Dowdle Family Heritage

This quilt is a wall-hanging that I made to honor the Dowdle Family's Heritage. I designed the whole thing myself. The center is a hand-appliqued bust of Joseph Smith, a pattern designed by Jodi Warner. I titled the quilt "The Kingdom Shall Roll Forth" in commemoration of the 200th birthday of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the entrance of the ancestors of Kurt, my children's father, to the Salt Lake Valley subsequent to the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-Day Saints. On each edge is written, "Faith in Every Footstep - 1847", "Come, Come Ye Saints", "Faith of Our Fathers" and "The Kingdom Shall Roll Forth". The quilt depicts a wagon wheel and between each spoke are the names of each family, the year they emigrated to America, the names of the boats they traveled on, the names of the wagon company they traveled to Utah with and where they settled. It is machine-pieced, hand-appliqued and hand-quilted. Here is a sample of the detail between each spoke. This one says:

Thomas Jones White

age 28

Came with brother, George White

Left from

Dorstone, Herefordshire, England

on the Ship Ellen Maria in 1851

Ship sank on the St. Lawrence River

and George was drowned

Arrived in Utah in 1852

Walked while he drove church cattle

all the way to Utah

Settled in Harrisville, Utah

That is a detail of quilting I did in one of the corners. It shows 2 keys, representing the Aaronic and Melchezidek Priesthoods and an old pocket watch owned by John Taylor, an apostle who was shot during the same incident that killed the Prophet. His life may have been spared when a ball, directed towards his chest, was stopped by a pocket watch which he was carrying at the time. It showed the time of 4:16 p.m. which was about a minute after Joseph was killed.