“I would unite with anybody to do right and nobody to do wrong.” ~Fredrick Douglass
Last week I encouraged my readers to go out and do some random acts of kindness. While they didn’t post, they did share some with me, so I’ll share them with you! Someone let a lady with less groceries go ahead of them in the line. Someone bought soup and electrolyte drinks for a sick friend. Someone donated some gift baskets for a charity raffle, and someone else gave their neighbor some tools that they needed to fix their car. All little things but they all matter in making the world a better place!
Now, onto this week’s block in my journey of making an “Underground Railroad Quilt”. It is the “Monkey Wrench” pattern.
If you missed last week’s post and the beginning of this quilt and historical journey, you can go back and read it here.
A quilt hung displaying this pattern would signify that it was time to gather the tools a slave would need on their journey to freedom. A monkey wrench is a tool that a blacksmith often used on the plantations. Slaves that were blacksmiths were often lent out to other plantations to work. Because they were allowed to travel, they could gain and pass information from plantation to plantation. A “monkey wrench” was also a code for a person who had the most knowledge. Usually this was the blacksmith.
Fredrick Douglass, a free black abolitionist, had a monkey wrench quilt in his home in Washington DC. He was also the leader of the Underground Railroad. He himself had escaped slavery in 1838. He hid slaves in his own home and helped over 400 slaves escape into Canada. Because a monkey wrench quilt was found in his home, it has lead to lots of speculation as to his knowledge of this code, or if it was just a coincidence. Either way, we might never know. The study of black history, is often lacking. Much of black history that exists is an oral history handed down from generation to generation. This part of history that has to do with minorities and women is often pushed aside and historians concentrate on white-centric history. However, the history of minorities and women is the history and story of us all. Without a complete story and study, the struggles of those who came before us is unjustly lost.
To learn more about Fredrick Douglass, I would encourage you to check out his official website, http://www.frederick-douglass-heritage.org/
And here is the man himself, Mr. Fredrick Douglass.
The Monkey Wrench pattern seemed easy enough, and my book said the skill level was easy.
I again decided to follow the colors in my book. Although some fabric scraps I had featured a more modern print, I went with them anyways.
The first step was to cut the pieces needed for the inside of the block.
You cut the little squares in half to get triangles.
Sewing all the little strips together.
This is the sewing layout for the inner block.
Once the top, middle and bottom pieces are sewn, you then sew them all together.
Ta Da! Like magic! Well, not really. l had a problem with what seam allowance to use. I had to seam rip some out and re-sew them.
I then cut out the pieces of the outer block.
They will sew together like this.
Top, middle, and bottom pieces ready to go!
And my Monkey Wrench block was complete!
I don’t have much of a platform or voice, but I do have one. I created this blog to “walk” in my Grandma’s sewing footsteps. It has evolved over the years to a blog that documents my own sewing and life’s goings on, but I also tell the stories of my Grandparents and family members that were passed onto me.
Where you come from matters, it can help you to learn where you’re going. The struggles and triumphs of ordinary people matter, because they make up the fabric of our lives together. Doing little acts of kindness, like the ones I mentioned at the beginning of this post matter. They spread kindness to others, instead of hate. Knowing history matters! Knowing how others were treated in the past matters, so we don’t make the same mistakes! Knowing someone else’s perspective only makes you a more complete person.
This week, consider your own ancestors history. How did their struggles and successes make you who you are today? Or consider history, specifically the history of minorities and women. What can we as a society learn from them, and take forward for the future generations? Or perhaps deep dive Fredrick Douglass, and learn how one man and one voice can make a difference. Let me know what you come up with!
As for me, onto the next!
I was wondering how this block was going to come together. Like where you’d start and how it literally came together. I enjoyed seeing the process.