Election Time

Elections are next week.  True confessions -- this time of the year I completely turn off the TV (or focus solely on HGTV and the Hallmark channels) to avoid all the political ads.  This makes me much happier.

My political promise to you is that views in this post are solely about quilting.  

Did you know that quilter's expressed their political viewpoints through their quilts?  I thought I would share with you the story behind two political quilt blocks.  

In 1931, Evalineline Foland designed this elephant quilt block, named for an elephant in the Swope Park zoo in Kansas City.  About a week after the pattern was published by the Kansas City Star, the ladies of the Congregational Church made a GOP elephant out of him.   

Many of the Stars readers demanded equal representation. The Star responded with Giddap, a Very Democratic Donkey a pattern that remained very popular throughout the Depression and Franklin D. Roosevelt years.

I decided to make my own "political quilt" using both the elephant and the donkey.  I redrafted the blocks in EQ (cutting down the number of pieces along with the size of the blocks).

Here are my redrafted blocks.
 

Ararat rotary cutting and piecing diagram included here.

Giddap rotary cutting and piecing diagram included here.

Here is my finished quilt.

Political Debate by Kari Schell (2010)

Anybody want to guess at the names of the other block's in this quilt.  HINT:  They can also be considered political blocks.  Feel free to post your thoughts.

Happy quilting.

Kari

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