Stratoliner, She Flies Above the Clouds! It’s 1940!

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Paula


Author’s note: I’ve recently come across a flight attendant blog by Heather Poole who writes about flying as a flight attendant in 2020. One of her quotes, “Once a flight attendant, always a flight attendant” helps explain my ongoing interest in the women (and now some men) who serve as Safety Directors on airships past and present.

Weeks ago as part of my historical overview to reflect on the career of women flight attendants, I began this post about TWA’s luxurious Stratoliner. Today I begin to weave the threads of flight attendant history with my own personal story. Challenging, at times, but engrossing for me.

In 1940 only movie stars, the wealthy, and business travelers could afford the price of airfare. At that time, essentially all travelers were traveling first class. Air travel may have looked luxurious in the carefully posed photos of the 1930s — and it no doubt was in many ways—but it was still an incredibly grueling way to travel. The airplane could drop 100 feet at any moment. The lack of cabin pressurization prior to 1940 could cause altitude sickness which meant folks could feel awful. At times, passengers and crew, in flight, needed to receive oxygen.

One historian summed it up writing, “Despite the airlines’ cheerful advertising, early air travel was far from comfortable. Flying was loud, cold, and unsettling. Airliners were not pressurized, so they flew at low altitudes and were often bounced about by wind and weather. Air sickness was common. Airlines provided many amenities to ease passenger stress, but air travel remained a rigorous adventure well into the 1940s.

Flying was also something only business travelers or the wealthy could afford. But despite the expense and discomforts, each year commercial aviation attracted thousands of new passengers willing to sample the advantages and adventure of flight.”2

TWA’s Boeing Stratoliner changed everything!. The Stratoliner was a major achievement! TWA boasted that it was the biggest airliner ever built. It was the first commercial aircraft with a pressurized cabin, allowing it to cruise at an altitude of 20,000 feet! This altitude kept it well above many weather disturbances. The Model 307 Stratoliner had a capacity for a crew of five (two pilots, a flight engineer and two air hostesses) and 33 passengers. During the 1940s many of the other commercial planes in use were not pressurized.

TWA wanted the world to know about this new airship! Print advertising was an important part of spreading the message that luxury and adventure were now available to everyone. And that this relatively new flying metal bird was safe enough for the entire family to come along. Women were still a minority of passengers, but by the end of the 1930s women comprised about 25% of the flying public. 4

Stratoliner Club coins to identify the bearer as a distinguished flyer on the new pressurized airplane!

In 1941, such an “high-altitude” flight was a remarkable experience, which TWA marked with Stratoliner Club certificates, coins (see the photo above), and other memorabilia including playing cards. That Stratoliner Club certificate, suitable for framing, was awarded to the “small group of distinguished air travelers who have participated in the historical development of the science of upper-altitude air travel.” The passenger’s name was carefully scripted on the certificate and signed by Jack Frye, President of TWA.

TWA’s interiors were created by well-known industrial designer Raymond Loewy, and fitted out with furnishings from the upscale retailer Marshall Fields. On daytime flights passengers had access to a chaise lounge and dressing rooms. A sleeper version offered 16 berths and nine chaise lounges.1

I’m always looking for first-person accounts of those who lived in an earlier era. Ernest K. Gann, author and American Airlines pilot, described the flights in the early years, “The airplanes smell of hot oil and simmering aluminum, disinfectant, feces, leather, and puke…the stewardesses, short-tempered and reeking of vomit, come forward [to the flight deck] as often as they can for what is a breath of comparatively fresh air.”2

Another quip I read from a TWA air hostess who flew in the late 1940s was that the crew often joked among themselves that TWA stood for “Tired Women’s Association”.3

Most people still rode trains or buses for intercity travel because flying was so expensive and possibly unsafe. A coast-to-coast round trip cost around $260, about half of the price of a new automobile. Much of the country was still trying to recover from the Great Depression.

Yet, America’s airline industry expanded rapidly, from carrying only 6,000 passengers in 1930 to more than 450,000 by 1934, to 1.2 million by 1938. Still, this was only a tiny fraction of the traveling public flew. The idea of “coach” service at a lower fare was not introduced until the 1950s.

1939, War in Europe!
On September 1, 1939, Germany (under Hitler) invaded Poland from the west; two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany, beginning World War II. As a counter-attack, on September 17, Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east.

Many in the US, both politicians and citizens, were determined to not be drawn into another war in Europe. Isolationism was a great political force in the U.S.

Between 1935 and 1937 Congress passed three “Neutrality Acts” intended to keep the U.S. out of war, by making it illegal for Americans to sell or transport arms, or other war materials to belligerent nations. Yet many in the U.S. were alarmed by all the nations invaded or threatened by the advances of Germany, Italy and later Japan.

President Roosevelt was extremely concerned about the possibility of Nazi Germany controlling all of Europe including Britain. In an effort to supply military aid to its foreign allies during World War II while still remaining officially neutral in the conflict, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, and FDR signed it into law in March, 1941. In a novel approach, the U.S. government could lend or lease (rather than sell) war supplies to any nation deemed “vital to the defense of the United States.” Most importantly, passage of the Lend-Lease Act enabled a struggling Great Britain to continue fighting against Germany virtually on its own.

With the Japanese bombing of the US Naval fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 the U.S. was drawn into World War II. Four days later, FDR declared the U.S. to be at war with Japan. Two days after the war declaration, on December 13, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the first step toward mobilizing airlines’ resources after the Pearl Harbor attack. FDR directed Secretary of War Henry Stimson to take control of any civil airline assets necessary for the operation of the military air transport system. The United States was suddenly involved in two major wars, one in the Pacific against Japan and the other in Europe against Germany and Italy. Troops were deployed overseas, and combat air forces were formed and located in strategic areas of the world.

Casual air travel virtually ceased in the United States. A tight priority list ensured that only those serving the war effort flew. As a result, aircraft flew more than 80 percent full, 20 percent higher than before the war. The military requisitioned 200 of the nation’s 360 airliners, along with airline personnel.

Wartime Mobilization of the Airlines!
Some in the airline industry’s Air Transport Association were planning for a possible wartime mobilization of the airlines as early as 1937! Records indicate that plans had been drafted that year by Edgar Gorrell for the Air Transport Association. As a result of the ordered mobilization of the airline resources, the Air Transport Command, ATC, a governmental agency, was formed in 1942 to coordinate the transport of aircraft, cargo, and personnel throughout the country and around the world. Major airlines helped with the organization, and the aircraft manufacturers came through with the planes needed for the difficult missions supplying a worldwide airlift campaign. ATC was responsible for the movement of supplies, equipment, and key personnel–basically a major airlift–within its sector and coordinated its activities with other divisions to provide a worldwide delivery system.

Repainting TWA’s Stratoliner: olive-drab camouflage replaced the airline markings until 1946!

