Roses from the Heart Update

I have heard today from Christina Henri about the Roses from the Heart project.  As she has her thesis for her PhD to write and is examined in November she will be unable to attend Festival of Quilts this year but is concerned that people may bring bonnets to the event.  This is what she's arranged:

"I am sure there will be people expecting that I will be there with Roses from the Heart(R) this year and I hate to think they will be bringing a bonnet/s along only to find I have no Stand, no presence.  So this is the plan…..

Andrew Salmon, the Festival of Quilts director, is arranging a collection bin at the show for the bonnets.  

It will be at the Registration Point.  

When you go in to the Festival of Quilts turn right and it is in the far corner.  I still need 5,000 bonnets. I had a wonderful response from the Festival of Quilts last year."

Christina sent me some links about an annual 'Blessing of the Bonnets' event in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland. 101 convict transportation ships left from the port of Cobh in Ireland, shipping the convicts to Australia. So she felt it was very important to have a ceremony from there each year in memory of this exiling of people to far off lands.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0725/1224301314743.html

 

http://www.photosales.eecho.ie/?Action=VF&id=629050410&pcp=21&ppwd=74373pks

http://s15.zetaboards.com/Irish_Weather_Online/topic/7044626/1/

Buttons and Bonnets

Snowing again today and we're looking after older grandson, Wills, as his school is closed - no heating!  Still he made a good model for my finished Roses from the Heart bonnets which will be heading off on their journey to Tasmania as soon as I get to the post office.

It was rather strange to stitch one with my own name.

My beloved hanged my button wreath this morning and was rather impressed with it, thanks Catherine :)

If the snow is returning to where you are please keep warm and safe.

Giveaway Winner and FNSI Saturday Report

We have two Friday Night Sew Ins this month, the first was last night and the second is next Friday, you can sign up here.
I only stitched until 9 p.m. last night - Strictly Come Dancing semi final, poor Matt, the judges were beyond unkind - and worked on bonnets for the Roses from the Heart project.  The one photographed (made by machine) is already on its way to Christina in Tasmania and last night I decided to hand sew the next two.  I feel more in touch with the convict girls doing that.  Christina has allocated me girls with my own surname, I haven't found out if any are actually rellies but I'm still working on my family history so you never know what will turn up.
I have little information about Ann Elizabeth Harwood.  She was transported to Van Dieman's Land for life, sailing from London on 22 May 1820 on the Morley and arriving in VDL on 29 August 1820.  She was given a Conditional Pardon on 21 November 1836.
I started a bonnet for Elizabeth Harwood last night.  Elizabeth was transported for 7 years for Larceny. She was convicted of stealing £17 from a man. She was a widow with children and left London on the ship, New Grove, on 25 November 1834, arriving in VDL on 27 March 1835.  In a surgeon's report Elizabeth is assessed as:  Good - thought at time to be of unsound mind.  She received a Certificate of Freedom in 1842.
I am also making a bonnet for Esther Harwood (aka Howard).  She left from Portsmouth on the Lady Penrhyn on 13 May 1787 after her trial in London on 20th (probably) August 1787 and arrived in VDL after a voyage of 252 days with 100 other females on 22 January 1788.
I have heard recently from Christina Henri that she has received 20 000 bonnets, leaving only 5 566 to be made for there to be one for every convict girl.  It's not too late to be involved with this great project so please take a look at Christina's website and blog and at my previous posts here, here and here.

Okay, here's what you want to know...

...but first, I want to thank you all again for taking part in my 200th post giveaway and for being followers of this blog.  Welcome to my new followers too.  I have enjoyed reading all your comments, not just for this giveaway but also over the last 200 posts.  It's always a joy when I find that someone has read what I've shared and then taken the time to comment on it, THANK  YOU. 
I would have loved you all to win but I am particularly delighted to announce that the winner is one of my very early followers, somebody who helped me with my blog when I was getting started and somebody who I met this year and found to be as delightful in real life as in blogland. The winner is

MICHELLE. 

Well done my friend, please let me have your address in wonderful New Zealand and I'll have the goody bag on it's way to you.
Now onwards to the next 200 posts and thank you again, you are all wonderful.  Have a great weekend.

