Vases on the Shadow Stars Border

Fairy tales are more than true: 

not because they tell us that dragons exist, 

but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.

~C. K. Chesterton

Today is finally Election Day in the U.S. unless you voted early. And I hope you did since the lines will be long today.

Even though the rabbit print seemed a bit light I wanted to try it. The vase is too short to include the whole image. I chose to put the face in rather than the ears. Then I asked QS and several friends whether it needed a foot. Of course, everyone said, "Yes." And I agree... even though it's more work.

 

Vase with and without a foot,
before turning the edges

So I adjusted the template and started pinning them in place. Fortunately DH bought me this LED light board for my birthday. It really helps tracing and placing appliqué. 

Placing components with a light table

There was another fabric I considered for the rim of the vase but it doesn't work as well as it moves quickly into greens. 

Alternate vase rim

The vase is {possibly} straighter than it appears in the photo. My applique is not that accurate and these are hand drawn templates; hopefully, they will look organic when finished and not just weird. I left some basting stitches because the center of the rim needs to be cut when the stems are inserted. 

Vase mostly sewn

But that's next week's task.

Comments

Because I learned some people can't comment on my blog, I briefly tried the popup window and full page options for comments but neither allows me to reply directly to the comments. So I'm back to my original choice - embedded. Let's hope Google gets all these issues fixed soon. 

Reading

Watching a recent Textile Talk on Women's Suffrage introduced me to the Grimké sisters which led to Sue Monk Kidd's novel, The Invention of Wings.  The story blends their history with the fictionalized Hetty, a slave gifted to Sarah on her eleventh birthday. When Sarah teaches Hetty to read, both girls are severely punished. As Hetty notes later, she is physically imprisoned but mentally free while Sarah is physically free but mentally imprisoned. 

Because Sarah and Angelina supported abolition as well as equality for women, they eventually moved from Charleston to Philadelphia where they began speaking and writing pamphlets. The South Carolina legislature threatened to arrest them if they ever returned home. 

Sue's book is meticulously researched. Most of the Grimke story is true although the timeline is slightly altered in places. While Hetty is fictional, all the cruelties of slavery are not. Nauseating to watch Whites justify their actions in ways we still hear today. 

The novel was published in 2014 so many of you have already read it. What can I say? Sometimes I'm slow.

Enjoy the day, Ann