"Drinking Gourd"

When I saw the Drinking Gourd block in Barbara Brackman's book on quilts and the Underground Railroad I knew I had to use it. I also wanted to make a quilt with a "butternut and blue" color scheme.

(Historical note: "follow the drinking gourd" was a folk song. The drinking gourd was the Big Dipper. Slaves headed north on the Underground Railroad would look for that constellation.)

I volunteered to coordinate a quilt to raffle as a fundraiser for the Illinois Library Association. The days got away from me and I never got around to contacting other quilting librarians. A call from the ILA fundraising committee chair saying that they'd like the quilt in January got me going. I made the entire top myself. The blocks are 12". The middle border is made from the cutaway triangles of the flying geese. The top measures 92 x 92. Yes, I'm sending this out to be quilted!

Dawn http://dquilts.blogspot.com/ also loves this block. She and I have made a pile of 8" blocks, though knowing her she's a lot farther along with them than I am. We're getting together next week so we can compare.