Why We Quilt: Contemporary Makers Speak Out about the Power of Art, Activism, Community, and Creativity by Thomas Knauer

When a stranger learns that I make quilts I am told stories about grandmothers who made quilts. You can see in their eyes the warm memories they hold dear of sleeping under grandma's quilt, or draping a quilt over a table to build a sleeping tent, or carrying it to some shady park for a picnic. Quilts are made to be used. And they are often used up, like the one my mother-in-law gifted us in the 1980s, sun-bleached with one fabric completely decayed.

Some quilts are so precious they are folded away and stored in a closet or a cedar chest.

Dresden Plate made by Carrie Bobb, my great-aunt

Single Wedding Ring made by Harriet Scoville Nelson,
my husband's great-great-grandmother, stored in a cedar chest

Every quilt is also the product of its creator's love of beauty and design, a tactile work of art, the quilter selecting colors and prints and designs.

Never used quilt purchased at a flea market
made by a Detroit quiltmaker

Quilts can be born out of frugality, using up and preserving, fabrics, like the first quilt my mother-in-law made for my husband to take to college using fabric scraps from curtains and pajamas and clothing she had made. Quilts are no longer items of necessity as during the Depression, a need to repurpose precious fabrics for warmth. But we love fabrics that come with a memory.

Scrap quilt made by my mother-in-law for my husband

Family photo quilt I made for my father

My third quilt was made for my son

Quilts symbolize values held by the maker, from love of family to love of country, from a symbol of healing to a symbol of protest. They represent a choice for the hand-made and the unique over the impersonal and factory manufactured.

With my quilt, I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet, featuring women
Abolitionists and Civil Rights leaders, at 2013 AQS Grand Rapids, MI

Quilts tell a story. Quilts can change our perception. Quilts are comfort. Quilts connect us with each other even when separated by time and space.

My latest quilt The Bronte Sisters uses Jane Sassaman fabrics
From my series of quilts celebrating literature

Quilts are created for joy, and for protest. They are vehicles for self-expression, sharing what we love and what we fear. Quilts are personal and they are communal. They are to be used today and to be preserved for future generations.

No one description can explain a quilt.

detail of a quilt from Detroit, MI found at a flea market

*****

Thomas Knauer grew up in Amish country, an area associated with quilting, but his first personal encounter with quilts was the AIDS Memorial Quilt, opening his eyes to the many uses quilting can assume. A contract to design quilting fabric finally led him to make his first quilt. Knauer learned first hand of the power of quilts when he gave that quilt to his daughter, whose reaction of excitement and love impelled him to make more quilts.

Knauer's protest quilts make us uncomfortable. Like the Trayvon Martin quilt based on a shooting target, Tea and Skittles and the Sunbonnet Sues carting AK-47s in One Child is too Many. I personally respond to quilts of protest as much as respond to antique quilts or contemporary quilts made to be used.

from Playing With a Purpose by Victoria Findlay Wolfe
my review here

Why We Quilt addresses the many motivations behind creativity in the quilt world. Artist Statements are illustrated with photographs of the quilter's work.  Voice of Quilting offers insights into the most important quilters of today, from traditionalists to innovative art quilters, including Denyse Schmidt, Joe Cunningham, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Lynette Anderson, Mary Fons and Marianne Fons, and Chawne Kimber. Each chapter includes Quilting Vocab Explained, clarifying quilt concepts discussed in the chapter.

Knauer writes with love and emotion of the history of quilting, sharing antique and contemporary quilt photographs.

Joe Cunningham at CAMEO Quilt Guild 

Each chapter offers a deeper look into the reasons why we quilt:

• We Quilt to Connect with a Rich Tradition: The roots of American quilting
• We Quilt to Explore and Express our Creativity: The maturation of quilting
• We Quilt to Move Beyond Modern Consumer Culture: The Introduction of Standardization
• We Quilt to Create a Connection with Loved Ones: Other voices in American quilting
• We Quilt to Change the World: The role of signature quilts in reform movements
• We Quilt Because We Can--and Because We Cannot Help but Do So: The American Bicentennial and Quilting's great revival

Why We Quilt is a beautiful book. There is a wonderful diversity and range of quilts and quilters. Quiltmakers will find kindred spirits. As a quiltmaker who loves both traditional and antique quilts and contemporary quilts, especially those that address contemporary issues of justice, I found much to enjoy. Each time I open the book I find something to inspire.

