Discovering My Armenian Heritage (and a Fourth is Still Pretty Great) by Sharon Aposhian Wright

Todays blog is from Sharon Aposhian Wright whose quilt took Best of Show at quilt fest 2025.  We thank Sharon for sharing her quilt and the process. 

 Discovering My Armenian Heritage (and a Fourth is Still Pretty Great)

Sharon Aposhian Wright

I flew with my sister, Diane, to Armenia in October of 2023 to visit our sister, Geri, who was serving a mission there. We ate traditional foods, learned history, mingled with good people, toured monasteries, drove through beautiful countryside, witnessed happy faces in spite of deep poverty, were touched by graciousness and generosity, and were filled with gratitude for our great-grandparents, Zadik and Kathun Aposhian, who left their beloved homeland in 1908 to immigrate to the U.S. shortly before their families were all massacred in the Armenian Genocide. I came home with fond memories and hundreds of photographs. How could I possibly portray the emotions I felt as I visited my ancestral homeland?

The answer came when I took a fabric painting class at Quiltfest last year from Helen Godden. Having never painted, I was nervous and skeptical that I could do justice to the frog design. Combining Australian humor, lovely paints, and creative stitching, each member of the class became an instant artist.

I poured over my photographs from my Armenia trip and sorted out the ones I felt best portrayed my feelings for the country. They fell into four categories: the culture, the country’s history of Christian devotion, my family, and the genocide. I ordered a range of colors of Lumiere paint, bought black Kona cotton and a wax pencil, summoned my courage, and decided to start on the smallest of the monasteries. I painted for about three hours and, to my surprise, my little attempt was surprisingly good. Those magical paints had turned me into an artist! Well, anyone could paint a church or some trees, but how would I do with fruits, vegetables, rugs, or faces? I moved on to the painting of masses of people being driven into the desert. It worked. Then I tried Mt. Ararat, and then the rug market, and then the fruit and vegetable stand. Fun, fun, fun! I was nervous about faces and bodies but just gave it a try. I think they were alright. That’s how this whole thing happened --- just one step at a time.

So, here’s every step of the process:

1. Choose a photo you like. Print it as large as possible in color on your printer.

2. Place a sheet of transparency plastic over the picture and make a simple line drawing using a Sharpie marker. (Leave out details you don’t want to include.)

3. Copy the transparency on your printer so that you now have the line drawing on paper.

4. Cut your design into six equal pieces.

5. Enlarge each section on your printer (this one was magnified by 175) based on how big you want your finished picture to be. It may take some trial and error before you get it to the finished size you want. Then, tape the enlarged sections together.

*I understand that this step could more easily have been done by just taking your line-drawing to your local copy store and having them enlarge it on a large printer. However, I live in the mountains, I had a lot of pictures to enlarge, I didn’t know how big I would want each picture, and I’m a frugal sort. So, I just did one picture at a time and played around until I got each one to the size I wanted.

6. Tape your enlarged pattern to a window. Tape your black Kona cotton (ironed but not pre-washed) over the pattern and trace the lines with a wax pencil. We used a Koala pencil (Australian, or course) in class but I have found that I prefer the “Ultimate Marking Pencil” (Hancy Manufact-

uring Company Montague, Ca.96064 www.FullLineStencil.com). It lasts longer and can be sharpened with a regular pencil sharpener.

7. Prepare your workspace and assemble supplies:

● Use a piece of foamcore board or an old x-ray (if your husband happens to be a radiologist) to protect your table.

● My favorite brush we used in class was the Renoir 7204. However, when I tried to order another one it was never in stock. I found that the “Master’s Touch” brushes from Hobby Lobby are just as good.

● I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Lumiere paint by Jacquard. I ordered it from Blick Art Supplies and it arrived within a few days. It goes on smoothly, mixes well, is colorfast, can be ironed, and makes you feel like an artist. I have done several projects with my original 2.25 fl. oz. bottles and only needed to order more of the pearlescent white.

● I found it easiest to paint from the lid of the bottles but used a paper plate to mix colors.

8. Spread out your fabric, take a deep breath, and start painting.

You may notice that the fabric gets a little wavy where it has been painted. Don’t worry. It will flatten out when ironed (paint side down).

The flatbreads weren’t in the original design but I ate so many while in Armenia I added a few so I wouldn’t forget their crispy goodness.

After machine-quilting the block, I felt like it needed more definition, so I just outlined the main lines with a Sharpie marker.

Tadaa!!!

I have given you all you need to know to paint a block. Here are a few other details:

● I quilted each block individually with bamboo batting. I quilted the sashing strips before sewing the quilt together so that they would all have equal thickness.

● The lace doily is “Armenian lace” made with a needle and regular thread. My grandmother always had a needle and thread handy to give herself something to do between tasks. They didn’t have cell phones back then.

● The photographs were printed at Snelson Photo Lab in Springville. You take in your pressed polyester fabric and your downloadable picture and they will print it for you. I felt that the paragraph in the genocide section looked a little stark when it came back so I tea-dyed it.

● A little story that may touch your heart about my great- grandparents (Zadik and Kathun):

My Dad says that he never remembered ever seeing his grandmother when she wasn’t crying. She cried and cried when she learned that her whole family had been annihilated a few years after she and Great-Grandpa left Armenia and she never got over that profound sadness. They clung to their deep testimonies of Jesus Christ and were treated kindly in their Salt Lake City community but they were foreigners, the food was unfamiliar, they didn’t speak the language, life was hard, and they missed their homeland. I was very happy when, while digging through old family photos, I found the one of Great-Grandma smiling.

● I designed and painted the border, incorporating fruits grown and loved in Armenia, to resemble a hand-knotted Oriental rug. This was in honor of my Great-Grandfather, who owned a rug business before he left the country.

● The word in the middle of the quilt is written in Armenian and is the Armenian name of their country – Hayastan.

Here’s how the quilt looked before I added an additional batt and back.

I thought I had been so smart to quilt each block individually so that I wouldn’t have to do intricate quilting on a big heavy unit. My plan was to add the backing (which I had ordered from Turkey) and just quilt along the sashing lines. You can imagine my horror when I got those sashing lines quilted and discovered that they just made all of the painted blocks “ boing “ out. So, I dried my tears and requilted the entire quilt. . .on my little Bernina 440.

I hope you have enjoyed these little insights into the making of this quilt. Please feel free to email me (share_on54@yahoo.com) with questions as you begin your artistic journey.

I look forward to seeing your works of art.

Best wishes,

Sharon Aposhian Wright