A Gift of Handkerchiefs

Last Sunday a friend gave me her mother's handkerchiefs. She had seen my handkerchief quilts on my blog. She kept the ones she remembers her mother using, mostly white linen with tatting. These are a nice selection of typical mid-century handkerchiefs.

You can't see it well in the photo, but the background on the red roses has white on white scenes of Paris!

God, Faith, and Onions

I finished reading The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, considered one of the best novels of all time. Several months ago I finished an equally thick book, American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. It has won the Hugo and Nebula awards.

Dostoevsky is a favorite writer of Pope Francis. The Brothers Karamazov was cited in a recent New York Times article as an example of literature that teaches readers to better understand human nature. Gaiman is a contemporary fantasy writer, and American Gods is considered his masterpiece so far. People either love it, or they hate it.

Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov is a family drama about a man and his three sons. The father is murdered, and the eldest son is accused of the murder.

Father Karamazov is a reprehensible drunk and womanizer who married two woman and raped another, fathering four sons. The women died of neglect, and his children only survived because maternal relatives rescued them. He does have a way with money, but has no intention of sharing it with his sons.

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As a girl I loved the character of Alyosha, the youngest brother who leaves the monastery to serve the needs of his troubled family. He knows he shares his family's tumultuous character and does not hold himself above them.

Some of the most beautiful language in the book surrounds Alyosha's mystic transformation when he grapples with his faith. His spiritual father, Father Zossima, has died but his sainthood is questioned when the corpse begins to smell.

Alyosha's faith crisis leads him to Grushenka, who had been seduced as a girl, abandoned by her family, and taken as a mistress of an older rich man who teaches her the money lending business. She had planned to corrupt the high minded young monk. Alyosha calls her sister, an act that begins her redemption. She tells him an old Russian folk tale about sufferers in Hell crying for release. They are asked what one good deed they had ever done. A woman says she once gave an onion to a starving person. The angel holds the onion to the woman, who grasps it and is raised from her torment. Grushenka tells Alyosha he has held to her an onion and has saved her.

From this they both experience a new found self-identity and faith. Alyosha returns to the monastery and in prayer vigil over Father Zossima has a dream. He wakes and runs outdoors:

 "...his soul, overflowing with rapture, yearned for freedom, space, openness. The vault of heaven, full of soft shining stars, stretched vast and fathomless above him. The Milky Way ran in two pale streams from the zenith to the horizon. The fresh, motionless, still night enfolded the earth. The white towers and golden domes of the cathedral gleamed out against the sapphire sky. The gorgeous autumn flowers, in the beds round the house, were slumbering till morning. The silence of the earth seemed to melt into the silence of the heavens. The mystery of earth was one with the mystery of the stars..."

Alyosha throws himself to the earth in sobbing and rapture, an ecstasy from experiencing "threads from all those innumerable worlds of God, linking his soul to them, and it was trembling all over "in contact with other worlds." He longed to forgive every one and for everything and to beg forgiveness. Oh, not for himself, but for all men, for all and everything." 

Father Zossima had told Alyosha his place is in the world, helping his brothers. Alyosha leaves the sanctuary of the monastery and puts on European dress to find his true calling.
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Ivan is Alyosha's elder brother. Their mother turned to a fervent faith in her despair over her husband's treatment. Ivan is a nihilist, influenced by European thought of the time, and believes that 'everything is lawful'. Ivan and Katrina, Dimitri's fiance, fall in love. But she is too proud to admit it, and sticks to Dimitri even when he rejects her for Grushenka. Her 'love' for Dimitri is only pride, for when she had offered her body for his financial help to aid her father, he gave her the money without exacting the payment of her virginity.

Ivan's 'poem' The Grand Inquisitor, told to Alyosha, is the most famous scene in the book. Here is Sir John Gielgud as the Inquisitor  performing the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om6HcUUa8DI. The message is that mankind does not want freedom or free will, but only to be fed, and so God/Jesus Christ chose a path to failure. Ivan grapples with his complicity in his father's murder, and lapses into brain fever, conversing with the Devil. 

