family | If These Threads Could Talk

Life is good! Here I am in Central, NY making a very special cactus quilt for a newly discovered sister. I have a half sister (Mary) whom I have known my entire life. Two years ago Mary wanted to submit our DNA to Ancestry.com to see if we really did have Native American ancestor’s as our mother said. Turns out we don’t.

My mother used to tell me in a hushed voice “you have sisters in Canada”! I always wondered if that story was true. Turns out it is true! I have two sisters on my Father’s side. My sister Marti contacted me and we have been emailing, Facebooking and messaging each other for the last 2 years! And get this, Marti is also a quilter. You can’t make this stuff up! We have not met each other yet. Marti lives in Arizona and as I said, I’m in Central NY. Marti is one determined quilting sister. She has been trying to get a local Arizona quilt guild to schedule a class with me so we can finally meet. She did it! The Havasu Stitcher’s Quilt Guild is bringing me to Lake Havasu, AZ in January 2020 to teach a One Block Wonder Workshop at their event “Quilting at the Lake”! I am beyond excited.

I was looking through my quilt book library and saw this quilt by Jean Biddick from her book “Blended Quilt Backgrounds”, and just had to make it for Marti. I know that this type of cactus only grows near and around Tucson but it is such an iconic cactus that always makes me think of Arizona.

So, of course I opened up my EQ8 to redesign & Tuckerize it. I made a few changes. I decided on 12″ finished blocks,

and of course varying shades of purple from Island Batik!

The star points are made using Studio 180 Design’s Wing Clipper I. Tuckerizing a pattern is one of my favorite things to do, and the Wing Clipper is the best way to make flying geese!

Start by making the small stars that form the center of the large stars. There is a link to a complete supply list at the end of this blog post. Make 21 of these double star blocks.

Once the star blocks were made I started to work on the cactus.

These blocks make up the cactus. (See link below for a complete supply list.)

Marti this quilt is just a simple hug from me to you. Can’t wait to meet you!

This quilt is also Tucker approved! Click here for the Stars Over Tucson Shinning on Lake Havasu Supply List.

Every time I mention I’m making an Obituary quilt people shiver. I love my family and my family’s history. Finding obituaries is finding a treasure trove of information. I get really excited when I find information that tells me what they and their lives were like. This is how I remember them, how my children and grandchildren will get to know them.

Remember Me! This was truly a labor of love and a learning experience! I have a tendency to jump into projects feet first and figure out the details along the way. My sister and I had collected so many wonderful obituaries that one day I said “I know, I will make them into a quilt”. I started entering the information into my lettering software and began embroidering them. Some took over 3 hours to embroider. Then I had to figure out how to connect them into a cohesive top. I’m not sure if I was successful or not. I just started playing with them on the design wall, measured the negative space and figured out how to join them. The star blocks are Rapid Fire Lemoyne Stars (my favorite). I know it looks a little weird, but I kind of like the randomness of the top. I had real trouble with the borders. The embroidery shrank up the fabric, so I had to rip out what I could and add fabric to try to square it up. I got one end of the top square but not the other. I couldn’t take off the whole border as part of the embroidery went into the seam. I did not want to start over so I just went with it.

These obituaries start in 1900. That’s amazing, 113 years ago!!!