TWA’s five Stratoliners were transferred to the government. The Stratoliners, ideal for long-range operations as combination passenger/cargo carriers were converted to U.S. Army Air Forces specifications. The Stratoliners then were designated C-75s and the planes’ heavy pressurization equipment was removed! Extra fuel tanks were added and olive-drab camouflage replaced the airline markings. Maximum gross weight rose from 44,000 to 55,000 pounds.

Maintained and operated by TWA personnel under Air Transport Command’s new Intercontinental Division, the C-75s began flying to war zones across the North and South Atlantic as required, independent of any domestic transcontinental operations. They were flown by the airline’s senior pilots and flight engineers, wearing the same uniforms as Army Air Forces personnel but with civilian insignia.

TWA pilots flew the Stratoliner for the Air Transport Command wearing the same uniforms as Army Air Forces personnel but with civilian insignia.

The early transatlantic flights were all pioneering efforts for the TWA crews, since the C-75s were the first land transports to operate between the United States and the European theater. Regularly scheduled flights soon included Scotland and England, typically via Newfoundland and Greenland, or the Azores to North African bases and on to India and China. Ascension Island, an isolated volcanic island located in the Atlantic Ocean, was the usual stop for the long haul flights between Brazil and North Africa.

Early on, a TWA C-75 made a survey flight on February 26, 1942, as a first step in establishing routes from Washington, DC to Cairo. Three of the five C-75s–remember these are the TWA Stratoliners now operating as troop transports–were allocated to transatlantic service and the other two to the Washington-Cairo route. The latter flights, many of which took off from Washington’s National Airport, often lasted 20 hours. By the end of the war The Stratoliners, or C-75s, as the government called them had flown 3000 transatlantic flights to Africa and Europe. The experience and expertise gained from these strategic flights would serve the civilian TWA operations well after the war ended. TWA’s five Stratoliners compiled a nearly perfect safety record during the war.

In the early 1940s the uniforms designed by chief hostess Gladys Entriken were still being worn. This is the white linen summer uniform.

I’ve been unable to find any information about TWA Air Hostesses during WWII as of this writing. Yet, this is where my own story overlaps with these international events.

My mother, Marie, was raised on Miami Beach, Florida when it was a small town dependent on winter tourists arriving on the railroad. When mother traveled north to visit relatives in Richmond, Virginia she traveled on the Florida East Coast Railway. Florida was the least populated of the southern states in the early 1900s. In the 1930s many military bases were being built throughout the state. The military had taken advantage of the strategic location by the sea, the mild temperatures, flat land, low land prices and mild weather to train year-round.

Army training on the beach at Miami Beach, Florida, circa 1942

My father, Paul, grew up in upstate New York in the Finger Lakes region. The U.S.army shipped him to Miami Beach for training most likely on a troop train on the Florida East Coast Railway. Both Marie and Paul were recent high school graduates caught up in this national emergency. Over two million soldiers, nearly 15 percent of the GI Army, the largest force the US ever raised, were trained in Florida. What were the chances that these two people who lived more than a thousand miles apart would meet and marry in 1944 before my father departed for the Philippines?

1 p. TWA, Kansas City’s Hometown Airline, Julius A. Karadh and Rick Montgomery,2001 p.24
2 https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/america-by-air/online/innovation/innovation14.cfm
3 Try Walking Across, Donna Holden, Helen Parker Holden
4 Conquest of the Skies: A History of Commercial Aviation in America, Carl Solberg 1979 p.275

Posted in Flight Attendant History | 2 Comments

Essential or Expendable?

Posted on April 12, 2020 by Paula

Both the U.S. government and the airline industry have played Russian roulette, that is, a dangerous and deadly game with the lives of flight attendants–all 120,000 of them working for U.S. airlines! Only recently have various airline officials voice concern about protecting their “team members”. That is their public face.

My mother, a wise woman, often advised me, “Actions speak louder than words”. Let’s examine the actions of the airlines and the government officials who should be protecting the public–both citizens and employees. The U.S. airlines have treated their front line employees including flight attendants as expendable. Full disclosure here: I worked as a flight attendant for TWA from 1969-1985 and was an active member of my union, the Independent Federation of Flight Attendants.

Flight attendants are at very high risk for COVID-19
A recent report from the New York Times shows just how at-risk flight attendants are to contracting COVID-19.

Aside from healthcare workers, dentists, and paramedics, flight attendants have among the highest risk of getting COVID-19, given the amount of time they spend in confined spaces with others. Study the chart from the New York Times published March 15, 2020. (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/15/business/economy/coronavirus-worker-risk.html) All airline employees should have been provided with protective gear. Some overseas airlines were screening passengers and requiring each to wear face mask as a condition of making the flight. No American airline has done this! Today the United States now has the highest number of known cases of coronavirus in the world.

Time magazine on April 3,2020
Among the first American workers to raise the alarm about a potential COVID-19 pandemic were flight attendants. In late January, as the virus spread outside the Chinese province of Hubei, airline crews staffing international flights to Asia began expressing concerns, asking for disinfection supplies and permission to self-quarantine if they thought they had been exposed. “We were begging to be allowed to wear masks,” one flight attendant for a major U.S. airline tells TIME.

Two months later, as flight crews remain on the front lines of the fight against the virus, they fear airlines’ failure to heed their concerns has turned them into a dangerous part of the problem. In interviews and emails with TIME, more than a dozen flight attendants describe a continuing shortage of basic protection and a confounding lack of guidance over how to do their jobs without spreading the disease. Their gravest concern: that after weeks of working without proper supplies, they have been exposed to thousands of cases and in turn become primary transmitters to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who continue to fly every day. “It’s awful, because we know we’re definitely spreading it, seat to seat, city to city, person to person, hotel to hotel,” one Atlanta-based flight attendant who has been in the job for 15 years tells TIME. https://time.com/5815492/flight-attendants-coronavirus/


Behind the scenes: Delta Air Lines, via an email communication to 25,000 employees, has instructed flight attendants who test positive for COVID-19 to “refrain from notifying” their colleagues or posting about their conditions on social media. (from April, 10 New York Post article)

Flight attendants and their unions have been pleading for help from their employers since the outbreak began months ago. On March 22, one reporter wrote about American airlines disciplining flight attendants who wore face masks. By April 8, American was scrambling for face masks to protect their 18,000 employees at their Dallas-Ft. Worth facility.

Late in March, 2020 American told workers, including flight attendants, that they could start wearing face masks to work but they had to bring their own. Now with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shifting recommendations to everyone wearing a mask, the carrier is looking (finally) to supply the equipment.

According to the Dallas News article on April 8, 2020:

“Tammy Spence, a customer service manager for American at DFW, showed up to work yesterday with a sewing machine with plans to make masks out of old promotional T-shirts. American management got behind the effort and sent workers to Walmart to find fabric.
Spence said by the end of Tuesday, there were a few dozen workers cutting fabric. By Wednesday, employees had brought more than a dozen sewing machines and began finishing the first batch of masks.
So far, about 100 employees have stopped by to volunteer. Since only about 20 people at a time can work in a conference room turned into a sewing center, they have been working in shifts. They are spread out roughly six feet apart to follow social distancing guidelines.”

