"Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."  spoken by the Prophet Amos (Dr. M.L. King Jr)

OKLAHOMA 2010

These very graceful FIFTY - ish Years are descending . . .

Cause some of my evenings to run sooooooo slowly.....  that it suits me and my cup of tea... to just iron on the Cathedral window blocks.....

At this rate.... I could probably set up a quiltin' frame and hand stitch while relaxing and watching a little Criminal Mind-less-ness on TV, and then pitch the early bedtime hour that hits me hard   :))))

I'm happy in Life....!!!

This blogging life of mine . . .  now here's another sleeping angel (a bit lazy with me around - SINCE daddy and Papa are so tough on him).   A part of my anticipated weekend adventure with grandson !!!

Thinkin of Joining an Online group of star-girls.....

Then I'm impressed with this Tim and Alex BOM using almost my same 9-patch set on point... with STARS that Have another 9-patch hidden within!!! really neat!!

Fabric, Family ++ and more FABRIC

First,  I finished it...

but, remember I've not put the binding on it....

NEXT

my baby is GRAND!!!! (grand-baby!!)

And finally, I browsed and was really impressed with this military fabric... as my son and daughter are veterans....

Missing Final Edge-Borders on my quilts

I should call them my Crye quilts..... as good old Bill Crye worked his magic on the Long Arm machine, paid up and handed them back to me....   and they side folded ever so nicely....

A Weekend Quiltin' Excursion

What's happenin . . .!!!   ???
Lordy, lordy... it is hot in Oklahoma!  I am pleased to think back over a weekend trip to Fayetteville AR (Brother's house) wherein my husband hitched a couple of guys onto his boat that was hitched onto our Jeep... so what am I to do???

I towed along my Pfaff..... my brother set up dinner, snacks, TV, talk time, and a roomy card table for me.  I packed 4-5 plastic totes of fabric.... books, tools of the trade... and a project in progress!   Cathedral Windows to cut (bought 7 yards of muslim) to fold, to iron into exact-sized squares....  and hand stitched the entire 3-hr drive to and from!

NOW.... smile.... this was my very own personal retreat!!!
 

Connected to my quiltin !

All that I am today is connected to a sometimes blurried past; but there is an undeniable linkage in the needlework, art and poetry of black women workers throughout American society.

God give me a ray of hope.... such as this . . .

.... notedly....randomly....I copied this jpg from friendly perusal of gardener's blogsite today........  
Hydrangeas after the fresh rain!

FYI Just facts, madam

1791

Year in which an amendment is considered (and withdrawn) by the Pennsylvania Assembly to exempt all slave-holding officers of the federal government (including Washington, his Cabinet, and the Supreme Court) from the Gradual Abolition Act. This was an attempt to make the state more hospitable to slave-holders in hopes of having Philadelphia become the permanent capital of the United States. The proposal is withdrawn before debate after heated opposition from the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

1793

Year in which the U.S. Congress passes and Washington signs the Fugitive Slave Act. The U.S. Constitution (Article IV, Section 2) guaranteed the right of a slave-holder to recover a runaway slave. The Fugitive Slave Act establishes the legal mechanism for accomplishing this, makes it a federal crime to assist an escaping slave or interfere with his recapture, and sets severe fines for doing so. The Fugitive Slave Act allows slave-catchers into every U.S. state and territory.

47 to 8

Margin by which the U.S. House of Representatives passes the Fugitive Slave Act. The U.S. Senate also passes the Act, but the vote count is not recorded. Washington makes no known comment on the Act, and signs it into law on February 12, 1793 (probably in his private office in the President's House).

1/5

Fraction of the American population that is of African descent, all of whom are affected by the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act. There is no safe haven for an escaped slave anywhere in the U.S. because of this law, and even free blacks are in danger of being kidnapped and sold into slavery by unscrupulous slave-catchers.

Martha Washington's Dower Slaves

(about 285) . . .Number of enslaved Africans listed in the October 1759 estate inventory of Daniel Parke Custis (Martha Washington's first husband). Custis dies in 1757 without a will, so the widow is granted a dower share — the lifetime use of 1/3 of the estate's assets. Her dower share, along with the rest of her late husband's estate (including the enslaved Africans), is held in trust for their son Jacky (born 1754).

