*This feature appeared in the April 23, 2025 print edition of the Star Valley Independent

• Quilt blocks embroidered in 1949 emerge from an attic in Turnerville

True friendship – It’s an irreplaceable and tender memory for every young woman who had a cherished friend in her youth. For young women 70 years ago, it was lovingly woven into needlework art, with embroidered dish towels and pieced quilts standing as monuments to the treasured bond between dear girlfriends.

As those friends have matured, their monuments may have been carefully tucked away in a cedar chest or they may have remained incomplete – waiting for a day when the girls who became busy wives, mothers and professionals, could return to them and lovingly construct them in remembrance of their most valued childhood relationships.

Such is the case with a collection of quilt blocks that were discovered last month, stored in the attic of Denna Lee Parsons Fluckiger, after her passing at age 93, on March 11. Denna’s circle of friends is remembered in 13 blocks embroidered in 1949 and carefully tucked away for a later, less demanding day.

After Denna’s passing, her daughter, Vicky Fluckiger Crager, was going through her mother’s things and delivered a box of patterns and two uninspected bags of fabric to Julia Shumway, who serves as the Relief Society President in the Willow Creek Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Julia accepted them, believing that the women of the community could use them for humanitarian projects.

As Julia sorted through the gift of fabric, she found 13 quilt squares that had been hand embroidered by various women, with “flowers or birds or quotes and their names as well.” Some of them had the year “1949” stitched in the blocks, and Julia thought, “This is amazing!”

As Julia shared the discovery with her husband, Rob, they determined to post photos of the blocks on social media where people could see them, and possibly claim them for the creators or descendants of the young women who had embroidered them. The Shumway’s had no connection to the women, but recognized their value to other people in the community.

Rob posted photos of the blocks and the story of their discovery on several Facebook news and information pages. “Please reach out if they are your family. We’d love to pass these on to descendants. They’d be beautiful framed. Or made into a new quilt.”

Within hours, Rob’s Facebook posts were humming with messages from people interested in obtaining the blocks, or folks who knew how to get them to family members of the women who had created them.

With the help of the social media community, they discerned that the blocks had been created by Doris Walton, Nola Crook, Janis Reeves, Naoma Merritt, Joan Johnson, Verla Hokanson, LaRue Child, Joyce Daugherty, Dorinda Spackman, Geraldine Jenkins, Genevieve Johns, Nelda Haderlie and a young woman named Joan, all young women who lived in Star Valley from Smoot to Freedom in 1949.

Within days, the Shumway’s had received over 400 responses and over 250 messages about placing the blocks. Families from all over the valley reached out asking for the squares made by their mother, grandmother, aunt or great-aunt. “Rob got a message from someone who was an older sister to one of these ladies,” Julia shared. “Though her sister has already passed away, she wanted her little sister’s square.” With this, Evelyn Crook Stuart was able to acquire her sister, Nola’s, block through the work of her friend, Jennifer Marcum Rushing.

Folks dedicated time to locating family members for these women. A block was mailed to the family of Nelda Haderlie in Utah, and the family of Genevieve Johns Allred who, at age 93, lives in Mesa, Arizona, asked Julia to mail her block to Mesa.

Genevieve was “happy” to receive her square, and “thought it was really nice that someone went out of their way to get those blocks to their owners,” said her daughter, Alecia Carpenter, in a phone conversation with me on Monday. “She doesn’t remember this particular project, but she’s done quite a bit of sewing and quilting and needlework.  She’s had a number of strokes, but she has been quilting until just the last few months. She’s made hundreds or thousands of quilts in her lifetime and has donated her quilts to women’s shelters and to hospitals for babies. This craft has been part of her life and she has made beautiful quilts that are pieces of art. Those are things that are important to her!”

Darren and Kris Robinson gratefully received the block made by Geraldine Jenkins. “It’s pretty cool that people found those and that they are distributing them to people who want them. It’s so fun that someone had them in their house and are finally discovering them.”

Vicky believes these blocks may have been intended to create a friendship quilt around the time her mother was 18 years old, which was a common practice of the day. “I’m not 100% sure, but I think these women were good friends throughout high school. They decided to make a friendship quilt. Mum sent out her blocks [for friends to embroider], but didn’t make one for herself. Someone else in the group didn’t return their block. That’s why there are 13 blocks instead of 15. I really don’t know why the quilt was never finished.”

The Shumway’s have felt humbly grateful to be part of the process. “We just felt that we needed to reach out to the locals because their grandmas and great grandmothers made these,” said Rob. “They all were done by different women. You can tell in the stitch work. There must be a cool story behind it and these squares are hidden gems!”

And so, thirteen fabric blocks, created by friends over 70 years ago, have inspired connection and friendship all over again today, in the little Star of All Valleys.

If one of these women is in your family tree, and your family has not yet claimed her block, please reach out to Rob (307-880-2012) or Julia (307-880- 2017) directly. “We would really love to find the people that would want these.”