Fashions of 1940's

I have a renewed interest in WWII and 1940's fashion styles.

I've taken to watching "Bomb Girls" on Netflix--I must tell you

this is fascinating for me--so much I didn't think about during

1940's.

In the small town of Fredericksburg, Texas (which is our second home) there is a fabulous

museum--National Museum of the Pacific War.  This past weekend we watched a

battle re-enactment of one of the battles--it's a sight to be seen and recognized!

Anyway, back to the Museum--there is a free exhibit of 1940's fashions--another

eye opening exhibit of what folks endured during those harsh times.

This dress is a patriotic fashion--Blue polka dot dress with red belt,

simply dressed demonstrated the wearer's duty to wartime conservation

To wear patriotic colors, like blue and red, further embodied American values

This is a two piece blue wool suit, called Victory Suit, represented

sacrifice and duty.  The slender fitted suit conserved materials by forgoing pleats 

and patch pockets.  There was some style in the design details.

The Victory Suit dominated the 1940's American fashion scene that

they came to be viewed as civilian uniforms

What were the limitations on fashions?  The orders were L-85:  L referred to 

civilian production; 85 applied to women and children and

L-73 was designed for men's garments.

L-85/73, issued in 1942,  grew out of a pact between the government and the American

fashion industry.  This law controlled the amount of material used in civilian clothing.

It mandated maximum measurements and outlawed excess pleats and even cuffs.

With this law outlawing major design changes, it encouraged maintaining the 1930's trim and 

narrow figures.

There were several other restrictions too: 

L-90--reduced elastic for girdles, bras--so much outcry, the restriction

deemed undergarments essential!

L-119 restricted fabric in sleepwear

K-171 restricted cosmetic lines due to ingredients

L-217 restricted leather for shoes:  it dicated six colors for women's

shoes and only two colors could be used in each shoe

Come back tomorrow for more on 1940's fashions

Patriotic Wool Blog Hop

As usual, I'm a tad late to the party, but I can play catch-up quickly--there is a patriotic wool blog hop happening now--it's called Summer blog hop and in some places of the world, it seems like summer already!  Here we go!

First block from Farmhouse Threads, which was posted on March 10

Second block posted on March 17

Every Friday there will be another FREE block posted.

Each blogger has kits available too--a real bonus!

March 10- Rhonda McCray, Farmhouse Threads

http://farmhousethreads.com/

March 17- Shawn York, Rusty Crow Quilt Shop

http://shawn-rustycrow.blogspot.com/

March 24- Lisa Bongean, Primitive Gatherings

http://lisabongean.com/

March 31– Jeni Gaston, Woolen Willow Designs

http://jenifromthewillow.blogspot.com/

April 7- Debbie Busby, Wooden Spool Designs

http://woodenspooldesigns.blogspot.com/

April 14- Joyce Weeks, Geoff’s Mom Pattern Co.

http://geoffsmom.blogspot.com

April 21- Kathi Campbell, Heart to Hand

http://www.hearttohand.com/

April 28- Linda and Donna, My Red Door Designs

http://myreddoordesignsblog.blogspot.com

May 5- Joan Grenke, Bits and Pieces by Joan

http://bitsandpiecesbyjoan.com/

May 12- Gloria,Vicky and Heather, Olde Green Cupboard Designs

http://oldegreencupboard.blogspot.com/

May 19- Laural Arestad, Simply Put Plus

http://simplyputplus.blogspot.com/

May 26- Kathi and Taylor, The Cottage at Cardiff Farms

http://thecottageatcardifffarms.com/blog

June 2 – Finishing Instructions from Farmhouse Threads

http://farmhousethreads.com/

St. Patrick Day

Do you have the luck of the Irish?  Are you wearing green today?

• Corned beef and cabbage is a traditional St. Patrick’s Day dish. In 2009, roughly 26.1 billion pounds of beef and 2.3 billion pounds of cabbage were produced in the United States.
• Irish soda bread gets its name and distinctive character from the use of baking soda rather than yeast as a leavening agent.
• Lime green chrysanthemums are often requested for St. Patrick’s Day parades and celebrations.

Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, "the Day of the Festival of Patrick"), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.

Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century and is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland),^[4] the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Lutheran Church. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland,^[3]and celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general.^[5] Celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals, céilithe, and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks.^[6] Christians also attend church services^[5][7] and the Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol are lifted for the day, which has encouraged and propagated the holiday's tradition of alcohol consumption.^[5][6][8][9]

Saint Patrick's Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland,^[10] Northern Ireland,^[11] the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora around the world, especially in Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand. Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival.^[12] Modern celebrations have been greatly influenced by those of the Irish diaspora, particularly those that developed in North America. In recent years, there has been criticism of Saint Patrick's Day celebrations for having become too commercialized and for fostering negative stereotypes of the Irish.

