There’s a new free Quilt-Along starting, and it’s time to introduce you to it today!
A while back, reader Karen F. suggested that one of my quilt-alongs should have a World War II time period theme, and I readily agreed, because I’ve been wanting to recreate a design that appears in a photo of my great-uncle Roland Hyde.
He’s pictured here with his girlfriend at the time, Virginia. See the lovely design in the background? It doesn’t look very large, and for all I know, it’s actually a rug, and not a quilt, but that’s what we’re gonna be making — a variation of this design, as a quilt!
While I’m reasonably certain this photo was taken outside of a house in Kansas City, I don’t know whose house it is, and I have no idea who the rug/quilt belonged to. The date is September 14, 1943, right smack dab in the middle of World War II.
Hazel was born in 1936, well before the war began, and her brother, Donald, was born in 1939, on August 9th. Less than one month later, Germany declared war on Poland, beginning the biggest and deadliest war in history, involving more than 30 countries and lasting six years.
Hazel and Donald’s younger brother, Larry, was born on July 24, 1941, and the United States was not yet involved in the war, at first declaring neutrality. (For more, read this post.)
But with the deadly attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, the United States could no longer remain neutral.
Hazel’s father, Vern, and her uncle, Roland, both served in the Navy during World War II. Here are some links where you can read about the Hyde family’s life during the war, at least as much as my sister and I could piece together.
More About Life During the War
I’m not going into much detail about the history of World War II, because you can read that just about anywhere, and you will recognize lots of names, words, and phrases related to this horrific event, such as Holocaust, Hitler, Guadalcanal, atomic bomb, Anne Frank, Auschwitz, Blitzkrieg, Battle of the Bulge, D-Day, etc. I have watched lots of documentaries and read a lot about it, and it’s never any less horrible. Especially heartwrenching are the stories from concentration camp survivors and combat veterans.
I believe my grandparents did a good job of protecting their children from the knowledge that there was a great war going on, and kept them busy and entertained so that they did not have to worry. I’m sure this was not the case for every child during that time. I simply cannot imagine what some people endured during those six years, and even afterward.
As for the Quilt-Along, I’ve named the quilt “Virginia’s Puzzle”, after the Virginia in the photo with Uncle Roland, both for the way it looks, and since it’s sort of a puzzle as to who Virginia really is, since that is not who Uncle Roland ended up marrying!
Throughout the quilt-along, I will tell you a bit more about Uncle Roland, and I’ll be back on Monday with the fabric requirements and a schedule for the Quilt-Along, so we can get going.
This looks like fun, count me in! Thanks, Shelly.
What a great photo to inspire this quilt-along! I’m really looking forward to this. Since I am eager to pick out fabrics, should I assume that I need yardage and that scraps won’t do?
This looks great! I’ve been looking at the Red Cross block recently and thinking about making a scrap quilt with it so this is perfect! Now my puzzle is to decide on what fabric to use.