It has been a productive and busy weekend. Since I have had all year to do this project, are you surprised that I had to buckle down and get them done now. At the beginning of 2010, each member of our Quilt History study group was given 4 pieces of fabric to make quilt blocks for a block exchange at the end of the year. One piece (blue print) was the focus fabric and had to be used in the blocks and the other fabric could be used or something from our own collections. This past year we studied quilts, fabrics and the women of the World War ll era. The blocks were to be representative of that time period. Most of the quilts we see today that were made during the war years were either "make-do" made from scraps and flour sacks or patriotic quilts. Since a lot of women "went to work" to support their families and the war effort, leisure time became precious so we saw fewer quilts being made until the mid to late 70's (the Bicentennial Celebration) when quilting became popular again (and polyester went away!)
Anyway, I have finished my 14 blocks and they are ready to go. This is my block, red, white and blue! The pinwheel part of the block represents the women that stayed home, keeping homes together and working to support the war effort. The star is the symbol of freedom and hope.
I have also been working on this Valentine quilt this weekend and hope to have it finished in the next week.
I hope you can see the pieced hearts.
Another piece of good news for the weekend, Logann came out and helped me catalogue some of my books. I have collected (ahem) a lot of books and have found some duplicates as well as some books I need to get rid of. I am using my own Excel spreadsheet and hope to be able to download the title part of the catalogue into my cell phone so that I can have the list with me when I am looking at books to buy. Anyway, she got a lot of books entered and I super appreciate her help.
This gorgeous quilt is a BOM that is my next major tackle. It was supposed to have been completed this month but sadly, I am only on the 4th month. Why do I need to get it finished, you ask… Because I have 2 more BOM projects that start soon!
I leave you with this ponder on: 
2 comments:
Oh you make me want to change some of my priorties.
I love your 14 blocks. It was in the sixties that people started to think about the bicentennial and quilts again. There were occasional, rare, magazine articles. In 1969, Bonnie Leman began publishing Quilters Newsletter from her dining table. I have all those early issues in storage. There were a few other regional ones I collected in the early 70s, too.
As fervor heated up, there were more frequent magazine articles, like Jean Ray Laury's that got me going again in late '72 or early '73. I remember trying to find a book for patterns, and the only thing I found was a 1930s copy of Ruby McKim's book still in the North Plainfield, NJ, library! There were none to be bought anywhere for a long time.
There were a lot of other influences that came along, like the self-sufficiency groups, Mother Earth News, Five Acres and Independence, etc. And, of course the big art exhibit at the Whitney in 1971. The Bicentennial fervor had a lot to do with the push into today's full-swing quilting revival.
I was living on the east coast during all of that, and it was still possible to pick up antique quilts for a song. Unfortunately, I was a student and didn't have a lot of songs. LOL. Still, I experienced it, and was influenced by the Amish quilters at Kutztown folk festival every summer, so I don't regret being where I was at that wonderful time.
Your BOM looks great, and makes me wonder what other two you are planning. One that I'm working on is Barbara Brackman's Civil War Quilt that has a new block up every Saturday morning. I figured sesquecentennial of the civil war, I should make it. Her blog for it (not her regular blog) has a story of the war with every week, too. History and quilting, what could be better?
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