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Dimitri is the oldest brother whose military career has been curtailed by his proliferate life and anger management problems. He shares his father's appetites, yet holds a high sense of honor. After his mother's death he is rescued by the family servant Grigory who takes care of him until his mother's cousin takes him in. Dimitri only meets his father again when he comes of age and returns to claim his mother's inheritance. He meets his father's business partner Gruskenka and falls in lust for her. But his father offers Dimitri's inheritance to Grushenka if she comes to his bed. Gruskenka toys with them both, holding on to a girl's fantasy of her seducer returning like a white knight to rescue her. An epic battle begins.

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The last brother, Smerdykov, is an illegitimate son fathered on the village idiot and brought into the household by the childless servant Grigory. He has epilepsy, as did Dostoevsky. He tries to gain Ivan's approval, and covertly suggests a plan to kill their father and steal the money set aside for Grushenka's favors. 

The father is murdered, and all evidence points to Dimitri who had publicly raged his hate against his father. His brothers and the two women who loved him waffle over their belief in his innocence...except Alyosha who totally believes Dimitri could not have murdered his own father.
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The book is about the trial and outcome. It is about the inner souls of these brothers. It is about women who prefer self-laceration to love. It is about faith and God and the church. It is about big ideas.

One of the street boys tells Alyosha, "God is only a hypothesis, but...I admit that He is needed...for the order of the universe and all that...and that if there were no God he would have to be invented." Alyosha chides that he has only repeating what he has heard. 

"Come, you want obedience and mysticism, " the boy answers, "You must admit that the Christian religion, for instance, had only been of use to the rich and powerful to keep the lower classes in slavery." 

"You know, Kolya, you will be very unhappy in your life," Alyosha warns.
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If the Grand Inquisitor believes humans create their own preferred gods, Neil Gaiman's book asks what happens to gods when people no longer believe in them.

The main character, Shadow, is an ex-con with nothing left to lose when he agrees to be chauffeur to the god Odin, who is trying to organize the Old Gods from Europe and Native America for an epic battle against Mr. Town and the New Age Gods.

"Religions are, by definition, metaphors after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you--even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers and triumphs over all opposition. Religions are places to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world...So, none of this is happening." So says the authorial voice before the battle.

But Shadow thinks, "People believe...It's what people do. They believe. And then they will not take responsibility for their beliefs; they conjure things, and do not trust the conjurations. People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. people imagine, and people believe: and it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen."

Odin asks Shadow to undergo a self sacrificial ritual after his death, where he is hung on the World Tree. Shadow learns that his whole life was orchestrated for this purpose. He was born and raised to be the sacrificial son for the father's resurrection.
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These books move us to consider what we believe individually and corporately as a country or a religious community. What gods do we worship, and keep alive by that worship? The new mythologies change--Nihilism and Science to Psychology to Consumerism. Have the old gods died? And what is faith, what people want, a temporary and changeable commodity? Is Free Will a stumbling block that eclipses God? Or do we yearn for certainties and blind faith as a retreat from the horrors of our choices?
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Father Zossima sends Alyosha down from the mountaintop communion with God into the world. The novel ends with a rallying cry that we may become the most degraded of people, but that one moment of true love for another can be our salvation.

All we need is to give one onion.

Butterick Paris 1932 Fashion Pattern Catalog

Many years ago I picked up this catalog at a flea market in Allen, MI. It cost me $2.50!

It is dirty but all the pages are intact. In the back was a collection of a girl's paper dolls, made up of cut out fashion illustrations from other catalogs.

Fashions included masculine style sportswear, such as Katherine Hepburn wore. Trousers were wide legged and high waisted--yet were considered "narrower legged than before. The silhouette was slim, with a defined waist. "Today our skirt is as slim as a match stick--well, almost--and our shoulders are broad." Five o'clock frocks were "very dressy afternoon dresses with jackets" in a "regular" dress length. Jacket dresses were fitted and in length hit a few inches belong the hipbone. The new bathing suits were "just a pair of jersey shorts and a matching jersey Brassiere!"

Coat collars were smartly worn up. Buttons were used freely as trims. Navy gloves were the newest rage, along with berets pulled over one eye. Necklines were interesting, making necklaces superfluous, but bracelets and earrings were essential.

 Golf clothes were sporty slender dresses worn with comfortable shoes.

One pages boasts, "Fabrics You Can See Through will See You Smartly Through Summer." The dresses were made of heavy sheer crepe, georgette, triple layers of chiffon, and heavy silk.

Evening gowns were not to be longer than the instep length. They had high or low necks, with  bare arms and exposed shoulders.

