Happy Birthday, Jane Austen

In 1978 at Temple University I took an honors seminar on Jane Austen taught by Prof. Toby Olshin. I enrolled in the class because my first year at Temple, in a class on literary criticism, Prof. McFadden told us we should take three courses: the year long honors seminar on Austen, the honors seminar on James Joyce's Ulysses, and the course on John Milton. I took them all, and they were great classes but Olsen's Austen was the real life changer.

We read all of Jane's works, published and unpublished. Our small class of eight did a careful line-by-line reading. My textbooks are full of notes. The second semester covered her letters and juvenilia and her literary influences. I later bought an 1894 edition of Austen's complete works, including her letters. And later my husband gave me the Oxforn edition of her complete works.

Jane was not always the cultural phenomenon she is today. She had a modest following in her lifetime and some years afterwards. She pretty much fell off the radar then. Mark Twain disdained her! Her first rediscovery came a hundred years ago after her novels were republished, and a 1911 essay by A.C. Bradley brought Austen into the realm of academic study. With the rise of the Women's Movement, Jane's works were reevaluated and brought into new light.

Jane's second rediscovery came with movies based on her novels, and today she has Fan Fiction galore because we can't get enough of Jane. Darcy is a modern heartthrob!

I designed and made two quilts based on Pride and Prejudice, an applique and Redwork version. I wrote about them in a post some time ago. http://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2012/02/pride-and-prejudice-story-book-quilt.html

I have the patterns available on my Etsy store Rosemont Needle Arts.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RosemontNeedleArts?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Prof. Olshin helped us gain a full understanding of the world Jane lived in. We studied Georgian material culture and visited Philadelphia Georgian houses. When puce gloves were worn by a character, we knew what color they were. She was a Freudian, and brought depth psychology into our understanding of the novels, including evaluating readers responses. We loved Jane for her social satire, her irony, her biting commentary that dissected society's foibles and skewed values.

Because I graduated in 1978, I had to audit the second half of the class in the fall semester. It does not appear on my transcript nor did I receive any credit or grade.

One member of our class went on to become an award winning singer songwriter! Julie Gold's song "From a Distance" won song of the year in 1991. When I knew her she was singing in venues like Kyber Pass in Philadelphia. http://juliegold.com/

Class member Vincent Schiavone's mom had created Aid for Friends, a meals-on-wheels program that provided cooked meals for shut-ins.  http://articles.philly.com/1994-03-02/food/25849942_1_food-aid-meals-food-assistance and http://www.aidforfriends.org/index.cfm?active=1

I wish I could remember the other class members.

Professor Olshin died in 1981 at age 41 after a long battle with cancer. Her obituary called her teaching style "dynamic". When a student poll gave her the highest marks for teaching, she said "I love to teach, I love students, and I love literature." The last time I saw her was in 1980. My husband and I were on the Temple campus walking and we ran into her. I have always credited her to be one of the most important teachers I have had the privilege to study under.

http://digital.library.temple.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p245801coll12/id/87213/rec/1

Christmas Handkerchiefs

The temperature has been under 20 degrees for over a week and will not reach freezing in the foreseeable future! The only way I stay sane is by keeping real busy. So I am thrilled that today Esther Aliu has the next floral corner pattern for Love Entwined!

Here are some Christmas handkerchiefs featuring poinsettias from my collection.

1961 Northern Ads

I have been going through my collection of stuff, trying to figure out what to do with it all. I found this stash of 1961 Family Circle ads for Northern toilet paper. So precious! Mom read a lot of magazines when I was growing up, and I have collected quite a number of 50s and 60s magazines over the years.

Love Entwined Update

I have finished the third floral basket corner.

There are so many glorious interpretations of Love Entwined! It is wonderful to see all of the different fabric and color choices and various techniques being used.

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Kreuger

Yesterday I finished another Kindle ebook, Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. I was very impressed that Krueger has captured an honest and realistic portrait of a Methodist parsonage family. Having been married to a United Methodist clergyman for over 41 years, and having lived in nine parsonages, I am quite familiar with what the life is like.

The novel is told from the viewpoint of the middle child,  Frank Drum, who in 1961 is thirteen years old. Frank is the rebellious child, breaking rules set for his protection. His older sister is a musical prodigy, and his younger brother at age eleven follows Frank everywhere.

Their father is a patient, good man, but whose experience in the Korean War left him with personal demons. After the war he gave up the idea of becoming a lawyer and went into ministry, to the vexation of his talented and beautiful wife who had not signed up for being a pastor's wife. They live in a small town in Minnesota, where expectations for the family are high-- and constricting.

Over the summer a series of events force Frank and his family to reevaluate everything they thought they knew about each other, their community, and God. Their reactions are rendered spot-on by Krueger, as is how they individually and as a family move on from tragedy. There is a mystery to be solved, with enough red herrings to keep the reader guessing.

I appreciate that the faith issues are honestly portrayed, without mawkish or trivial sentiments to cheapen the story. Real people struggle with anger at God, loss of faith, and their religious commitment. The 'ordinary grace' that resolves the story's faith journey is the miracle of a child's simple faith that begins the healing for which Frank is so desperate.

To learn more about the author visit  http://www.williamkentkrueger.com/

The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency by James Tobin

"The guy never knows when he is licked." ~ Harry Hopkins on FDR

 "Because he had beaten his illness, Roosevelt thought that he could beat anything." ~ John Gunther

James Tobin's new book The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency covers Franklin D. Roosevelt's life between 1921 when he contracted infantile paralysis and 1932 when the Democratic party nominated him as their candidate for Governor of New York State. Tobin shows how polio brought out amazing strengths of character in FDR and ultimately prepared him to become a great leader.

