A CRAZY QUILT: "FAMILY TIES"

FAMILY TIES is a quilt that began as part of the grieving and healing process after my father passed away in late August of 2001. (We lost Mom in 1986.) To compound our personal sadness, the horror of the World Trade Center occurred less than a week after Dad's passing. 

In the midst of that sorrowful time, it broke my heart to have to part with what was left of my dad's possessions so I held on to his necktie collection.  He was quite the snappy dresser in his day, and many Christmas, birthday, and Father’s Day gifts were in that tie drawer.  Not knowing what I would do with them, I stuffed them all in a bag and set them aside.

 About a year later, I decided that I would combine my passion for sewing and embroidery with those colorful ties to make something called a crazy quilt to tell the story of my parents and our family life. In the history of quilting and bedcovers, crazy quilts were not just a frugal means to use up leftover bits of fabric; they were a way to showcase a woman's artistic vision and prowess with needle and thread.  Scraps of materials of all kinds were sewn onto a foundation cloth and then embellished with embroidery, ribbons, lace, buttons, and jewels.

To use my dad's ties for this project, I first had to take all the ties apart, launder them,  and press them.   Then I made what is now the center block of my quilt by stitching ties in a crazy quilt configuration onto a piece of muslin.  After that the real fun began--the embellishment.

I started out intending the quilt's center block, shown below, to be my whole crazy quilt. The burgundy cord rambling through the middle represented all the twists and turns of our lives. My 3 daughters are there in the wooden buttons I saved for nearly 30 years since their childhood. My parents loved trees and the outdoors so I embroidered a tree and showed Dad's grapevines as well.  By tradition a spider is often somewhere on a crazy quilt, so mine is at the base of my grandmother's rose bush, which still thrives 50 years after it was my parents' housewarming gift. My dad greatly admired  Ronnie Regan so I was pleased to include his campaign button/ribbon on my quilt (a great find on Ebay!)  And with 911 still so close in thought and heart, I stitched God Bless America as a tribute to both the victims of that day and to my parents, who truly believed in God and country.

As memories overwhelmed me and the creative process showed me unlimited possibilities, “Family Ties” took on a life of its own. Over the next six years and hundreds of stitching hours I made 12 more blocks, adding some of my husband’s and brother’s ties to the mix.  After each basic block was made, it was then embellished with my hand embroidery, beading, a small amount of machine embroidery, and many keepsake trinkets.  The blocks have gone camping with me every year, since I find handwork to be a relaxing pastime.  They have traveled on trips and kept me occupied in airports and on air planes, and they have been great teaching tools for embellishment workshops

More block details:

Part of the legacy of my family is the fact that we are descendents of Miles Standish, the captain of the mercenary soldiers who sailed with the Pilgrims on the Mayflower.  The center top square features a machine-embroidered version of that sailing ship.

The upper left corner block, shown below, is dedicated to the memory of my parents.  My father was an optician in Schenectady, NY, for nearly 40 years, and my mother was an elementary school teacher by profession.  They loved flowers, trees, gardening, birds, and everything else related to nature and the outdoors.

Another block represents my brother and his family (shown below.)  You can see his wife Mary and their six daughters in the block, as well as Bob’s love of gardening and fishing.  Mary is a talented artist, while Bob can build or repair just about anything, and is a master woodworker to boot.

Below is my sister’s block.  Her husband John and their three offspring are there with her.  Marilyn is a skilled artist and photographer, and she loves the outdoors.  (We camp together every summer.)  As a teen, Marilyn loved horses so her Morgan Taffy is represented by the horse button. 

And now we come to my own block.  I finally had a place to display many of the 4-H pins and awards I collected while growing up; I was in 4-H right through my first year of college. 4-H led me to my career in Home Economics (now known as Family and Consumer Sciences) so it was a major influence on my life. I took apart an old charm bracelet to showcase my highschool and university medallions, and I have a second spider web on my block--I would rather sew than clean house!

There are so many tales to be told, so many stories stitched into my quilt, that they will have to wait for a second posting at a later date.  Please enjoy the rest of the photos shown in the thumbnails, and realize the joy it gives me to share these with you.
I hope you can “feel the love,” as Emeril might say.  This quilt is built on it and sewn with it.  It comes from my heart.

 [Photos taken with HP Photosmart 850 and Nikon CoolPix L12]