Heavenly Fire

In Lakota traditions, the eight points of the star represent the following:

• Respect
• Truth
• Honesty
• Humility
• Humor
• Compassion
• Wisdom
• Love
  

And so it is in this case.

My mother died June 18, 2005. A friend invited me to her house on July 4 to learn an alternate method for stitching a Lone Star quilt, since we had taken a class earlier in the year and been entirely frustrated with that approach.

When I first agreed to go to Cathy's house, it was only to force myself to step outside my grief. I was exhausted by the effort, but excited that this new technique actually worked.

Because I started this project with sub-zero expectations, I also had no pre-conceived vision of the outcome. 

The star fabrics came from my stash, left behind from the failed paper piecing class. They were chosen because there was adequate yardage and the right number of colors (not the way I usually choose fabrics).

For a change, I was open to auditioning background fabrics without restrictions AFTER I had started piecing the center.


My first lone star [First Star to the Right] was made for my mother and what would be her very last Christmas and birthday gift.

Completed in August 2005, this lone star was made in honor of her life.

[Heavenly Fire was submitted but rejected for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative traveling exhibit - Forgetting, Piece by Piece.  This quilt earned a blue ribbon at the county fair and hung in a vendor booth at the 2007 Nashville quilt show (because of the marvelous quilting done by Chris). It has hung on our wall and near my desk at work, and is now displayed as a table topper.]

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"There is in every heart a spark of heavenly fire which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity." (Washington Irving)