Artless Fabrications

I’ve been working a little ahead of myself, knowing that next week I wouldn’t be anywhere near a sewing machine, so I’ll share what I have so far and then you will have to let me off the hook next week while I’m away.
Chapter 6 is titled ‘Provisions for the Crossing’ and explains how the journey across the prairies would take approximately 110 days, necessitating a huge list of supplies loaded into your covered wagon.

The first block in this chapter is the ‘Crossings’ block and at first I wasn’t going to sew this one, thinking it was too simple and had too much open space, but I think it lends a beautiful elegance and sometimes a little negative space is what the eye craves.



The second block in this chapter is called ‘Path Through the Woods’ and I love how this block looks! Keep in mind that those half square triangles finish at less than one inch… but so worth the effort. I stopped along the way to take some process shots and couldn’t help including my little flute player again. The lovely textile in the background is a hand embroidered tea cozy that I recently found at the thrift store, and it came with a beautiful little tea cloth that matches perfectly.

I also revisited chapter five and made a second version of the Wild Geese block in a much bolder colour scheme. Then I jumped forward to Chapter 7 and created the Prickly Pear block.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten at the moment but I think it will hold me over until I return home. In the meantime, be sure to check in with my friend Jeanne over at https://spiralj2.blogspot.com to see her wonderful blocks for her very different version of Hope’s Journey.
Until next time, carol xox

‘Captivity and Flight’ is the title of Chapter 5 and it refers to the warrior raids on settlements, in which many women and children were captured and often assimilated into Aboriginal culture. Those women who managed to escape and return to their homes did so at great peril, and sometimes leaving their children behind to their own fates. Either through escape or ransom, the ones to make it back home would none the less be traumatized by their ordeals, leaving them with something to deal with for the rest of their lives.

Betsy Chutchian has represented these experiences with the symbol of the flying geese unit incorporated into the blocks in this chapter. Wild Geese, Wild Goose Chase, and Rambler are blocks that carry another message of hope along the journey.

Wild Geese

Wild Goose Chase

Rambler

Until next time,

carol xox

Last week I managed to sew all the blocks from Chapter Four, titled ‘Independent Women’, and truly enjoyed reading Betsy Chutchian’s introduction to the chapter. With blocks named Old Maid’s Ramble and Old Maid’s Puzzle, one could begin to understand how being labelled an ‘old maid’ was equivilant to being a social outcast. For example, during Jane Austen’s time, to be unmarried at 27 placed a woman in the hopeless category, with no prospects of marriage and children in her future. Throughout history the main objective for women was reproduction, and once past the fertile stage of life, there was little she could bring to the marriage table other than being a helpmate. Betsy points out that many single women focused on contributing to society by becoming shopkeepers, innkeepers, or midwives, breaking the ground and setting the example for others to follow.

This chapter was wonderful food for thought and left me thinking about the women from our past who didn’t marry but chose their own path in life. Many of these women were writers and artists who stepped out of the shadows of suppression, forging exciting careers, being fine examples of strong and independent women, and leaving behind legacies of courageous work.

At first, I wasn’t interested in creating the small 12″ x 12″ mat from chapter four but I wanted to honour those women with something tangible that would help me to remember their struggles, and to be grateful for the ground they broke and the furrow they tilled for us all. That’s how I finally succumbed to make my version of the little mat, which is slightly larger than the original at about 14″ x 14″. I still have the quilting to do and, of course, the binding as well but I love what it represents…

I’ve called my mini quilt “The Flamboyant Spinster”!

until next time,

carol xox

Game Cocks block

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all –

Emily Dickinson

And so begins Chapter Three in Hope’s Journey, with one of my favourite lines from Emily Dickinson. This chapter focuses on the hardships of unending labor that faced women on the frontier, and the importance of domestic fowl in day to day life. Not that long ago, out here on the prairies the henhouse was the woman’s domain and responsibility, with her egg money providing extra income for necessities, and some of life’s little luxuries too.

Turkey Tracks block

I loved creating both of these quilt blocks and flew through them so quickly that I decided to move on to the next chapter’s blocks too. As you may have noticed, I’m not working on the smaller quilt projects that are included in each chapter, but rather just focusing on the blocks for the main project at the moment.

The two smaller blocks on the right are from Chapter Four and are teeny tiny. There was a choice of making one or the other but, I chose to sew both. The light block is ‘Old Maid’s Puzzle’ and the dark block is ‘Double X’.

The title of Chapter Four is Independent Women and talks about how women were expected to conform to society’s standards of being ‘proper’ young ladies, fulfilling their wifely duties, and bearing farmyards full of children. If a woman was independent, talented, or outspoken she was seen as a threat and often put herself at risk as an outcast. When you stop to think about it, some aspects of this thinking still exist today. I’m tempted to pause on my larger journey and take a day or two to create the little “Spinster” mat in this chapter, in order to honour strong, independent women everywhere. I did manage, however, to sew up the large block from chapter four and did the Old Maid’s Puzzle version.

Stay tuned next week for more of Hope’s Journey and be sure to check out my friend Jeanne’s blog at spiralj2.blogspot.com to see her progress on the journey, too.

until next time, stay warm, and happy stitching.

Love, carol xox