When I heard of the passing of Josephine Gast, age 102, sadness followed. What a wonderfully, generous, talented person she was! If a story about the history of the St. Boniface Quilt Raffle was made into a Hallmark Movie, Josephine Gast would indeed be cast in the role of leading lady!
Josephine loved to do needlework, especially embroidery & cross-stitching. According to her daughters, who she resided with, she would stay up most of the night stitching. She would rip out her stitches until they were just perfect. As the person who assembled her quilt blocks, I had to rip out a few seams myself, having difficulty determining the front of the blocks from the back — that’s just how perfect her stitches were — it was difficult to tell the right side from the wrong side.
In 1995, several parishioners came up with idea of making a quilt and raffling it off at the summer festival. Josephine debuted in 2005 when she cross-stitched her first quilt top (Double Wedding Ring) for the raffle. Imagine embroidering/cross-stitching (30) 18” blocks with the same pattern over and over and over again. In 2008, the quilt pattern was Patchwork Star; see top photo with Josephine & Fr. Caserta. In 2010, it was Floral Whimsey; second photo with Fr. Caserta. The pattern in 2011 was Four Hearts; see Josephine’s photo below with Frs. Caserta & Martin. In 2013, the pattern was Circle of Flowers.
In 2016, Josephine started on a quilt top with the Hearts and Flowers pattern. After finishing the first block, she asked Juanita Ventura to help her find volunteers to cross-stitch and finish the blocks. Juanita did that, organizing twenty-eight members of St. Boniface/St. Mary parishes and friends of our parishes, who cross-stitched the remaining twenty-nine blocks.
Not sure of the date, but Josephine started on quilt blocks with the pattern of Floral Grandeur. Feeling unable to finish them, she gave them back to me. Peg White volunteered to complete these quilt blocks, which became the prize for this year’s quilt raffle.
No ordinary words can adequately express our gratitude to Josephine for her “extraordinary” donation of cross-stitching/embroidering seven quilt tops. Josephine was certainly a “star” on our parish stage. She was always willing to help, to donate, and to share her talents. She will be missed!
Written By Rose Hemm, SB Stitchers
