ESQ Postcard BLog Hop - The Amazing Wonder Woman

Welcome to the Elm Street Quilts Postcard Exchange Blog Hop! 

Links to the other hop participants are at the end of this post.

I had the BEST time making this 3D Wonder Woman postcard quilt for Sabrina. I hope you enjoy learning about its coming-to-be story. Lots of extras below for Wonder Woman fans!

This is 6 x 4 inches, has 3D work at the belt buckle, and a double backing so that I could include a printed postcard note. (I'm also linking to TGIFF at Celtic Thistle this week since I hadn't done a proper finish post for it before.)

Before I get into the details of Wonder Woman, I also want to share the fantastic postcard quilt I got - all the way from Australia! Check it out!

Dione of Clever Chameleon - and the producer of the Color Bears BOM that I'm doing - got my name with my cue word, "Bird." You can read her Postcard Exchange post here: https://www.cleverchameleon.com.au/postcard-parade-2018/  

She got the awesome idea of making a Blackbelt Toucan because I train in Taekwondo with my family, and three of us got our Blackbelts this past October. She even made the dobok the same color as mine! This tickles me to no end, and keeps me company at my longarm, pinned at eye level close to where I stand. Even funnier is the fact that the mailman handed this to us as Marissa and I pulled into the driveway after being at Taekwondo training. :D  Too completely perfect in every way!

       Back to 
Wonder Woman:


I was matched with Sabrina in Texas, and when I read her prompt of “Feminism,” I had a bit of an “oh, no!” moment. Not because I don't like beneficial feminism, but because it seemed such an abstract concept to me to render in an art form, and I am not good at executing abstract ideas. 


But then we went to see the Black Panther film. In my absolute enjoyment of the marvelous women in this film, particularly the beautiful, powerful guards, I knew I wanted to represent my love of how far women have come in action movies, specifically super-hero films.

And here's the trail my mind traveled:

I grew up in the ‘70s and '80s. Linda Carter’s Wonder Woman, while leaving much to be desired in terms of female equality in action figures, was a shiny hero for us young women in an era when virtually every single female on TV squealed in paralysis for a male to save them. Women in action shows were sorely lacking in real power, effectiveness, and legitimacy - even Wonder Woman was limited in what they'd let her be, compared to male superheroes. But, oh, how we loved her!

More recently, when Black Widow appeared in this generation's string of action films, I was completely enchanted and 100% in love with her! So strong, beautiful, alluring, and yet a full-fledged member of the team - powerful, and not sluttified. I thought about figuring out a way to make a Black Widow postcard, but found that extremely difficult to work up. 

So I mulled over the path between her and the Black Panther women – who I also found too difficult to render. Fortunately for me, we have a marvelous character rebirth and directorship between those two points.

When I first found out about the new Wonder Woman film and saw the initial releases of her appearance, I despised it all. It was ruined, she was nothing like our beloved Wonder Woman! Where were her red and blue colors? Her All-American-ness? I hated it, because she wasn’t “our” Wonder Woman from our youth. 

But I let my son-in-law drag me to the movie when it came out, and: OH MY GOSH!!!  

She’s glorious! She’s Black Widow and even more under Patty Jenkins’s directing! She’s a stinkin’ goddess - larger than life, larger than All-American - worthy of, but larger than romance - and her outfits are amazing. Sexy, but not slutty. Even Josh Whedon’s subsequent handling of her can’t ruin her for me. Patty Jenkins gave us an undeniably fabulous action figure.

In itself, Jenkins' directorship of Wonder Woman was a humongous step forward for feminism in the film and superhero industries. Her “No Man’s Land” scene is one of the most powerful theater experiences I’ve ever felt. I saw that scene right away as a feminist rendering of all the shots women have to fend off, and Wonder Woman does it with iconic strength, determination, beauty, purity, and absolute unwavering faith in herself and those she is protecting.