Commemorating Enslaved Africans from Mount Vernon

I've copies the data from the web linked in my heading -- herein. 

This large-scale quilted art-piece has been in the making for about 2-3 months.   I'll have it up and done in just a few more days!  It is an evolving - emotional piece of my soul.  I laid the word HUMANITY as my last lettered statement.

I've pulled far and wide from my fabric stash and UFO's (orphan blocks - :) unfinished patchwork blocks...now finding a perfect home!!!

 My choice if wording has been sometimes almost too blunt and painful (but not in comparison to the inhumane rapes and whippings suffered by my enslaved ancestors).. so I've tried for a balance of truth in depicting my 18th century President.  Did I mention rich, landowner and planter... off the black backbones of African men and women?


.........In 1790, Philadelphia was named the national capital for a ten-year period while the Federal City (now Washington, D. C.) was under construction. Morris volunteered the house to serve as President Washington's residence.
Many Philadelphians were convinced that once the Federal Government moved from New York to their city, it would never leave. Why build a new capital on the banks of the Potomac when the largest and most cosmopolitan city in America was here? An enormous mansion for the President (about two-thirds the size of the White House) was begun on Ninth Street in Philadelphia, although Washington showed his preference for a Potomac capital by arranging to be away on the day of the groundbreaking. The President quietly worked behind the scenes to bring the permanent capital of the United States to Virginia. He insisted on paying rent for Morris's house, and the initial lease was for a 2-year period. Except for trips and stays in Germantown to avoid yellow fever, Washington occupied the Market Street House from November 1790 to March 1797.
Following a 16-month stay in New York City.

John Adams occupied it from March 1797 to June 1800, then became the first President to occupy The White House. For nearly a decade, the Philadelphia mansion served as the seat of the executive branch of the federal government, housed the public and private offices of the President, and was the site of the official entertaining of the nation. Washington's presidential household included nine enslaved Africans from Mount Vernon. John Adams was never a slaveholder. The intertwined history of freedom and slavery is part of the story of the President's House, and of the United States. 

At the Liberty Bell Center's opening in October 2003, Philadelphia's Mayor John F. Street pledged $1.5 million toward making the President's House commemoration happen.

The site of the President's House lies directly across Market Street from the entrance to the Independence Visitor Center. A public bathroom was built on the site in 1954, and stood squarely atop the footprint of the main house until its removal on May 27, 2003. In 2002-03 the Liberty Bell Center was built, partially covering the footprint of the house’s backbuildings. Under the porch of the Liberty Bell's Center, just 5 feet from the main entrance, is the site of the quarters for the stable workers, two or three of whom were enslaved.

Yep,.... I lvoes her.... !!!  leavin in the typo   'honey chile.... cose I do luvs you"

I lvoe this woman ! Harriet Tubman !!

I want a different slant on Eleanor Burns UGRR . . . .   so I did a quilt read by Randy Akers  / professor of visual communications / He prefaced his artist’s statement with a quote: “If you’re tired, keep going, if you’re hungry keep going, if you’re scared, keep going, if you want to taste freedom keep going.” Harriet Tubman (1819-1913) slave, guide and feminist.


He wrote, “The Underground Railroad was a diverse, flexible and interlocking system of activists who helped fugitive African American slaves in the South escape to Canaan (the North and Canada) in the early and mid 1800’s. The Railroad, its “stationmasters,” and “conductors” consisted of many dedicated Abolitionists, Quakers, and former slaves who knew only of their local efforts to aid fugitives and not of the bigger overall operation. It was this country’s first racially integrated civil rights movement and a seedbed for the Feminist movement with women and men taking equal risks and responsibilities. Hundreds of slaves were moved northward each year as an estimated 100,000 slaves escaped to freedom between 1810 and 1850. The Underground Railroad changed not only the lives of the people saved by the successes of its secretive and dangerous efforts, but also the conscience of a nation.

Kunta Kenta (ROOTS series) was asked.... 'What it like to be free - African?"