Jacob’s Ladder

“Knowledge has always been the most effective tool no matter what the situation.”~Jacqueline L. Tobin author of Hidden In Plain View: A Secret Story Of Quilts And The Underground Railroad

When I first started sewing it was because I wanted to make quilts. I had no real desire to make clothes, just beautiful and cozy quilts like the ones that I slept under at Grandma’s house as a child. So I taught myself and over the years have made lots of quilts! In the last few years however, my quilt making has slowed to the occasional baby quilt and not much more. I’ve been feeling like I wanted to make a quilt, but wasn’t sure what pattern to chose.

With all of that in the back of my mind, an idea all came together! I would do a sampler quilt! A sampler quilt is a quilt that is made up of may different patterns. This way, I could feature a different quilt block and keep up with my blog, plus learn lots of different quilt blocks!

SO, with all of that I then had to decide which blocks to do. Then the choice was obvious to me!

I already owned this quilt book, which features a sampler quilt. Plus, what better project to make than an Underground Railroad quilt during Black History Month!

First, a quick history of the Underground Railroad! The Underground Railroad wasn’t an actual railroad but was paths and routes between safe houses leading from the southern United States and into Northern free states, or Canada that enslaved African Americans would use to escape slavery.

For more information, click the link below!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad

Then I quickly fell down the rabbit hole researching quilt blocks and the Underground Railroad! This quilt book is based on a research book called, Hidden In Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad by Jaqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard. I found the book was available on audio book through my local library! I have been listening to it each day when I go for a morning walk.

So here’s what I’ve learned so far! Each quilt block represents a message. Quilt makers would make quilts, then hang them on fences and clothes lines, to send messages to slaves that were trying to escape. Not only did the quilt blocks themselves have a meaning, but sometimes the knots on the quilt, or the way it was quilted held a secret code. Now how would slaves know what quilt knots meant? After much research into the textile history of Africa and the different tribes, the authors of the book I was listening to, and quilt scholars found that beading and story telling from Africa, made its way into quilts in the form of knots.

I was fascinated. I love quilts and feel like they hold a power of their own, but quilts that helped people to become free was a humbling and powerful thought indeed.

I started my own Underground Railroad quilt journey knowing with each step and each block I would be learning more history. I would also be thinking about the people who had to escape bondage, and those who couldn’t until after the Civil War. My mind was also on the people who put their own safety and lives on the line to save others.

With much respect, I got to work on my first block, Jacob’s Ladder.

This pattern is also known by other names, such as Job’s Tears, Hosanna, Palm Leaf, Bethlehem Star, Cathedral Window, Cross and Crown, and many others. The pattern predates the Revolutionary War.

For mine I chose fabric colors that were similar to the one in the book. I wanted to used historically accurate colors when I could, but also use up my scrap!

I chose some muslin scrap, a piece of an old brown skirt, and Grandpa’s WWII fabric scrap. Ok, maybe WWII fabric is WAAAAYYY after the Civil War, but the color was right, and I have lots of it! I also had to reflect that here I was making a quilt in honor of those who were enslaved, with fabric from a war where once again, people were being oppressed! Do we ever learn?

My first step was to cut the fabric into the sizes that I needed.

For part of the “ladder”, I sewed the squares together. I was doing a technique called assembly line sewing. You don’t have to stop and cut the thread before starting another piece. Just keep going!

You can snip the squares apart when you are finished.

I ironed the pieces, ironing the seams towards the darker fabric.

Once that was done I put them right sides together so that I would eventually have a bigger square, made of four little squares. If I had to do all of this by hand I might cry. I’m thankful for modern technology and my sewing machine!

I had my squares.

I then cut the bigger squares into triangles. First the green.

Then the muslin. You can see I pieced together scrap to get the size that I needed. I really am trying to make use of all of my scrap!

I laid out the triangles with their opposite color.

When they were sewn together they made their own squares.

I laid the block out and got to work sewing it together!

And it was complete!

The significance and meaning of this block is that, because it has an alternating path of dark and light colors, it shows directions. This block would first signal runaway slaves which direction they were to move, north, south, east, or west. It depended on which way the quilt was hung on the fence or clothes line.

As an example of a quilt with nothing but the Jacob’s Ladder pattern, here is one that my Great-Grandmother Sophrona made! It’s a variation of the Jacob’s Ladder pattern, but a Jacob’s Ladder all the same. You can see how, depending on how its hung it, could point in different directions.

You can also see that like me, she was using up all of her scrap!

Next week will be another block and another history lesson on its meaning. Until then I would encourage each one of my readers to be nice to someone, anyone! Say hello to a stranger, compliment someone, do a random act of kindness, do something nice! History shows us that the world can be unkind and cruel, and often repeats itself. Let us do one little thing to spread good. If you do let me know! It will bring a smile to my face and maybe to the face of other readers!

As for me, onto the next!