Janet asked in the comment section if I have a master plan for this quilt. Sort of!
I have a photo I took of a tile floor that was only partial...meaning the camera could only pick up so much of it.
From there I grabbed hexagon graph paper and drew out the design I wanted, making some revisions along the way. From there it is a simple repeat of pattern (I didn't color out the whole quilt.) and I will end it when it is "Big Enough." It's kind of a design-as-you-go process, which is easy if the project is scrappy (No running out of background fabric or not having enough of the others) as I can always throw in more fabrics as I go.
That's the benefit of being a scrappy quilter!
And Janet, the sauerkraut and pork in the crock pot sounds yummy!
Over here it was my doctored up baked beans in the crock pot and we took them mid-afternoon to our friend's house for burgers on the grill, all the fixin's, and a long hysterical game of Mexican Train dominos...with a dessert of brownies and ice cream midway through.
Done and ready for aqua/turquoise!
I had a few hours yesterday while the beans were simmering away to sit at my machine and finish up the eleventy-million yellow strings.
Everything is wonder-clipped in batches of 10 to help me keep count.
You know what that means? This is up next:
All of your gifted strings!
I am sure the mail delivery person is tired of me by now. LOL!!
I can't thank you all enough for the wonderful gift you've given me through this holiday season. Who knew there were so many beautiful and different aquas out there?
It was WONDERFUL to read each and every word.
Truly, I can't thank you enough for sharing your fabric scraps with me. I'm sure there will be many more quilts with aqua in them. Like - till I die. LOL!
I can't wait to start adding these onto my units. When these strips are on and the foundations are covered I can finally start to trim things up. There WILL be a new rotary blade before I begin.
I've wanted to share these photos since my trip to Poland in September of 2023, but how do you put this into words? You can't. I haven't been able to. Mostly because it is something you feel that you can't describe.
Every once in a while I get comments like this, and I'm unsure of how to respond to them because the poster is "Unknown."
Sometimes the comment comes and I want to answer it, but unsure that the commenter will even see my response unless they go back to that post and see if there has been a reply.
I'm going to try to bring these comments forward in the next day's post and hopefully answers will be seen, also beneficial to others.
If I could talk about the one thing that really touched my soul with my trip to Poland, it was how HONEST the Polish people are about the treatment of Jews through their history. They own it. All of our tours - our guides - knew their history through and through and didn't sugarcoat anything.
History needs to be taught in full, whether it makes us uncomfortable or not. Anytime we feel discomfort, it is an opportunity for growth, and not to be shied away from.
There are many monuments and areas around Krakow bearing witness to atrocities that happened there. Now the ghetto area in Krakow is thriving with artisans and independently owned restaurants and businesses and is a destination, all the while keeping the history of the Jewish ghetto and things that happened alive, and not relegated to the annals of history.
Our visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau can't be described as a "highlight." But I can say it was a refiner's fire for my soul.
Remember, things that are uncomfortable to see, uncomfortable to talk about are an opportunity to GROW.
I've wanted to share these photos since my trip to Poland in September of 2023, but how do you put this into words? You can't. I haven't been able to. Mostly because it is something you feel that you can't describe.
I've been to Dachau twice in Germany. Same thing there. Can't find words, only sorrow. Yet, we have to bear witness so that this NEVER happens again to any group of people. And yes, I know there are other genocides happening in other countries right now. One isn't any worse or better than any other. It just shows us that we have not learned as human beings how precious each life is.
Between 1941 and December 1944, the official date of the closing of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex, the transport/arrival timetable was 1.5 trains per day: 50 freight cars per train × 50 prisoners per freight car × 1,066 days = 4,000,000 prisoners in total.
Our Polish guide giving us accurate, honest history of this place. I won't include it here. Watch a documentary, do something to research. And imagine if this was YOUR family. Your loved ones.
It was here along the train tracks that I picked up a few rocks to place on the monuments just ahead.
See the little rocks in the bottom left corner?
I didn't have fresh flowers with me, but I could place pebbles.
One rock from the train tracks came home with me.
It sits on my bedside table. I see it every morning, and every night. When I am worried and stressed I pick it up and hold its weight in my hands and I remember.
Nothing I have to face in life is as dire as this history was. Nothing.
And once you are aware, it changes you. It changed me. It continues to change me. Because things that make us feel uncomfortable also cause us to deeply question and allow us the opportunity to grow.
I left Poland and headed directly to meet up with another Craftours group in Italy. And that rock was in my suitcase.