In 2018, American Airlines was the most profitable airline group, generating revenue of 44.54 billion U.S. dollars that year. Why were they not setting aside money for emergencies like this one?
An enterprising woman had to bring her sewing machine from home to jump-start the efort to supply this minimum of protection for the 18,000 American employees in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area.

Airline Profits for the Last Ten Years Have Soared
Delta made profit of $4.1 billion for 2019
American made profit of $1.4 billion for 2019
United made profit of $2.3 billion for 2019

Expose: Corporate Greed
For the last ten profitable years major airlines — including Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and Southwest — have used roughly 96% of their cash flow on stock buybacks. Stock buybacks function to reduce the number of outstanding shares to push stock prices higher thus enriching all who currently own stock. Rather than invest in their businesses and the labor force groups who generate those profits, these companies were conniving to enrich shareholders. The airline executives also awarded themselves big bonuses for these wise decisions!

If these airline companies had invested most of the profits into building a financial cushion to protect themselves from the cycles of highs and lows we would be in a different place today. If the companies had developed a national aviation-preparedness plan for responding to the threat of communicable diseases, as advised by the Government Accountability Office in 2015, flight attendants would not be using make-shift masks and risking infection each time they go to work. (More about that 2015 directive later.)

If the airlines had shared the profits with employees by making fair contracts with the flight attendants and mechanics and pilots, their companies would have benefited. If the airline executives had decided to invest heavily in better quality service for passengers it would have been a wonderful surprise. Everyone passenger would have appreciated more leg room for every ticket holder on every flight.

Instead, wealthy shareholders, who now hire private jets for their trips, are now richer thanks to those stock buybacks–what a scheme! Instead, the airlines are turning to the government for a bailout because they neglected to invest in their own future. Instead, front line employees are now exposed to a deadly virus without resources to protect themselves. Read more on this subject:
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/airline-bailout-coronavirus-share-buyback-debate-trump-economy-aoc-2020-3-1029006175

Why were these “legacy carriers” not prepared for an emergency like this? Why did not a chunk of those profits go to a preparedness plan?

In 2015 the General Accounting Office (GAO), as the congressional watchdog over government spending, was asked to review the preparedness of the U.S. aviation system to respond to communicable diseases after the Ebola outbreak.

What did the report recommend? Quick answer: the General Accountability Office told the federal government to develop a comprehensive nationwide plan to prepare the U.S. aviation system and to protect the aviation system against a collapse of this magnitude!

True Preparedness. What Could have Been!

WASHINGTON, D.C. In a report in 2015, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the Department of Transportation in concert with key stakeholders like the airlines, should develop a national aviation-preparedness plan for responding to the threat of communicable diseases.The report was produced in response to a Congressional request for a review of how prepared the US aviation system is to respond to potential communicable disease threats from abroad such as the recent Ebola epidemic.

The report stated: “a national aviation preparedness plan could serve as the basis for testing communication mechanisms among responders to ensure those mechanisms are effective prior to a communicable disease outbreak as well as to provide the basis for ensuring that airport and airline staff receive appropriate training and equipment to reduce their risk of exposure to communicable diseases during an outbreak.”
The report also highlighted the concerns of workers employed by contract aviation service firms – including contract workers who clean aircraft — about the availability of training and access to equipment to control exposure to communicable diseases.
https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-127“>

January into February: “Help Us–We Are On the Front Line!”
Since first hearing about the global spread of COVID-19, flight attendants have raised concerns regarding protective supplies including masks but were only given wipes, a flight attendant told TIME. Some airlines even prohibited attendants from wearing gloves or face masks aside from the gloves they were provided to pick up trash. According to TIME, it wasn’t until late March that many airlines allowed flight attendants to wear masks and gloves on their own accord.

Despite efforts to keep safe by bringing their own protective material aboard and through extra sanitation efforts, flight attendants continue to risk exposure to the virus in daily work activities. Attendants not only use the same restroom facilities as passengers but sit close together when aboard flights in their rickety jump seats.

“When airlines call us essential, what they mean is expendable,” a flight attendant wrote in a private social media group created for flight attendants to share concerns amid the pandemic. Created on March 22, the group has over 50,000 members, including crew members who have tested positive for COVID-19. Like health care workers, flight attendants also fear losing their jobs should they speak to the press, so groups like this have allowed individuals to talk about their situations without that fear. reported by Time, April 3, 2020

In a video shared by one of her friends with The Washington Post, another flight attendant had a blunt message for her colleagues: Stop flying.

From her hospital bed, she recounted how she worked a nearly two-week stretch last month and felt fine. But on her day off, she began feeling congested. She thought it was allergies. Now she’s hospitalized with covid-19.
“I’m asking all of my flight attendant friends to stop flying,” she said. “It’s not worth it. Forget your mortgage. Forget your bills. Stay home.” From Washington Post, April 8, 2020

Flight attendants are the safety directors on every aircraft. But who will look out for those safety directors? Not their employer. Not the U.S, government. Why did the U.S. government ignore their own warnings about the U.S. aviation system’s vulnerability to potential communicable disease threats from abroad? Why did the airlines willfully ignore this threat? Perhaps flight attendants are, in fact, expendable in order to ensure the best returns on those high profit years.

Since the earliest years of aviation in the 1930s, flight attendants have performed heroic acts in the line of duty. Flight attendants have lost their lives in the line of duty. Twenty-five flight attendants on a ordinary work day were killed in the terrorist attack on 9/11. Hijackings, bomb threats, medical emergencies, hostile passengers and more are part of the job. Where is the concern, the compassion and the respect for these working women and working men?

Postscript:
“Qantas staff are exploring options, including a class action alleging the airline failed to adequately protect them against Covid 19, after more than 59 employees became infected along with some family members.

The Flight Attendants’ Association of Australia has begun exploring possible legal avenues for staff, amid deep dissatisfaction about the way in which Qantas has handled what they say are the risks, particularly to cabin crew.”
from The Guardian newspaper April 12–yesterday
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/13/qantas-staff-consider-class-action-alleging-airline-failed-to-protect-them-against-covid-19

Posted in Flight Attendant History, Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments

Redirection & Reflections….

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Paula

“While the future remains unknown, we can still ground ourselves in the steady rhythm of Mother Earth. Hope is handed to us in small pleasures.”

That positive quote is from the women who publish We’Moon calendars and books.

Every woman alive is an expert on living as a woman in patriarchy. We each cope in a variety of ways. We adapt. We each carry a memory bank full of sights, sounds, juxtapositions. Each of these are colored by our own interpretations.

I’ve long wanted to write about all the “twists and turns” my life has taken in the last seventy-four years. But there have always been many, many distractions. Actually sitting down and writing consistently has not happened. Now I am writing. I encourage all of you to consider writing about your life too!

Today I am sitting at the huge vintage 1934 roll top desk that I believed, in 1978, would turn me into a woman who took the time to write about her life as it was unfolding. I remember thinking that once I had this wonderful writing space, I would be able to sit down and write about all that was going on in my life as a passionate participant in the women’s liberation movement.

