More Grandmother's Choice Blocks

6 Grandmother's Choice Blocks

I made 6 Grandmother's Choice blocks during my very productive month of March. It's one thing to make the squares but quite another to prepare a blog about them. Since then, I've made another 4 blocks. Here is my post for all 10 squares. Yup, it just keeps on going and going! As before, most of the information is taken from Barbara Brackman's amazing blog, Grandmother's Choice. The exception is block 48 which represents Canadian Suffrage. I researched it and found a slightly different story.

Block 15: Centennial

15. Centennial: New Zealand's Victory
Centennial recalls the 1993 centennial celebration  of New Zealand as the first country to give all women the right to vote in all elections. "Each year September 19th is remembered as Suffrage Day or White Camellia Day because supporters of votes for women wore white camellias."


22. Jack's Delight: Ridicule as Humor

Block 22: Jack's Delight

Humor was used a lot to ridicule women who wanted the vote. Many of these "jokes" were published on postcards. "Historian Catherine Palczewski estimates that about 4,500 suffrage-themed postcards were published." In most of the images, women who supported women's rights to vote were depicted as unattractive, bossy, a bore, a busybody or even promiscuous. They might also have been depicted as too dumb or distracted to vote; and of course incompetent to govern.

24. True Blue: Too Smart

Block 24: True Blue

At the time, a woman was called a blue if she was self-educated and a blue-stocking if she was educated. These terms were meant to be an derogatory, "although many women wrote they were proud to be blue. The word implied a woman who read, who wrote (for publication, horrors!), who discussed ideas, literature, philosophy and history, who valued conversation over card playing."

30. Broad Arrow: Prison Garb

Many women in Great Britain were arrested and spent time in jail for their efforts on behalf of women's right to vote. When in prison, women were identified as prisoners by the "broad arrows", a triple line stitched or painted on their coarse clothing. For many, the Broad Arrow became a badge of honor worn by women who'd endured imprisonment.

Block 30: Broad Arrow

Block 33: Contrary Husband

33. Contrary Husband

The Contrary Husband is a renown quilting block. Since women can be as contrary as men, Ms. Brackman examines the legislated right of a contrary husband. The case in point is Charles Lewis Bankhead, a drunk who abused his wife. Her influential family tried to intervene but there were few options available in 1815. "Charles had every right to beat his wife who was obligated to remain under his control."  

35. Granny's Choice: I'm an Anti

Block 35: I'm an Anti

Not all women supported Women's right to vote. To be fair, it may have been difficult for some women to assert themselves, especially when some of the women in the suffrage movements were so militant. There were women however who were against women's right to vote. In the US, the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) was created. It seems that some of their arguments such as "Why waste time, energy and money, without result?" were more about the difficulty of obtaining the vote than actually being against women voting. 

48. Fair Play: Canadian Suffrage

It would be wonderful to think that women got the right to vote in Canada because politicians and men in general believed in the equality of women. Unfortunately, that's not usually how politics works and it's not what happened in Canada. "In 1917, Prime Minister Robert Borden felt he could save Canada's honour only by winning that year's general election, so he rigged the vote to ensure that he would." Borden's conservative government gave women in the armed forces the right to vote since they were the most likely to vote for his government. Recall that this was during WW1 and Borden needed more men to enlist, but since they weren't, he proposed conscription to force them to fight. 

Block 48: Fair Play

Before the elections Borden's government passed the Military Voters Act and the Wartime Elections Act. "The first gave the vote to "all British subjects, whether male or female" who were in the armed forces. In one stroke, about two thousand army nurses became the first women to get the federal franchise." The Act also allowed the government to use those votes wherever they needed them, as opposed to the ridings where the people in the armed forces came from. The Wartime Elections Act took away Canadian's right to vote if they had become citizens after 1902 and came from a country that Canada was fighting. These changes ensured that people who were likely to vote conservative got the right to vote (women in the armed forces) while taking away the vote of new immigrants who generally voted Liberal. 

"Margaret Gordon, president of the Canadian National Suffrage Association, said it would have been more honest to make it illegal not to vote Conservative."

Borden's campaign promised all women the federal vote and, in 1918, they got it. By the early 1920s, women also had the provincial vote everywhere but Quebec, which resisted the inevitable until 1940.

FYI, this information is from Jensen, Sid. You Don't vote for Kings, Beaver, Apr/May2007, Vol. 87, Issue 2 It's probably a little more realistic than Ms. Brackman's view.

Block 2: Amethyst

2. Amethyst: Suffragettes

The purple amethyst reminds us of the purple, green and white of Britain's Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). They were a militant group that were also know as suffragettes. The WSPU's main mottos were "Votes for Women" and "Deeds Not Words". 

