May 5 Meeting Summary

Well . . . our meeting did not get off to the best start but some progress was made.  We had “the case of the missing key” fiasco (again!) and needed to wait for almost 30 minutes for someone to arrive with one.  This time of year is so busy and with girls involved in track, lacrosse, soccer, softball, and church confirmations, the parents are coming and going and the girls are trying to keep up with homework.  It seems like homework was weighing on the girls’ minds this afternoon.  We had five girls in attendance but only two machines.  Technically, we had three machines but only two that have an adjustable zigzag stitch for applique.  Only one (broken) iron today as well.  (It prefers to drench fabric in lieu of steaming it.)  Here’s what happened:

Mrs. S continued with the final details of her HAPPINESS block but I did not get a photo.  Sorry friend.  I will do better next meeting.

Kamam fused all of the pieces for her INDIVIDUALITY/INDEPENDENCE block and the colors look fabulous.

Individuality / Independence

TheSquid05 did not have access to a machine to finish her applique but she learned a few embroidery stitches and added the minute and hour hands to the grandfather clock.  She also decided to add the dates of the establishment of Girl Scouts and the introduction of  Title IX.

Kindness / Forgiveness / Honesty

Linds also had limited access to a machine so she learned how to embroider using a chain stitch to add the chains for her weighing baskets.

Penny525 is a bit of a perfectionist and spent as much time using a seam ripper as she did using the machine to applique.  She finished the outline of the house, doorway, roof, and chimney.  Unfortunately, she is not pleased with the doorway and plans to re-do it either by sewing over it or ripping it all out.  We tried to convince her to move on to the heart . . . but it was no use.

Shelter / Homelife

AS1898 finished her second block today and is all done.  Here is the individual COURAGE block and then both COURAGE and UNITY / TOGETHERNESS next to each other.

Courage

AS1898 has finished both UNITY / TOGETHERNESS and COURAGE.

Since all of the girls were busy and self-sufficient, Mrs. W took advantage of the large open space and worked on tying her personal quilt.  She has spent seven years working on it . . . but only during school breaks and is finally in the home stretch!  The photo makes the yellow look tan.  Oh well.

Mrs. W tying her quilt

04-21 Meeting

Today we watched “Intended Consequences” and had a short discussion explaining the video and listening to the girls thoughts and reactions.  Part of our GIRLtopia Journey was looking at the lives of girls and women in other countries.  Although the genocide campaign in Rwanda was 19 years ago, those families are living with the impact every day.

The troop watching “Intended Consequences” as part of our research

On a happier note, the girls got right down to business working on their blocks.  Only one more block was completely finished today, but that makes a total of six out of our sixteen.  The six finished blocks are:

• Career/Hobbies
• Friendship
• Peace
• Freedom
• Unity/Togetherness
• Safety

I missed the photo last week of Unity/Togetherness, so it is shown below followed by Safety and then other photos from the day documenting our progress.

Unity/Togetherness completed by AS1898

Safety completed by Kamam

AS1898 designing Courage

Courage block fused and waiting to be appliqued

Linds and TheSquid05 cutting out the Respect block pieces

Linds appliqueing the Respect block

Respect block partially appliqued

TheSquid05 appliqueing

TheSquid05 begins appliqueing the Forgiveness block

Youkilis2013 and AS1898 at the cutting station

Youkilis2013 cutting strips for her Education block

FSCsoccergirl finalizing the design of her Love block

Mrs. S, Mrs. W, and Mrs. T still friends after all these years!

GIRLtopia Quilt Status Report

Eleven of our 16 blocks are in progress:

Careers and Hobbies by Mrs. W

This block shows the evolution of women’s careers and hobbies from knitting to aviation.  In early Killingworth, women knit to create necessary clothing and blankets; women performed “male” chores only for survival. Harriet Quimby was the first female pilot licensed in the United States and the first woman to fly solo over the English Channel.  Although women have been pilots for many decades, up until about 10 years ago, women were not permitted to fly military combat missions.