In the end, what draws me to quilts--and indeed what I think makes them relevant in the twenty-first century--is the sense that quilts are an archaic item that's no longer materially necessary. Today quilting is neither an expected practice nor a basic practicality; it is a conspicuous choice. Quilts are not about material need but instead fulfill other needs, personal needs that are unique to each quilter. For me quilts offer a vehicle for protest, a means for venting my outrage. For others they offer a step away from the same world my quilts comment upon. Either way, I think quilts remain relevant and will continue to do so, precisely because we do not need them but rather want them. ~ from Why We Quilt by Thomas Knauer

I received access to a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Find Thomas Knauer's blog here
Learn more about Knauer's career at Thomas Knauer 
Read about Knauer's previous book The Quilt Design Coloring Book here

Why We Quilt
by Thomas Knauer
Storey Publishing
October 15, 2019
Price: $29.95 Hardback
ISBN: 9781635860337

The Adventures of the Peculiar Protocal by Nicholas Meyer

Nicholas Meyer presents us with another 'newly discovered' Sherlock Holmes case from Dr. Watson's diaries in The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols. Mycroft Holmes summons his brother Sherlock Holmes to investigate a murder and a document being circulated that warns that a secret group is bent on taking over the world. The document appears to be part of a conspiracy to foment and spur trouble.

My husband and I both read The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer when it came out in 1974. He offered a new view of the perpetually popular Sherlock Holmes. Later my brother shared his copy of Meyer's third Holmes mystery, The West End Horror. I thought this would be a fun read.

Soon after I got into the book I discovered this story is more than entertainment. The story of a secret group is 'fake news' being used for political purposes.

Now, where have we heard that story before?

It is 1905 and Watson is married to a suffragette and has built a practice. Holmes notes that crimes are getting bigger. Electric lights are replacing gas. There is an uprising in Russia and Czar Nicholas is struggling to maintain control. The Jews are looking for a homeland, perhaps in Uganda.

Holmes, of course, needs Watson's assistance; they are not so sure about the help of a female radical socialist, Anna Strunsky. Her beauty alone is problematic for the married Watson. Watson's wife made him pledge to end to his risky adventures with Holmes. Will his marriage survive--or his practice? But this is no regular murder investigation; behind the murder is a plot that will set Europe careening into mass hysteria and death.

The three make a journey on the Orient Express to Odessa, Russia. Proving the document a fake is essential. Thousands of lives hang in the balance. Or is it already too late? Once fake news is in the world, it tends to stay there.

People love to place blame on something concrete, some 'other' as the source of their problems.

This is a fun read, filled with historical references and events, political intrigue, a kidnapping, and an expansion of the classic characters of Watson and Holmes. But the underlying message is serious, chilling, and sadly, timeless.

I was granted access to a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols: Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D.
by Nicholas Meyer
St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books
Pub Date 15 Oct 2019 
ISBN 9781250228956
PRICE $25.99 (USD)

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

I purchased Angie Kim's Miracle Creek at Barnes and Nobel's #Blowout sale. I had heard so much good buzz about the novel! I was not disappointed.

A Korean immigrant family endeavors to the American dream when a tragic accident causes the death of a woman and a child and disfigures several others. Now, the party guilty of causing the accident is being sought in court.

Not only is the novel a well-paced and well-written courtroom drama, and the characters unique and vivid, the slow revelation of the truth makes for page-turning, engrossed reading.

Timely and timeless issues are central: the immigrant experience, assimilating and reaching for the American dream; the awesome burden of care and love carried by parents of special needs Autistic children; how infertility strains a marriage; the secrets we keep; how frustration and anger and guilt we feel drive us to lash out in actions contrary to our nature.

"...that was the thing about lying: you had to throw in occasional kernels of shameful truths to serve as decoys for the things you really needed to hide."~from Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

Everyone is lying. They lie to hide their sins, they lie to protect their loved ones, they lie out of fear, and they lie to themselves.

Everyone is guilty, contributing to the series of events that caused death and permanent bodily harm and psychological damage.

Some are more guilty than others. Someone lit the fire.

Punishments are not in balance with guilt. The innocent of crimes hold the personal guilt of falling short of their high standards of perfection and inflect their own penalty. A horrible crime goes unpunished.

Miracle Creek is a fantastic read and an amazing debut novel. I will eagerly await more from Kim.

