Week 47 - Heroine's Crown

The Hero's Crown block got a change in name to Heroine's Crown to celebrate the women who had worked for decades for women's rights.

 

I wanted to reuse some fabrics, but then spotted the lively green and yellow print for the background.  I think it modernizes the traditional nature of this applique block. Once that was decided I had to figure out what would show up on it. The little dotted fabric from Dorry came to the rescue, and I was able to settle on the other coordinating prints after that.

Today being late in July, I am reminded of  the very large Family Reunions we attended every year with my mother's aunts and uncles and cousins, often in Indiana where Faye and Fielding were from. My Dad took a lot of home movies so we don't have many photos from the early 1960's era when there were taken, but I have some of Alice's collection, so these were hers.  I would not recognize myself in this photo, but it makes sense I would hang around with my Grandpa (who seemed to have infinite patience with his grandchildren) among a lot of people I didn't know very well, and that Faye would be smiling close by. Hard to believe, but I was pretty shy at that age.

 

Aunt Alice also labeled this one from the early 1960's and it appears to be from the same reunion, but she only noted Grandpa Fielding and Dana's father, my brother Carl. Grandpa is the man,kneeling and looking away from the camera. The boy to his left looks a little like our distant cousin Tom to me, so Carl might be the boy in the boat (If some family member has a different idea please correct me!)

There aren't many cousins left from my mother's generation, but family reunions are still taking place annually in late July or August. Mom was very proud of her extended family and kept up with them through the years with what they called "the Cousin's Chain Letter."  Each participating member would write to the others and enclose the letter in a thick envelope with everyone else's letters, following a set rota.  Those envelopes managed to get around to the dozens of cousins about 3 times a year. Mom pulled out her old letters when the "chain" came back to her and saved them. They now form a sort of autobiography of her life from the 1970's until she died in 2010 that I have digitized and transcribed for future generations.