As I have said before, I am a beginner, so this is going to be a beginner’s quilt. I am sure that experienced quilters’ results would be very different, but I am going to learn as I go.

I had a terrific meeting with my quilter, Dr. Joan Gaither, who generously gave me her ideas and advice as she heard my ideas. I was struck by how her images were all born from fabric: she talked to me of ribbons, sashes, scarves, and flags – every image was not only meaningful, beautiful, colorful, rich in associations, but each was also always made of cloth!

My “oh no” moment came afterwards, when I realized that when she had handled and played with the fabric “bricks” I had made as models, she wanted to put the short side laying “on its side” – I turned it in her hand and she looked confused. I thought about it later and realized I had been visualizing my “bricks” all wrong! I knew the dimensions of the brick, but I was “looking” at the wrong side of it! Thinking about being a bricklayer, I would set each brick down on its largest face. That meant that looking at a finished wall from the side, I would see the side of the brick, not the largest face (that’s the top). Oh, no! I got out my cardstock and changed the sizes of my brick models. OK, that’s better!

Joan told me how I would incorporate thin batting inside each brick, folding the sides of the fabric around the batting, pressing the fabric sides around it with an iron, and setting them aside in a pile. She folded and ironed imaginary edges in the air with her deft fingers, and I saw how it would go. Home I went to get my batting. Thank you, Joan!

When I envisioned this project, I didn’t want to have to count on outside help to achieve my goal. I am not a quilter and have never made a quilt, but I have made two quilt squares (well, one is a circle) under the tutelage of Dr. Joan Gaither, and I realize that even as a beginner, the only thing to do is to start.

Joan invites the community to get involved with her quilts, and I have taken part in that experience, and it is uplifting! But I didn’t see my project growing to that scale, so in order to involve the community, I began by asking folks to simply donate fabric to me, and I can do the rest. My idea was, the community will be able to view the finished quilt and see their own fabric making up a part of it. This idea was also influenced by Joan, because she has made quilts in honor or in memory of individuals, mostly family members (especially young people), and has used their garments – hats, baby clothes – and has sewn these to her quilts to very powerful effect – it is as though the garments have been strewn across a bed. When you see the fabric of a particularly memorable outfit that you loved on a person, whether a grandmother or child, or even sometimes an acquaintance, it brings the memories flooding back. Cloth has so many ways of signifying powerful emotions!

The donations of fabric have been limited – but many thanks to Vicki Petersen of the Captain Salem Avery Museum for the fabrics she donated! Let me know if YOU would like to donate fabric as well!

An unexpected development then arose – many people here have taken workshops with Joan and have seen what she can do with cloth, and they contacted me and said they wanted to contribute quilt squares that have their own imagery on them, and not just fabric! I resisted at first, but it became evident that the urge to create imagery with fabric, and to see the finished product as part of a quilt, is shared by many! So now it seems that the Four Rivers quilt will have an array of finished 12×12 squares as well as cloth “bricks,” as I first imagined, and I am including places for the squares in my design. I am pleased to say that Joan herself has said she hopes to make a square for the quilt as well. I have asked Four Rivers staffer Aleithea Warmack to consider making a quilt square too, and she has agreed! Watch this blog for news of these developments!

Note: unless otherwsie noted, the quilt posts are written by Carol Benson.

 

Fabric for the primary bricks – perfect!

Today, Friday September 2, 2011, I start the Quilt project in earnest. This is prompted by a call I got yesterday from my Quilt Guru, Dr. Joan Gaither. She’s ready to help me, we are meeting Tuesday. This is what I’ve been waiting for! But my notes are sketchy, my plans not fully formulated. I have the advantage of working at home today, and starting with a clear head – holiday weekend, my daughter’s off at school, my husband’s at work. A new laptop at home is going to make all the difference, too. My printer is nearly new, and thanks to a generous donation of amazing fabric from Vicky Petersen of the Captain Salem Avery Museum, I can develop my first steps. One of my visions for the quilt is to use fabric rectangles of “bricks,” laid next to one another but not stitched together, to give the pattern of bricks-and-mortar. It will probably make my process infinitely harder, but that’s my vision and for now I’m sticking with it.I went online to determine a size I’ll use for my model of a colonial brick. Typing “dimensions of a colonial brick” into my search bar, I found a site, http://www.sizes.com/materls/brickNonM.htm, that gives me the dimension for Colonial America of 8 3/4 x 4 x 2 5/8. They also caution tht bricks varied a LOT, and cite Ivor Noel Hume, so I decide to use that as my model brick size. After I cut a bunch of cardstock bricks, I eyeballed them and they look fine to me!My next step was to cut the fabric and wrap fabric around a few of my cardstock models. I don’t want to do anything permanent yet, these are just experiments. They look fine, now back to my notes, sketches, and the fabric store!

