quiltersmuse.com Blog

This time of year, seed catalogs begin arriving. They are a harbinger of spring and speak to us of sunny days, full of marigolds, petunias, and summer squash blossoms. Green and growing plants are lovely to contemplate, in the dead of winter.

Seeds for plants are important as they propagate a species, but other “seeds” have value, as well. Every time someone sparks in you an idea, either verbally, or by the example of their own work, potentially they are planting a “seed” in your mind, a starting point through which you can envision a new work, to make a quilt or something else that is creative, on your own.

We are all influenced by all of the artists who ever lived. The word “artist,” as used here, is an all-inclusive concept that gathers into its folds songwriters, writers, graphic artists, oil painters, humorists, quilters, embroiderers, and all other creative people.

If someone has influenced your work, acknowledge them a silent “thank you” in your heart, or, if the person is still above the ground, write a thank you note, if that is possible.

Seeds are wonderful things, and so are seminal ideas. Virtually no Art exists in a vacuum. Mankind is a tribal group and since we live with and among other people, it is inevitable that we will provide each other “fodder for the grist mill,” or at least, “food for thought.”
Germinate those ideas, and may your quilts, like flowers, ever bring you joy!

Patricia Cummings

This morning, I uploaded an article about Sarah Josepha Hale, an outstanding woman who was born in Newport, New Hampshire. She distinguished herself as an “editress” for many years, after having been widowed at a very young age, and left with five children to raise. Her story is as compelling today as ever, and it reveals glowing success in the face of challenge. I hope that you enjoy the article.

http://www.quiltersmuse.com/sarah_josepha_buell_hale.htm

Patricia Cummings

Americans love to be patriotic. We like the pomp and circumstance of military ceremonies, the salute of arms, and the songs that resonate with the principles we love best: liberty and freedom. We have always been ready to defend our own homes, our own community, and the greater body that is a collection of diverse states: the United States of America. We have “peace-keeping” units in place, the police, the prison personnel, the National Guard, the Border Patrol, and all branches of the armed services who stand, at the ready, to protect and to defend American citizens. We are always prepared to safeguard liberty and freedom within our own borders.

Most Americans understand well what has just been stated. However, a majority of Americans are increasingly overwhelmed with a despondency over current political decisions that seem to be unilateral in nature, delivered in a repulsive “Father Knows Best” framework.

Albert Einstein, known for his keen insights and discoveries and his ability to think, once stated that Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and somehow expecting a different outcome.

Whenever the war in “Vietnam” is mentioned, many refuse to see any analogy to the present situation in Iraq. It is true that there are no rice patties involved. The blood bath and the number of deaths strikes a similarity.

The reason I am writing about this war is that I passionately want the carnage to end, and I desperately want the United States to disengage from the sectarian conflict. I agree that we should never have entered this fray in the first place, but we really need to start sending troops back home, as quickly as is feasible. This war is insane. THERE IS NOTHING TO WIN. The goal seems to be to preserve one man’s ego, a man who would like to prove his decisions to be right.

More and more these days, I have been recalling the words of anti-war songs from the 1960s – my own point of reference. One of them, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” was translated into German – “Sagt Mir Wo Die Blumen Sind.” As I think of those sad words, I ask, “How much longer? How many more young men and young women, America’s promise for the future, will die in such a strange and bizarre land?” Sometimes, their lives are gone without a moment’s notice, blown away by some land mine.
I am as patriotic as anyone else, if not more so. There is no incongruence between wanting the troops home and my own feelings of dedication to home and patriotic fervor for country. Our leader is not listening to the will of the people, and that makes me exceedingly sad and distraught.

A Washington Post article on January 24, 2007 by Harold Meyerson summed up the situation well: http://tinyurl.com/yqe2gl

Patricia

Well, after having gotten slapped upside the head because I thought that January was Black History Month (due to New Hampshire’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), I am happy to know that (most) people, apparently, in the United States celebrate Black History Month in February. Keep in mind, as I learned, too, that some states have a celebration in June, and yet others celebrate in August.

An aside: I have but one day to celebrate being Irish-American, March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day, but I am not complaining because I enjoy being Irish, every day!

I am pleased that Americans are beginning to celebrate diversity. The fact that so many people are rushing into ways to honors Blacks is resulting in some horrible mistakes. Some of the damage to historical truth (like spreading the so-called secret quilt code) can never be totally undone, and we will just have to chock up these misstatements as a creation of new legends.