I will recommend this to my book club!

Helen Korngold Diary: October 6-12, 1919

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

Helen is enjoying her temporary teaching job at Maplewood High School.

October

Monday 6

At it again. I certainly like it.

Tuesday 7

Too bad Sudie likes this job. I like it too.

Wednesday 8

Getting along fine

Thursday 9

There are some [illegible] that are in that Soph class, but all the others are dear.

Friday 10

This was a fine day. Good lessons & senior dance. Danced with the principal & some of the classy boys & girls.

Saturday 11

I certainly liked this school.

Sunday 12

Satellites – Ed Stiff

Notes:

October 11

On March 2 of the year, Helen went to Temple Society with Ed Stiff (b. 1895).

In the news:

On October 2, 1919, President Wilson was found by his second wife Edith after he suffered a stroke. The newspapers reported that he was doing fine when actually Wilson was totally incapacitated. "The president had a good night's sleep," Rear Admiral Grayson reported to the paper. "His condition is favorable." On October 6, Wilson was reported as "Eager to Return to Work."

It was an outright lie. In fact, Edith ran the country until Wilson's term of office ended in 1921.

Oct. 11, 1919, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, fashion sketches from the Veiled Prophet's Debutant ball Organized in 1878, the social group patterned their ball after Mardi Gras. 

In 1919 the Queen was Marian Franciscus.

An October 7, 1919, St. Louis Post-Dispatch article avers that women are more beautiful without corsets.

"The first physician with whom I talked was pretty, blue-eyed, blonde-haired Dr. Radmila Lazarewitch, representing Serbia at the conference. Her husband is attached to the Serbian Legation in Washington. "Women," she said, "are not only more healthy without corsets; they are more beautiful and charming. That is why I do not believe they should be put on any healthy young girl. If the corset is to be worn at all, it should be by the fat woman of forty who is not strong enough to hold herself properly, or by the woman who has had an operation and whose muscles have not regained their strength and elasticity. Think for how many hundreds of years women lived without corsets before they were invented!"

Dr. Lazarewitch went on to explain how exercise and good posture can help women keep an attractive shape." 

Show and Tell Finds: an 1889 Sampler, a Children's Ecology Quilt, and Library Quilts

It's always interesting to see what the Clawson Quilting Sisters bring to Show-and-Tell sharing time!

Sue Baker brought a family heirloom dating to 1889--a sampler made by her grandmother Jane Tesen "in her eleventh year." It is in the original frame made by her Grandfather Tesen. Sue says she has furniture he made in the same wood.

Jane Jarvis Davey In The 11th Year of her Age
Save One Another
Blessed are the meek

Sophia Jane 'Jennie' Davey was born January 25, 1878, in St Austell, Cornwall, England to father Henry and mother Harriett. Jane made this sampler as a child living in Cornwall, England.

She was married three times and had two sons and three daughters. Jane died on July 24, 1956, in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Jane immigrated to America in 1894. On March 8,1898 in Port Orange, NY, Jane married Joshua Ivy (born 2/1818). Josh was born in Morris N.J. to James Ivey (born in England); he appears on the 1880 US Federal Census as a miner.

The 1900 US census in Franklin, Houghton, MI shows Josh worked as a copper miner. They later had children Harry and Betty. On December 12, 1905, Jane was granted an absolute divorce on the grounds of desertion. The 1910 US Federal Census for Dawson, MT shows Josh Ivey, 35 years old, working as a hired man on a ranch. It is likely this is Jane's husband as he was born in New Jersey to English-born parents!

On February 8, 1906, Jane married Arthur Geach in Ontonagon, MI. Jane was working as a domestic and Arthur was a miner. They had children John Lyne, Celeste Lillian, and William Arthur.

In 1910 the census shows they lived in Calumet, MI. Sue told me that her husband worked in the copper mine in Calumet. Arthur's WWI draft card shows he worked for the C&H Mining Company. His WWII Draft Card shows he worked at the Ford Motor Company Rouge Plant.

In 1920, Jane was living in Detroit where Arthur was a pipefitter in a factory, and in 1923 divorced him for 'non-support.' 1923 also saw the death of Jane's son Harry Ivey at age 21 in a mine accident. Harry and Arthur had gone to West Virginia to help start a mine. I expect the accident caused the divorce.