"Wonder Woman's 'No-Man's Land' Scene Was the Best Super Hero Moment of 2017"

by Alex Abad-Santos

So Wonder Woman definitely needed to be rendered for my postcard to Sabrina. In fact, I made a batch of them so I could keep one, give one to my daughter, and have a couple of special Thank You's. Wonder Woman is bigger than a single mini quilt. I had to do her justice. 

And here's how I did it, if you'd like ideas for your own play-time creativeness:

Construction:  It is difficult for me to draw things out, and it took at least two hours for me to make the pattern after studying lots of images online and choosing a representative focal point.

Luckily, I had the PERFECT fabrics in my stash, so I didn't have to wait for an opportunity to go into the city. 

First, I sandwiched the blue and red backgrounds, using fusible fleece for stiffness, and did all the detail quilting, followed by a squaring-up as I trimmed them out. It was really nice having those pieces fused down before I started that intricate quilting, as they didn't shift on me at all. Then I fused the gold and silver belt strap pieces onto these bases and zig-zagged their edges and put in quilting lines. I had gutted the fusible out from the inside of the larger pieces like I normally do with fusible applique. After all this, I zig-zagged the postcard edges with dark monofilament thread.




For the buckles, I traced the W and V pieces directly onto their fabrics, then fused them onto the fleece. It was easier to do their inner stitching before they were cut out. I did not use a backing on these.












After I cut them out from the fleece, I zig-zagged their edges with the gold thread. The Vs were too small to handle - they'd get punched down into the hole, so I put them on a piece of water-soluble stabilizer that I soaked off afterward.




I sewed the Vs onto the Ws before I sewed the Ws onto the bases, all by machine. 

Last, I printed a back on a fabric printer sheet with an outline around it about 1/2" bigger than the postcard so I would have a way to center it. Can you see here how I did that? 

I could see that outline through the backside, letting me place the postcard squarely over it so I could edgestitch it down from the front, about 1/8 inch in from the sides. I used monofilament thread in the top and a cream bobbin thread, and for trimming it out, I found it best to fold the sheet back and slip long scissors into the fold to cut in line with the sheet's sides so I would get nice and close without hanging over the postcard's edge, but not snick the thread anywhere. Worked perfectly!

On Sabrina's postcard, I left one edge open when I sewed on the printed backing. That let me tuck a letter in that shared this mini quilt's story. It had come to mean quite a lot to me. Perhaps it has touched a chord that resonates with you, or even just entertained you for a moment in time.  :)  

Thank you for letting me share my love of Wonder Woman and the pleasure of making this postcard quilt for Sabrina. Here are the other stories in Patty's Postcard Exchange Blog Hop, which goes live April 7:

Denise @ DottieDoodle

Isis @ Creation d'Isis 

Karen @ Run Sew Fun

Lynette @ What A Hoot Quilts

Laura @ LC's Cottage

Lisa @ Sunlight in Winter Quilts

Marsha @ Quilter in Motion

Michelle @ Creative Blonde

Paige @ Quilted Blooms

Patty @ Elm Street Quilts

Sandra @ mmm! quilts

Susan @ California Fiber and Music

Valerie @ Val's Quilting Studio

Tried and Convicted: Quilting in the First Degree

 [ "Go to Jail" Party
at Lily Pad Quilting -
last day to link up!]




Police received a tip-off of a suspected quilter, with reports of Internet activity, home activity, community trafficking, and involvement of minors.

Suspect was apprehended while picking up children at the high school, with threads on her clothing typical of those involved in quilting.

The home offers much evidence of quilt construction (both piecing and quilting), and intent to continue.

Each bedroom has at least one quilt on the bed, labeled with the suspect's name.

 

 

 

 

Two bathrooms contain quilts, one labeled as a co-opted work with the suspect and her then-12 year old daughter.

 

 

Quilts hang on walls in two common-area rooms, mounted on pulley systems indicating intent to change quilts repeatedly.

 

 

Quilts lay on sofas and chairs, with household pets at ease on them, suggesting a familiarity. Additionally, cats are known to be very popular with quilters. This house has four cats.

