String Quilt Block
Title
String Quilt Block
Creator
Description
Participants of the We the People Community Quilt project were asked to answer a number of questions regarding their quilt square.
1. What does your square represent? My start in life and my forever home.
2. Why did you choose these symbols? I have been a quilter for approximately 48 years. I've sewed 32 quilts; some as gifts, for use, for decoration, finished quilts for others, sewed for the sheer creativity of it, and sometimes to master a new skill or pattern. In speaking with the Grosvenor Room staff, I said I wasn't sure I could create a block to fit the specific theme. Yet having made so many quilts, there were a few blocks I hadn't used for one reason or another. In the quilting community these blocks are called "orphan blocks." The suggestion was made that I could just donate one of those. Orphan blocks are not useless or unloved they just don't fit in the plan right then and there. Then it came to me. I was born in Buffalo at the now defunct Booth Memorial Hospital and Home. The facility was often referred to as a home for unwed mothers. After my birth I was temporarily placed with a foster family until, 8 weeks later, I was placed with my adoptive family - in my forever home.
3. What do you hope viewers notice or feel? My block started out as an orphan, as did I, and now it has a forever home within this project.
1. What does your square represent? My start in life and my forever home.
2. Why did you choose these symbols? I have been a quilter for approximately 48 years. I've sewed 32 quilts; some as gifts, for use, for decoration, finished quilts for others, sewed for the sheer creativity of it, and sometimes to master a new skill or pattern. In speaking with the Grosvenor Room staff, I said I wasn't sure I could create a block to fit the specific theme. Yet having made so many quilts, there were a few blocks I hadn't used for one reason or another. In the quilting community these blocks are called "orphan blocks." The suggestion was made that I could just donate one of those. Orphan blocks are not useless or unloved they just don't fit in the plan right then and there. Then it came to me. I was born in Buffalo at the now defunct Booth Memorial Hospital and Home. The facility was often referred to as a home for unwed mothers. After my birth I was temporarily placed with a foster family until, 8 weeks later, I was placed with my adoptive family - in my forever home.
3. What do you hope viewers notice or feel? My block started out as an orphan, as did I, and now it has a forever home within this project.
Date
2026-07-02
Publisher
Buffalo and & Erie County Public Library (Publisher of Digital)
Type
Image
Format
image/jpeg
Collection
Citation
Clements, Sally, “String Quilt Block,” B&ECPL Digital Collections, accessed September 26, 2026, https://digital.buffalolib.org/document/17835.