Suffragette Images

I have been collecting suffragette images for about 10 years.  I began when I was making  suffragette art dolls and so I have several hundred items to choose from... When I started this quilt I began to narrow down my choices to nine blocks...and only 2 images to a block...and it was not easy.  I made some last minute changes yesterday..  All need photo editing to even out sepia tones and sharpen...

The two images on the left will be in the center block .  They have been my first choice for some time.  I can lighten the face on the young women voting.  I will print them all on paper first and experiment with size and placement.

Block 4 is center left on the quilt and these are the my choices for that block

It's on block 9 (lower right on quilt) that I changed my image choices completely... Last winter our museum had an exhibit celebrating the centennial of women's rights to vote in Washington State...  Part of that exhibit was devoted to the importance of the bicycles to this movement.  I originally planned to include some bicycle imagery on each block but now decided to devote an entire block to  the bicycle. 

For fascinating reading on this subject go to Women on Wheels: The Bicycle and the Women’s Movement of the 1890s

And a book that I found invaluable is Wheels of Change: How women rode the bicycle to freedom by Sue Macy.  This is a National Geographic book that I  love and would be a perfect gift for a teen or preteen girl. If you have a daughter, granddaughter or niece of this age I highly recommend it and they will look at their bikes differently for the rest of their life.

Now that I've made my final choices I will start editing the images...  Each block will also include one or more of the following...poster, banner, placard etc..   I had two many images on my AAQ entry but I was trying to tell the whole story on 1 block... so it will be easier with nine blocks..

I have had my goals for the images pretty clearly defined.... I wanted to include groups of women, proud women, happy women, determined women,  and strong women..