TIF Challenge

Yah!, I worked out where to edit my time zone and now the dates have adjusted correctly.

Well, the TIF Challenge has begun. I had to work on the 1st Jan but before I went to work I checked what the challenge was. It was a pretty quiet day so I had some time to think about the challenge and come up with some ideas. Anyway the concept for the challenge is the feeling of admiration we have for another.

I did some notes on paper and I came up with a long list of people I admire such as the Dali Lama (for his spirituality, compassion and his positivity even after everything that has happended to his country, Tibet and its people), Nicole Kidman (for her talent, beauty and the lifestyle she leads), Shirley MacLaine (for her talent and because I love all her books), Oprah Winfrey (for coming so far in her life and for using her show to inform and help so many people), Princess Diana (for putting up with what she had to, for being a peoples princess and doing the charity work she did) as well as quite a few musicians (for their talent and beautiful voices).

Then thinking more about it I came up with the idea that I admire women all throughout history who have danced to the beat of their own drum. The women who they say were ahead of their time and the ones who went against the grain. The ones who didn't do what they were supposed to do. The ones who went out and followed their dreams, pursued their passion even though it was against what society thought was the right or proper thing to do.

I then went looking on the internet to find some of these women. One that stood out to me was Gertrude Benham, as I love travel and adventure. I found a biography about her by Raymond John Howgego here http://www.howgego.co.uk/explorers/gertrude_emily_benham.htm

She was born in England in 1867. In her lifetime she climbed more than 3 hundred peaks of 10,000 feet or over, she was the first European woman to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, travelled round the world 7 times, crossed central Africa 4 times, visited the Himalayas several times, she went to Tibet in 1925, but was denied access on further occasions as she was seen as a bad type of British traveller as she hadn't entered Tibet by the traditional route. On her travels she collected 1000's of artifacts and curios, some of these are now housed at the Plumouth City Museum and Art Gallery. She accomplished all of this in an era when she should have been at home, married and having babies instead of having such outlandished ideas. She died at sea in 1938. I admire her courage and determination to go off into the world and to climb mountains, it would have been a real adventure.

I found a photo of her that I really like here http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/culture/2003/worlds_of_wisdom.shtml I wonder if she ever hitched that skirt up and danced to those african drums. Another thing that really appealed to me was that she financed her trips by selling and trading knitting and embroidery that she worked on while resting at camp. Where there's a will there's a way.

Anyway, from all this I have decided to make a Mini Art Quilt called "Women Who Dance to the Beat of their own drum". Two quilts have come to mind - one general one of a woman dancing wildly with a drum being played beside her and the other one with a transferred picture of Gertrude Benham with different objects and symbols around her depicting her life. I would like to do both but will concentrate on just getting one finished for the challenge. I love the colours but not sure if I will use them or not. I'll have to search through my stash and see what I come up with.