Tag Archives: geneology

Eeeeek! An Obituary Quilt?

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!!!

Telling Stories with Machine Embroidery

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I made this quilt for my sister in 2010. While we were searching for family graves and information we found a story on the Town of Vienna, NY’s website. it was full of information about our ancestors. It contained great stories and Civil War information. It was a treasure trove of information, so of course I put it into a quilt called “Yankees in Tara”.

Did You Say Obituary Quilt?

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Why yes, I did! I started working on this idea 2 years ago but was overtaken by events. My goal this year is to finish the Obituary and Cemetery quilts. My grandmother Bessie was very into family history and geneology. Of course I and my sister took it for granted. When Bessie passed in 1987 all her family knowledge went with her. In the past 3 or 4 years my sister and myself have worked hard to find the secrets of our past. Our hard work has been rewarded. We have many great obituaries, some over 100 years old. So, that is how the idea began. I have typed the obituaries into my lettering software and machine embroidered them. I have 2 more to get done but I ran out of the fabric and black thread today.

In my head I envision the blocks randomly arranged on my design wall. When I get a pleasing design I will measure the negative space and make blocks to fill in and join the obituaries. I’m thinking I will choose one simple block and either enlarge it or reduce it to fit, and stick to a simple color scheme of blue and brown. I’ll keep you informed!