Friendship by Mrs. Toe-Mom

I am representing friendship by a flower with ten petals. Seven of the petals will reflect fabric from each of the seven girls. The three remaining petals will use fabric from each of the three leaders.  To me, this is the perfect block to represent these amazing young women since they have been together for a decade—since they were Daisies in kindergarten. And, of course, we three moms have a wonderful friendship too!

Happiness by Mrs. S

This block is based on Killingworth’s own historical artist and author Ruth Warner Robinson as a child. The Robinson family lived in what is known as the “Country Squire” and Ruth attended school at the one-room school house. She is best known for her colorful farm scene paintings, charming sculptures of farm animals, and short stories about the simple pleasures of country life.

Kindness, Forgiveness, and Honesty by The Squid

The grandfather clock represents “Time waits for no one,” by the Rolling Stones. I truly think it means don’t wait too long to forgive someone.  If you are honest, kind, and forgiving, then it will get you further than being selfish. To be able to forgive you need to know the difference between a mistake and actually intending to hurt someone.   In the moment, it may seem really huge but truly it’s not that big. Talking it out would be best.

Freedom by Youkilis

Through the Underground Railroad, slaves learned to trust select people via symbols. For example, the monkey wrench symbol meant tools were available. Slaves endured both physical and mental abuse.  People (now) should never take anything for granted or complain about small problems.  We should always be thankful and happy for what we have. The slaves were brave and couldn’t complain.  They put their minds together and were courageous.

Global Conservation by Penney525

The leaves on the tree start with green and darken to brown from left to right. They also grow sparser from green to brown. The grass of the hill will follow the same pattern. The left side represents our ideal world while the right side predicts where our world could end up in the future unless we act now. Presently, I believe we are somewhere in the middle of the tree, and which side we will travel to depends solely on our decisions.

Shelter and Home-life by Penney525

I decided to create a basic gingerbread house inside of a heart to represent the dream-house of every girl. The heart is the home-life piece of the block, because a loving, positive home environment is also ideal for every girl’s well-being, though not every girl is fortunate to have this.

Justice by Linds

All of us will face unfair and unjust events and decisions in our lives.  One of the most representative objects of this idea is the justice scale, originally held by the hand of Lady Justice.  Since our project revolves around the GIRLtopia theme, I am including the symbol for male and female on each side of the scale. I think the scale should be balanced, after all, isn’t equality what is just?

Peace by FSCsoccergirl

I decided to make this block simple and easy to understand.  I feel as though things that are said or showed with simplicity can mean more in volumes. I have chosen to make a dove with an olive branch in its beak.  I will use a fabric with peace signs to give it more meaning.

Safety by Kamam

In my research, I discovered how many women and children in the world are not respected or safe.  Over 25% of women will be abused in their lifetime.  Some women in different areas of the world live in garbage dumps, abandoned, in a disease-filled environment. This quilt block represents how women deserve to be safe and sheltered. On my block there is a girl sitting happily on a swing under a big tree.

Unity and Togetherness by AS1898

I have created a ring of people holding hands to show unity.  Each person is a different color fabric to show that everybody is different but we can still come together as a group to accomplish anything we set our minds to. I have also decided to place this ring of people around the earth to show if people try hard enough, we can unite men and women around the world.

Love by FSCsoccergirl

For love, I have decided to make a traditional heart, but then add people in the middle holding hands. I think that this represents a woman’s love for her family and a desire to be around people that she loves.

Under Development . . .