The lowest level of the house holds a hotbed of evidence, with a dedicated sewing area and installed inspiration board,

Quilts in varying degrees of construction or a finished state are mounted on the board and other walls.


An ironing station appears to be permanently set up.

The one raw storage area is filled with fabrics, quilt kits, and quilter's tools.

The sewing area is set up in an L footprint popular with quilters. One sewing machine appears to be set for piecing, and the lab was able to determine that this was left on overnight.

The other sewing machine is set up for free-motion quilting, with post-it notes containing setting specs for different quilting situations, a silicon sliding sheet known to be used as an aid in quilting, and free-motion quilting gloves. Many threads popular with quilters occupy the desk area to the side.

Threads are also found stored in several desk cubbies.

It is reported that the pool table is frequently converted to quilting purposes and it can be seen that it is covered in many loose threads.

Back in the common area upstairs, the dining room is clearly used as a quilter's cutting and planning station, with a rotary mat, cutter, and rulers on the table in an apparent permanent set-up. Chairs are draped with various fabric sets and projects in progress.

Baskets are placed on a chair beside the mat, both filled with cutting cast-offs.

The china hutch has cut fabric pieces on the ledge and quilter's paraphernalia in each drawer. 

Larger rulers and newsprint paper (known to be used for various techniques by quilters) are tucked discretely at the hutch's side.

The armoire is topped with many folded finished quilts labeled with the suspect's name as the creator (some indicated patterns, others claim to be original designs), one completed quilt identified with a daughter's name as the constructor. Inside, it is filled with what are labeled as several Block-of-the-Month projects in various states of construction, as well as a corner filled with cutting scraps.

A collector's-quality dresser around the corner contains other quilting projects,

and the front coat closet contains 15 hanging quilt tops that appear to be ready for the quilting stage, as well as one quilt close to completion being worked in the hand quilting style with use of a quilter's lap hoop.

Suspect has quilting supplies and projects in a high degree of organization, but some points of disarray offer further evidence: a quilter's basting safety pin on the floor next to the sewing desk. 

Pieces of 1/4" masking tape hang from the desk side, apparently for re-use.

Cutting debris lies on the rug under the rotary mat, despite reports from neighbors of periodic vacuuming noise.

Pieces matching a project being constructed in the basement sewing area are organized atop the grand piano upstairs and appear to be periodically culled, as indicated by the organizing basket sitting on top of the acrylic sheet (which is marked with quilting motifs by what appears to be dry-erase marker).

Partially-complete applique quilt sections and applique supplies are strewn on the table beside the sofa, which also holds a tub filled with quilter's basting pins and tool.

Suspect's husband had to be told to cease and desist washing dishes, as he was caught destroying evidence of typical quilter's neglect of basic household chores. This is all that was left of a day's worth of accumulation in the kitchen sink, which had been filled at the time of police arrival at 4:00pm.  Husband stated he does not mind washing dishes or cooking dinner a couple times a week while suspect works on "UFO's" (known to be quilter terminology for projects that have spanned long periods of time in an unfinished state).

Suspect's computer contained evidence of regular blogging of quilting activity inviting others to participate,

involvement of minors in quilting activity,

and display of quilts in public - most recently in a blatant act at the Colorado State Capitol. Suspect's cottage quilt pictured previously in this evidence report, now hanging over the piano in suspect's home, is shown below on the right side of the north gallery. It is known to have hung in the Capitol from early July to mid-October of this year.

Suspect openly admitted on her blog to intentionally distributing quilts to the community at large, including wheel-chair quilts and a queen size bed quilt for flood relief.

Suspect's blog further implicates her involvement by offering several tutorials teaching others how to participate in various stages of quilt-making.

Photos in the logs of suspect's personal computer and phone indicate that this blog is, indeed, posted by the suspect and not by an imposter.



The court can readily see that this suspect participates in quilting construction at every stage and willingly leads others to participate in the crimes involved. Suspect does not deny this to be so, and states that she has no intention of changing her activities. Prosecution rests its case and asks the court to find Lynette (aka Lyn) guilty of Quilting in the First Degree.