The quilt became a remembrance of loved ones left behind. Names and sometimes a sketch or sentiment were embroidered or signed in permanent ink on patchwork blocks. The blocks were assembled into the Friendship quilt, also known as a Signature, Presentation, or Album quilt. Among the most popular quilt patterns were Churn Dash (Love Knot), Double Monkey Wrench, Hole-in-the-Barn-Door, Shoo-Fly, and, after the Civil War, Sherman’s March. December 3, 1862 Dearest Sister Lizzie, Are you surprised to hear that Charlie has gone for a soldier? You knew he would do it, I told you so, but he left sooner than we ever expected. Now I am shut up with his mother on Bramble Farm, and she is no better for conversation than prune whip. If I didn’t have you to write to, I think I should die. I have no close friend at Slatyfork, and you know I can’t write my true thoughts to Mama or to most friends back home in Fort Madison—not after the way they passed it around why I married in haste and young, being yet sixteen, although Charlie was twenty-one.