In the US, the main suffrage colour was gold. This is why I've chosen to use green, purple and gold in my quilt.

16. Capital T

Block 16: Capital T

Many of the women who fought for the vote learned public speaking while fighting for another cause - Temperance (Capital T). It wasn't a bad idea, but since we know that organised crime became what it is today because of the temperance movement, I find it very hard to be sympathetic (besides I'm more of a "let live" type of gal).

Block 21: Parasols & PR

21. Parasols & PR

Women used parasols to shade themselves from the sun. These yellow and white parasols were used as wonderful billboards for advertising "Votes for Women"!

What I learned:

• It was only as I was trying to match the photos to each block that I noticed that two of my blocks are different from those on the Grandmother's Choice blog. Oops! It seems that I inverted some of the blocks when I pieced them. Unless you compare the blog's pictures with mine, you probably won't notice.
• Most of the blocks I have completed are what I consider the easy ones - that is, the blocks with squares, rectangles and triangles. I really hesitated making the blocks that required that I cut out templates (irregular shapes from a pattern). The first one I made from a template was block 2. Since it came out much better than I anticipated, I attempted a few more. Block 48 is a more difficult template using circles. I was nervous but in the end it's a lot like putting in a sleeve when making a blouse. I took my time and used a lot of pins. Not bad for a first effort. I did make another block that didn't make it on the blog - I'll have to work on those Y seams (don't ask!)
• Block 21 is an appliqué. I find appliqués difficult to make well, but if I don't practice, I'll never get better. The good thing about appliqués on a quilt is that I can FMQ on top of them to make sure they stay in place.
• At the end of this post I had a total of 19 blocks completed. I did make another 4 blocks on the weekend - but that will be another day. I have start thinking (actually the correct word would be obsessing!) about putting these blocks together in a quilt. More on that later.

Tomorrow is Canada Day - hope yours is a great one!

Any day spent quilting or thinking about quilting is a great day :-)

Grandmother's Choice Project Continues

I started doing this Block of the week quilt in the fall, after buying many pretty purple, green and gold fabric in Philadelphia. Now that Christmas and winter projects are over for another year, I'm back at it! Here the link to my original post in November. As you will soon notice, I'm not doing these blocks in any particular order. Most of the background info is taken from Barbara Brackman's amazing blog, Grandmother's Choice. I only want to give you a glimpse of her stories. You should check out the link to her blog if you're at all interested. It's full of stories, pictures etc. Whenever possible, I've added some Canadian content.

Block 6. Aunt Eliza's Star: Child Custody

Block 6 Aunt Eliza's Star

This block commemorates child custody rights for women. The story is about Eliza Custis, Martha Washington's eldest granddaughter. At the time, Eliza was seen as an American princess, heir to a fortune and bride of the richest man in Washington.

Her husband, Thomas Law, was a "developer" and had a mistress. Mrs Eliza Law left her husband but wasn't allowed to take her daughter. Mr. Law was also supposed to pay her a yearly annuity, as per a prenuptial agreement, but rarely did. Eliza paid a very dear price for her freedom. If this could happen to an American princess, think of all the other women it probably happened to! Child custody rights were very slow in coming for women.

Block 9 Brick Pavement

Block 9. Brick Pavement: March on Washington

On  March 3, 1913, five thousand women marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington. They were led by Inez Milholland Boissevain who was astride a white horse - it must have been quite the sight.

The march wasn't without incident. They met a blockade of men. The police refused to clear the path and as a result, some of the women were verbally and physically abused. It's estimated that 300 women were injured.


Block 13. Everybody's Favorite: Universal Suffrage

Universal suffrage was an ideal in Canada until recently. In 1920, Canada (excluding Quebec until 1940) enacted suffrage for both sexes. However, First Nations (of either sex) were not allowed to vote until 1960. (Wikipedia)

Section 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Block 9 Everyone's Favorite

Universal suffrage is still not universal.
Here's Section 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations.

Bride's Know: Invisible Women

Block 14. Bride's Knot: Invisible Women

Barbara Leigh Bodichon was one of the women who fought to change English law. In 1870, The Married Women's Property Act permitted women to maintain rights to their inheritance, wages, investments, real estate and personal property through marriage, widowhood, divorce and death. Before this, generally everything they had when they married went to their husband. Since this was British law, it also applied to Canada. (Canadian Encyclopedia)

Block 18. Cheyenne: Wyoming Firsts

Wyoming was the first U.S. territory and subsequently the first state to legislate women full rights to vote and hold office in 1869. Cheyenne is Wyoming's capitol.