• Independence by Kamam
• Respect for all humans by Squid
  and Linds
• Education by Youkilis
• Self-assurance/respect, courage, and strength by AS1898

January 20 Meeting Photos

We keep dragging those machines into our meeting room but most of the girls needed the meeting to finalize fusing their pieces to the background.  So maybe next week we will begin applique lessons and think about how we will embellish our blocks, either by hand or by machine.  Youkilis2013 is the only one sewing a pieced block and she was actually able to start sewing those pieces together today.  The girls are smack in the middle of studying for mid-term exams so I will not harass them to update the blog this month. Here’s what we did:

Freedom:  Youkilis2013 is making a classic Shoo-Fly block representing freedom.  Historically, the Shoo-Fly block  identified a person who could guide and help slaves escape along the Underground Railroad and who knew the codes.  Youkilis2013 joined her triangle sections together into squares and sewed the middle column of a classic 9-patch.

Shoo-Fly Block Design

Ironing the seams toward the darker fabric side

Sewing the triangles into squares

Kindness / Forgiveness / Honesty: Thesquid5 added the pendulum to her grandfather clock and spend the remainder of the meeting helping others and planning a joint Respect for all Humans block with Linds.

Gold pendulum added

Thequid5 and Penny525 getting advice from Mrs. Toe-Mom

Shelter / Homelife: Penny525 added the heart behind her gingerbread house and fused her pieces to the background.

All girls deserve a loving family and a fairy-tale gingerbread home

Justice:Linds added the weighing baskets to her justice scale as well as the tiny male and female symbols she painstakingly cut out. She spent the remainder of the meeting co-designing the Respect for All Humans block with Thesquid5.

Added the weighing baskets and male/female symbols

Safety: Kamam10 is still cutting out the pieces that will become a girl on a swing underneath her very lifelike tree.

Creating a girl on a swing

Togetherness: As1898 fused her globe and 17 or her 18 people onto her background. One of the people refused to stay glued! So . . . she had to clone him/her.

17 out of the 18 fused!

Aiming for perfection

Peace: Fscsoccergirl had basketball practice and was unable to join us today. But she posted her progress earlier and Mrs. Toe-Mom brought her block to share and stayed to work on her own block.

Friendship: Mrs. Toe-Mom selected one fabric from each girl and each leader and these will become the 10 petals of her friendship flower.

Selecting the Friendship fabrics

Happiness: Mrs. S is still fussy cutting more and more little details such as bunches of flowers and a basket. We think she would do this all day if we let her!

I added the sun and am deciding between flowers and/or a basket

I still can’t decide!

Moms we count on: Special thanks to Youkilis2013’s mom for staying to help; Lindz’s mom for bringing cupcakes and juice; and As1898’s mom for helping out with the ironing and for keeping the leaders sane.

As1898’s mom ironing

Kindness / Forgiveness / Honesty

Here is what I have so far:

Clock Starting to Take Shape

Finalizing My Sketch

First few pieces fused

 

Kindness / Forgiveness / Honesty

Over the years, going back and forth from persuasive writing to creative writing and poems, teachers kept telling us students that there was no true meaning in a poem. You can have any theme you want, although you need good information to back it up. So I guess what I’m trying to get at is that even though my square is kindness/forgiveness/honesty, I’m not going to have a picture that goes truly goes with it. It will become evident in the way I will explain it. On my square it will hold an old grandfather clock with a quote in the center of it. It will be covered with numbers and the hour hand, minute hand, and second-hand. The quote is, “Time waits for no one,” by the Rolling Stones. I truly think it means don’t wait for someone to do what you have to do; in the end it’ll be your decisions you make. If you are honest/kind/forgiving then it will get you further than being selfish. People need to understand how making their own decisions will not only impact their life but also others as well. There will be a hilly process to get to the top but when you are there you can see many opportunities; so don’t make a lousy choice. Sure there will be breaks in the road but you can lead yourself to success. To be able to forgive you need to know the difference between a mistake and really meaning to hurt someone. A mistake is referred to as an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge. At that moment, it may seem really huge but really it’s not that big. Talking it out would be the best way to flatten out any rough patches in life. It may seem annoying/awkward but it will really make a rough patch become a brand new piece of wood in the end.