"All Paris is wearing suits with high waistline skirts". The left style was called "the new gigolo style."

The patterns sold for a quarter "for the Depressed Purse" or for thirty-five cents as "aids for Broken Down Bank Books."

The fabrics of the season included:

• Novelty Mesh, especially a white with bumpy black thread running through it in a check pattern. 
• Dotted Lawn with red and blue dots on a white ground
• Colonial prints on voile
• Handkerchief Linen printed with polka dots
• Amurise, a waffle weave for sportswear
• Pique for tailored cotton dresses, suggested in tan, orange, or yellow
• Printed Crepe in geometric patterns
• Cotton Shantung for pajamas in red polka-dots on white
• Pajama Cloth, a Bemberg that looks like wool but was cool and washable for sportswear
• Matuca, a lightweight silk for spectator sportswear
• Printed Crepe in a "town print" of navy blue with white print
• Triple Sheer in black for evening wear
• Irish Lace in red for a "gay summer dress"
• Ribbed Cottons 
• Sheer Woven Check for summer suits
• Bedford Cord, "an old timer," for coats and suits
• Seersucker, "ridiculous name!", "one of our smartest cottons!"

Color were blue, midnight blue, bright navy, and pale flax. Also yellow and lots of red and orange. For evening wear, they preferred white, with black, pink, and blue following.

The Summer Bride wanted a wedding gown in satin and lace, or silk crepe or taffeta. They were fitted, and could include a peplum, lace jacket, and a sheer long veil. Orange blossoms, white orchids, gardenias, roses, lilies of the valley, white lilacs and sweet peas were preferred flowers.

I love this hosiery ad on the inside back cover! But it looks dated in comparison to the fashions inside.

Peggy Cloth Book from 1947

I found this cloth book at the Royal Oak, MI flea market. It was badly stained but priced right. I used my Adobe Photoshop program to clean the pictures up. As I was working on it, I realized it was very, very familiar. If it had been mine as a baby, I would not remember it. But if I had read it to my younger brother that is a different story. I sure remember playing a lot of patty cake with my brother as his name starts with a "T" --Tommy!

This is how the cloth book cover looks photographed:

And these are how the illustrations look after I Photo-shopped them:

Love Entwined and a New Embroidery Project!

I have been working on Esther Aliu's Love Entwined applique project. Esther designed a pattern for a remarkable 1790 quilt that appears in Avril Colby's book Patchwork Quilts, and until recently was lost to time. She only had a black and white photograph to work with. Esther has been able to locate the quilt and the Yahoo group making this pattern are encouraging the owner to exhibit it.

There are literally hundreds of people making Love Entwined, and hundreds of different interpretations in color and fabric choices. I found a lovely green for the background and am using fabrics from my stash for the applique. I have a polka dot theme going on in my fabric choices.

You can find out more about Esther at her blog http://estheraliu.blogspot.com/ or join the Yahoo group working on this block of the month pattern at http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/estheraliubom/info

I also started an embroidery project. I created original designs for The Wizard of Oz! Here are the completed blocks. I hope to make this quilt pattern available on my Etsy store, Rosemont Needle Arts. I have finished The Scarcrow and Glenda the Good Witch. I am working on Dorothy and Toto, with The Cowardly Lion, The Tin Man, and The Wicked Witch of the West waiting for me to get to them.

The Brothers Karamozov Will Improve Your Social Intelligence

"In literary fiction, like Dostoyevsky, “there is no single, overarching authorial voice,” he said. “Each character presents a different version of reality, and they aren’t necessarily reliable. You have to participate as a reader in this dialectic, which is really something you have to do in real life.”

A article in the New York Times reports on a study conducted by social psychologists at the New School for Social Research in New York City where volunteers were given literay fiction, popular fiction, and non-fiction to read. The readers were then fiven tests that measure people’s ability to decode emotions or predict a person’s expectations or beliefs in a particular scenario.The results were startling. As reported in the article, written by Pam Belluck,

"The researchers — Emanuele Castano, a psychology professor, and David Comer Kidd, a doctoral candidate — found that people who read literary fiction scored better than those who read popular fiction. This was true even though, when asked, subjects said they did not enjoy literary fiction as much. Literary fiction readers also scored better than nonfiction readers — and popular fiction readers made as many mistakes as people who read nothing."

