiasts to try their hand at the age-old pastime. No experience is necessary, just enthusiasm. Anyone can put in some stitches, much like women did back in the 1860s. Women have been quilting for centuries, but it was during the Civil War that quilts became part of the soldiers' lives. In 1861, the United States Sanitary Commission was formed to improve conditions for injured soldiers. Many Northern women made quilts for the soldiers to use on their cots as they recovered. These quilts were usually four feet wide by seven feet long.  Carolyn Clark, Dianne Clark Rissman and Sara Straate of the Allamakee County area reproduced one of these quilts listing the names of all the known Allamakee County soldiers who died during the Civil War. This quilt will also be on display at the gazebo during the "Thunder in The Park" event.
Pictured above with their Generals’ Wives Civil War reproduction quilts are Janice Shogren (left) and Jean Brink (right), both of Waukon. The two large identical quilts in the background were block-of-the-month quilts made with reproduction fabrics and the Generals’ Wives quilt pattern from Wyndham Fabrics. Displayed in the foreground by the ladies is a Civil War block-of-the-month reproduction quilt made by Brink from the pattern Civil War Chronicles by Marcus Fabrics. During "Thunder in the Park," the quilters will present a program relating the stories about the Generals’ Wives depicted in the quilt blocks. The program will be presented at the gazebo in the Waukon City Park at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, June 8 and again Sunday, June 9 at 1 p.m. Both quilters found the stories about the ladies to be very interesting. Shogren was excited to discover that Union General William Sherman’s wife was a distant relative to her and many others in Allamakee County. From her own genealogy research and the quilt story, she discovered that Mrs. Sherman was a Ewing from Ohio and a first cousin to Abigail Blossom Ewing Livingood from Allamakee County. Submitted photo.