Hands2Help--Challenge!

Confessions of a Fabric Addict for the 7th year is sponsoring

this charity quilt challenge.  Here is the number of quilts that have been

donated in years past

2011:  47 quilters made 60 quilts

2012:  55 quilters made 94 quilts

2013:  65 quilters made 127 quilts

2014:  70 quilters made 145 quilts
2015:  67 quilters made 147 quilts
2016:  104 quilters made 194 quilts

Charity #1 - International Institute St. Louis

With all that has been in the news recently regarding refugees, there has been a lot of interest in making quilts for a refugee resettlement group.  A tip from a blog reader led me to the International Institute St. Louis.  The following is from their website...

Charity #2 - Happy Chemo!

Once again, Emily of Em's Scrap Bag will be collecting quilts to be donated to people undergoing chemotherapy.  This has been a favorite charity for the Challenge since the second year, and a whole lot of love and comfort has gone to them in the form of quilts over the past five years.  Emily accepts quilts of all sizes, from 48" square to twin size (approximately 65" x 88").  

Charity #3 - Camp Hobe via Stash Builder Box

Stash Builder Box is the brainchild of Amanda Kelly, and has a unique purpose (beyond building up your stash!)  Yes, you receive a great box of fabric and goodies each month, but in addition, 20% of the cost of your box goes to provide quilts for specific children's charities.  The charities change each three months, spreading the love around.  Amanda coordinates a team of HeartBuilders who take the supplies she sends and turns them into beautiful tops and finished quilts.  

She also accepts donations of completed quilts, so this year as part of the Hands2Help Challenge, you can choose to make quilts for this quarter's charity, which is Camp Hobe, a special summer camp experience for children currently being treated for cancer and their siblings.  Their mission is to create an atmosphere that enhances self-esteem, fosters independence and friendships, and creates a sense of belonging.

Your quilts for Camp Hobe should be at least 45" x 60" and geared towards children ages six and older.

Initial signups will be Sunday March 12th through Saturday, March 18th.  You will receive one entry for signing up, and can get additional entries for putting the button on your blog 

check out the website for further information on prizes, tutorials, other.

BEWARE--"The Ides of March!"

I so enjoy learning the true facts behind these legends--and the internet is a source rich in factual and not so factual information--  Here is one that I've heard all my life--what is the true meaning behind this saying?

You may remember the soothsayer’s warning to Julius Caesar to “Beware the ides of March,” but the term didn’t originate with William Shakespeare. The earliest Roman calendar, which consisted of ten months beginning with Martius (March), was believed to have been created by King Romulus around 753 B.C. At that time, dates were expressed in relation to the lunar phase of the month using three markers: Kalends (Kal), Nones (Non) and Ides (Id). The first phase of the moon, the new moon, was denoted by Kalends and signified the first day of the month; the first quarter moon fell on either the fifth or seventh day of the month and was referred to as Nones; the full moon fell on either the 13th or 15th day of the month and was referred to as Ides. The ides of March—March 15—initially marked the first full moon of a new year.

During the late Roman Republic, a new year’s festival was held on the ides of March in which people would gather a mile outside of Rome on the Via Flaminia by the banks of the Tiber River. Participants celebrated with food, wine and music and offered sacrifices to the Roman deity Anna Perenna for a happy and prosperous new year. Between 222 and 153 B.C., the ides of March also signaled the beginning of the new consular year, in which two annually-elected consuls took office as leaders of the republic.

In 46 B.C., after consulting with the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar by adding ten days to the 355-day year, instituting January 1 as the first day of the new year (beginning in 45 B.C.) and introducing a leap year every four years. Shortly thereafter, he was granted the title Dictator Perpetuus or “dictator for life.” Concerned with Caesar’s increasing power and monarchical leanings, a group of Roman senators stabbed the ruler to death on March 15, 44 B.C.—forever linking the ides of March with the assassination of Julius Caesar.  

Other things that happen on March 15-- A Raid on Southern England, 1360 A French raiding party begins a 48-hour spree of rape, pillage and murder in southern England. King Edward III interrupts his own pillaging spree in France to launch reprisals, writes historian Barbara Tuchman, “on discovering that the French could act as viciously in his realm as the English did in France.”

Samoan Cyclone, 1889 A cyclone wrecks six warships—three U.S., three German—in the harbor at Apia, Samoa, leaving more than 200 sailors dead. (On the other hand, the ships represented each nation’s show of force in a competition to see who would annex the Samoan islands; the disaster averted a likely war.)