In 1924 Jane and Arthur remarried in Kanawa, West Virginia. I can't find their divorce. Arthur died in December 1942 of diabetes. He had been working for Ford as a machinist and lived in Dearborn, MI.

In 1926 Jane married Adolph Tesen in Kanawa, West Virginia. Adolph was a Norwegian immigrant who worked in the copper mines as a master carpenter. When a friend went to West Virginia to start a mine there he asked Adolph to be his carpenter. Jane did not care for W.V. She and her children returned to Detroit and the couple lived apart.

In 1930, Jane and Adolph were living with Jane's daughter Betty and her husband Francis Harrington. Also in the house was Betty's daughter Betty and two of her siblings, Celeste and William. Francis was a machinist in an auto plant, Betty sold hosiery, Celeste worked in advertising for a newspaper, and Adolph was unemployed. Adolph later returned to West Virginia while his Jane remained in Detroit. They remained separated.

A 1940 census shows Jane S. Tesen, age 61, married, and born in England, living in Detroit, MI. She had lived there for five years. She had an 8th grad education. She is listed as "mother-in-law." This is a mystery as the person next to her on the census does not appear to be someone from the family tree--Frank Valentine, age 61, was a debt collector for and an insurance company. 

Sue told me how her grandmother had thirteen pregnancies and seven living children. One child contracted polio. One died of Diptheria and another choked on a collar button. Her son Harry was killed in a mine explosion.

It is so interesting to think about the life ahead of the eleven-year-old girl who stitched that sample in Cornwall, England.

+++++

Tammy Porath shared a quilt she found for a few dollars. The blocks were all hand-painted or colored by children from across the world! Each block has an ecological theme. A block is dated 2005.

Peabody School, Wash. D.C. This elementary school is the early childhood campus of the Capitol Hill Cluster School with an arts integration focus.

Tierra del Sol Middle School, Lakeside, CA near San Diego CA. Danae Bacca. 2005. They are labeled a School of Arts and Sciences.

 Kakadu National Park, NT (Northern Territory of New Zealand) Ross Smith, S. A. [South Austrailia], Melissa

 [illegible, perhaps Jobary Golator] Placerville, CA

Save the Whales. The Oysters respond, Save me! Save me too!
Carrie Charleston, Washingtonville, NY

 Maddison, Forbes, Australia

 Allison, Lakes Middle School, Millsbury, OH

 Upper right, Adam Collister Elementary, Boise, ID

Miaya V. Hazeldale Ele., Sch., Aloha, OR; Jason Project Disappearing Wetlands, Berri Primary School, South Australia, by Kim. "Focusing on the diminishing marshes and swamps of the Louisiana bayou, "Disappearing Wetlands" utilizes NASA satellite imagery as it helps students better understand what wetlands are, why they are disappearing, and how to improve ecosystems management."

Cassie Loman; Daniel, Renwood Elem., Parma, OH, USA; Lia V., Fulmar Road School, Mahopac, New York; Ocean/River with Wetlands, Ocean/River without Wetlands.

Zach, Greenfield OH, USA; Tierra del Sol Middle School, Lakeside CA, near San Diego, CA, Danae Becca, 2005.

 on right, Hadley, Wichita, KS

*****

Our local library monthly quilt show this month has taken over the display cabinet! Theresa Nielson's wool applique is hanging there!

My wall hanging, below, uses vintage embroidery and a doily, beading, and my mother-in-law's counted cross stitch in the center.

Joanne Brown's original quilt was made for last year's ugly fabric challenge. 

Cathy Woodward teaches English; her quilt is For the Love of Books.

*****

My show-and-tell was my Winter Houses quilt, quilted and bound at last!

Archaeology From Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past by Sarah Parcak

"Empires fall but people rise."~ from Archeology From Space by Sarah Parcak

Perhaps it was the old National Geographics that Dad kept in the basement on a shelf, ordered by month and year. When I was bored I would go down and grab a dozen to read. I loved articles about Egypt and the evolution of mankind.

Or perhaps it was the big Time-Life book about early humans in the living room magazine rack. Or Gods, Graves, and Scholars which I read over and over as a teen.

By the time I took anthropology classes at college I was already long interested in humanity's distant past. I still enjoy reading articles about the latest finds and discoveries.

For Sarah Parcak, Indiana Jones in The Raiders of the Lost Ark fired her imagination. When she met Harrison Ford she brandished her fedora. (Hopefully, she never stapled it to her head to keep it on like Ford had to while filming!)

