Photo Tagged Again!

Woo, everypup and everycat. It's me, Dave. We got tagged in a cool game by our Navy friends, the Bumpass Hounds and Kitties. It's the Photo Tag one - where you open your first picture folder, post the 10th photo, explain it, then tag 5 more bloggers. We did this a couple weeks ago, but Stormy said I should pick the first folder somewhere else and do it that way!

I opened the first folder in Mom's Mobile Me account and here's the tenth photo:

A block from Mom's US Sanitary Commission quilt

It's a block in a quilt Mom made. Or ... is making. She put the top together several years ago, but hasn't hand quilted it yet. (Her excuse is that it's huge and she wants to hand quilt it. Woo.) The block itself is a variable star and Mom hand-calligraphed the Bible verse Psalm 27:14 on it, "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."

The quilt top hangs on an antique ladder in our stair landing that goes to the upstairs. It's even in the background of one of my Haik-woos; you can see that here. Here's another look:

Me, Dave, in front of Mom's quilt

The quilt is made to look as though it's from the US Civil War era - by members of the US Sanitary Committee. That organization was sort of the precursor to the American Red Cross. In addition to providing limited medical support to the soldiers, the volunteers also collected personal hygiene and comfort items to be distributed to soldiers in the field. Among those items were quilts. Woo. So Mom made this quilt to look like one that would be sent to a soldier fighting in that war!

The quilt is made from reproduction-type of fabrics, made to look "scrappy" on purpose, and is made to look as though different women contributed the blocks. On many of the blocks, like the one above, Mom did some calligraphy. Often, the ladies would inscribe (Stormy taught me that word!) a Bible verse, a couple lines from a popular song of the day, a little drawing, or maybe a few words of encouragement.

Mom taught herself how to write using the style of penmanship they used back then, and changed her handwriting on the blocks to make it look like different people wrote them -- either with a different slant, different pressure, or even changing what hand she wrote with. Compare that top pic with this one, for an example:

Another block from Mom's US Sanitary Commission quilt

See how different the writing looks? (Compare the capital A's, for example.) Cool, huh? Oh - "Ad astra per aspera" is on the Great Seal of Kansas, which was adopted in 1861. It's Latin for ... umm ... hang on a sec. (OK. Thanks, Storms.) It's Latin for "To the stars through adversity" or "difficulties". Whatever. (To learn more about the Great Seal of Kansas - no, Marvin, Ammy said to tell you it's not a Harp Seal - please click here!)

OK... that's our photo and a very long explanation about it. If anyone hasn't played this tag yet and would like to, have at it! It's very fun!

Thanks to all the Bumpass Hounds and Kitties for the tag!

Luv,

Dave