Women's suffrage was adopted in the west first. It's thought that since they were pioneers, people may have been more  are more open to change. There were also fewer women so it's possible that their voting was seen less less as a threat. Wyoming also hoped to attract more female settlers.

Cheyenne: Wyoming Firsts

The story in Canada is similar, with the west adopting women's suffrage on a provincial level first. It did, however occur much later than in Wyoming. "Prairie women gained provincial rights largely on their record in helping to settle and build the country.On 28 January 1916, Manitoba women became the first in Canada to win the rights to vote and to hold provincial office. They were followed by Saskatchewan on 14 March and Alberta on 19 April. British Columbia approved women's suffrage on 5 April 1917, and Ontario suffragists, after many years of struggle, celebrated their hard-won victory one week later on 12 April."  In Canada, women got the right to vote in federal elections in 1918. Canadian Encyclopedia

What I learned:

• As I took this project back up, I was very pleased to see that I had left it with some pretty good notes and had cut these blocks. I was very happy with myself! It made taking up the project much easier.
• Since it worked so well, I'm following the same process for the next batch of blocks. I print out or write out notes for the next batch of blocks I want to do next; decide on the fabrics to use for each block and attach these to my notes. When I'm in the mood, like last night, I spend some time cutting the fabric for each block. I've improved my process by assembling the block on my cutting table and taking a picture so that I know where everything goes.  I'll post one of my pre-picture next time. 
• I've also improved the pictures of my blocks by using "perspective" when cropping the photos in Photoshop. Wow - what a great feature!

Grandmother’s Choice: Women’s Rights and Issues

I have a soft spot in my heart for political activism. I really admire people who work tirelessly to protest, write or blog for a cause that they believe in. I am generally too much of a cynic and a chicken to take to the streets but if there’s something that I can do to help through quilting, then that’s a different story. Being my mother’s daughter (she was a feminist to her core!) I find issues affecting women particularly moving. You may have seen my blogs concerning the “Walking with our sisters collective art project”.

Here’s a very different project. Barbara Brackman is a quilt historian and author of many books and blogs. One of her projects, Grandmother’s Choice, started over a year ago. I’ve been following it almost since the beginning but I only started making the blocks about a week ago. Every week she published a block and included all kinds of amazing historical facts about one aspect of women’s rights. Most of the history is American but there are tidbits about England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Block #1 - Grandmother's Choice

The first block, Grandmother’s Choice, encourages us to look at our grandmothers or great-grandmothers’ lives to see how having the right to vote might have affected them. In the US, many states gave and took away women’s right to vote. It was only in 1920, when the right to vote became a part of the U.S. constitution, that women were guaranteed their right to vote.

In Canada, some women, were given the right to vote from 1917. It seems that it was in January 1, 1919 that the qualifications of both men and women to vote became the same (i.e. British subjects of a certain age). Even if, in theory women and men were both allowed to vote, this right was far from universal. It wasn't until 1950 that the Inuit were given the right to vote; and status Indians didn't get this right until 1960! (Canadian Encyclopedia)

Block #3 - Union Square: Red for Rebellion

Block number 3, Union Square: Red for Rebellion acquaint us with England’s National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, a group committed to attaining the vote for British women. They realised that marching in protest could be very effective. Their colours were originally white with red accents; red being the colour of rebellion.

Block # 5 - New Jersey: Suffrage Pioneer

My next block is the fifth in the series: New Jersey: Suffrage Pioneer.  As in Canada where provinces were allowed to give women the right to vote on the provincial level, in the U.S., an individual state could give women the right to vote if the issue hadn’t been addressed at the federal level. When the New Jersey constitution was adopted in 1776, voters were defined as propertied adult residents of the state. By the early 1800’s, it seemed that the percentage of women voters was “alarming” and the state changed its laws to allow only free, white men over the age of 21 to vote.

This block was created to remind us that at one time, the right to vote could be given as well as taken away.  In the 19th amendment of the US constitution, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Block # 7 - Alice's Star

My fourth block this week is the seventh in the series: Alice’s Flag. Alice Paul created a Ratification Banner where she would sew a star every time that one of the states ratified the 19th Amendment. To take effect, the amendment required that 36 of the 48 states vote in favour. This finally happened in 1920.

I’ll be creating more of the blocks in the Grandmother’s Choice project. I will also do some research about women’s rights and issues in Canada at that time.

Here are my 4 blocks to date.

Blocks completed to date

What I learned:

• The patterns for each block and the measurements of the pieces are included on the website but only the more difficult patterns have instructions. I realise that I know more about quilting than I thought.
• I sure know more about the history of women’s issues.

In this post, all of the information about women voters was taken from the Grandmother’s Choice website unless specifically stated.