Hand Quilt Along: Freedom for Women

Lots of people are writing about their moms today, since it’s Mother’s Day in the US and some other spots.

I have a totally wonderful mom about whom I’ve written in the past but today I’ll focus on another woman with whom I share a last name and many of the same values and beliefs.

I would love to claim Margaret Sanger as a blood relative but my cousin, who knows these things, says we aren’t related.

I guess I’ll have to settle for simply admiring her and the advances she fought for for women.

Sanger saw her Irish immigrant mother worn out and made ill by 18 pregnancies and later, as a nurse, saw the outcomes of desperate back-alley and self-inflicted abortions.

An advocate of and activist for women’s rights, Sanger is said to have coined the term “birth control” and established the precursor of Planned Parenthood. She wanted women to have a kind of freedom that even the right to vote couldn’t give them—the freedom of their bodies. The freedom to choose whether and when to become mothers.

I felt she needed to be represented in this quilt and especially love this quote:

So, when people hear my name and ask if I’m related to Margaret Sanger . . . I just say yes. 

Since our most recent check-in, I finished this quotation block and the the block I was working on last time.

That means I have completed 11 of 20 blocks and am officially over halfway done! Well, half finished the 20 blocks anyway–there’s other work to be done on this!

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This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette, Sassy , Edith, Sharon and Bella.