05/15/08

The Home of the Brave Quilt Project is a nationwide grass roots movement which was started by Don Beld, a quilter, quilt teacher and historian and the Citrus Belt Quilt Guild in Redlands, California. 

The Home of the Brave Quilt Project has been embraced by and endorsed by the Department of Veteran's Affairs, multiple VFW chapters, government officials, and members of the armed forces and the families of our fallen heroes. There has been extensive local and national media coverage of this project with articles appearing in quilt magazines and local newspapers.

The Home of the Brave Quilts are replicas of the U.S. Sanitary Commission Quilts made during the civil war for the northern troops. The U.S. Sanitary Commission requested cot size quilts (approximately 48 x 84 inches) that the soldiers could also use as bedrolls. Northern women responded to the request and it is estimated that they made over 250,000 quilts in addition to providing an abundance of other relief services. Since that time there has never been a greater concentration of quilting for a war cause. Because the quilts were heavily used and because many of the soldiers were buried in their quilts only 5 of the 250,000 quilts are known to have survived. Of those surviving quilts only one is on public display. It is in the A.K. Smiley Library's Lincoln Memorial Shrine Museum in Redlands, California and The Home Of The Brave Quilts are replicas based on that particular quilt.

Many of the Sanitary Commission quilts were made of album blocks or cross X blocks and the women signed the quilt blocks or wrote personal messages on the blocks. The sanitary commission quilts were also made of other popular blocks of the time period, such as the Nine patch, Chimney Sweep, and Georgetown Circle. Because the Home of the Brave Quilts are replicas of the one on display in the Lincoln Shrine, the quilts are being made 48" x 84" and the album block or cross X block is the preferred block. Additionally, a replica of the Sanitary Commission stamp is being sewn on the back of the quilt to duplicate the original Sanitary Commission stamp that was put on all the U.S. Sanitary Commission quilts.