WIP: McCormick Commemorative Quilt Blocks

Last Saturday I attended the 50th birthday celebration of my college dorm.  McCormick Hall is the only all girl dorm on the MIT campus and was dedicated to facilitate the advancement of women in science an engineering at MIT by giving them an environment to live in that made them feel safe and at home among female peers. Many lasting friendships were formed during those four college years.

To commemorate the event, participating alumnae were encouraged to submit a square to be incorporated in a quilt. I made one each for myself and four college friends. In one corner I placed our name and graduating year, in a second corner our major, i.e. course of study. The third corner reads 5th River East, which states what suite of rooms was our college home. The final fourth corner tells something quirky that I remembered for each of us. I bordered the blocks with a print that was "loud and obnoxious" as I considered it. I wanted it to be graphic enough to stand out and be a unifying sign that the five of us, went together. Then, when the quilt was assembled, the blocks would relate to each other even if scattered throughout the quilt top. I was also trying to be kind to whoever assembles the top from the varying size squares they will get by providing a border that can be trimmed.

This is my block. I had a thing for owls in college and my room was decorated with them. I'd crocheted my bedspread in afghan stitch blocks with intarsia owls.

This is my friend Sue's block. She and I used to take our study break to eat ice cream just about every night. 

My friend Margaret was a chain reader (as opposed to being a chain smoker). I still do not know how she fit that in with all our other studies!

My friend Brenda used to hula dance professionally in high school. No, she was not from Hawaii. She was from Maine. Go figure...

Norma loved food, cooking, and eating. I also picked this particular print to represent her because it also reminded me of her flaming red hair.

It sure was fun making these blocks and thinking of good times and friendships while doing so. So that too much time does not elapse from the event til this post, I am posting this from a mobile device at the airport on my way going home. I am skipping stats this week and will correct my typos and picture sizes once I am on a real computer.