Once in Rome, I learned from our Italian guide that Pope Paul IV had imprisoned Jews in the Jewish ghetto since 1555. The ghetto of Rome was controlled by the papacy of the Catholic church for over 300 years??
At the dawn of the October 16, 1943 the Nazis
surrounded the Jewish ghetto neighborhood in Rome and captured over 1,000 Jewish people by
force from their homes. Two days later the prisoners were loaded
onto a train bound for Auschwitz. Of the 1,023 deportees only 16
survived extermination.
So yes, my Polish trip and the Rome trip were very much connected, but I didn't know it when I first embarked on it.
We can learn from HARD THINGS! We can do better than people did in the past.
In 2025 - can we do better? I am hoping so.
We cannot repeat past atrocities. When we know better, we can do better.
Quiltville Quote of the Day -
Okay guys, party's over -
Time to get down to work!
Much love on this first Thursday of 2025.
Bonnie, your thoughts about Auschwitz and the other camps are so right on. We toured Auschwitz several years ago. It was heartbreaking, heart wrenching and forever changes your perspectives. We definitely must do better.
ReplyDeleteBonnie, I love seeing your progress on the hexie quilt. I have a very large completed top of hand-pieced hexies that I started in 1999(!) that I intended to hand quilt. But now I don't have the energy to hand quilt anything. I have loaded it on my long arm frame and wonder if you have any suggestions for a continuous free motion design. I don't want to just outline inside each hexie. If I can't find an idea for free motion, I may just cave in and do a curvy pantograph. Do I have your permission? "Done is better than perfect." Right?
ReplyDeleteI finished Alexandria by Jodi at Tales of Cloth - over 2500 pieces. My longarm quilter quilted very close parallel lines across the quilt. Turned out beautiful.
DeleteI gather that Hubster Dave doesn’t like to travel, but he doesn’t mind you going?
ReplyDeleteEvidently not? LOL! No, really, he is my biggest supporter and encourager. He stays home and takes care of the dogs and cats and mans the retreat.
DeleteWhen I was growing up in San Francisco I lived in a neighborhood with people of many different faiths. We had Protestants, Catholics, Jews, even a Salvation Army family. Our house was across the street from the Presbyterian church. During Vacation Bible School ALL of the neighbor kids went. My Mom used to watch us come across the busy street after the school day and we ALL were singing “Jesus Loves The Little Children”. I wish a peaceful existence for all in 2025.
ReplyDeleteI should have mentioned that this was in the mid 1940s. I was often invited to a Jewish friend’s home during their holidays and saw how their celebrations differed from mine. And they often wished for a Christmas tree. It was about that time when the metal and colored trees be an to show up in living room windows.
DeleteBonnie, you have brought back some special memories for me.
My trip to Israel/West Bank was also stunning. There has to be a better way to resolve conflict than what is happening now around the world. I pray for peace.
ReplyDeleteThank you for a very important history lesson. I am loving the new hexie project. Yesterday we purged through some of our clothes that we don't wear or doesn't fit and put them in bags for Goodwill. Today it's the storage cabinet in the kitchen! HA! I guess decluttering will be our goal for a while; including the scrap mountain! Have a great day & happy quilting! :)
ReplyDeleteHappy new year. Thank you for all you do for us your followers. Knowing how much you love history I highly recommend the new Netflix film The Six Triple Eight. It is amazing to me how our ancestors treated others just because they were not the same as the rest of us. What I find even sadder is that prejudice is still happening .
ReplyDeleteI have a hexigon top in progress and wondering how you plan to finish the edges on yours. I was wanting to add a border but did not want to trim the sides even, but may have to.
ReplyDeleteI put a border on my hexie quilt. Hand sew a border around the hexies as wide as you wish. Lots of pinning, sew a large stitch on the machine, unpick as you hand sew the hexies. The corners fall into place. Kerryn
DeleteI finished mine the old fashioned way - turned in each seam allowance - front and back and then whip stitched the edges. Won a ribbon!
DeleteEarlier this year I was in Rome. In front of many homes in what was the Jewish Ghetto are brass plaques set into the sidewalk. The plaques tell the name of the person who lived there, their year of birth, the day they were arrested and where they were sent. Most of them were sent to Auschwitz or Mathausen. The last line of the plaque is Morto. Italian for death. We must never forget.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this reminder. It isn't hard to be kind to everyone, but it seems very easy for some to be cruel.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather was murdered in an extermination camp similar to Aucshwitz. My mother-an infant at the time-survived with her mother hidden in the basement of a convent. They were fed the occasional scraps and had no heat, running water, or medical care.