I knew then that what we were doing was important. Mostly I was busy working as a flight attendant for TWA and scheduling my work life there around all the activities associated with the KC Women’s Liberation Union and the New Earth Bookstore and our feminist theater group Actor’s Sorority. The roll top became the place to sit down and pay bills.

Spring of 2020 has limited the distractions. Spring 2020 has brought limitations, yet if offers opportunities to rethink priorities. We are “sheltering at home”. We are sheltering at home in the house Jeanne and I built in the mid 1980s with help from women carpenters.

Now I have an opportunity to record and to interpret all my years of living as a woman in these times. Yes, we have a big garden to maintain—it helps us feed ourselves. Yes, I have a mountain of fabric to inspire more quilts. But I want to do this project—I am excited about the prospect of looking back, of opening the numerous scrapbooks I’ve kept since 1962 for clues and detail no other biographer could know about or interpret correctly. I want to be in control of my own life story.

I wrote my first blog post seven years ago with the intention of writing about creativity and about inspiration. Six weeks ago I was inspired to write a blog about working as a TWA flight attendant and our history as women workers in the male corporate world. In spring 1969 at the age of twenty-four I began my sixteen years of flying. Known first as air hostesses, by 1971, with the addition of males, we became flight attendants. My real education about the ways of the world began with this job. Looking for a job with adventure, and expecting a living wage inspired me to become a local union officer. Four other blog posts about the early years of aviation and the role of air hostess followed. I’m pleased and excited about this opportunity to write my life and to place it in a context as a working woman.

My computer and its keyboard are perched on that same oversize roll top desk made in Kansas City, MO. I do my online research reading the life stories of other women who inspire me on many levels. I see their pictures. I can search for examples of their work. They become companions of a sort! The women I admire help keep me alive. Our stories are ours—we do not want them corrupted or co-opted or distorted by others. Girls and women desire to know how other women survived girlhood and navigated the world as adult women.

Every time women speak the truth about our lives, the world can benefit. In recent months I’ve been drawn to reading about women working in the early 1900s in archaeology and in aviation. Women were avid participants in both. Living in a system that highly favored males, women archaeologists and women fliers faced opposition from all the institutions set up to enforce male supremacy. When I learn about their achievements and their struggles I feel an intimate engagement with each woman. Her strengths, her accomplishments give me courage. Feminism and quilting have been two grand adventures I’ve quite deliberately chosen. Each has enriched my life. Quilting and feminism have always overlapped in my world. Many of my quilts contain strong feminist content. Most of my life I have played with fabric and needle.

Today I am working on a TimeSpan quilt I’ve decided to call “Nesting Time or Sheltering in Place, 2020”. At the center is a wool crewel work embroidery I did in the early 1970s while sitting in hotels and flight attendant lounges all across the US. A small brown critter is nestled in a cocoon of curving leaves and branches.

“Happiness is having a very special home of your own” is printed by the kit manufacturer Columbia Minerva Corp. This design by Erica Wilson kept my mind and my fingers engaged during those hours of enforced waiting nearly fifty years ago. In the early 1970s I could not afford a car. To buy this kit, I boarded a bus to a suburban Kansas City shop. I didn’t have “a very special” home yet, but I had dreams of one.

The larger border is fabric I salvaged from a gored skirt. I was drawn to that soft green color, the large graphic butterfly (long a symbol of transformation) and the graceful lettering on the skirt fabric. The critter in the nest is seven inches across. The top measures twenty-one inches across.

The curved shape of the bottom border is a result of the shape of the gored skirt. I decided I did not want to trim it square and lose more of the butterfly image. I like the graceful flourish it adds. Please know that I’ll continue to write about my quilting adventures too. Each time you open my current blog post you will see what subject has engaged me that week.

Writing about my life has now become a priority, a redirection. Choosing the right words, phrases, examples and photos to string together for a pleasing whole is rather like selecting fabrics for a colorful quilt. I’m trusting that connecting each small segment day-by-day will succeed in creating an accurate picture of my life. I invite you to join me on this journey.

Posted in Paula's Memoir | Leave a comment

We Sewed It: From Feedsacks to Silks and Brocades, 38″ x 46″

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Paula

Browsing at JoAnn’s Fabrics last summer, I spotted an apron in the sale section. I didn’t want an apron, but I was drawn to this one! On that apron were printed dress patterns from my girlhood! I carry strong memories of pleasant time spent with my mother as we searched for the right pattern, and then examined our fabric options to make clothes for me or my sisters.

My mother, Marie, had a flare for fashion and she appreciated fine fabrics. She sewed most of our clothes when her four children were youngsters. Mother also created several beautiful formal gowns for me using velvet and silk. (I mentioned brocade in my quilt title because that’s how I picture the gold full-skirted dress in the center of the Simplicity collage.) When I was a teen, mother taught me to sew using these patterns—here, in this apron, was a fragment of my history.

Simplicity, McCall and Butterick patterns were the source for our creative beginnings. We studied the color sketches, read the fabric suggestions and imagined what would best serve our purposes.

This collage of Simplicity patterns ranged from 1948 to 1968. I was born in 1945, graduated from college in 1969.This twenty year period was a formative time for me. The lines, the draping, the colors and the skirt shapes or lengths, as well as the hairstyles of the sketches all felt familiar to me. I especially admired the composition of the grouping which finally included a woman of color. Each dress had been carefully chosen to balance the visual compilation—even the colors of the dresses were artfully arranged. Below each dress was the year that pattern appeared. I bought that sale apron despite the fact that it was printed on polyester—that is a measure of how taken I was with this collage.

Mother and I bonded over our mutual interest in creating with fabric—actually, I believe this appreciation is in my genes! To start this quilt project, I trimmed the area from around the graphic. But I had to piece the two bottom corners to make the rectangle you now see. After choosing a red grunge fabric to frame the center collage, I sought additions.


The feedsack print was laying out because I’d recently discovered it at a thrift shop—I liked how the red and the blue in the feedsack worked with the colors of the Simplicity dresses. We didn’t know about feedsacks in my household, but I have grown fond of their quirky personalities. Two other fabrics soon turned up: one was a collage featuring birds, flowers and several simple geometric repeats. I cut this and used it in sections. The fabric with the large-scale hibiscus flowers on the beige background added more variety. Additionally, hibiscus flowers grew all around our neighborhood in Miami Springs, Florida where I grew up. I’d chosen this fabric from Betty Buckley’s estate sale—it held good memories for that reason too.


Rather than merely frame my collage, I decided to look for the type of patterns my mother would sew when she was sewing for us in the 1950s. I already had several of these on hand for the scrapbook about my mother I was planning. As a transition to those patterns I had the brilliant idea of including my mother and father’s wedding photo.

