Tweetle Dee Design Co.: Donna Forte Barn Quilt

Wednesday

Donna Forte Barn Quilt

Donna Forte translates in Italian to strong woman. This past week was Mother's Day and our thoughts seem to drift towards the women we know and have been influenced by. Our newest barn quilt design is a wonderful collaboration with Miss Stevi Marie, an Italian momma, farm-steader and barn quilt lover.

I met Stevi at one of our workshops where she painted the Dutch Girl Barn Quilt pattern, but added a few extra squares of color. Of course, she used and mixed our Prairie Paints to achieve the subtle colors of the earth that she so loves. I asked her if she would help us name this adaptation of the Dutch Girl and she was thrilled to share her most favorite Italian words, Donna Forte.

I asked Stevi Marie to share her thoughts on what Donna Forte means to her and she said, "Donna Forte refers to the innate strength and resilience that is in us as women. We can move mountains, but we can also pause everything to help the small and the needy, which is the greatest strength of all."

I love her thoughts on what a strong woman is. I have thought a lot about this the past week as I personally have not felt very strong. The expectations that we place on ourselves can be in my box of letters from my grandmother who raised me in my childhood in the absence of my parents, is a letter she wrote a few years before she passed. At the end of the hellos and how are you questions, she wrote that she hoped that she had done ok raising me and expressed that she had tried give me what I needed.

Ureasonably high and then we often fall short. Sometimes we just simply fail.

This past week as I thought about the strong women I know, my grandmother's words kept coming to my mind, "I tried". I think I heard it more that 60 times during a mediation I had on Mother's Day. I tried. In those words are profound humility, and acknowledgement of resolve and acceptance that intent and effort are enough. I thought about my own failings and now add the words, I tried behind them. I do try, we all try, we give our best...our personal best everyday, and that is truly being Donna Forte.

I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ and the gift of his life and death. I know everyday I need his grace. I feel that the words "I tried" tie into the gift of his grace because he is there to pick up the pieces when we can't do more, when we injure each other, and when we are deeply hurting. I have felt his grace in my life and added with my grandmother's words, I feel my heart lightened. I feel strong as a woman, who can continue to use her strength to help make this world a little better.
Our newest barn quilt, The Donna Forte is in the shop ready for hand painted orders, and patterns. The paints that were used to make this design come from our own Prairie Paints collection and three new colors came from this design, Oats & Barley, Autumn Peach and Asparagus Patch. Watch for these colors to come to the shop as we begin making new summer batches of our paints.
We hope you go give Miss Stevi Marie some love and follow her darling family in their farm-steading adventures & most of all I hope you feel strong and loved. You are both and we stand with you as Donna Fortes.