ReplyDeleteI have so many thoughts about your profound post, Bonnie, but I’ll summarize by saying…thank you for being a friend 💕.
Sarah
Oh Sarah....I have no words. Hugs.
DeleteThank you Bonnie. This brings tears to my eyes and heaviness to my spirit. The days ahead are scary. Yes, we must do better!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bonnie, for your wisdom and insights. Peace on our precious planet, peace.
ReplyDeleteWell said.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents were two of the 4,000,000 in Auschwitz. I know this because my father was one of the precious few children rescued by Sir Nicholas Winton. And still humanity does not learn.
Blessings to you for a wonderful 2025, and thank you for sharing so much. Elizabeth, x
In the past I have provided care for WWII vets and heard stories that still touch my soul. Lately I find myself leaning into genocides here in North America- through books I happened to pick up, and then found ways they tied into my life, and I am gobsmacked at the feelings, the knowledge and the abuses - things that are not taught in the US educational system. I don't yet know what my role will be in all of this, but I know I have one. Safe travels Boniie, more aqua is on the way!
ReplyDeletethank you for your comments on the 'camps'. i was taken to dachau when i was 9 or 10. still have periodic nightmares and i'm in my mid 70s. eisenhower was right, take photos of it all so we never forget. i took my dd to the holocaust center in orlando so that she will remember also. i love that you share so much of your travels with us. thank you for all you do. patti in florida pleal@cfl.rr.com
ReplyDeleteDear Bonnie. I don't know if your your tour guide told you this, but putting stones inside Jewish headstone or memorial is exactly the correct way to show you've visited and paid respects. Flowers are not a thing in Jewish funerals and memorials.
ReplyDeleteMy parents took me to Dachau when I was 11. Little did they know this was one of my early steps towards converting to Judaism. Went to Dachau twelve years ago when it was still possible to visit without a guide if you arrived before 20 am. It was a totally haunting experience walking in the utter silence of the early morning.
I've been doing family genealogy and found the house where my husband's grandmother was born, in the Jewish district of a small town in western Ukraine. The synagogue where she was named still stands, though it's a shell of a ruin these days. We have visited three times and My son learned more of the house's history from the neighbors. My son and his wife now live not far from there. Full circle! And yes.they have a souped-up Hearts of Hope quilt.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and educating this community.
We here in North America have dark events involving the Native Americans. If you haven't seen the series "Little Bird" on PBS it is an eye opener. I grew up in that area, had several great friends who are Native Americans and was totaling oblivious to their suffering . Important info that is hidden & needs to be dealt with.
ReplyDeleteBonnie, have you been to the Holocaust museum in Washington, DC? I have and I think everyone should see it. It's HARD to see some of these things -- the children's shoes hit me. I left in tears. But it's important to remember. Have a safe trip.
ReplyDeleteMartin Niemöller said it eloquently...
ReplyDeleteFirst they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Something no one seems to understand - YOUR turn will come eventually & there'll be no one left to speak for you.
Your hexagon quilt is so pretty! I can’t wait to see where it leads you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing what you have experienced in Poland. We must never forget. We watched a very profound movie about a woman in Poland and how she survived while hiding her Jewish friends. It was titled, “ Irena’s Vow”. The cruelty was quite disturbing. It definitely demonstrated how strong the human spirit is. Again I pray we never forget. I learn so much from your travels. Thank you!
Thank you for your insiteful comment on instilling kindness and thoughtfulness . Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.
ReplyDeleteIf you read try this book A Fine Balance by Rohinton Misery.This is a life changing book.
Have a safe and eye opening trip.💗🇺🇸
I know how you feel about Auschwitz my husbands grandfather was murdered there. We visited 12 years ago it was a visit we had to make to honour his family roots. It was so undeliverable and yet it was. A great idea to bring a rock wish I had thought of that.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bonnie and commenters. We cannot ever allow this history or our own painful stories in this country to be denied, whitewashed, rewritten. I deeply appreciate the honesty of all who have spoken here on this.
ReplyDeletethe quilt in your quote at the end of this post has inspired me to sew up all those extra *bonus* triangles I've been saving in a baggies. Safe travels Bonnie-Cody Anne
ReplyDeleteHi Bonnie, Somehow I overlooked this blog post until today....I have tears running down my face after reading your post and the comments. I have led a very sheltered life, my ancestors haven't been Jewish, but they have been Cherokee Indians on the Trail of Tears. Not to get into that though. If you want to read some more history of the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII, "The Teacher of Warsaw" is available on hoopla, and "The Betrayal of Anne Frank" is also. They are wonderful to listen to or to read.
ReplyDelete