Crazy Quilt Block 2

My, I hadn't realized I had fallen so far behind in my entries; I usually try to write five days a week.  My apologies!

Saturday I expected to spend a good portion of my time painting.  Unfortunately for that plan, I noticed the fabrics I had chosen to use in my second crazy quilt block before I looked at the painting I  thought I'd work on.  Oh well, at least I got everything stitched on to the foundation fabric.  Here's what it looks like at this stage: 

The photograph is one of those I had enlarged and transferred to fabric. It's a sorority picture from Gamma Phi Beta at Syracuse University around 1927 (I have to check the date), and my mother is in the middle of the group.  It is very hard to see her because each face is so small.  Since this enlargement came out quite well and isn't a photo we've really be able to see before, I decided to use it.  The choice of fabrics was dictated by three things.  The picture has quite a greenish cast,  mother's dress has a lace collar, and she didn't like pink! 

When I found that wonderful green ribbon in my stash, I knew I had found not only the frame for her portrait but also the colors I would use.  It's hard to tell unless you click on the photo, but the lines in the ribbon are gold, almost orange, purple, and lighter shades of green.  The brown floral flower above her head is a purchased item I found in my things while looking for the ribbon, and I picked up the swallow/skylark for this block in a local store.  The music is a twill ribbon I bought quite a while ago, and most of the fabrics have been waiting patiently for a crazy quilt.

The plan is to embroider something on the large piece of plain burnt orange on the lower right.  Some of the seam lines aren't as lovely as they could be, but the decorative stitches that will hide the seams should help soften if not correct that.  You are still able to see both basting stitches and pins used while attaching the fabric to the foundation piece.  That swallow/skylark may also be moved slightly as his tail is getting lost on the green and gold fabrics to his right, and the music ribbon will be

 shifted a bit.

Esther suggested that I frame the first crazy quilt block in a shadow box as a solo piece.  At the time I thought, "No, this crazy quilt has a life of its own and a story to tell.  The first block belongs with the others that are to come."  Now I'm not so sure that the first block will work with this one and those to come.  These colors are so different from the first except for the black which is the carry-through color.  And of course, the photograph is a new element.

I seem to be back to "Daisy Makes Do" and the stories of  women handing down traditions from mother to daughter or woman to woman.  My mother passed on her love of music, flowers, reading (the swallow/skylark represents literature - "Ode to a Skylark"), but most of all she gave her daughters her love of creating with fabric, needle, and thread.  There is a need in me to pay tribute to all women who have gone before but have left each of us something to carry on ourselves.  Do you understand or share this feeling?