Audubon Quilts

We have at least one Great White Heron at our local park.  I love seeing the birds at the park.  The Great White is a new addition to my bird spotting.  I've never seen one here before this summer although we have plenty of Blue Herons:

Here in the Mid-Atlantic region, folks have been asked to remove bird feeders and bird baths.  There's a serious and mysterious disease in many songbirds.  You can read about it here. 

In 1905, the Audubon organization was formally founded.  Many schools had Junior Audubon clubs and it might interest you to know that at least in one school, the Rightsell School in Little Rock Arkansas, had a junior Audubon club that yearly made a bird quilt for children in the hospital.  I was enchanted by this story when I read it.  Each year, the children would assemble a quilt for a local hospital.  By 1922, the third quilt was donated.  Little Miss Sylvia Cornish made the presentation speech to the hospital:

By 1923, the club had grown to 150 members.  It's founder and teacher in charge, Leona Chaplin, had much to do with the success of the club.  An additional excellent program was a bird house contest for the city was sponsored by the club and encouraged children to build and decorate a special home for their feathered friends.

In 1928, Ruby Short McKim designed the Audubon or Bird Life Quilt and blocks were featured in a variety of newspapers for children and quilters to embroider:

I do have one of these quilts but I can't find the photos today.  I'll see if I can find the photos for the Thursday post.

Have a safe and happy day!