Drawing & Researching a Design for a Modern Quilt

Freewriting + Geometric Quilt Designs + Memoir = Modern Quilt

Today, I acknowledge and accept the reality of no longer having a mother, father, two grandmothers, one grandfather, two great-grand fathers and one great-grand mother. I was blessed to have had their love, support, teachings, stories, wisdom, songs, jokes, secrets about cooking, instructions about life, love, sewing, embroidery, crochet, weaving, indigo dyeing and all the joy, comfort, warmth and kindness they shared with me. We had amazing journeys together. It wasn’t always easy and we had our fair share of bumps in the road but we shared more happiness than misery.

I sit and cry for myself because I must face an unknown future that over whelming. I’ve got friends and cousins but no immediate family. What must I do? Stop crying and start creating designs and dyeing cloth for quilt tops to make on The Mountain. “Just take it one day at a time Sweet Jesus, one day at a time!”  At least my tears have brought me a place name for this body of work — Kahte’hnu.  A Skaru’:re word that describes our scared hidden river places which translates into “Pine In The Water.”  The English translation is a hollow meaning because the true essence of Kahte’hnu isn’t communicated in the description.  But having a place name gives me direction as to where I’m going with my “Flying Geese.”

I created a Graphic Organizer last semester to help my learners focus their final body of work. Follow my working copy for Kahte’hnu Modern Quilt series using geometric designs to tell a story.