For the blocks, I centered a Nine Patch in a mitered sort of sashing. Then I superimposed that block on a Nine Patch (remember the superimposed blocks challenge of 2002?}.
The border is made up of a few shaped notes. Shape notes are a system used in old times and currently in only a few southern states. I drew these for the May 2014 challenge but didn’t get to enter that one. That was the first time since early 2002 that I did not have at least one design in the EQ challenges.
Sunnyside, Washington
06-23-2014
3:15 pm
Yes, I still play the hammered dulcimer. Mitzi Collins who has played for over 30 years began teaching hammered dulcimer at the Eastman School of music. I have taken several classes. We have quite a few players in Rochester now and a performance group that has traveled to the Cimbalom (what the hammered dulcimer is called in several countries in Europe) World Association that was held in Hungary. (http://www.samplerfolkmusic.com/) I discovered that it is quite popular in Eastern Europe where my grandparents came from. It must be in my genes.
I did a search on shape note singing and found it several places other than the American south including England and Ireland.
06-18-2014
9:07 pm
Love your shape notes. The Golden Link Folk Singing Society http://www.goldenlink.org/ holds shape note singing once a month in Rochester, New York. Shape note singing is fun, sitting in a square facing one another. Each of the four parts is a melody and it all fits together so wonderfully.
06-20-2014
8:35 am
I was surprised and delighted that shape notes are alive and well as far north as New York. My husband grew up in Missouri where they read and sang shaped notes easily. As a native Texan, they were (still are) a foreign language to me. Linda, do you still play the (if I’m remembering right) hammered dulcimer?