English Tea Quilt

My latest quilt is complete. I call it “English Tea.”

After selecting the material, cutting the fabric was one day. Sewing the quilt top was one day. Selecting the boarder fabric and adding was one day. Quilting was one day. Binding was one day. It was a total of five days work for this beautiful quilt.

The combining of fabrics to create a quilt is fabric art, an American women’s tradition. Privileged I’ve been to share a bit of my quilting experience with the next generation of girls who are interested in learning about the art, and the skills required. As with all women’s work, this too is undervalued and teaching a dying art brings nothing but smiles on the faces of the girls who conquer the skill and create their own fabric art.

Value of Volunteering

The value of Volunteering in life is directly relational to the project to which we volunteer. Volunteering for a mandated number of hours has its value, perhaps to alleviate some penalty. This volunteering is good but it’s not out of desire to do good works, it’s from the desire to avoid penalty.

Volunteering as a responsibility to our community or out of desire just to be of service creates the most value because the motivation is positive to positive. The positive, not avoiding penalty plus the positive of the action creates a greater good.

Particular to this thought is the need for mentors, whether the mentorship within a business situation or for youth in the community. Mentors or Masters are necessary so society moves forward. If the new or young people to a trade or craft are always reinventing the wheel, we as society fail to move forward from our current status.

4H was introduced a little over a hundred years ago via the University Extension Services to help boys with growing crops and girls with canning produce. Since that time 4H has expanded into all areas of farm and animal husbandry as well as technology, science, art, crafts, public speaking, theater arts, and more.

I am privileged to mentor several girls through the learning process of quilting. This uniquely American textile art which was once part of most women’s creative outlet has waned in the last 50 years.

Recently, there has been increased interest in the art. With few mentors in the craft, I’m pleased to share the joy of creating beautiful and useful items.

It came to my attention that many volunteer projects are creating a difficulty by taking what was a paid position and making it a volunteer job or internship. I’m not taking anyone’s job by volunteering in this way. In fact, much of what was considered women’s work, aka unpaid, is just not done. The field is wide open to volunteer in what past centuries labeled as women’s work. These venues of volunteerism are still available, still necessary. They are the fabric of our society.

The fact is many of the ways in which our foremothers related with one another, supported each other and the greater society are just what we find lacking in today’s world. It could be considered nostalgic by the uncreative, but I beg to differ. The remnants of a once great textile industry are ready for resurgence but we need society to value the creation of hand-made items as well as the value the volunteers who pass on such knowledge.

4H is an excellent program for youth. It provides learning experience for young people in a many different fields of knowledge. It also provides the opportunity to share sports, crafts, gardening, animal and technological knowledge with the next generation.

http://www.4-h.org/

American Quilts

Some of the oldest quilted items in museums today are in Egypt and Sicily, these items were created in their entirety. What makes American quilts unique is that women created them out of bits and pieces utilizing scraps which later developed into the American Quilt we know today.

Each quilt begins with a variety of color complimentary fabrics which allows the quilter to imagine patterns and designs to create a unique item. Handmade, each quilt has variations which can be delightfully individual and hopefully pleasing to the eye.

A remnant for the aesthetics movement, quilts are both useful and beautiful. Depending upon the level of detail in the design and the skill of the quilter, quilts can be created in as little as a few hours.

Creating sample miniature designs hearkens back to an era when large Manors were first made in miniature for architectural approval. If approved by the Master then the miniature house was finished and given to the children as a house warming gift.

Small samples of larger items were also created as sales aids throughout the frontier era. A smaller version of large equipment or furniture designs traveled with the sales men by train across the country. Salesmen sent orders back East for the full-size version.

Today, as I completed one section of a full size quilt, I noticed the scraps were large enough to create a miniature just right for a toy-size comfort quilt.



Resources for Dollhouses and Miniatures: http://www.achildatheart.com/