Their wedding was June 6, 1944 shortly before my father was shipped overseas to the Philippines in WW II. Dad wears his khaki army dress uniform. Mother wore a light blue linen suit with a narrow skirt—fabric was rationed during the war. Marie wore a gardenia corsage and gardenias in her hair. She carried a white clutch purse and wore the popular spectator pumps of the era. I’m sure she and her aunt, who raised her, spent much time and energy deciding on her ensemble. They were married in the Congregational Church on Miami Beach.

More details about designing We Sewed It
I found I could add interest to the whole by adding diagonal lines and accent colors around the patterns I’d chosen. I am especially attached to the linen fabric with the varied thread colors used around my parent’s photo. A few years ago I found several items of clothing made with this fabric. All were new and had been donated to the salvation army thrift shop by Coldwater Creek. Some of the clothes fit me and others I’ve cut to make use of this appealing fabric. (For any textile enthusiast, this linen, woven with two different thread colors, is similar to “shot cotton” where the warp threads are one color and the weft threads are a complementary color—often producing a shimmering affect in certain light situations.) Can you see the shimmer of the linen threads here?


Your educated eye will notice I’ve used “coping strips”, at times, to make the sections fit together and to add visual interest. One example: the small scale print used in two spots. The ombre border keeps the eye moving along the outer planes before next examining the graduated gold dots found in the binding.

Of course, all this was pieced on my vintage Singer Featherweight 221—now working for five decades for me. I used my favorite batting, Mountain Mist’s Cream Rose. It is 100% cotton and a mere 1/8” thick, so it drapes well and quilts easily. My machine quilting adds a variety of textures throughout the quilt. I used a walking foot to sew the straight lines. Most of the quilting was free motion quilting using my vintage 1980s Bernina 930.

The final step for We Sewed It: From Feedsacks to Silks and Brocades, 1948-1978 was adding the label. My wall hanging quilt documents one chapter in one sewer’s life as I play with fabrics and honor our foremothers who carried on the sewing traditions vital to life.


Postscript: One of the reasons to study material culture and fashion history, in particular, is the evidence we find of inclusion and exclusion from the norms of society. By 1961-68 some pattern companies began to include some women of color pictured in the drawings for the patterns. There is little evidence of inclusion of women and girls with a variety of body shapes who might also be home sewers using their patterns.

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Early Air Hostesses Were Petite to Allow for More Cargo!

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Paula

First class of twenty-two TWA Air Hostesses, December,1935 Kansas City, MO


1930-1935
Boeing Air Transport hired the first Sky Girls in 1930 as an experiment. Not until five years later did Transcontinental & Western Air (then T&WA) graduate its first hostess class on December 6, 1935. The early air transport companies made little profit and existed on air mail contracts with the federal government. Any cabin crew would take space away from the revenue-producing air mail sacks. Those new air hostesses had to be petite! Trained in Kansas City, the graduating class, pictured above, consisted of 22 young women.

Earlier in 1935, TWA initially hired 60 hostesses from a pool of over 2,000 applicants. Only those twenty-two completed training and earned their wings. Each of the women interviewed was between 21 and 26 years of age, was between 5′ and 5’4″ tall, was a registered nurse and was not married. TWA interviewers looked for each to possess “intelligence, tact and charm”. Their training included geography, ticket handling and working the heating system on the DC-2. Each received $2.50 per day during her three-week training course for personal expenses and apartment rent. Most significantly, they were creating a new career path for women in an industry that was in its infancy, embarking on a journey that was certainly unfamiliar to them.1

At that time, many citizens strongly believed the perils of flying were overwhelming. The City Manager of Kansas City, MO, Henry McElroy, in the mid-1920s asserted,” A man is a damn fool to get his feet off the ground. Let me tell you all there is to aviation. There’s a lot of young bucks who learned to fly (during the World War I). As soon as they have smashed the crates (planes) and killed themselves there will be no more flying.” 2

The future in aviation for these young women was potentially exciting and rewarding as much as it was unpredictable. “Rough weather rendered some flights so unbearable that entire cabins had to be hosed out afterward. TWA employees spoke of ‘the vomit comet to Albuquerque’ only half-jokingly.”3 In the 1930’s aviation researchers dreamed of flying at high altitude above the weather because it would pay dividends in passenger comfort, higher speed, and longer range.

Circa 1935 TWA Air Hostesses when it was The Lindbergh Line or Transcontinental & Western Airline

Adventure, a break from the routine, and the thrill of visiting other cultures were the same reasons young women have always given to the question,”why would you want this job”? And, let’s add– there is this exquisite thrill of leaving earth and of flight itself! Adventure and hard work were combined for cabin crews before cabins were pressurized in the 1950s. Those early uniforms you see here were serviceable outfits for women working long hard days. The uniforms were single breasted jackets with skirts below the knees, and a single pleat at the front for easy movement.

Companies create uniform clothing with a distinctive design as a way to identify members of a particular group of workers. Other entities may have other motives for using similar versions of a particular uniform and to appropriate an established image.

1938: TWA’s chief hostess, Gladys Entriken, designs new uniforms!
Winter Blue, in above photo and Cream Linen, in photo below


1938
New uniforms designed by TWA’s chief hostess, Gladys Entriken, were introduced in 1938 at the opening of New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The “winter” version of a medium blue gabardine featured a double breasted jacket with a flared skirt, again for easy movement. The summer version, in cream linen, was issued the following year. It was identical except for the colors—cream with a pale blue blouse. Both uniform jackets had buttons with the TWA logo, and the high-sided hat, was worn at a jaunty angle, and featured a grosgrain cockade for the TWA insignia. The skirts were shorter but still cover the knees.


In 1941, famed artist George Petty created a drawing featuring the image of a TWA air hostess. It is believed that the purpose was twofold: to generate publicity for TWA and to drum up patriotism. As World War II unfolded, “TWA’s Petty Girl”, wearing the blue winter uniform, would be seen by millions through posters, postcards and even luggage tags. 4
Please compare the images. The sexualized drawing is a caricature of the real woman in the postcard and the eleven women striding across the tarmac! This is the first example I have found of TWA’s use of a sexualized image of flight attendants or air hostesses in their promotions. But not the last!


Other entities found images of the “sky girls” to be useful for their purposes.

1 http://twamuseumguides.blogspot.com/2017/02/presenting-case-for-twas-attendants-our.html
2 TWA: Kansas City’s Hometown Airline, Julius A. Karash and Rick Montgomery, 2001 p.10
3 same, p.18
4 Same as #1, TWA Museum

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Creating an Image: “Sky Girl”

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Paula

1946: Unnamed TWA flight attendant exiting aircraft.

