Often I am asked what was the story behind a quilt design, whether it is created on cloth or wood. I love a good story, and creating a design with elements that bring that story to life. We have designed many original quilt designs for people who wanted to honor their own stories. Today, I want to share the story of one of my family branches and the way that story made it's way into one of my favorite designs.
The Kincaid Star photographed where the Kincaid home stood in Avoca, NY. My grandmother would stop to care for their tombstones in the field across from the house (which was standing at the time). One day she pointed to the different parts of the house, it’s windows, porches etc and asked me what I thought happened in the kitchen, what they cooked, where they played, and worked.
It was an imaginative moment for me and brought them out of black, white, and shades of grey to real life in my mind. In later years she sent me old photographs of their home and the history all written in black and white to read and save. Last summer when we went back home to NY, I had to paint a Kincaid Star and bring it to that beautiful hill top to be photographed in their place.
The design of the black and white with all kinds of half squares in one design, was representative of the gift my grandmother gave me that hot summer day. The half squares represented the half seen story of an grey old abandoned home. The black, white and shades of grey represent the beautiful story of a life past that can be remembered and seen in love and imagination. It’s one of my favorite and most loved original quilt designs because of that experience years ago.