"This is why I love science,” Louise Erdrich, whose novel “The Round House” was used in one of the experiments, wrote in an e-mail. The researchers, she said, “found a way to prove true the intangible benefits of literary fiction."

Erdrich later says, “Writers are often lonely obsessives, especially the literary ones. It’s nice to be told what we write is of social value,” she said. “However, I would still write even if novels were useless.”

"Experts said the results implied that people could be primed for social skills like empathy, just as watching a clip from a sad movie can make one feel more emotional," Belluck wrote. This is exciting news for all who enjoy literature. And a good reason to continue to include literature in education curriculums. It build better people. 

I read The Round House a few months ago, a wonderful book. And have been reading the Brothers Karamazov over the last few weeks, a book I first read in 1970 and have read at least four times since then. I have been reading literary fiction since Sixth Grade. I can't say if it has made me a better person. But the now have a test for that!

Sea Shanties

In 1978 I took a class in folklore and a fellow student told me about the Philadelphia Folk Song festival held in Schwenksville, PA every year. He worked at the show every summer. Gary and I went that summer and the also the following summer. It was like Woodstock but for folk music. You camped in a farm field. There were porta-potties, food stands, and pumps for water. Yes, there were people smoking funny cigarettes during the concerts. I found out about contact highs. You sat on the ground. None of which I would do today!

But the music!!! We saw Pete Seeger and Dave Brubeck. Taj Mahal and U. Utah Phillips. We saw Roberts and Barrand with traditional British folk, and Gordon Bok with American sea shanties and original songs about Maine and fishing. We saw Stan Rogers, a Canadian singer, and Priscilla Herdman whose voice was remarkable. And that is just some I recall right away.

Hearing Gordon Bok, Stand Rogers, and  Roberts and Barrand left us with a love for sea shanties.

Roll and Go, Songs of American Sailormen by Joanna C. Colcord, published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1924, was another book I found in the basement boxes.

Sea Shanties were basically work songs, often call and response with a leader or shantyman singing a solo and the chorus sung by the sailors.The oldest is probably "Haul on the Bowline"(pronounced bo-lin) perhaps in use in the reign of Henry VIII. The slow melody ends with a jerk as the men 'fall back' on the rope. 

Halliard Shanties were used for longer and heavier tasks, like hoisting sail. Blow the Man Down is a familiar example, with a chorus followed by "Give me some time to blow the man down!"

A favorite of ours was Reuben Ranzo, a mythical sailor who was quite a failure.We loved to sing along. In the end Ranzo learned navigation and married the captain's daughter. A fine end for a guy who was unable to do his duty and was flogged for it!

The Windlass or Capstan Shanty was for continual process work, like pulling and hauling. The author writes that it is a glorious thing to hear the chain clanking below in rhythm  to the shanty. The well beloved Shenandoah falls into this category.

One of my favorites is Lowlands, a song that has been through many changes. Gordon Bok sings a version that I love.

His version goes:

Lowlands, lowlands, away me boys,

I thought I heard the captain say

Don't go to sea no more.

A dollar a day is a sailors pay.

I also love "Leave Her, Johnny", a melodic and melancholy tune where the sailors complain about their treatment.

Forecastle Songs were shared at the end of the day, when the men gathered round with a fiddle or concertina. One old ballad we always loved was The Derby [or Darby] Ram, which was sung by John Roberts and Tony Barrand. It is a humorous song and quite fun. 

Perhaps the most memorable Forecastle song I learned was the ancient The Golden Vanity, which we first heard sung by Richard Dyer Bennett around 1973, along with the Turkish Revelry version. Many versions exist, but they all tell the story of a cabin boy who offers to sink the enemy ship for a price. The captain offers his daughter and a fortune. The boy takes an auger and sinks the enemy galley, then swims back and calls to be hauled back aboard. The heartless captain refuses to save a mass murderer! The cabin boy replies, "If it were not for my love for your daughter and your men/I would do unto you as I did unto them."And the cabin boy perishes in the sea. Here is Burl Ives' version:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aQdX9k4BmI

Hear clips of these and other sea shanties at Smithsonian Folkways: Hear a clip at Smithsonian Folkways: http://www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=4701 and also at http://www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=42557

Perhaps my first favorite shanty was Sloop John B, sung by the Beach Boys, and was one of the first 45 record i ever purchased. Now that dates me! I still find myself singing that song, especially "I feel so broke up, I wanna go home."