“Women had been eager participants in the early days of flying, when things were disorganized and open to all comers. But any hopes they had for gaining a foothold in commercial aviation were dashed when the Commerce Department, under pressure from underemployed male pilots, exiled women from the field by prohibiting them from flying planes carrying passengers in bad weather. Instead they got the role of hostess.”
exert from When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by New York Times editor Gail Collins, 2009 p.19

First Stewardess Was Actually a Pilot!
In 1930 Ellen Church, who was a registered nurse as well as a licensed pilot, attempted to be hired as a pilot for Boeing Air Transport. Church was told the idea was “impossible and ludicrous”. Her next approach was to appeal to the male chauvinism of airline executives. To help women find work in the skies, as she herself hoped to do. Church pitched the idea to Boeing Air Lines (which later became United Airlines) that nurses be hired to perform some of the tasks then handled by co-pilots, like hauling luggage and handing out lunches, as well as to help put the public at ease about the dangers of flying on the clunky, crash-prone early passenger planes. Boeing agreed to hire eight women, conditionally, for a three-month experiment. Church was to recruit seven other nurses for the experiment. On her first flight as a “Sky Girl”, Church worked on a Boeing 80A for a 20-hour flight from Oakland/San Francisco to Chicago with 13 stops and 14 passengers! “Sky Girl” was the early designation used by Boeing Air Transport.

An article in 2015 Time magazine by Jennifer Latson, reported that Church said, ““Don’t you think that it would be good psychology to have women up in the air? How is a man going to say he is afraid to fly when a woman is working on the plane?”
Time continued, “Stewardesses cleaned the cabin, helped fuel the planes and bolted down the seats before takeoff. And while they normally drew on their medical training only minimally, in assisting airsick and panicked passengers, they occasionally played the part of first responders in an emergency….”
Learn more about the life of Ellen Church: https://patrickmurfin.blogspot.com/2019/09/ellen-churchnurse-flyer-first.html

I grew up reading Nancy Drew novels and certainly as a girl had enjoyed Silver Wings for Vicki. I lived in an airline town! Miami Springs, a western suburb of Greater Miami, was adjacent to Miami International Airport. The roar of early morning takeoff sounds began my morning. As a teen in the 1950s, the career paths for girls were limited and uninspiring: teacher, nurse or secretary. In Silver Wings for Vicki, I read about “earning our wings”, meeting interesting people and traveling the world–all for a salary! As Gail Collins wrote, ” In the real world, the job was a lot more mundane, but it was virtually the only one a young woman could choose that offered the chance to travel.”


These were the images I carried of air hostesses in my mind! This 1958 cover photo (when I was 13) of smiling, confident women held my attention. And I liked those smart, tailored uniforms! Yes, the pay was low, but if you had a uniform, you would not have to buy clothes for work. (Later I was to learn that the airlines required us to pay them for the uniforms.)

Remember in the 1950s newspapers were a major resource for job seekers and for employers. Remember, too, that in 1968 when I saw the ad for air hostess in the Miami Herald that ad was in a column labeled “Help Wanted-Female”. Court orders had outlawed employment ads to specify a preferred race of applicants, but sex-segregated ads where legal.

In my online research for this post, I realized that Hollywood started immediately to capitalize on the image of young women working on the flying machines! Ellen Church and the other nurses she recruited began flying in May of 1930. This Air Hostess film reached the public in 1933!

1938 TWA flight attendant uniforms designed by Chief Hostess Gladys Entriken

1938 TWA flight attendant uniforms were designed by Chief Hostess Gladys Entriken. Pictured here are the summer uniforms. Working in a white suit doing all the tasks mentioned earlier seems impossible!

However, the visuals are appealing. This was all part of luring folks onboard, that is, selling seats on the early unpressurized planes.

Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA) Hostesses, 1939


1940 TWA Air Hostess graduates

Posted in Flight Attendant History | 2 Comments

Lockheed Constellation: Queen of the Skies

Posted on February 23, 2020 by Paula

TWA hangar with jets and propeller aircraft–the beginning of the “jet age”.

The “famous, fabulous aircraft” I asked you to identify at bottom left was tricky because, in this photo, you could only see the nose and arc of the fuselage of this dolphin-shaped plane! If you had been able to see the entire aircraft with the sensuously curved fuselage, superb streamlining, four huge propeller engines on the wings, and the distinctive triple-tail, you would have no doubt that it was a Lockheed Constellation, for two decades the Queen of the Skies!

The Lockheed Constellation is instantly recognizable for its triple-tail design, dolphin fuselage and four 18-cylinder Wright radial engines. Many people consider the “Connie” the most beautiful airliner of all time. There’s no question the Constellation ruled the skies in the 1940s and 1950s with a top speed of 375 mph and a transcontinental range of more than 3,000 miles. Input for the design came directly from TWA principal shareholder Howard Hughes, who personally set speed records in the airplane. See Hughes in this historic, two minute trailer made when the Constellation broke new speed records flying coast to coast in 1944.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyaMTQ2ytWo

The “Connie” was typically described in well-earned superlatives. With the Super G model of the Connie, TWA was able to offer the first non-stop Los Angeles to New York flights. TWA transatlantic service started on February 6, 1946 with a New York-Paris flight in a Constellation.

airborne Connie

The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Built between 1943 and 1958 at Burbank, California. Lockheed built 856 planes in numerous models—all with the same triple-tail design and dolphin-shaped fuselage. Its pressurized cabin enabled large numbers of commercial passengers to fly well above most bad weather for the first time, thus significantly improving the general safety and ease of air travel. During WW II, Constellations were used as troop transports. Later three Constellations served as the presidential aircraft for Dwight D. Eisenhower.

This “air hostess” is in front of a Connie–can you see the unique three fins behind her head? Note the unusual cutout TWA logo on the shoulder of her uniform. This understated, tailored uniform is my favorite! More about this cutout style later.

For almost 22 years the Connie served as the backbone of TWA’s long haul aircraft fleet! A grand total of 156 different Constellations were used, making TWA the largest civilian user ever! TWA’s last passenger flight in the Constellation took place April 1967. For long range operations, the Super G (1954) model of the Constellation could be fitted with extra wingtip tanks increasing the fuel capacity by two-thirds more than the original “Connie” models. The Super G was a popular choice among the airlines with 42 being flown by domestic carriers and 59 by foreign airlines.

TWA Constellation: note the wing tips of the Super G model are equipped with the extra fuel tanks for long haul flights. Quite a picture!

TWA Constellation ad probably late 1940s



My Connie flying time was limited to our trainee “observation flight” taken in April, 1969. We trainees boarded our “observation flight”, taking off from the downtown airport and circling around the skyline of the city and then the fields of Missouri. Luckily no one became air sick! Unfortunately, we were never had the opportunity to be trained on the safety features of the Constellation.

The three aircraft I do know intimately are the Douglas DC 9, the Boeing 707 and the Boeing 727 and the stretch 727. Those tiny galleys, flimsy jump seats for us, and the long narrow aisles feel like a second home. TWA awarded each flight attendant a “million mile” pin to wear with our uniforms after three years of flying. By 1985, I’d flown at least five million miles, primarily on these three aircraft.

My flying partners, the designation we used to describe our flight attendant co-workers, were generally strong, assertive women. We had to be ready to adapt to emergencies, large and small. Dealing with harried travelers is not an easy job. Our expected flight schedules were often interrupted by “non-routine” events caused by weather, crew shortages, or poor planning on TWA’s part.

