Week 38 - Nonsense

Barbara Brackman chose this week's block, Nonsense, to talk about the ideas people used to have about what women should not do - like riding a bicycle or astride a horse.  The block has a center focal area and I was not sure what to put in it, until I looked at the green and white toile with the cherub spilling water into a fountain.  I thought that went along with the nonsense better than other prints I have, so I chose other fabrics to go around it.

I really liked the combination of the narrow striped green and white fabric with the toile, but I didn't want it right next to it.  However, I also didn't think the stripe had the right scale for the large rectangles or corner triangles, so I pieced it with the tone-on-tone floral.

I have a photo of my grandmother Faye to post because it is 101 years old this month. Rarely are these older photos dated, but this one has quite a bit of information written on the back. It was taken in Darlington Indiana on May 5, 1912, so Faye was just 20. I have the full names of the other young women (Doris, Elizabeth and Jean) - but I am not sure who is who. Elizabeth and Jean are sisters and  Jean later became Faye's sister-in-law when she married Fielding's brother. Faye wrote where each was from, but her own name came first, while she is on the right in the photo. I don't know why they were photographed in Darlington where Doris lived.  That is about 120 miles from Hayden where Faye lived. Elizabeth and Jean were from Alexandria, just about as far away in yet a different direction from Indianapolis.  I guess they would have traveled by train to meet up at Doris'.

Faye is on the right

Faye's suit was almost undoubtedly made by her, or by her mother Carrie, who was a dressmaker. Faye told us her mother could make any dress from a picture in the fashion magazines of the time and also made men's shirts, nightgowns and underwear.  Faye sewed for her daughters, and she made doll clothes for me when I was very young.