Quilt project

[The Biscuit Queen]

http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=40

NOW is doing a quilt project to show women who lost custody of their kids.

I feel that this would be an excellent project for us to do and present in front of the Capitol Building during the Men's Equality Congress. Or we could do a paper chain with a father and children's info on each link.

I think visual media like this has a much greater inpact, the men who contribute do not need to be present, and there are millions more men than women who have lost their children.

I would be willing to do the final sewing into the quilt.

What do you think?

[Men's Rights Activist]

I think visual media like this has a much greater impact, the men who contribute do not need to be present, and there are millions more men than women who have lost their children.

I agree TBQ, but that makes a lot of work for you, and even with you doing the sewing together, I have to wonder how many would mail you a swatch of cloth to put into the quilt.  I know there is a lot of despair and depression in Dads who've lost their kids.  Let's brainstorm a little.

Of course, there's always the possibility you could get more swatches than manageable.  After all there are literally thousands of parents who've lost kids.  Of course, there's the possibility you could get stories like, "This is a swatch of cloth from a shirt or blouse my child wore when we were still a family. I haven't seen my child in 'X' years."

Maybe an easier idea would be to make a wall of faces like they did after the World Trade Center fell - for all the "missing."

Maybe a quilt, and a wall of faces, since some people will have one, but not the other.  Personal would be better, but lacking either, just something that represents the missing (stolen) kid in the parents mind, whether it's a baby rattle or some other very small item.

Wouldn't it be great to walk through the halls of our nations capitol with those displays?  I doubt they'd allow that, but maybe a photo with the "Capitol of kid stealing" in the background.  Maybe some signs saying, "Gender feminist governments destroy families and children."  Whatever you put together, photograph it, photograph it, photograph it, IMO, then post it everywhere you can on the Internet.

Sincerely MRA

[PaulGuelph]

Putting up a picture of your missing child is generally illegal, since you are invading the privacy of that child (who was kidnapped in a perfectly legal way.) You can be charged with stalking and other things.

The next step with the quilt would be to plan out what would be done with it. Where would it be shown? Would the media be interested? Why would they be interested? How could we ensure enough publicity and the right kind of publicity to justify the work? Would it look like we are always mimicking feminists? 

[The Biscuit Queen]

Well, I agree we could be accused of mimicking, I was trying to find things that are working for them. The fact is that feminism is the single most successful social engineering project since Christianity.  That is saying a lot.

I threw this out as much to get ideas as to do the quilt per say. If it looks like I am getting overwhelmed, I can delegate some of the work. If you have better ideas than I am all for them.

I am looking for a visual representation of fathers losing their kids. Maybe a chain of paper dolls? Each dad puts his childs first name and last initial, his name, date of abduction, length of time since seeing the child? We could hold them out between us crossing back and forth over the steps of the Capital Bldg.

We need to think outside the box. At the last congress, the one thing we lacked was a visual presence. We had only a few dozen people and Carnell and some signs. We need something else added.

Along the lines of possessions, we could ask each dad to send a shirt or blouse from each child, with the info above written or pinned to each (in waterproof ink) and use clotheslines to pin them up. Maybe if they want a short bio on the case on laminated paper pinned to the shirt.

Imagine several thousand shirts in lines, waving in the breeze, each a representation of a child's life destroyed by the system.

I think it is imparitive to our sucess that we do something like this. This model ( I am leaning towards the shirt idea) could be one which is repeated locally, on a state level, etc. It could be something we do each fathers day across the country. The men's movement, the father's movement, needs a visual.

[.]

I like the quilt idea, personally.  It's got that "human" quality to it, the very quality that militant feminists have no legitimate right to exploit.  These militants are the same people attempting to marginalize men and fathers, arrange to raise children by nannies and government-run day care centers, abort as many babies as possible, and all the while carry on about how men are the violent sex.

If the workload becomes an issue, perhaps there is a better way to attach each swatch.  Maybe adhesive of some kind, or a creative way of stitching the swatches together that doesn't require a sewing machine.  On the other hand, if enough people volunteer, even traditional sewing might not present an overwhelming problem.

[Men's Rights Activist]

This is a little more pricey, but this is an idea I've been working on since last Halloween - The BeatDead Dads Graveyard.

I have no pictures or anything, but I have about 12 to 14 tombstones, and as far as names:

Phil (murdered by wife)
Pastor (murdered by wife)
Derrick  (Suicide - Death by family law and cop)
Perry (Suicide - Death by family law and cop)
etc.

