Women's Voices: A Civil War Quilt

When the U.S. War with Mexico in the 1840s and Britain’s Crimean conflict in the 1850s ended, the men at the Robbins & Lawrence Armory in Windsor retooled the gunmaking machinery to make parts for sewing machines and other peacetime products. When the Civil War broke out the sewing machine business was sold off and the Windsor factory set to work again making guns and gunmaking machinery. The ladies in town, meanwhile, sewed both by hand and machine making quilts to send to soldiers.

This connection was not lost on Margaret Rothchild, who served as the museum’s board president in the 1990s before moving to Seattle. Margaret has remained active with the museum, and she galvanized the 2011 Quilting Group of the Women’s University Club of Seattle WA to complete Women’s Voices, a reproduction Civil War era quilt, for the museum to use as a fundraiser. Raffle tickets will be available soon!

Quilt Slider