the star quilt

When we met Sloane's baby mama and grandma today, they gave her a very special gift...a star quilt. Apparently it was supposed to be for Christmas but it took a little journey around the country to get completed. Well worth the wait!

Sloane's birth father is half Sioux and these quilts are a tribal tradition that started in the late 19th century when the tribes were relegated to the reservations, the buffalo herds had disappeared and the missionaries taught new ways to express their art through quilting. My mother is a quilter and I knew that there must be a story behind the design so I did a little snooping online and the stories are beautiful, and they make the meaning behind this lovely gift so much more rich and layered.

The triangular points of the star symbolize the quilter's reaching out from the middle star, which forms a circle. They reach out to loved ones, drawing them back to the sacred circle. When you are given a Star Quilt it is truly a gift of warmth and honor. Star quilts hold several symbolic representations of life, spirituality, and community for the Native Americans. It represents that it takes a community to make a whole.


The star quilt tells a story, just like the painted buffalo hides. The colors red, black, white, and yellow are symbolic to the Lakota. Black Elk is quoted as saying, “Black is for the west where the thunder beings send us rain. White is for the north, where the great white cleansing wind comes. Red is for the east where springs the light and the morning star. Yellow is for the south, where summer comes along with the power to grow.”

"Arise!  Arise!  Come see the morning star."  This centuries old call from the camp crier, as he rode through the Indian encampment, awakened the people to their day. For the Northern Plains Indians of the Dakotas, the sighting of the morning star still heralds a new beginning, a new day dawning.

And they sometimes hide little
messages in the fine needlework patterns
in the quilt. Found it!

I love that. Sloane's adoption was a new beginning for our family and for Bella and Jacob and all of us, as a community, will create a wonderful and whole life for her.

Apparently the women of the tribe often bestow these star quilts as gifts for a new baby, welcoming them to the family, so it's especially sweet that this one came from Bella and her mom and her mom's mom, and that they place so much value on Jacob's Native American heritage and want her to be proud of it and want it to be part of her. I love that Sloane gets to have some of this history and culture to weave into her life. We have a lot to learn, but it will be fun to do it together!

Of course, this also means I'm going to have to redecorate her room to match because it's so lovely. Great!