1968 TWA flight attendant ad


Yet our employer continued to portray us as “flighty girls” as in this ad! In my eyes, this ad is disrespectful of all the capable women who worked as flight attendants wearing the proscribed uniforms demanded by TWA. Now, it seemed, the PR department had decided to switch to a “girlish” image. Both were images manufactured by the corporation to serve their purposes.

This is the interior of a Constellation portrayed in an ad by Lockheed, circa 1950

I liked working with women in an atmosphere of camaraderie! I liked being able to set my own work schedule! After TWA published their monthly schedule, we would bid according to seniority, on which group of monthly flights we would prefer. We could even chose to “buddy bid” with a friend to work that month on the same group of flights together.

The Connie’s demise came only with the arrival of the Boeing 707 and the Jet Age. I began my career at the dawn of that jet age. The era of the propliner (large, propeller-driven airliners) was going the way of the ocean liner for overseas travel. By 1959 Boeing 707s cut travel time in half and piston-powered airliners quickly became obsolete. Lockheed returned to the drawing board, while Boeing aircraft reigned for a awhile. Remember, too, that the other “Queen of the Skies”, Amelia Earhart, chose the Lockheed “Electra” as her reliable flying partner in all her adventures. Lockheed built the Constellation to fly longer distance than any other aircraft of the era. The distinctive profile of the Constellation remains a legend.

Ask you relatives and friends for stories of their memories or experiences of the Constellation. Then share them with me and I will post them here.

Many thanks to all the volunteers who operate the TWA Museum website for providing much of the rich history I’ve described!
You can visit the TWA Museum in Kansas City MO.
Former employees of TWA, including a number of women I flew with, have created this non-profit museum. The TWA museum occupies the building at 10 Richards Road at the downtown airport–this was TWA’s 1931 headquarters. No longer an upscale headquarters building in 1968, this address was the same spot where I had my “special interview” in the fall of 1968.
Check the website: http://www.twamuseum.com/
“The mission of the TWA Museum is to provide information to the public emphasizing the story, history and importance of the major role TWA played in pioneering commercial aviation. From the birth of airmail to the inception of passenger air travel, to the post-WW II era of global route expansion, TWA led the way for 75 years.”

Search the wide variety of TWA aircraft–now you can find the Constellation, right? Hint, look for the three upright fins on the tail.

Note the extra fuel tanks on the wing tip of this Super Constellation

For further viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyaMTQ2ytWo
Enjoy this less than 2 minute historic trailer made when a Constellation broke new speed records flying coast to coast in 1944. With WW II the Constellations are pressed into service by the US government. After the war, TWA bought a fleet of Connies!

Invest 10 minutes in the video/story of a rescued Connie: https://youtu.be/xRwSKmFoFa8“>

Posted in Flight Attendant History | 3 Comments

Glamour is Only the Beginning….

Posted on February 17, 2020 by Paula

Boeing 707


“Glamour: an attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing, especially in a mysterious or magical way. Glamour can be an exciting and often illusory, romantic attractiveness.” Yes, there is a magical, attractive quality to an airship flying high above the azure sea!

Onboard those airships, the “safety directors”, also known as flight attendants, have long been seen as part of the glamour, the magic of flying. Here is my true story of flying five million miles (or sixteen years) as a flight attendant for Trans World Airlines from 1969 to 1985. We were trained in Kansas City, MO then the headquarters of TWA. Eighteen months into my flying career, we received this casual, but official, letter that we could be bombing targets. Did TWA offer us “hazardous duty” pay? Not hardly!

Type written letter to all MKC hostesses in September, 1970. MKC was the airline code for Kansas City’s early downtown airport. Hostess was the job designation for flight attendants used by TWA at that time.

“Be a Woman of the World” was the headline on the brochure I requested from TWA in 1968 with this image reinforcing the message. The photo was a departure from the past: bright colors, short skirts, long hair and a woman of color! Wow, could this be me? Could I be paid to fly around the world? I had graduated from college in 1967 and accepted an entry-level job with the federal government. However, on-going job freezes there found me working as a substitute teacher and living at home with my parents.

TWA flight attendants-late 1960s uniforms by Dalton

My hometown, Miami Springs, Florida, as part of the Greater Miami area, was an airline boom town! We lived close to Miami International Airport where Pan American, Eastern and National Airlines all had headquarters. I had considered the possibility of flying in the past, but at 5′ 10 1/2″ I was considered too tall to be hired by any of those airlines. Much more about this later!
The classic tailored uniforms of earlier decades were missing. My mind’s eye saw this 1958 cover from LIFE magazine.

1958 Life magazine cover of air hostesses

The camaraderie of the group in this photo appealed to me as a young woman.

I started thinking about all this lately because I brought my orange striped hat, dress and jacket uniform items to my trunk show at Cuttin’ Up last month. I found my internet search about flight attendants, our public image and our varying uniforms enlightening. In my eyes, it seems there is a certain “dignity” lacking in some of the later corporate efforts to manipulate that portrayal of women workers.

When I was hired in late 1968 and began flying in March 1969, I could not have known that in 1971 my own image would be part of TWA’s marketing campaign and ads.

TWA ads from 1971 with new uniforms by designer Valentino modeled by Paula Mariedaughter second from right.

This TWA poster from the late 1960s illustrates the jaunty, mod mood of that era.


This late 1960s ad features the Dalton premium wool winter uniforms we wore until summer arrived. In summer we were wore a different set of really ugly polyester dresses.!

In 1971 I was one of the three flight attendants to model our new Valentino designer uniforms at each of the seven domicile cities. I was thrilled by the plum version of the uniform. We had choices of the plum, chocolate brown or a tan color. Best of all, we now had the option to wear trousers! No more summer uniforms and winter uniforms–these polyester uniforms would be worn year round. No required girdles or white gloves or hats!

My real education began after college graduation! Living as a woman worker for a large corporation and as a feminist as the women’s liberation movement was growing, enriched my life in ways it is hard to catalogue. I’m going to write about the highlights and some of the tangents of living the “glamorous” life of a TWA flight attendant/safety director. Perhaps I can dispel some of the common illusions. I’m looking forward to sharing my story with friends!

TWA hangar in Chicago crowded with propeller aircraft–this is prior to the beginning of the “jet age”. For the discerning eye: please note the “dolphin-shaped” aircraft in the lower left of the photo. Are you familiar with this famous, fabulous aircraft?. Answer next week!

Posted in Flight Attendant History, Paula's Memoir | 5 Comments

Lurking Creativity

Posted on February 10, 2020 by Paula

Falling water, rushing water lures us into paying attention. Foam, sparkling droplets, abundance……


“Art is born in attention. Its midwife is detail. Art may seem to involve broad strokes, grand schemes, great plans. But it is the attention to detail that stays with us; the singular image is what haunts us and becomes art.”
“A mystery draws us in, leads us on, lures us.”
Julia Cameron The Artist’s Way 1992 p. 21

I rarely call myself an artist. I am quite happy to call myself a “dedicated quilter”. I’m passionate about creativity in its many forms. I believe we each possess a lurking creativity ready to emerge with encouragement. Yesterday I explored a thrift shop before I taught Circle Play 101 at Cuttin’ Up. Browsing, or perhaps I should call it dowsing, I rediscovered the Julia Cameron book The Artist’s Way. Cameron boldly encourages “attention to detail” even as many of us who teach quilting or practice quilting know how all those details add up to an integrated whole–whether it be a piece of writing, a sketch, a drawing or a quilt!