Czar Nicholas II Abdicates His Throne, 1917 Czar Nicholas II of Russia signs his abdication papers, ending a 304-year-old royal dynasty and ushering in Bolshevik rule. He and his family are taken captive and, in July 1918, executed before a firing squad.

Germany Occupies Czechoslovakia, 1939 Just six months after Czechoslovak leaders ceded the Sudetenland, Nazi troops seize the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, effectively wiping Czechoslovakia off the map.

A Deadly Blizzard on the Great Plains, 1941 A Saturday-night blizzard strikes the northern Great Plains, leaving at least 60 people dead in North Dakota and Minnesota and six more in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. A light evening snow did not deter people from going out—“after all, Saturday night was the time for socializing,” Diane Boit of Hendrum, Minnesota, would recall—but “suddenly the wind switched, and a rumbling sound could be heard as 60 mile-an-hour winds swept down out of the north.”

World Record Rainfall, 1952 Rain falls on the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion—and keeps falling, hard enough to register the world’s most voluminous 24-hour rainfall: 73.62 inches.

 CBS Cancels the “Ed Sullivan Show,” 1971  Word leaks that CBS-TV is canceling “The Ed Sullivan Show” after 23 years on the network, which also dumped Red Skelton and Jackie Gleason in the preceding month. A generation mourns.

PI--E Day!

Let's celebrate PI--E Day with this crochet wrap! 

The design is from Margo Bauman (AKA flyingflower)

The texture changes from raised to flat with each successive digit of Pi (3.141592653589793238). 

A fun asymmetrically symmetrical wrap - or is it symmetrically asymmetrical?

The texture changes from raised to flat with each successive digit of Pi (3.14159…).

Math geek or not, it is a fun piece to make and wear.

Uses Tunisian Simple Stitch and Tunisian Reverse Stitch

Solid color looks great, too!

Why celebrate PI Day?  Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world. Pi is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159.

Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits beyond its decimal point. As an irrational and transcendental number, it will continue infinitely without repetition or pattern. While only a handful of digits are needed for typical calculations, Pi’s infinite nature makes it a fun challenge to memorize, and to computationally calculate more and more digits.

For me, I think I'll have an Apple PIE!  

History of Colors

Laphams Quarterly visit this website and see how the color has involved over the years.  You might think that color has been in our world forever, but the pigments are discovered!

This book is good read on the development of paints for the canvas

"Colors  The Story of Dyes and Pigments",

another read of how we achieved the colors we

use today

And if you are into natural dyes, then this is 

the one for you!  BLUE!  One of the most

amazing colors we have in our life

And RED!  The little bug that transformed 

how we color our world.

Blockheads? By Moda

Moda is at it again!  This time it is Blockheads, featuring quilters who will

design eight blocks.  There will be forty-eight blocks with one posted every week starting in March 8.  Are you in for this free QAL?

• Blocks – each Blockhead will post the same block each week on their blog, Facebook or website.
• The Blockheads are all making blocks and a quilt – setting ideas and instructions will be provided at the end.
• Scrappy!  That’s one thing all six of us have in common – we love scrap quilts, the more fabrics the better!  Most of the designers will be making a quilt using their own fabric collections… but there are a couple who are already whispering about making more than one quilt.  (Rumor has it that a few of the designers will be offering “starter packs” of their fabrics.)
• Yardage?  If you know you’re going to want to use a single collection – I’d start with at least 24 fat quarters and 3 to 4 yards of background.

To get you started, here is the first block of March 8: Whirligig  

• Lynne’s Blog / Facebook / Website
• Betsy’s Blog / Facebook / Instagram
• Jan’s Blog / Website
• Jo’s Blog / Instagram
• Lisa’s Blog / Website / Instagram

Button, Button, Who's Got The Button?

Did you ever play that game "button, button, who's got the button?"

 Button, button, who's got the button is a game of ingenuity where players form a circle with their hands out, palms together. One child, called the leader or 'it', takes an object such as a button and goes around the circle, putting their hands in everybody else's hands one by one. In one person's hands they drop the button, though they continue to put their hands in the others' so that no one knows where the button is except for the giver and receiver.

The leader, or all the children in the circle, says "Button, button, who's got the button?" and then each child in the circle guesses. The child guessing replies with their choice, e.g. "Billy has the button!"

Once the child with the button is finally guessed, that child is the one to distribute the button and start a new round.

I never thought much about buttons, except to the play the game as a child or to rummage through

the button jar to find just the perfect one for the dress, shirt, jacket, etc.

Recently, I learned that some of the buttons I have in my button box are highly

collective!!  Who would have figured?  Well, the button collector would!

"Buttons hold history, art, materials, workmanship, whimsy, sentiment, social expression

and the imagination of the button-Maker" spoken by Marlene Tucker, member of

Brazos Button Club.  She owns about 1,000 buttons!

