April 20, 2006

THE MIRROR (Maumee, Ohio)

Page 11-A

 

 

 

Work Depicts Famous Americans Throughout History


Student's Quilt Calls Attention to Women's Struggles

by Kerri Ralls, MIRROR REPORTER

"The key is for women not to set any limits."

Those words adorn a quilt made by one local girl who certainly say her school project as limitless.

Jennifer Logsdon, a junior at Notre Dame Academy,  made a quilt depicting women's struggle for equal rights as part of a project for her women's studies class.

"The quilt is about women's rights—past, present and future," Logsdon said.

The quilt depicts many famous women in history, such as Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt and Sally Ride, to name a few.

Additionally, Logsdon herself stitched quotes about women's rights into the fabric.

"That was something I didn't know how to do so I had to measure it all and figure it out," she said.

Using cloth from her mother's home stash, Logsdon created 21 decorated squares and four corner squares using pieces of material from her school uniform skirt.

One square used the Underground Railroad pattern.

"Women would hang these quilts outside to direct the runaway slaves," Logsdon said.

Another square features fabric from the 1930s that was originally used on flour sacks.

Logsdon explained that women in that era had little money and were forced to be resourceful to make new clothing.

The border of the quilt is purple, white and gold stripes, the colors women wore to march on the White House to demand the right to vote.

Logsdon even hand-stitched the images of Rosie the Riveter and Betsy Ross onto squares herself, using her mother's sewing machine and machines at Sew Nice, inside Hancock Fabrics.

Clearly respecting the past, Logsdon did not ignore the present.

One square shows a red dress to draw attention to women's heart disease, a serious problem facing women today. Logsdon also drew attention to breast cancer, another current threat to women's health.

Perhaps most impressive is the fact that this is Logsdon's first quilt.

"She did it all herself," said Logsdon's mother, Michelle.

Michelle Logsdon taught her daughter the basics and a friend of hers did the final quilting on a special machine, but Logsdon herself did all the other work.

Logsdon said she acted on an idea of her classmate, Renate Seiwart. Logsdon, Seiwart, Meghan funk and Amanda Graham worked together on the project, for which they got an A.

While Logsdon made the quilt, the other girls wrote the extensive paper.

"I got the easy part," Logsdon said.

Notre Dame Academy junior Jennifer Logsdon stands in front of her first quilt, which she made as part of a school project about women's rights. The quilt features important women and quotes from the women's rights movement past, present and future.

"Easy" may not be the best word to describe her effort.

Working more than 50 hours to complete the quilt, Logsdon tried new things and even taught her mother, an experienced sewer and quilter, a few things.

"I'm just amazed," Michelle Logsdon said, "I learned a lot from it."

Ultimately, that was the goal, Logsdon said.

"I did it so it could be where people can see it and

 

appreciate it," she said.

She said she wants to help educate people about the struggles of women.

Currently, the quilt hangs at Sew Nice, but Logsdon said Lourdes College is interested in displaying her work after Sew Nice.

"I think as a society, we tend to ignore what women have done," Logsdon said.

She, for one, is surpassing limits and doing her best to stop ignorance.