At age 39 FDR was charming, handsome, rich, and determined to gain the presidency. He had served as Secretary of the Navy and on President Wilson's subcabinet.

Then he encountered the virus that left him crippled. Tobin's narrative accessibly explains the disease, how it is spread, how it attacks the human body, and how the medical doctors treated it. At a time when most children were naturally inoculated through exposure to the virus, FDR's privileged and sheltered life left him vulnerable. Overworked and tired, he arrived at the isolated family summer resort at Campabello and soon after became ill. By the time the doctors knew he had contracted polio, the damage was done.

FDR's mother assumed he would return to his childhood home and live out the rest of his life puttering with his stamp collection and watching the Hudson River flow by. But FDR was not a man to sit and watch life pass him by. He was determined to win the presidency, and he was going to walk to the podium to give his acceptance speech.

His recovery was not a straight or easy path. He did not follow doctor's orders and he avoided painful exercise. He hated the leg braces and crutches. FDR became his own physician, and took to exercising in warm water. So when he read about a polio victim who could walk after therapy at Warm Springs resort in Georgia FDR determined to experienced for himself the properties of the mineral springs. The resort was isolated and in bad repair. FDR was charmed. The warm mineral water enabled him to endure long hours of exercise without pain.

FDR needed a project. He liked to run things. He longed to own something of  his own. He needed a source of income. FDR determined to buy the run-down resort, an economical and practical decision that seemed foolish. He imagined a place where polio victims could only heal their bodies but also find acceptance and normality in a world that shunted cripples out of sight.

FDR's ability to walk again was truly due to physiotherapists Helena Mahoney and Alicia Plastridge who taught him how to use his good muscles to compensate for the lost ones. Working with Mahoney at Warm Springs in 1927 FDR was finally able to walk with two canes.

Tobin challenges commonly held beliefs about Franklin's hiding his infirmity. Although FDR did strive to keep the more undignified aspects of his infirmity out of sight, such as being carried up stairs, once he returned to public life he did not, could not, hide that he was handicapped. Republicans had a field day attacking FDR as a cripple, a 'poor man' of pity who was not up to the job.

"The role he must play was a paradox. Normally the actor puts on a mask and becomes someone else. FDR's role now was to play the man he actually was--a strong man capable of leadership in the highest seats of power. The trick was to remove the mask that his audience would otherwise force him to wear. He must persuade the audience to discard its ancient, inherited belief about a man who was crippled. He must persuade them that a crippled man could be strong."

FDR went on the campaign trail, traveling by auto caravan across New York state. He had to change the way society viewed 'cripples'. Two weeks before the election he faced four thousand people and openly spoke about polio. "Seven years ago, through an attack of infantile paralysis, I was completely put out of any useful activity." People in audience were heard crying. "By personal good fortune, I was able to get the best kind of medical care. The result is that today I am on my feet." And in admitting he was a cripple, FDR also declared himself to be a fighter and a man of action.

I think it was a shining moment in American history when a man's ability made voters forget his handicap, that we judged him by the 'content of his character' and not by his physical abilities or disabilities.

James Tobin's first book, Ernie Pyle's War, American's Eye-Witness to World War II won him the National Book Critic's Circle Award. He was able to leave his position with the Detroit News to write full time. He wrote a companion book to the PBS series Great Projects: The Epic Story of the Building of America, From the Taming of the Mississippi to the Invention of the Internet. It was followed by To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight. 

To me, each book has at its core the story of men willing to go to great lengths to achieve the goals they hold dearest. Tobin's books are inspiring and dramatic narratives. To learn more visit
http://authors.simonandschuster.com/James-Tobin/1910453

Note: Tobin used the word cripple purposefully. He explains in his Prologue, "To understand Roosevelt's situation--in his time, not ours--one needs to enter a realm in which the stigma of physical disability was like the presence of oxygen in the air: utterly taken for granted, and therefore terribly powerful."

Some Christmas Quilts

The first Christmas quilt I made used poinsettia florals on black. I made Sawtooth Star and Christmas Tree blocks. A revised version of the tree blocks was published in the November/December 1994 issue of Quitmaker magazine.

This pattern is found in Handkerchief Quilts by Sharon Newman. 

After I taught myself embroidery I made this 12 Days of Christmas by Betty Alderman. It was not easy doing all those little men in the last block!

This Christmas Tree quilt was a kit quilt my husband saw in a quilt shop and really loved. It is made of small squares that had to be fussy placed. It usually hangs in his office.

The first quilt guild I joined was Patches and Pieces in Jackson, MI. They had a fabric exchange of Christmas fabrics and the following year a Christmas poem printed on fabric was given out for a quilt challenge. The pattern was found in a magazine. I used the exchange fabrics.

Not truly a Christmas quilt, but this star often is on my wall during Advent. The pattern was from Eleanor Burns and I made it in a class at Country Stitches in East Lansing, MI. It was one of the few quilt shop classes I have taken.

 I found this great little pattern on eBay and made two versions.

 

I have used this pattern for a stained glass look quilt several times, once in dark blue for church Advent paraments and this one which I donated to a church bazaar. I think of it as an Advent theme.

I was learning how to use metallic threads when I made this little quilt, which I thought of as and Advent quilt. To me it is about the Light coming into the world. 

I have been lax about updating the quilts hanging in the house. I think this week I will be taking out some Christmas quilts and start decorating the house.