remembering mothers

last week I finally finished my block for the project to help raise awareness on maternal mortality which I discussed a while back on my main blog- mouse medicine. I received an email earlier today from ina may, the midwife who started the project I'm happy to report that she is very pleased with the block and asked if I'd be interested in doing another. answer: enthusiastic YES! unfortunately, I'm not as pleased as ina may with this block, in my dash to get the block done, I didn't read the instructions carefully - what was in my mind was a block 16"x12" and I didn't see I was supposed to have a 1" margin all around! so there I was all done and I had to go back and tweak my design - and the block shown here is the result of the tweaking. ah, much wisdom in the sampler adage 'haste makes waste'....

I used gold metallic threat to stitch the name, date and place of the woman for whom this block is commemorating, unfortunately it doesn't show up very well in the photograph. the woman who died first name was rose (hence the rose fabrics in the shoofly blocks) and her last name was church. I did not have much biographical information on the woman and the only thing I learned was she died a week or so after giving birth to her daughter from a childbirth-related complication that her husband believed was avoidable. so sad and tragic.

it was an honor to participate in this very important project and I urge others to join the effort. please visit ina may's safe motherhood quilt project site for more information. I look forward to continuing to contribute towards this important educational activity.