Nine Patch T

During the 1800’s women made quilts to raise money and awareness for causes they believed in, like women’s suffrage and the abolition of slavery. But more quilts were dedicated to the temperance movement than to any other cause. Temperance quilts often displayed blocks like Drunkard’s Path or (like this block) that used a T shape in their design. The T’s might have stood for temperance: moderation in the use of wine or beer. Or they might have stood for total abstinence. Many of these quilts were stitched in blue and white fabric, the colors of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union: “White for purity and blue for water, the purest beverage.” If I’d researched this block BEFORE I made it, I might have done it in blue and white as well. But these were the little scraps sitting on my cutting table, so this is the block you get.