I've been thinking & working on our February challenge. I am going to follow both the concept and the colors. My TIF work is going to be a two (or three) blocks' CQ wallhanging. When thinking of things I am old enough to remember I want to emphasize also the ways these things have changed since my childhood.
1st block describes the change in attitudes I was a child in the late 1950's and the early 1960's. Those were years of cold war and economic troubles. Most families were following the conventional family pattern: it was the husband who worked and brought home the money while the wife took care of the home and children. There were many conventional unwritten rules in the society - especially what a woman could do and what she shouldn't by no means do.
There has been a HUGE liberation in attitudes allover the society - and towards women especially: we have more freedom and less conventional restrictions due to our sex. I remember my grandmother wearing dresses that were so long they reached her ankles. She was very strict on her clothing, and mine as well. Walking barefoot in the summer was not decent! The housewife next door looked over 60 - although she was only 35! All this due to conventional clothing. In 1960's no woman over 45 wore a pair of jeans, they were the outfit of hippies, teenagers and rebellions.
As to education and careers there were many restrictions: this is appropriate for a female, that is not. No one could think at the time that Finland once would have a female president!
I have to mention my grandmother once again. She was a half orphan and the youngest of 8 children. At the age of 19 - in the year 1900 - she crossed half Finland in order to have a dairymaid profession. She was a 'working girl', which was very exceptional at her time. This is of course something that I do not remember but found out when doing genealogy research.
The 2st block describes technological progressI lived in the outskirts of a small town and we had one or two cows. But I often went to buy milk with my girlfriend with a big milk pitcher. We didn't have TV until I was 10, nor a telephone until I was a teenager. At my teens my father bought his first car. Public transportation was poor, so we used a bike.
It is amazing how huge and rapid the technological development has been in many aereas. When looking now at my grandchildren I keep wondering... At the age of 5 or 6 they are professional internet users; they know how to switch between the numerous TV channels; they are used to DVDs; they are used to send e-mails or text messages on mobile phones; they know how to use micro wave ovens...
This all is amazing. So much has happened in such a short time - my lifetime.
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This is all I intend to describe in my CQ blocks. I am after an antiqued, weathered and naive look. I'll try to keep the stitching simple, and not use any shiny pearls or beads, nor fancy threads or silk ribbons. We'll see how I succeed to interpret all this.