I just might have that many as well--buttons are made of some of the oddest things--like

rubber, jade, Lucite, vegetable ivory , wood, turquoise and coral.

Awards! Rewards!

So, you've finished the challenges and now comes the ribbons, rewards, awards.

I like seeing how individual guilds celebrate their accolades

for job well done!  Here is one way to make an award-- 

First place ribbon is always blue--why?

The blue ribbon is a symbol of high quality. The association comes from The Blue Riband, a prize awarded for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by passenger liners and, prior to that from Cordon Bleu, which referred to the blue ribbon worn by a particular order of knights. The spelling blue riband is still encountered in most English-speaking countries, but in the United States, the term was altered to blue ribbon, and ribbons of this color came to be awarded for first place in certain athletic or other competitive endeavours (such as county and state fairs). It also may be applied to distinguished members of a group or commission who have convened to address a situation or problem; the usual usage is "blue ribbon commission" or "blue-ribbon panel".

Second place winner receives a colorful red ribbon

Each challenge had a different hand made ribbon

And the first place and best of show receives

two ribbons!!

Here is the first/best of show winner!

Alice Sadeghpour

"Dear William With a Twist"

quilted by Mary Jo Yackley

Class taught by Phyllis Rucker:  machine applique turned into

a needle turn applique with a softer border

It was truly a lovely piece of work and deserved

the ribbons it won!

I liked this simple but effective way of placing an

award

and then you have the 'plain old' purchased ribbon--

quite frankly, I'll take any ribbon any which way

I can earn it!

I really don't think a quilter would like a huge

trophy like this!  how could we display it??

Textile Challenges!

Let's take at look at some of the challenges that were presented at the West Houston Quilt Exhibit--got to compete in a challenge in order to win a ribbon, award or reward!

How would you handle these challenges to put your

creative mind at work?

Use the same group of fat eighths to make a quilt

must be 30" square + or - 3"

use any technique as long as it classifies as a quilt

(top, batting, back)

can be quilted, embellished, one fabric may be added or

deleted

This one is more of a challenge:  Each participant

donates a holiday themed fat quarter

Each person does a blind draw of that fat quater

Each person has to make a quilt for the holiday that

is represented by that fabric

quilt size limited to using the drawn fat

quarter for the backing--otherwise, small!

There was the one challenged I posted photos of

in yesterday's blog:  Make a quilt using the colors of the

wrapper of favorite candy (one color can be added)

There was the one color challenge

Round Robin challenge within a bee

All of these give a pretty good representation of putting your mind to work--

I'm thinking--oh, no!  that could be a problem!!

how can we use these challenges in other fiber art medium.........?

hmmmm, watch out spinners and weavers!!

West Houston Quilt Exhibit

Over the weekend, I attended the West Houston Quilt Exhibit, held at the Berry

Center in Cypress, Texas--

this local guild brings excitement to the community with their biennial

exhibit.  I always like to see what challenges that have been issued

to the members.

Love this challenge!  Candy!  What candy bar would you use to make

a quilt?  This one is PayDay--Made and quilted by Gloria Ware!

Such fun!  Pattern was from Owl Be Home by Christmas by Cherry Guidry

 

Celeste Fritz "Love Dark Chocolate!" 

Star Light, Star Bright from book

"Bargello with a Twist"

Hershey's Yes!!

Phyllis Rucker loves Mounds bars,

she chose "Mounds Moroccan Tiles"

from Far Flung Quilts

Oh, can you guess what candy bar?

Bee Twixed!  clever name by Barbara Wenker

Taken from a pattern by Kathleen Andrews,

KwiltArt Patterns  This won third place in

the category 

I know what this one represents!

Peanut M&Ms by Lillie Hays

This was her original design and it

won an award

Hersey's at it again!  This one by Annie Forrest

No reference of pattern 

A collaboration between Pamela Hensley and Georgia

Johnson brings us Heath Bar--the note said:

the pattern was chosen because the ruler was on sale--

no reference to which ruler, except it does triangles

Here you have Millie Savage's take on Mr. Goodbar

titled "Sunflowers" pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts

by Edyta Star--raw edge applique

Do you like Babe Ruth Candy Bars?

Here's Linda Stewart's take on that candy.

It's quilted by Lillie Hays

"Run For Snickers" by Jean Fleming,

also quilted by Jean

Halloween theme was the creative way

Alice Sadeghpour decided to go with

Skor Candy Bar; quilted by Lillie Hayes

First place winner!!

And bet you can guess that candy?

M and M's, of course!

Teresa Beautz's "Old School Meets

New School", also quilted by Teresa--

this won second place prize.

check in tomorrow for more info