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

Career/Hobbies is Done (I Think!?)

So what should you do when you are overwhelmed with writing college recommendation letters, grading 50 Trigonometry tests, and reading 75 Advanced Math research papers?  You should put it all aside and quilt!  I now feel a great sense of accomplishment as I can cross something off my list of things to do.  My goal was to finish my block so I would have something to share at our meeting in a few days.  I hope it will provide some of you with ideas.  My embroidery is somewhat intentionally messy as I wanted it to look like a loosely rolled ball of yarn.  I am pleased with the outcome of the plane and its pilot, Harriet Quimby.  I ran into some trouble sewing the heads of the knitting needles as the satin fabric frayed all the way around the circle.  So . . . I covered the ends with buttons which gives it a folk-art look.  Although I have never done any 3-dimensional applique, I decided to stuff the globe as suggested by Sandy Smith earlier in the year.  It was Adrienne’s idea to give the globe the yarn look and her advice paid off.  Now I am ready to help all of the girls so their blocks can transition from concepts into fabric creations.

Career/Hobbies Block

Close-up of Harriet Quimby and her plane. Notice her purple hood!

Close-up of my yarn ball globe.

The button covers the frayed satin fabric nicely.

My favorite cloud.

Career/Hobbies Assembly Day 1

Today I was motivated by my son who, unhappy with the cost and fit of a cycling cap, designed and sewed his own cycling cap.  This was out of character for him and quite surprising.  I took advantage of his stationary state at the kitchen table and joined him to begin work on my Career/Hobbies block.  The first thing I did, and I suggest everyone do this, was make several copies of my sketch so I could use the pieces as pattern templates.  I fused Wonder-Under to the back of small rectangles of fabric and then traced the patterns on the back.  IMPORTANT!  YOU NEED TO PUT YOUR PATTERN PIECES RIGHT SIDE DOWN FOR TRACING, OTHERWISE EACH PIECE WILL FACE THE OPPOSITE WAY YOU INTENDED.  The following photos document my progress today.

I started with the body of the airplane.

It felt good to place that first piece on the background square.

This shows how I traced the wings on the paper-backing of the fusible webbing.

The wings with the body on the background square.

The plane is starting to take shape with the addition of the propeller blades.

I added Harriet Quimby’s brown hair, the purple hood from her famous self-designed flying suit, and the goggles I fussy-cut from the bubble fabric I had. I am not happy with the goggles. They make her look like an alien!

I changed the goggles to a dark brown but added circular cutouts from the previous pair of goggles. I decided to make the scarf red. My son suggested a shiny metallic fabric would be better for the knitting needles. I will dig in my stash.

I like the addition of the blue streaky clouds.

This is the gold shiny fabric I am considering using for the knitting needles. I will mull it over.

That is all for now! I look forward to seeing everyone else’s progress on finalizing your sketches.

The Colors of Harriet Quimby

I am almost ready to begin cutting out the applique pieces for my Career/Hobbies Block featuring Harriet Quimby in her Bleriot biplane.  However, I am not very skilled with colors.  Here is what I have come up with so far.  We all agreed to use some of the red and green sashing within our block.  I will make the knitting needles red and the land of my globe green.  I am not sure if the green will be fabric, yarn, or embroidery floss masquerading as yarn.  My intended white clouds will not show up against a cream background so I may use a blue and white streaked fabric.  For the plane I have two silver/grey/blue fabrics; one is very geometric which appeals to my love of mathematics; the other has streaks which I think will look fabulous on the wings.  I will use a small scrap of brown for Harriet’s hair as she appears brunette in historical aviation photos, although they are black and white.  I am worried about the small size of the flying goggles and am considering fussy cutting some bubble fabric I have on hand.  Finally, I would like to stay true to Harriet’s self-designed purple satin hooded flying suit and I just happen to have a scrap of purple satin from a Halloween jester costume.  Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

Career/Hobbies Block Evolution

I am designing the block to represent the past, present, and future of Career/Hobbies in Troop 62019’s GIRLtopia vision.  I knew I wanted to integrate a historical female hobby (knitting) with a courageous woman from the past who broke the stereotypical career image.  I  stumbled upon Harriet Quimby (see earlier posts).  You girls are studying hard in school in preparation for careers that quite possibly have not even been invented yet!

• Sketch #1:  I knew that I wanted to use applique and needed a simplistic airplane.  Although I fell in love with my concept, the airplane looks too childish and is not the style flown by Harriet Quimby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Sketch #2:  I liked the airplane in this sketch better, but needed to do something about making the image global and forward thinking.

 

 

 

 

 

• Sketch #3:  The art teachers where I work, partially sketched the ball of yarn with the suggestion that the yarn could also be the globe.  How cool is that!?

 

 

 

 

 

Next week we will shop for our colors and we agreed to use green sashing and a cream or beige background.  (We also agreed a spot of red would set off the green and further unify our blocks.)  I know that Harriet Quimby wore a purple flying suit so I would like to incorporate that color as well.  Where do you think I should use the green from the sashing in the block?  What part should I make red?  Does anyone have any other suggestions for me?  I am looking forward to our shopping trip next week.

Harriet Quimby

Did you know that Harriet Quimby was the first licensed female pilot in the United States?  A world-traveler author, she designed a purple satin jumpsuit designed for female aviators and was 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 combat missions.  Flying not your thing?  Well, there are plenty of opportunities for working in the aviation industry but few women to fill those positions.