Kitsch - Janet Hartje - "It's all Relative!"

I had a hard time deciding what to make for the Kitsch challenge.  

I had several ideas but as I was working on my family genealogy the photos of women in amazing hats inspired me.  

My photos were just black and white so I added my own color choices for the hats.

I printed the photos on fabric, cut out just the outline of the women with their hats and fused them to the background.  The largest one is my grandmother.  Her hat is made of pleather and lace and big beautiful feathers.  The bottom right is my great grandmother's sister.  Her hat looked to be fabric with a spider web of ribbons.  I used some drapery fabric and a small part of a doily,  I added some flower trim and of course a small feather.  The woman on the top right is the daughter of the woman below.  Her hat is made from felt and sari silk ribbon, a few silk roses and more feathers!

I decided to make it look somewhat like a picture frame or an album page.  I quilted double ovals around each and colored in the ovals with inktense pencils.  I just used straight line quilting in the background to hopefully make the photos stand out more.

I learned something while making this quilt.  My husband kept telling me my relatives probably contributed to the decline in certain bird populations in Florida.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  

I looked into it though and discovered he was very right.  Birds were being slaughtered to the point of extinction for their feathers.  Two women led the crusade to save the birds and the first Audubon society came into existence.  It's kind of amazing really and you can read more about it here.

I maybe should have added more color to make it more kitschy but honestly I thought the hats alone are pretty kitschy whether you add color or not.

Janet Hartje