“The New York Times” this week ran an article about a statue to Frederick Douglass which was to have been erected in Central Park, with the words of the “secret quilt code” encircling his feet. Oh, my! Historians have cried out loudly about that error, and it appears that the statue will be re-designed.

Right now, on my website, there are three large articles which are comprised of explanation and commentary about why the “secret quilt code” as described in the book, Hidden in Plain View, could not have existed, according to what we know about quilts and certain quilt block configurations and when they came into being, as well as other well-thought-out reasons, such as facts surrounding the Underground Railroad escape system.

Any bright person who has spent more than half a minute at my website would be able to figure out that I am not a bigot.

Today, we traveled to the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine to see the traveling exhibit of Francisco Goya’s “Los Caprichos,” a large collection of satirical and social commentaries translated into visual media, namely, prints. It is a long drive from here, so we had a chance to chat. Jim said that he thinks that anyone who opposes the secret quilt code stands to be labeled a “racist.”

If that is the case, it’s really too bad that anyone would dismiss my scholarly considerations by referring to me with a trite, and overworked label. Shows no creativity at all, and it actually indicates prejudice and backwardness, on the part of the speaker.
In many parts of America, bigotry is still alive and well. Make that Bigotry, with a capital “B.” Recently however, that kind of hatefulness seems to be primarily directed toward people who are Islamic, Jewish, or Mexican. This is an alarming and distressing trend.

Many years after the end of slavery in America, we are beginning to act decently toward descendants of slaves, and other Black Americans. At least there are many “mouth noises” in that direction.

We all need to respect each other, regardless of national origins or heritage, and we also should stop trying to stick labels onto other people. One word or label can never sum up a human being. In fact, seven years ago, I wrote a poem about that very idea:
On Labeling

Patricia L. Cummings, September 2, 2000

At the cupboard, I try to decide, will it be soup or spaghetti?
The label that helps me to choose
precludes me from opening beets or confetti.

Labels for food would most certainly be missed
were a youngster, bored, to remove them
but labels for people, just don’t seem to work
as much as we try to conjure them.

Until you are dead, you will all live in dread
of the words people say about you.
But you know who you are, and the gifts that you have,
so turn a deaf ear to the critics.

I appreciate people who are broad-minded, and accepting of each other, and who are not so quick to judge and make pronouncements that are simply not true. And, I really respect those who treat history seriously and who don’t conjure up false stories or promote them, just because they may sound good at the time or seem suitable to stick into an educational curriculum to fill that need for “diversity.”

We shall celebrate Black History Month, in its official designated time slot, beginning in just a few days, but let’s not forget that we seem to have a long way to go until there is “liberty and justice for all.”

The American Flag…Long May She Wave!
The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave!
Patricia Cummings

If you haven’t heard the news, knitting is “in” now, and crochet is “out.” I am happy that I learned to knit in 4-H, as it is a good skill to have. At the moment, I am knitting a dishcloth with Sugar ‘N Cream 100% cotton yarn. The pattern I use makes them kind of “nubby.” So, they are great for washing dishes by hand, which of course I do, exclusively.

Over the years, I have knit other things. I have a photo of my nephew, J.R., in a blue, cable knit sweater I made for him when he was about 2 years old. At the time, it was pretty neat to go on an expedition to a department store’s sewing section, to pick out some silver buttons.

Then, there was the Scandinavian sweater, with a multi-color yoke, that I spent an entire summer knitting, the year I worked at a summer camp, teaching swimming and running the Journalism club at a girl’s camp, during college years. When I finished it, and put it on for the first time, the yoke would not lay flat. My “tension” must have been too tight on the yarn. However, it was fun while it was still on the needles. Changing colors was a hoot!
More recently, I made an all-wool dress, oh, I mean “sweater,” for my dear husband. It stretched and stretched and in no time at all, it was a dress! I made a stab at “felting” it by washing it in cold water, but then throwing it in the dryer. That decreased the length, but did nothing to pull in the sides. The wool is very warm, though, and the sweater gets some use, in the house only.

I think that I’d better stick with quilting for now…and embroidery. With those skills, I know what I am doing. Knitting results have been less than predictable, but as always, the outcome was good for a few chuckles.

Me? I’m thinking of a warm, sunny beach somewhere. With that in mind, if anyone cares to send a donation that I could put towards studying quilts, in say, Tahiti, I’ll be happy to hear from you! Until then, stay warm and avoid kissing toads or wrestling alligators.

Patricia