Saturday, July 4, 2020

Red, White, and Purple?

That's probably not a color combination you would associate with the July 4th holiday!  But let me explain...

I finished up a small project this week that is celebrating an important achievement in our country's history - the centennial of women gaining the right to vote in the United States in 1920!


I grew up in Rochester, New York, also the home of Susan B. Anthony from 1845 when she was 25 until her death in 1906.   The Susan B. Anthony Museum and House at 17 Madison Street in Rochester is a place I visited more than once while growing up there. With 2020 being the Women's Suffrage Centennial, I've enjoyed learning more about Susan B. Anthony and her contemporaries who worked so hard to give me, and all women, the right to vote.  We owe them so much!

To honor Susan, and my home state of New York, I've made a New York Star.  This is a paper-pieced block and can be found at the Quilter's Cache website.  One block made a 12 inch mini quilt.  I made the New York Star in the American Suffrage colors of purple, white, and yellow (all scraps from my stash) which symbolize loyalty, purity, and hope. Evidently, the color yellow also pays tribute to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who used the sunflower as a symbol during a campaign for state suffrage in Kansas in 1867.  The yellow floral fabric in my New York Star fits the suffrage colors and symbols as well. 


Besides sharing here on the blog, my New York Star mini is participating in the Suffrage Centennial celebration at Pennsylvania Piecemaker where Michele has been sharing all kinds of fascinating information about Women's Suffrage for the last year.  If you haven't been participating, head over there and read up on all the facts about the women who fought for us!

Sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

As for the red and white, that's my Book Club hand-pieced quilt that I am madly quilting away on!  Good progress is being made on finishing it, with my goal being to link up the finished quilt by July 15th.

Working on the sashing and cornerstones now!

Sharing a Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.









20 comments:

  1. yes for Susan B!! great colors and great block for that

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  2. Interesting pattern. Your colors are lovely along with the history lesson. My first intro to quilting was paper piecing. My first block came out perfect, and voila, thousands of $$$ later I was hooked.

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  3. And I learned something new about you, I didn't know you grew up in NY. A very appropriate mini to celebrate!

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  4. My sis lived in Rochester,NY for a bit and I had a few trips over there to visit. I never knew that it was 100 year anniversary for woman's sufferage! I'll go check out the history lesson, thanks!
    Love the book club quilt - coming along great.

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  5. What a lovely block and mini quilt! Beautiful color combination with purple and yellow.
    Happy stitching!

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  6. Beautiful block and beautiful sentiment. If you've followed Michelle the whole while, then you know I have a distant relationship with Eliz. Cady Stanton (like second cousin thrice removed). Yellow rose was the flower in Tennessee, the last state to ratify.

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  7. Perfect colors and block choice! A lovely heartfelt tribute to those who gave us so much!

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  8. What a great block to honor a real hero for women! I love history and I think it's good to remember our history and be thankful for the strides we have made as a society.

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  9. I love NY state, and the fact that you made another connection to it and women's rights! Great job Diann

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  10. I just love how certain colors go so well together, Your block is so pretty!

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  11. Beautiful block as a tribute to women's right to vote! The colors are lovely. Love seeing how your red and white one is coming along. Happy stitching!

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  12. Congrats on finishing your New York Star mini, Diann! Our foremothers would be SEW impressed.

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  13. I'm sure there were many celebrations planned here in NY in honor of the 100th anniversary, but Covid has intervened. I didn't know there was a New York Star. I'll have to look that up.
    Pat

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  14. Thanks for informing us about women's right to vote centennial. The quilt block is perfect way of honoring her and your state. Yellow marigolds are a perfect place for a photoshoot. Keep going on the Book Club red and white. It's looking good!

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  15. Thanks for the mini history lesson. Being a New Yorker myself, I didn't even know there was a quilt block for the state. I love that block and the red quilt that you are currently working on.

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  16. Great new York star mini. All women should show our thanks to those who fought for the privilege we now have by voting in elections.

    Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!

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  17. Cute little quilt and great link to information about Women's Suffrage. Thanks for sharing!

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  18. What a lovely tribute, and those colors are really pretty together.
    I was actually thinking about Susan B Anthony yesterday, along with early Presidents' wives. When I was in elementary school in the 50s, I used to check out books from our tiny school library that were about women such as those. They were books written for youth, and I read every single one. I wish I could remember the author.

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  19. Beautiful and meaningful mini! Hooray for Susan B! :)

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  20. A very nice commemorative block. Purple and yellow are one of my favorite color combinations. Good luck with your hand stitching project, that deadline is coming up pretty quickly.

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