A story... (in proper thread form)

I go estate sale shopping regularly and whenever I find an unfinished embroidery project I buy it and finish it bc there’s no way that soul is resting with an unfinished project left behind. One day I found this stunner for $5. The I walked

into the bedroom and found a box full of fabric. I opened it up and discovered it was a massive quilting project that was just begun. Every bit of the project mapped out and in this plastic tub. I sat on the floor and almost cried bc I knew I had to buy it and finish it but

it was a massive fucking undertaking and While I embroider, I don’t quilt. I bought it for $6. I took the address of the home and did a little research and learned that the owner was named Rita and it seems she died at 99. That woman STARTED a massive quilting project at 99...

Now I really had to finish this thing. So I asked my Instagram community if people would help me finish it. In one day, I had over 1,000 volunteers!!! Because people are amazing. There are 100 individual hexagons to be embroidered to make the quilt...

I made a massive spreadsheet and collected mailing addresses. I started preparing the squares to ship out to my new team. As I did, I discover Rita had stitched 2 of the states already! What a grand surprise. I’m not saying I cried but I’m not saying I didn’t.

I prepared all the packages and then went to the post office where I was handed three different types of stamps to put on each envelope. That’s 300 mutherfucking stamps. I am grateful I didn’t have to lick them...

As the stitchers waiting for them to arrive, some folks started doing research on Rita. They are excellent researchers. Found her husband, maiden name, that she was a Canadian immigrant, became a nurse and look - they found her high school yearbook photo!

The packages are arriving to my stitchers and they are furiously stitching their hexies. We are using the completed map that I bought (that we can reasonably assume was made by Rita) to try to mirror her stitching techniques and style!

We’ve got over 30 Chicago quilters lines up to handle the quilting phase of the project once we get all of the hand-stitched hexies back. Humans are amazing. Community can be built anywhere. You can follow along on Instagram —-> #RitasQuilt