Or photography! Driving along our river road heading home after the heavy rains of last week, I stopped to admire this seasonal waterway. Streaming down the mountainside, this flow moves on to Beaver Lake and eventually to the Mississippi River then the Gulf of Mexico. I was returning from a brief errand, but I did not let this magnificent sight become a blur along the road. I paid attention–and even recorded the sight.

Flowing to the ocean, this rain water is rushing to its destination to then be recycled as clouds that will return more water to this spot.

The first picture captures more details–which do you prefer? There is no right answer–only a preference on your part. Perhaps you like both. Perhaps you are annoyed to see two similar pictures.

Our segment of the White River usually flows a calm mineral green that soothes me. Here in the background you can see the muddy, churning waters.


Wet and slippery, large rocks dominate this bluff overlooking the river. These boulders have slid down from the higher bluff as the river has undercut the bank. I’ve passed this spot several times a week for thirty years. Sometimes we’ve seen a swooping Kingfisher bird and enjoyed its raucous call. Some winters we regularly see Bald Eagles perched above the river looking for a meal. Usually we are looking for activity but drive by without stopping. Today these ancient rocks are dressed in emerald green mosses contrasting with the wet leaves and the lighter lichens drawing my gaze.. and camera. Obviously I stopped to admire the ordinary.

Two trees, two boulders leaning together.

This dramatic pairing of leaning boulders always makes me wonder how the co-joined arrangement happened.

Glowing sunset seen in the Harp’s parking lot in Elkins, AR as I returned home after that Saturday class.

Cameron declares that detail is the midwife to art. This is a clue about how we can nurture our own creativity. By being present in our lived lives and acknowledging our surroundings–especially the natural world–we can thrive.

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Are there “Magic Rules” in Quilting?

Posted on February 2, 2020 by Paula

Jean Ray Laury (1928-2011), a visionary quilter published her first book Applique Stitchery in 1966 followed by Quilts & Coverlets, A Contemporary Approach in 1970.


Jean Ray Laury offered this advice, “Avoid looking for magic rules to rely on–you can only learn by working, and your mistakes have as much to offer as your successes. There are no rules, no rights, no wrongs….” Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine (QNM) October, 1994 p. 45

This talented woman is widely acknowledged as a leader of the quilt revival that started in the 1960s. Her wit and wisdom, as well as her unlimited creative energy caught my attention. Jean Ray Laury’s quilts with a feminist message–especially about women’ lives–have inspired some of my own quilting adventures. Her quilt named “Barefoot and Pregnant or Senator van Dalsem” is a 1987 piece which illustrates the sexist comments by an Arkansas senator. This quilt was selected as one of the top 100 quilts of the 20th century. For a quick introduction, visit: https://journalstar.com/entertainment/arts-and-culture/visual/l-kent-wolgamott-jean-ray-laury-retrospective-of-influential-quiltmaker/article_71d919ec-0ad2-5d27-b683-c1d41cf3246e.html

Starfire: one of my favorite of her quilts!

“Do Your Own Thing” is easier said than done! As women and as quilters we often encounter rules and admonishments to “do it the right way”. Setting aside time to experiment and to play is one way to begin to know what really thrills YOU! Finding the time for ourselves may not be easy, but continued interruptions do interfere with creativity.

Exposing yourself to a variety of quilts is a valid way to “educate your eye”. You can see how other quilters have solved particular problems. You may notice new color or fabric combinations that really appeal to you. Taking classes is a time-honored way to expand your skills. However, as Laury suggests, “you can only learn by working”! Make it a small, medium or large quilt–but make it your own!

Final Post of Photos from my Trunk Show at Cuttin’ Up, January 18th

Blue Poppies, my original design, is made of simple squares (cut 5″), and began when I fell in love with two particular fabrics. (If you are curious–I was drawn to the bright blue and the floral print on both sides of the center diagonal.) I had to invent something to feature these two as “central characters”. Of course, without a “supporting cast” it would be a boring quilt. This was my challenge: create a grouping that would be visually interesting and even offer a few surprises when one got close. I cut squares, then shifted them around on my design wall. I soon realized I needed those dramatic nine patch blocks for some “drama” on my stage. Note how the nine patches do extend into the border.

Blue Poppies grow in a field of greens and grays with a dramatic nine patch for visual interest.

Liliana uses a “strippy” format to feature this fabulous fabric! The bold calla lilies are framed by the strips of ombre fabric–adding the calm of the flowing color changes to the busy curved flower shapes. I did hand quilt this quilt because I did not think machine quilting would enhance this quilt.

Taupe quilt: Silver Taupe

Silver Taupe is my first in a series of taupe-themed quilts. I discovered this pattern in a vintage QNM article about working with these intriguing low-contrast fabrics often associated with some Japanese textiles. This first “taupe adventure” led to three more taupe quilts of different patterns. The ombre border draws its share of attention! All the blocks in the body of the quilt are set-on-point which emphasizes the diagonal lines of the block. By contrast, each corner of the border showcases three of the same blocks in a straight set. This idea grew from necessity–I did not have enough of the ombre fabric to cover those long borders. We learn as we go!

Gold Dust features the traditional Wagon Wheel block sewn with bright contemporary fabrics. Blocks:The lighter blocks along the diagonal draw the eye at first. The strong contrast in value (light and dark) captures attention. Yet, other features demand their own notice. Some blocks are fade-out blocks blending into the background. Other blocks have blades that offer sharp contrast within the block itself. Border: Study the unconventional border. I cut the border blocks in the same hexagon shape as the pieced blocks using a darker fabric in the lower section to contrast with the blocks in the upper section. I actually ran out of the lighter border fabric and had to seek out a similar fabric to play the same role. I like it even better this way. Binding: The blue batik binding adds the last note to pull together the theme of copper colors highlighted with blue–and a few other zingers.

Thank you for your willingness to explore, with me, my passion for creating with fabric. If you would like to take my two session class Circle Play 101 based on the book by Reynola Pakusich called Circle Play: Simple Designs for Fabulous Fabrics call Cuttin’ Up at 479-846-2611. Two sessions: February 8 and 15 from 1-4:00 at Cuttin’ Up. Book included in the $50 class fee. See you next Saturday!

“Mix(It Up #2 Black & Gold” is one example of a quilt I designed after reading Circle Play. This photo was taken before I finished quilting and binding it. Note the Statue of Liberty fabric in one of the lower blocks. I bought several of these bandanas printed with Her image during the centennial celebration in 1986. Yes, my passion for fabric precedes my start as a quilter in 1994!

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