Friday Night Sew-In

It's that time of the month again, it's time for the great Friday Night Sew-In, hosted by Heidi and Bobbi.  I'll probably not be able to post on Saturday morning so I thought I'd let you know what I'll be working on.
Firstly I'll be doing my second Roses from the Heart bonnet.  This one is for Ann Elizabeth Harwood who arrived in Van Diemen's Land in August 1820.  I haven't been able to find out anything more about her but will keep trying.  I'm making her bonnet with the remaining calico from the backing of the quilt I started with Jane Bottomley.  I only have the binding to slip stitch and the label to do and hope I will also have time to work on it at the Norfolk Quilters' exhibition on Saturday if I don't get it finished during FNSI.  This quilt is actually going to be a table cloth and so it is backed but doesn't have any wadding.  I suppose it's not strictly a quilt but a piece of patchwork.  I don't mind what it's called!  In fact I do mind what it's called, I need a name for it if I'm going to get the label done!  It is made using wonderful French General 'Lumiere de Noel' fabrics from Moda but isn't "Christmassy" and will be used all year on the table where Bonni, my lovely vintage Singer machine sits when I'm not using her.  Thinking cap on...
Oh I can't do another post without a photo so here's one of the full set of Global Piecers fabric postcards I received, aren't they great?

Enjoy FNSI everybody.

Bonnet News

There was an interview with Christina Henri, who is currently in Ireland, and a feature about her "Roses from the Heart" bonnet project on Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 this morning.  You can listen to it by going to the BBC i-player site, the interview starts about 24 minutes through the programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/womans-hour/

Thank you for all your wonderful messages, I feel so cared for.  I have done a little sashiko on a set of postcards for BQLPC's next swap today and read Jude Hill's introductory post - the Cloth to Cloth 2 workshop I have joined starts tomorrow.  Time to rest again now while my beloved cooks up a healthy meal (why isn't hospital food healthy?)

Roses from the Heart

Many people were moved by Christina Henri's Roses from the Heart project when they saw approximately 10 000 bonnets exhibited at Festival of Quilts and appreciated that each one represented a female convict transported to Van Diemen's Land.  Those with black ribbons were for the women and children who didn't survive the journey.
Christina has taken on a massive piece of conceptual art and will eventually have 25 566 bonnets permanently installed in Tasmania.  This transportation of convict women was a massive story in our history and by being part of this project we can be an important part of the memorial to them.  There's plenty more information on Christina's website and here she is with some of the bonnets at FoQ.

I have been allocated a convict to make a bonnet, she was Catherine Shields and I've been getting to know her this week as I've stitched her bonnet.  I've been away from internet access in deepest Norfolk for a week or so and it's been an opportunity to stitch and reflect which I've appreciated enormously.

Catherine Shields was born in Liverpool, England.  Her mother's name was also Catherine and she had a sister, Marianne.

Catherine was a 23 year old housemaid when she was tried in Liverpool Quarter Session on the 22 July 1850 and sentenced to 10 years for stealing £2. 0s. 10d  from a person unknown

She was 5 ft and 3/4 inches tall. 

She was a Roman Catholic who could both read and write. 

Catherine Shields was transported on the ship "Anna Maria", sailing from Gravesend, London on 7 October 1851. It was the second voyage for this ship carrying convict women . 

Catherine went to Van Diemens Land (now Tasmania) arriving in Hobart on the 26 January 1852.

Catherine was single when she was transported and later married John Allen in Van Diemens Land.

Here is her bonnet.  
On one side is her name, on the other the date and the name of the ship in which she was transported.

I've been hoping while I sew that Catherine had a good life with John Allen and received this email from Robyn Murray from near Perth in Australia who I met at Festival of Quilts on the Roses from the Heart stand.

Further to your email and you wondering about Catherine. I am thinking maybe she had a better life. I see they allowed her to marry the same year the ship came out , so I suggest she must have been a model convict and done all the right things , so to speak. They had to apply to the Governor to marry and sometimes that was rejected. The Colony at the time thought marriage was good and saw it as a better form of rehabilitation than keeping the girls in the Female Factory. Also remember transportation for female convicts ceased in 1853, so Catherine was there at the finish. Male transportation didn't finish till 1863 I think.

