Quilt

I’m a quilter.  Most of the quilters I know are very deliberate in selecting their pattern and fabrics.  It has to be 100% cotton so that it will stretch and draw up evenly—other than that, it is all personal preference, generally with the décor or a person in mind.

After I draw up the pattern on grid paper, color it with colored pencils, and figure how much of each fabric I need, then I can cut and assemble the pieces.  For me, the “piecing” (sewing it together) is the necessary evil to getting to the hand quilting, my favorite part of the process.  It takes about a week to get it sewn together and ready to assemble into a quilt “sandwich” with the top, batting, and backing.  Then I take months to do the hand quilting, sometimes using intricate patterns and other times doing more simple designs.  When it is completed, it is cohesive, orderly, I am happy, and I have a bag of scraps that I’ll probably never use.

Over the years, I’ve acquired several quilt tops that my great grandmother hand-pieced but never completed.  I don’t know whatever happened to the quilts she did finish.  I vaguely remember her, since she died in 1965 and we seldom saw her.  I remember my grandmother washing her mother’s hair, which came to the floor as she sat in a chair, and combing it, then piling it in a bun on top of her head.  I don’t think she ever wore it any other way, according to old family photos.  I know that she used to sew all my grandmother’s clothes when she was growing up between 1908-1923, until she married Granddaddy.  I know Grandmother Powers was a godly woman, and that she prayed for me, I was told.  That’s the extent of my knowledge.

One quilt top that I finished is so colorful with a yellow border that I told my husband to put it on my casket instead of flowers.  Something that represents family, a faith family, and love—what could be better?

I recently received back from a cousin some quilt squares that Grandmother Powers had made that never were put into a quilt.  They’ve been passed from one family quilter to another, and now they’re back with me. As I was ironing them, determined to find a way, I saw something special about them.  They were mostly hand-pieced, with some of the PIECES even pieced together.  These are Depression Era quilt squares!  Pieces made of worn out clothes, maybe leftovers from clothes being made, even feed sacks disassembled and used with the old seam marks still there.  There is nothing “pretty” about any of the squares and the fabrics are a hodgepodge of a mixture with no rhyme or reason.  They don’t match.  The points on the triangles don’t line up.  Nothing is “SQUARE.” 

Isn’t life like that?  God takes the pieces of our lives that don’t seem to make sense and He puts them together to make something useful, something beautiful.  He knows the plans for us…!

I was also reminded of the Proverbs 31 woman of noble character.

 “An excellent wife, who can find?  For her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil
all the days of her life. She looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in delight.
She is like merchant ships; she brings her food from afar. She rises also while it is still night and gives food to her household and portions to her maidens…She senses that her gain is good; her lamp does not go out at night. She stretches out her hands to the distaff, and her hands grasp the spindle…She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet.  She makes coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple…Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future.
She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness…Give her the product of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.”   Prov. 31:10-31, select verses

I am now looking forward to seeing how these quilts turn out, as I have enough squares for three separate quilts.  Each one will remind me of the woman who went before me long ago, that noble woman who didn’t waste anything to care for her family.  She wasn’t interested in making something beautiful, she was taking care of her family so they’d be warm.

May we all aspire to be that woman!