[dr e]

Some great ideas.  BQ I would like to hear more about the quilt.  That would take a huge effort to put together wouldn't it?  A scroll of pictures of fathers who are "missing" from their families might be easier to do and when stretched out could be pretty impressive if it was long enough.  Any of these ideas would take a great deal of work. 

[The Biscuit Queen]

johndias, isn't it ironic that the movement which completely disregarded the roles which allowed women to create the quilting culture, and destroyed that culture,  uses quilting as a propaganda tool.

That just kills me.

Dr E,
Well, if we made each patch one foot square, then it would take me probably 2-3 minutes to sew them together per square. I could knock out a few hundred in a day without much effort. I would be willing to work much longer a day for a short time, or if people would be willing to send some to me now I could work a little every day on them.

It would not be really fancy, but I don't think it would need to be.

If you wanted to go big, then ask dads to do 2 or 4 foot squares, and as johndias suggested we could attach them with spray adhesive or pins or some other method. Then if we got a good response the Elispse or the gardens by the reflecting pool may be a better target for it. That we could decide later. The Aids Quilt Project was done that way.

I am done with school May 23, and other than fishing in my new kayak Dave is going to buy (I hope!!) I really don't have much on my schedule from then until the Congress. 

I also like the idea of men's faces, too.  Again, with the right numbers, it would be impressive.

I do think the idea of a men's graveyard is awesome. Death of anyone personalized hits home.

[.]

Here's an idea:  VELCRO.  I'm serious, it works.  It's beneficial because you can dismantle the swatches and then reassemble the quilt in another location, repeatedly maximizing the media potential of the quilt in multiple jurisdictions.

We gotta think "modular" here, people!  ;-)

[The Biscuit Queen]

I love working with men

Velcro is a great idea. You can get self adhesive velcro strips at Walmart or a craft or fabric store for a few bucks. We could specify how each swatch was velcroed-fuzzy side on front edges, plastic sides on back edges, then they should just fit together with no work on our part. 

[Men's Rights Activist]

Velcro is a great idea. You can get self adhesive velcro strips at Walmart or a craft or fabric store for a few bucks.

As I used to say in the department I worked in, "For every solution - - - a problem."

TBQ:

Try a small area with the velcro first to see if the adhesive bleeds through the fabric.  Hopefull, they won't.   Otherwise, maybe velcro strips could be sewed on and still be less work than sewing the whole thing together.  Your judgement on this is likely much better than mine.  This is certainly not my area of expertise by a long shot.

[The Biscuit Queen]

I have used self-stick velcro for years, no bleeding through. The only issue is that the self stick is sometimes not as strong as the velcro stick, so taking it apart must be done a little carefully and it will not stand up to constant on and off-but even that is not so bad-it could be sewed on or replaced at little cost later on. 

[The Biscuit Queen]

1.49 for 6 sew on coin size fasteners.

2.49 for a set of 4 self stick coin fasteners.

I can get 25 yards of self stick tape for a hundred bucks, which counting on using one inch tabs on corners gives us 225 blocks.

We could potentially, if people were interested and willing to donate to the project, put easy kits together to hand or mail out.

I see there is not much interest in this, but to be honest, we can sit here and wax philisophical for decades more, or we can start finding some ways to stand up and make ourselves be heard to other besides the chorus. Do we want to bitch, or change things?

Blackmanxxx is always trying to get us going, and he is right. We have an opportunity to meet in DC this summer and make ourselves visable. We need to start thinking of how to do that. Dave and I will be there,  Glenn Sacks, Warren Ferrall, Cristina Hoff Sommers are scheduled....how many of you will be there?

I understand if people aren't exited about quilts, so give me another idea. I like the idea of possessions of the kids lost, but I am  not sure of the legalities or practicalities of what would be done afterward about them. There is the clothesline of kid's shirts idea, or the paper doll idea. I know they are all girly, give me some guy ideas! Come on, with as smart a group as we have here, I cannot believe no one is interested in brainstorming about actually making a difference!

Don't make me get out the cattle prod!

[gentlegiant]

Just a suggestion, dont know how it would "fly"...

How about balloons.

logistically easy, and they can all be released at the same time to signify the the kidds being taken away.  A whole lot of men with a whole lot of balloons would get a lot of attention, no?

Very Cheep too...

[The Biscuit Queen]

That is a great idea. We could get NCFM info printed on, have dads make their own balloon messages, or even use plain ones.

How do your rent a helium tank?