If you go to the site of the Female Factory at www.femalefactory.com.au you can find more information. Also google her ship and the year 1852 and you will find out what conditions were like on her ship.

I found the ship surgeon's report on the internet, wonderfully insightful to read.  I was surprised (and pleased) that "only" four girls died on that voyage in the Anna Maria. 
I've been trying to find Catherine on the UK censuses before she was transported (1841 and 1851) but am going to have to look deeper - she's not obviously in Liverpool with her mother but there is a possibility that she's away at school...will research more.  

Since finishing Catherine's bonnet I have had an email from Christina who has allocated me another convict lass, the wonderfully appropriately-named Ann Elizabeth Harwood, I wonder if she is a relative of mine?  She was transported from London on the 22 May 1820 aboard the ship the Morley, arriving in Van Diemen's Land 29 August 1820.  I'll be trying to find out more and starting her bonnet later this week.

You can keep up with Christina Henri and this project on her blog.  She is currently in Ireland, returning the Irish lasses to their homeland.

Of course I couldn't resist trying Catherine's bonnet on:

 

There was a detailed article about the Roses from the Heart project in British Patchwork and Quilting magazine which can be downloaded here:  Patchwork & Quilting Magazine article (pdf file) 

Festival of Quilts 2010 - Part 1

Here's my first photo report from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England.  The next one will show you where my credit card got battered.
I travelled to NEC with quilting/textiles friend, Trish, who did a brilliant job with the driving (especially in the torrential rain all the way home after an exhausting day) and Pam and June, excited to be attending FoQ for the first time.  We had a great day but today I am shattered and ache in places I didn't know I had (not just my purse).

There are some whinges about the show - particularly why was the trading area so cramped and also confusingly arranged in blocks rather than rows?  Overall though it was a good show with a rich variety of quilts and textile creations on display (fewer than usual I thought, maybe somebody will correct me on that one).  Here are my photos of the day:

Susan Denton's atmospheric landscape quilts attracted my attention.  Here are "Field Walk" and "Winter Allotments"

It was a delight to meet up with fellow blogger, Suzan, at lunch time (and very welcome to sit down and chat for a while).  I have to say I was impressed with the way the catering was organised, no table-bagging but rather a table made available as we got to the till with our lunches and drink.

The next piece to thrill me was this gorgeous piece by Lia Flemings, delicious.

Time for another sit-down and Trish and I went off to stand E42 to make a Morsbag.  How brilliant this project is, take a look at the website for all the information, patterns and ethos.

"Mission:  Impossible 2" (below), exhibit 764, was the amazing work of Kumiko Frydl of Texas, USA, the winner of the Miniature Quilts class.
The judges' comments read:  "Stunning!  Precision personified.  Wonderful detail" and many people spent a long time peering at this exquisite work nearly unable to believe the 128 point Mariner's Compass was really pieced (paper foundation), reverse appliqued and then freemotion quilted.

Added 23 August from "comments":
Dottymo said... Thought you would like to know. The miniture quilt 'Mission Impossible 2' won BEST IN SHOW. 

Exhibit 822 caught my eye, probably because of the Japanese influences initially.  The garments, "Gifts 'Round the World'" by Elizabeth Shapland of London included curved piecing, applique, beading, hand-quilting with speciality threads and Japanese-style knotted insert strips.

One of the quilts I would have loved to take away with me, one I could both admire and live with, was "Moonstruck", below, by Jean Chesnek.  I found the colours, curves and quilting to be very pleasing and was interested by the idea of rust-dyeing.

Finally today then, Christina Henri's "Roses from the Heart" project.  Since 2003, Christina, a conceptual artist from Tasmania, has focussed on the lives of convict women transported to Australia.  Her mission is to gather and exhibit 25,566 bonnets, one for each woman and including those women and babies who died on the way.  I'm sure you will have read about this project but to see all those bonnets spread out on the floor initiated an emotional reponse and I was moved to contribute.

 

If you're off to the Festival of Quilts this weekend I hope you have a great time and I look forward to reading all your thoughts and responses - it's a very personal thing isn't it?!