Parcak's grandfather was a WWII veteran of the 101st Airborne Division with a Ph.D. in forestry. He used aerial photography in his research.

Now Parcak is an archaeologist like Indy and uses space shots of Earth in her research. Archaeology from Space is the exciting story of how this cutting-edge technique helped her to discover thousands of previously unknown archeological sites, leading to new understandings of who we are by studying who we have been in the past.

I was enthralled by Parcak's imagining the life of an ancient Egyptian woman, spinning her story out of the excavated bones found at Tell Ibrahim Awad in Egypt.

She tells of the ups and downs of Egyptian empires to show how resilient humans are noting, "We've survived for over 200,000 years, and that's a decent track record." Yes, climate change is going to bring unimaginable challenges and disasters, but humans will survive.

Understanding how we have survived in the past helps us to understand--and affirm--our strengths. But sadly, looting has destroyed unstudied archeological sites all over the world. She describes landscapes littered with bones, mummy linens, and shards. The looted artifacts are sold online. Even the Christian founder of the craft and decor chain Hobby Lobby knowingly purchases stolen artifacts.

Parcak predicts all sites will be looted by mid-century. It is imperative to protect them. Her winning TED mission statement led to her creation of GlobalXplorer which gives the public a chance to participate in the important work of identifying unknown archeological sites using satellite imagery.

This is more than a book about digging around for the past; it's about the challenges of being a woman in archeology, envisioning new technologies, and how humans can use to past to better face the future.

I received a book from the publisher through LibraryThing. My review is fair and unbiased.

Archeology From Space
by Sarah Parcak
Henry Holt
Publication July 2019
$28 hardcover
ISBN: 978-1250198280

Tidal Flats by Cynthia Newberry Martin

I have been reading Cynthia Newberry Martin's blog How We Spend Our Days for several years and when she announced the publication of a novel I knew I would read it for I loved her quiet elegance and unique style.

I read Tidal Flats in two sittings; had I started it earlier in the day I would have read it in one!

"Up ahead she was surprised to see that the rocks veered quite dramatically to the left. When they'd started out, it had looked like a straight shot."~ from Tidal Flats by Cynthia Newberry Martin

After meeting Ethan, Cass has one future in mind: just her and Ethan together, forever. Ethan is an intrepid photographer who works in Afghanistan, his photographs featured on national magazines, indelibly etched images that include a portrait of the amber-eyed Afghani woman Setara.

Ethan needs Cass and he needs Afghanistan. Cass needs only Ethan. On the tidal flats one wet morning, Cass following Ethan across the treacherous rocks, they make a pact: Ethan will work three more years abroad, and Cass will consider having a child.

They marry and Cass waits at home alone, aware she can never have a child, knowing that events in her past have shut the door on any future as a mother.

Cass spends her days working at a home for elderly women where her soul is fed, a place that is better for her being there. The women have much to teach Cass.  "Look for the good things," she is told, "Your heart may surprise you some day." And, "Plans are good, but life is the thing. Living. And dancing even when the music changes."

Cass counts the days until Ethan is pledged to stay by her side, agonizing over her inability to agree to children. Life veers off her planned path when Ethan's fidelity becomes suspect.

"Like that ride where you swirl so fast, you stick to the side, the bottom falls out, and you're free."~from Tidal Flats by Cynthia Newberry Martin

As Cass wrestles with the demons of her past and the uncertainties of her present, she must decide what kind of future she wants to choose for herself: sticking to her plan or learning to forgive and embrace the life she may not want, but needs.

This haunting novel is a memorable read.

Praise for Tidal Flats:"Cynthia Newberry Martin is a tremendous writer, with a Woolfian talent for taking the full measure of small moments. Her work is both subtle and revelatory, and I've been waiting a long time for this book." ―Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers and Music for Wartime.
"For once, a novel of big ideas that is also filled with bold and uncommon events. In Tidal Flats, Cynthia Newberry Martin, a storyteller at the top of her game, creates a universe of betrayal, compassion, and regret in which two people’s love for each other is surpassed only by their loyalty to their convictions. I was glued to the page." ―Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

Tidal Flats
by Cynthia Newberry Martin
Bonhomie Press
ISBN 9781732676824
$26.95 hardcover, $9.89 Kindle