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Sunday, June 26, 2016

FAMILY TIES

This post is about quilting, but it is about a great deal more.  For many years, my hubs has been hoping to connect to his father and, possibly other siblings.  He never met his father and had only one photo of him.
Each time he thought he might have found his dad, he would re-think connecting with him for many reasons.  Among those reasons was his hesitancy to disrupt an established family who might not know that he existed.
A few months ago, through Facebook (don't we love FB?), he found a connection.  He discovered that his father had passed away a couple years prior, but there was a sibling.
After a good deal of communication, he felt like a meeting might be possible.

We took our vacation to Florida and hubs reached out to his sibling and we were able to have a wonderful lunch meeting.  The two of them instantly liked each other and three hours later, we left the restaurant.

Now, about the quilting . . .
Before vacation I was trying to put together a project for an upcoming Workshop I am teaching.  I kept looking for a traditional block that I could "modernize".  I came across a version of Dutchman's Puzzle in 5500 Quilt Block Designs  by Maggie Malone.  This block dates back to 1886 and I had seen it before but it never held my attention long enough to make it.  Somehow, this time I kept coming back to the block in the book.  I kept thinking there was another block for me to use.  But finally ...
I chose this block and cut my fabrics and started construction.

Now, for the interesting part. . .
Hubs discovered that his father was from Indonesia of Dutch heritage.   I had no idea that we would learn this about my hubs'  dad. 
As I was quilting my project, all of a sudden I had an Ah Ha moment.
I experienced a bit of chill bumps as I thought about the fact that I was working on a quilt pattern called "Dutchman's Puzzle" and my hubs just solved his Dutchman's Puzzle by meeting his sibling.

Thank you to my quilting muse for directing me to the "Dutchman's Puzzle Block" for my project.

My Dutchman's Puzzle Quilt is a tribute to Eric Spoelstra and John Spoelstra Suggs and their newly found family ties!!


                                    -sandi


6 comments:

  1. starting my day with a few years in my eyes & heart. Touching story, gorgeous quilt!

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  2. The stories behind what comes to our minds as we quilt certain things is always interesting. I made a quilt years ago for church auction, & wrote the story down of my thoughts as I did this, - had the winner of the auction in tears as she read it, as it was a great meditation time for me with God for my friend waiting for her liver transplant. It was a snails trail.

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    1. Thank you, Dawn. I have my best meditations when I am quilting.

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  3. What a beautiful story. Thank yuo for sharing. I saw on Quilty Habit where you commented that you wanted to add the Star Light Star Dark button to your blog but didn't know how. I am emailing you to tell you how :)

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