Small towns do a parade right. There are lawn chairs staked out along Main Street by eight in the morning, a fire truck that toots its horn for the kids, and somewhere near the front a float wrapped in red, white and blue bunting with a quilt draped over the side. Stars, Stripes & Stitches is the float we quilters would build. It carries two American icons, both reimagined by someone who has clearly spent a lot of hours at the machine, and both wearing the same unmistakable expression: Resting Stitch Face.
Leading the way: Rosie the Binder
You know the pose. Red polka dot bandana, sleeve rolled up, arm flexed and ready for anything. Our Rosie the Binder keeps all of it and adds one crucial detail: a patchwork quilt block tucked in her hand, bright squares of pink, green and blue. Her look says she has a quilt to finish and a binding to hand stitch before supper, and she is not taking questions. We can do it was always a quilter's motto anyway. We simply had more thread.
Right behind her: the Quilter of Liberty
Next comes the grandest lady in the harbor, robed in that famous soft green and standing tall. The Quilter of Liberty raises high what looks for all the world like a bobbin, carries a tablet marked R.S.F. and keeps a basket of folded fabric right at her feet, because nobody should march in a parade without a project. Resting Stitch Face is written beneath her in an easy script. She has welcomed a great many people over the years, and she would like every one of them to please stay out of her stash.
Line the curb and wave her on
Every guild has a woman who would ride on this float without being asked. She hangs the flag quilt on the porch rail each summer, knows the words to every song the high school band plays and brings a hand project to the fireworks so the waiting goes faster. Choose the icon who shares her particular brand of determination, Rosie's flex or Liberty's steady gaze, and let her lead the way. When the fireworks finally start, she will ooh and aah with everyone else, then quietly admire how neatly the sky seems to be pieced together.
Written by Judy. Thanks for reading.