Boy, were we pleased with the exhibit. A far cry from static and stiff museum displays (which, thank goodness, are constantly being revised and updated), the exhibition incorporates a 10-minute introductory film and other videos throughout, dynamic life-size models of sailors showing events in their daily lives, interactive touch screens that demonstrate actual battle naval movements, intricate and exquisitely created ship models (some of which were created by foreign POWs in American prisons), and a floor space that fluidly spans from the Revolutionary War to Space Exploration. There is a ship model building workshop is on the ground floor which was, unfortunately for us, not being used today, as well as a gift shop stocked with tons of books for the maritime-inclined reader.

Granted, I wasn’t able to spend as much time in the museum as I would have liked to. There is no way you can read every display in one visit, I would dare say. But the museum is free and visitors only need a photo ID to get onto the Academy grounds. Don’t rely on my photos, you need to see this exhibition for yourself.

Me at the exhibit entrance on the 2nd floor. This is only 1 of dozens of model ships on display.

Seriously, these are life-sized and there are several of them showing all facets of navy life. I love these!

I cheated, this is the tomb of John Paul Jones which is NOT in the museum but in the Chapel basement just across the lawn. Aren't the marble columns incredible? They look like an angry ocean. Appropriate, no?

Thanks for reading.

-Aleithea

Each student, or group of students, presented their poster in front of parents, educators, and visitors. The students researched their topics during a full-day field trip to London Town supplemented by classroom visits by London Town Education Assistant Karen Olsen. Lisa Holly-Robbins, Education Programs Administrator, coordinated the event. A Four Rivers mini-grant helped support this wonderful education program!

These kids are talented! The posters will be available for viewing online in the near future. In the meantime, check out some of my photos from that day.

Mad rush to the snack table after the presentations

The list is so long: to Annapolis Mayor Joshua Cohen and Rhonda Wardlaw for the video and audio PSA’s and for putting these on the City’s website front page, to Margot Amelia of the State Office of Tourism for mentioning us on her “Maryland Minute” radio spot and in their E-Newsletter, to the Governor for including us on HIS E-Newsletter, to Loretta Haring and Brian Henley of the the Capital for showcasing the event so brilliantly on their front banner and in their weekly Entertainment section (I understand that putting that section together is quite an art!) To Margaret Horton Edsall for a terrific and lengthy article, getting everyone in! To BayWeekly for their coverage! To the AAACCVB for helping us get businesses on board, putting our event logo on their FRONT page and linking that to a whole page of events on their website! To WNAV for running radio spots and for the hour-long show devoted to the event brilliantly put together by interviewer extraordinaire Barbara Cox! To What’s Up Annapolis for making our event their Editor’s Pick! To Susan Steckman, Paul Foer and others for mentioning the event on the radio! To Watermark for its outstanding support, through staff AND volunteers, of our Heritage Stride downtown! To the South County Chamber of Commerce for soliciting special coupons and hosting an Open House! To the businesses who supported the event with your specials!

I could go on and on, and will add thank-you’s as I can, because this collaborative effort is what makes the event a success, for the participating heritage sites and for the visitors. Everybody wins! THANK YOU.

Why History Matters: The Gift of History

The short 4-page download makes compelling reading; I highly recommend it. Here is an excerpt:  “When asked which sources of their knowledge of the past they most trusted, Americans put museums and historic sites first—ahead of grandparents, eyewitnesses, college professors, history books, movies, television programs, and high school history teachers.”

Surprised? Do you think history is a boring subject? Or do you think it’s fascinating? Have YOU walked into your local history and heritage museums and heritage-related sites lately? Come on out for Maryland Day Celebration weekend, March 19th through 21st, visit a variety of family-friendly activities for A DOLLAR OR LESS, and reconnect with where you have come from and who you are! See all the details on our event website, www.marylandday.org, and make your plans!

– Carol B.

