Anne and the Lightbulb

So it's one of those ideas where we all went, "Well of course!" Okay, to be honest I did stop and think about it for a minute or two because, well, I can be a control freak sometimes. My family can stop laughing now.

Anne discovered that if she programmed her Bernina 1260 just right, she could add a space between the asterisk stitches, and they would look like the individual beads and french knots we have putting in our blocks! Thanks Anne!

On a 1260, the stitch is number 27. Hit number 27, memory, and then straight stitch, memory, and you should be good to go. The stitch is a little bigger than the beads and knots have been, and I am guessing that a spiral is going to be the best design to get all 212 stitches on the block.

Don't have a Bernina 1260? As long as you are able to program a stitch in between an asterisk stitch * * * , so they maintain their individuality, I say go for it. I don't want a running together of stitches ***** that don't have any distinction. This is after all, about remembering the individuals who have died.

If you have other sewing machine makes that have a similar tight stitch on them and you think you want to try it, let me know. St Cloud has dealers for every major brand of sewing machine and I can go test drive it to make sure it clears my inner control freak.

I like how there will be a nice mix of beads and hand stitching and machine stitching in the project. A bit of everything. And we may actually get it done! Now if Anne can figure something out for the soldiers and our government leaders we'll be set to finish the damn war too.

beginnings

Ideas. I have lots of ideas. Some ideas are just a function of brainstorming. Some ideas had their beginnings in some other thing that inspired me to think and ponder. It may sound a little silly, but, I can tell when I've hit upon a good idea in a couple of ways. Some ideas just won't leave me alone. They haunt me until I succumb to doing something. My favorite ideas also make me jump up and down and do a little dance. I don't realize I even do it.

This blog is going to be about is going to be about one of those jump up and down ideas that haunts me.

Not long ago, I was perusing the internet, when I came across some photos of a display at Reed College out in Portland Oregon. Flags had been placed in the lawn. A red flag for every American who has died in the war, and a white one for every six Iraqis. There were 3055 red flags, and 112,000 white flags. I was overwhelmed.

I don't live in a hole, I consider myself moderately well informed about the world, but seeing the visual representaion of the consequences of war was so much more powerful than hearing, or reading the numbers.

Thus began the haunting. That visual was thought provoking without telling one what to think. It was something to raise awareness about something that is far to easy to ignore on a daily basis. But it was also impermanent. It would most likely be picked up in a few weeks when the lawn needed to be mowed.

Haunt. Haunt. Haunt.

Wait! I'm an artist, what can I do make something as a visual reminder? My chosen medium is quilting, so it would obviously have to be a quilt of some sort. The rest of that particular brainstorming happened so fast, I can't describe it for you, except to say I was jumping up and down and dancing the dance of good ideas.

Here's the idea - A small quilt for each American who has died and on that quilt small french knots to represent each Iraqi. Using the numbers from the Reed display, that's 3055 little quilts with 212 french knots on each one. The quilts will be made and bound with solid color fabrics. Any color is fine, they represent the soldiers who repesent us and we are of every color and ethnicity. The 212 french knots will be made with black thread. I've been using 2 strands of embroidery floss, and starting in the center, make a spiral of french knots. Each little quilt will be connected to the next with small brass safety pins. I am putting a purple bead on the safety pin between the quilts to represent the wounded. It's no where near the actual number of wounded, nut, they need to be represented as well. .

I am going to need help.

I have spoken with a few folks and have had really positive feedback I am hoping to find people willing to volunteer to donate the materials and time to make the quilt blocks. I will also be needing help with funds for the fabric, batting, beads, postage for shipping, etc.

I will post photos and a tutorial soon, but this will be the basic structure - the quilts will be 6" square finished. Each square will be made from a solid fabric on the front, any scrap of batting and backing is fine. The binding details are specific, as they need to be strong enough to support the grommets. So, I will wait until I get home to do those photos, and directions. (I'm on vacation in NYC, but, you know how it is with those ideas that haunt you.)