May 1943
Doodle: hmmm, my first thought was to NOT rely on a screen-printed doodle/drawing. This left me with the possibility of trying a thread doodle. I am not a machine quilter and have never really tried free-motion quilting, so these machine-stitched doodled hearts are a stretch for me. I wanted to experiment with a simple shape, and told myself that if it looked awful, no one ever had to see it! It was the beginning of February and hearts were everywhere so I decided to give that shape a try. The first "go 'round" was rather odd looking, but by the time I stitched around the shape for the third time I thought it took on a whimsical look with a bit of character which I was happy with. A few more hearts later I had my doodle. I then needed to add something to the background. I inherited a journal that my mother kept around the time that she and my father were married, so I made a screen from the entry on the before and day of their wedding, May 11 & 12, 1943. I loved the parts about the rhubarb pie that my mother baked the morning of her wedding and that my father had to go to court in Boston to testify at the divorce proceedings of his best man! After silk-screening the text I thought it needed a bit more color, so in keeping with the heart motif, screened the pink hearts.