Here is a photo of the Inn at Horn Point, one of our Maryland Day Celebration partners! What about West Street? It wasn’t deserted, surprisingly. I love this one of Duke of Gloucester – just gorgeous! Maryland Hall looked inviting. I’m going to cheat a little bit, because this photo of the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley memorial is from December, but hilarious all the same. Again, this one of the Governor Calvert House on State Circle appears to be from December, but I like the vibe.

I got hit pretty hard too, up here in North County. Check out these pics of my house and yard.

This is me pointing to the snowdrift "waves." Makes me want to go surfing.

Looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. This is the remaining live tree in our front yard from, believe it or not, the drought from a few years ago.

See the Patapsco River in the background? Yeah, me neither.

Now for a little spring preview to warm your toes…

Feel better yet?

Keep toasty,

Aleithea

In his advance materials, David told us that we would learn about how the War of 1812 spawned “a huge variety of songs and dance tunes in America. Some describe great sea battles like the Shannon and the Chesapeake, others laud naval heroes like Rodgers and Perry or celebrate Hull’s victory, and one particular song, our national anthem, carries an especially interesting and now controversial story. This is music and song that Annapolitans heard c.1814 and, it is hoped will hear again in 2012 and years following.”

David and his wife Ginger are the musicologists and performers behind the Colonial Music Institute, http://www.colonialmusic.org/index.htm. David has a M.A. from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in Musicology from Catholic University, and wrote his dissertation on the musical life of Annapolis between 1649–1776.  (I’ll have to read that, sounds interesting! Annapolis is a center for the arts and apparently has been since the 17th century.)

The biography on his website tells us that in addition to performing professionally with his wife Ginger since 1980, David has lectured widely and published articles and reviews in such journals as The William and Mary Quarterly and  Maryland Historical Magazine.  He has served a music consultant for a variety of projects ranging from museum exhibits to PBS television documentaries, and was the musicology consultant for the Maryland History Bibliography project I worked on when I was with the Maryland Humanities Council in 2002. He frequently combines his easy-to-listen-to lecture style (for all ages! I can attest) with musical performances, which are even more elaborate and educational when Ginger accompanies him.

David explained that after his years of research and working with musical broadsheets, song books and songsters (these printed verses without the musical notations), he can interpret musical references as easily as the 18th and 19th century readers could – those early audiences would know the tunes that the brief notations referenced,  but today’s audiences do not, unless they’ve studied as much as David has!

David is currently researching the musical background for the War of 1812, in preparation for the Bicentennial of the War of 1812 that Maryland will celebrate soon – preparations are well underway (see http://starspangled200.org)! His studies will culminate in a music CD and a book (complete with music).

To read some his thoughts on Francis Scott Key and the writing of our national anthem in advance of his book, visit the website (and check out the resources there): http://www.colonialmusic.org/Resource/Anacreon.htm

David is an amazing heritage resource himself – we’ll keep you posted as his research develops.

– Carol Benson

 Let me back up a little; when I say her quilt, what I mean is her vision, her expertise, and her talent. But Dr. Gaither did something remarkable: She shared all this with the community and allowed anyone who wished to add their story, their photos, and their stitches to the quilt. She is the first to say that this was a community project. This particular documentary story quilt, as there are quite a few more, tells the stories of African American men and women who spent their lives working the water of the Chesapeake: Their struggles, their triumphs, their families, their LOVE of the Bay. As Jeff Holland, Director of the Annapolis Maritime Museum said, “this is our history,” no matter who you are. If you live by the Bay, you will be touched by these stories.

If you haven’t seen the quilt yet, well, you have to wait until March when it returns to its home state – this piece is traveling! Its first stop is in Hartford, Connecticut then back to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture.

Reflecting on this past Wednesday, though, I can say what a great way to start the day! If you weren’t able to attend the dedication ceremony, check out some of my photos below. Then get in the car, and go to Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center in Annapolis to check out some of her other pieces while they’re still on exhibit!

– Aleithea W.

The Bates Middle School choir sings for the audience

Karen Rowe and Olivia Gray from the organization Quilt: Art to Mend the World (from my hometown, Riverale, MD!) lead the audience in a spiritual

Dr. Gaither stands in front of (only a small section!) of the Quilt

Mr. Ted Mack prepares to present Dr. Gaither with an accolade with the entire quilt in the background