Missouri: Home of Mark Twain, Harry Truman and… The ice cream cone!
As the story goes, it was at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 that the ice cream cone was invented. An ice cream vendor ran out of cups and, thinking quickly, asked a waffle vendor to help by rolling up waffles to hold ice cream. Tada! Ice Cream cones!
Ahh… Mississippi… Home of gracious Southern Hospitality, lovely Magnolia Trees and… Celebrated in the oldest spelling song in the nation. I can not type the name Mississippi without singing the letters in my mind!
The Massachusetts flag has the elegant state seal on the field of white. For a modern take, I interpreted the flag in a minimalist design.
As a young girl of ten, I was told the romantic story of Black-eyed Susan (The Maryland State Flower). While I’ve long forgotten the details, I’ve always remembered to dramatic, romantic essence of the tale. My Maryland research brought it back to me… (All hail the internet!)
Maine, The Pine Tree State, is our northernmost state on the Atlantic seaboard. With the motto, “Dirigo” which means “I Lead” it isn’t surprisiong that the North Star is included on the Maine State seal and its flag.
The fleur-de-lis or fleur-de-lys (plural: fleurs-de-lis) is a stylized lily (in French, fleur means “flower”, and lis means “lily”) used as a decorative design. It may be religious, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, or symbolic especially in French heraldry. It is no surprise the emblem found all over the state of Louisiana has its roots in French culture, stemming from the French colonization of the Americas, namely present day Louisiana. Following Hurricane Katrina, the fleur-de-lis has been widely used in New Orleans as a symbol of grassroots support for New Orleans’ recovery. In 2008, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal signed a bill into law making the fleur-de-lis an official symbol of the state.
Isn’t is appropriate that Kentucky comes up now for our States of Modern block? The AQS Quilt Show in Paducah has just drawn to a close and the quilt world is still humming from all the activity! Classes and Contest Winners, beautiful quilts and spring in Paducah! This is a wonderful week to celebrate the home state of Quilt City USA!
Recently, my sister and brother-in-law moved to Kansas and are building a house near their daughter so I am planning on visiting soon. I’ve been puzzling over how to represent the state til I learned the geographic center of the contiguous United States is located about 2.6 miles northwest of the center of Lebanon, Kansas, just about 12 miles south of the Kansas-Nebraska border. So I have designed our Kansas block with a shining gold square (representing Kansas) in the center of our block to signify the center of the country.
When I think of Iowa, I think of three things: Radar O’Reilly, American Pickers and agriculture… Corny, Cornball and CORN! So our modern Iowa block mixes little bit of the Iowa flag and a modern, minimalist interpretation of an Iowa cornfield.
As I was researching Illinois, I fell in love with the eagle on their flag! His is regal and tough and absolutely beautiful. The banner he has in his beak on the flag says: State Sovereignty – National Union, the very crux of our governmental system. I had to include him in this series, but there is a slight problem….