Got to sew a bit today - Squared away BOM 4 :)

I do wish I could just be a full-time quilter, but I don't get to sew every day. It all depends on if I've finished enough of my school work, as I'm a history grad student. History is right up today's alley, though, since what I worked on was my reproduction BOM packet that arrived a few days ago.

I love all kinds of quilting - just about every style makes me feel happy. My personal favorite colors are the clean, mid-value, high-intensity greens, blues, lavendars, especially paired with white. Yellows and pinks are cool, too. Orange is even pretty neato, which is a new one on me since I *despised* it for the first 37 years of my life!

But even though I would never choose the colors you'll see from today's work (if color were my deciding factor), I really dig reproduction projects. There's just an indescribable delight in having a tangible connection to particular points in humanity's past. Patriots in Petticoats has a double appeal for me: Being an American, I enjoy the Revolutionary period, and being a woman, I *love* celebrating gals who had pluck! So - let me show you the fun blocks that I've done so far this year with this BOM: (gotta get some good photo equipment!)

January Gal #1 was Deborah Samson. Cheers for the first known woman who enlisted as a man during the Revolutionary fighting. Although she never faced the death penalty as Mulan did, she was dismissed for her gender. Still, Paul Revere spoke up for her and she was awarded a $4/month pension. Go, girl!



January Gal #2 was Anne Hennis Trotter Bailey, whose wild bellicosity freaked the men in her regiment out so much that she was known as "Mad Ann." (She really didn't react well to her husband being killed by Indians.) Not as "revered" as Samson, she faced two years in prison for crossdressing after deserting. Must not have fazed this woman, who later in life built herself a log cabin at the age of 70!

February Gal #1 was Margaret Cochran Corbin. Not about to be left behind, at 25 years of age she went right along with her hubby when he joined the Continental Army. At the Nov. 16, 1776 battle at Fort Washington, when he was killed at the cannon, Margaret took over, loading and firing by herself until she was grievously injured. Three years later she became the first woman to be awarded a pension from the U.S. government as a disabled soldier and in recognition of her distinguished bravery.

February Gal #2 was Elizabeth Gilmore. A 1776 immigrant from Ireland, she and her sister enlisted in the Continental Army as nurses. She served at Valley Forge throughout that awful winter of 1777-1778. It must not have been all bad, though, because this is where she met the man she would marry. Elizabeth went on to become an official rifle-toting, paid "Ranger of the Frontier" for four years after the war.