OCQG 2020 Challenge:  Votes for Women! & Quilt Show

Published by Nancy Nash on 15 Nov, 2019

OCQG 2020 Challenge:  Votes for Women!

Ninety-nine years ago our grandmothers and mothers couldn’t vote in federal elections—many times, they couldn’t vote at all! Brave women and men campaigned, picketed, demonstrated, petitioned, and worked behind the scenes for many years to change this. They were jailed, spat on, reviled, ridiculed, and sometimes force-fed if they went on hunger strikes. In some countries, women are still denied the right to vote. 

The Nineteenth Amendment changed that for our country. The amendment was approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate in 1919. Then it was ratified by state legislatures in three-fourths (36) of the 48 states, and finally became part of the US Constitution on August 18, 1920. It states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

Thus the 1920 election became the first US presidential election in which women were permitted to vote in every state. In honor of the 100th anniversary of this precious right, OCQG members are challenged to make a quilt about our right to vote.

Rules:

  1. The quilt must speak to the idea of women being able to vote, or that they cannot be denied that right.
  2. Quilts must be no larger than 30” in any dimension.  They may be smaller if desired.  Total outside circumference may not be more than 120”.
  3. Embellishments are welcome but not required.
  4. All quilts must be made entirely by the entrant.
  5. A card with the name of the quilt must be pinned to the lower front right-hand corner.  The quilt-maker’s name must be on the back of the quilt, covered with a piece of paper.
  6. Quilts must be brought to the June meeting in a brown bag and will be voted on at the June and July meetings.

There is lots of information about women’s suffrage and the right for us to vote on the internet. Here are a few suggestions and ideas to get you started:

  1. Photos of suffragists and/or their activities printed on fabric.
  2. Pennants: “votes for women.”
  3. Reproductions of posters from that era.
  4. Ballot boxes, ballots, flags . . .
  5. And for traditionalists, make a Sunbonnet Sue (or Sam) with a flag, ballot box, ballot, etc.

Sign up to make a Votes for Women! Challenge quilt at the next few guild meetings. (By the way, at least three other Oregon guilds are issuing commemorative quilt challenges—in Portland, Deschutes County, and Umpqua Valley.) 

Questions? Call or email Jean Amundson!

Lisa Taylor wants to inform everyone that there is a quilt show in Yachats next weekend, November 16th and 17 from 10-4.