Week 21 - Parasol

January 21st this week was Dana's 26th birthday, and it was the 21st week of the Grandmother's Choice blocks. I hoped the design would be something special and I was not disappointed.  Barbara Brackman picked The Parasol and wrote about how it was used to carry the message of Votes for Women in great photos from the era. This is my version -

 

You can't tell from my photo - this block is based on the Double Wedding Ring. This illustration shows the piecing.

I printed the pattern on freezer paper, then drew a line from corner to corner on each of the eight pieces of the "fringe."

When I cut out the pieces, I lined my diagonal line up on one of the thin green lines of this lemon print, so that when I pieced them together, they made the chevron. This shows how I used the stripes of the print to get my effect.

I mentioned that this block is connected to the Double Wedding Ring quilt pattern.  To get a copyright free image, I drew and colored this illustration that more or less resembles the piecing design of these quilts.

Double Wedding Ring (DWR) quilts were very popular in the 1930's. I wanted to come back to the DWR pattern because the only quilt I know of that was made by my ancestors that was kept to be  passed down was a DWR, made by Alice Bruner, whom I mentioned in week 7, Alice's Flag.This is the best photo I have of Alice -

Alice Jane Bruner

My Aunt Alice used a similar photo of Alice Jane in the same dress in her book and said it was taken about 1900. Alice would have been 48 that year.  Alice lived until 1941, so she probably made her DWR in the 1930's. I have not seen the quilt. My mother believed her sister, my Aunt May, wound up with it so we assume one of her children owns it now. I enjoyed thinking about Alice Jane when I pieced my little parasol fringe.

I think this is the only picture I have showing me with Dana as a baby in 1987 when she was born. Her father, my brother Carl, took it outside the front door of the house Dana grew up in, where her parents still live. I think it was Easter Sunday. Dana was just big enough to hold her own head up!

 My hair changed a few times since then, but now it almost looks like this style.  Dana, however, has changed her hairstyle completely!