The Healing Quilt

by Su Walker
(Ames, IA)

This is one of the more unusual Lone Star quilts I've designed and created because of the origin of the cloth, the reason for it's creation and the special gentleman who requested it be made.

A Lakota Sioux Chief and Yuwipi man (traditional Native healer) asked if I would design a star quilt specifically using the colorful prayer flags that had hung for four days in a sacred ceremonial Sun Dance cottonwood tree. He said that the prayers of the people and the sacred essence of the cottonwood tree would be in the material and he wanted it to be sewn into a "healing quilt."

He explained to me that when people came to him asking for his help, he would do ceremony with them, seek help from the Spirit Nations, and send them home with the healing quilt until they felt better. Once the healing was complete and the quilt was no longer needed, it would be returned to the Lakota Chief so that he would have it to send with the next individual who came to seek his help.

I only had so much material of each color, and the strips he gave me weren't very wide, but it was very important to him that every color flag from the Sun Dance tree go into the quilt. He wanted the back of the quilt to be bright red, honoring the Elk Nation and the healing help that they often can provide.

I bought the material for the batting, the back, and some of the white background of the top. Everything else came from the prayer flags that had hung in sacred ceremony for 4 days. At first, the design drove me a little batty, but after a little fussing, I finally worked it out. This photo is of the quilt right before I put the binding on.