Native Art

After showing you my button blanket, and explaining a little about the Order of the Arrow, I thought you might enjoy seeing a bit more quilt-related regalia.


This blue item is a "medicine pouch".
My owl and turtle make up the design and this is quilted without batting.

The silver ornaments commemorate the three stages of membership as I passed through Ordeal, Brotherhood and Vigil. Each bead added to the thong represents events such as fellowships, conclaves, NOAC (National OA Conference) and Jamborees.


As with all OA Lodges, we use Native American regalia for our ceremonies. For many years, our lodge had a hodge-podge of mixed regalia as members came and went from different parts of the States using different native traditions.

Finally, about six years ago, we decided to switch to something more Japanese (after all, we are in Japan) and began creating regalia based on Ainu traditions. With a number of workshops, we made perhaps six or so kimono with Ainu inspired designs. They have turned out more user-friendly. (After all, we are talking about teen-age youth). They fold up nicely for transport and storage and after years of dealing with feather headdresses worn in the rain or too near the fire, I am happy with lower maintenance and the one-size-fits-all aspects.



This short jacket is my own piece. I have been known to wear it for other than OA functions. The applique is in the Ainu style.

If you see something peeking on the inside, it is my owl.

The design is not Ainu but North Western. The Ainu use the owl in their designs as well.

I recently went to an exhibition of Ainu art that had many owl representations.

This is the front of the reverse side.

The applique is a native design from my own Ohio woodland tradition.

Here are a few pictures from around our house. The neighbor has this Pyracantha hanging in front. Won't the birds love that all winter!

In the late summer, a very colorful and spiky caterpillar attacked my Toad lilly. I thought I had seen the end of it for the year but it has bravely come back to hold it's place in my tiny garden.

About ten years ago, I rescued these plants from a lot where the house had been removed and it was about to be turned into an asphalt-covered parking lot. I remembered the plants having come up in the front edge every year. When I saw the machinery at work, I hurried home and got a bag and a trowel and dug up as many of the roots as I could locate. Some went home with my daughter and the rest found places around the garden edges. When I moved back to our little house, I divided the roots again and brought some with me to enjoy here. This is a plant that grows well in shade and these flowers beneath my dining room window will last to the end of December.

A Ceremonial Button Blanket

Today is cold, dark, and rainy, a good day to wrap up in something warm and cozy. What I am showing you is not something I have made. It was presented to me at an Order of the Arrow conclave a few years ago.

The Order of the Arrow (or OA) is the National Honor Society of Scouting. It is made up of Scouts and Scouters who are nominated to the organization for "Walking the talk" or living the Scout oath in their daily lives. I was the first woman elected to the order in 1990 in the Far East Council (though the Lodges in the states had women for a number of years). I am the only female Vigil Honor member in our Lodge as well, and was the Lodge advisor for nearly six years.

For many years, our Lodge was part of the Western Region that included Alaska and Washington State. Each year the OA holds a conclave hosted by one of the Lodges in the area. I have been lucky to attend conclaves in both states and, during my tenure as advisor, the first youth members were able to attend from The FEC. The conclaves are usually held over a weekend and, with travel issues, means missing a day or two of school, thus not easy to attend even with donated airline tickets.

So, what about the blanket? One year I attended a conclave with our District Executive and during a silent auction, he bid on a button blanket without success. A plot then developed between myself and an OA member from Washington named Kathy Anderson, to create a button blanket specially for Derek, the DE. If you are interested, you can see it in the 2005 list of projects. The central crest represents the wearer's heritage. His was a beaver. (As he is of the Woodbadge beaver patrol), we discussed the elements to include and I was tasked with sewing on the buttons. The beaver is a typical NW totem. My blanket, however, is very unusual.

It came as a complete surprise a number of years later. I was called to the stage and presented with this lovely piece of work. It was explained to me that my totem, the owl, is never used as a main totem. (According to NW tradition, when the owl calls your name, your time has come). Instead, the blanket contains the dragon, which is the totem of the Achpateuny Lodge to which I belong. I love the dragon fabrics in the upper and side borders along with the blue that represents sky and sea.

The buttons are abalone shell and on the sides you can see two turtles, the totem of my younger days, formed by buttons alone.
The triangle on the large button is the Vigil symbol.





And on each shoulder, carefully hidden, are ghost owls. Though not the main totem, they are there hugging my shoulders on either side of the dragon.

A peek inside shows how the owls have been added.

There are also loops inside for hands.

The dangling blue piece is for closing the front edges.

I never learned the story behind this presentation but I am certain Kathy Andersen was much involved.

A year later, our OA Lodge was switched to the part of the Western Region that includes Hawaii. I have not attended a conclave there as the dates have been the first days back to school for our youth.
We worked for so many years to build relations with our former Section and it is hard to figure out the advantages of the switch. Still, wrapped in my ceremonial button blanket, my heart and mind go back to my friends in the Great Northwest and I share not only this wonderful design but the joy of friendships that go far beyond the seas which not only separate us but also join us.

My other life

Here I am at another day of Scouting at Tama Hills. A few years back, this field was named for me. The name used to be Gilwell, named for Gilwell Park in England and I liked that name fine.

Now that it has my name on it, I feel I need to pull every weed and pick up all the trash. As this is on a military post, since 9/11 I lost my VIP pass and have limited access.I had to be claimed at the gate for NLS (National Leadership Seminar) that has been taking place.

Since this is not a Scouting blog, but a quilting blog, My Blueberry Jambo Bunny, who has been camping with me for many years including 15 jamborees, Wanted me to show off his button blanket. Peeking at my blogging, he saw the nice native appliques on Marjorie's Applique Addict site. Then he saw Nichi's red bunny on her Quiltycat site and wanted his time too.

This is not the traditional arrangement of a button blanket but put into a quilt. You can see what a traditional one looks like by looking at the 2005 section of this blog. Instead of buttons I had to put beads around the design. Being just a bunny, he wanted something a bit stronger as a symbol and chose the thunderbird. This boosts his confidence when he is left to guard my tent during the day.

If you thought I was a little strange before seeing this, now you know it as a fact.

Button Blanket 2005

Carol's Morning Star 2000