A 'DON'T QUIT' QUILT

Every year or so, when a really hot day comes our way, I wash the “Log Cabin” quilt I made for our bed. After the hour-long wash cycle has removed its dust and grime, I hang it up on my retractable clothesline—with PVC pipe to keep it from dragging--for its all-day drying. That's when I realize how amateur it is. Real quilters do “Log Cabin” the right way: with each block made of dark fabric strips on one half, and light the other side. They're anchored by a red center block, symbolizing the hearth of the home. As this picture shows, I did my own thing. Still, I hope it's a treasure my adult children will appreciate when I am gone.

I chose the pattern because it seemed an easy one for someone with medium sewing skills, but I veered from tradition by making the anchoring block a floral yellow, not red as for fire. Later, reading about the origin of this pattern, realized how important fire was. In her book Quilts from Heaven (B&H, 1999, 2007), my talented author-speaker friend Lucinda Secrest McDowell explained how this quilt pattern represented the pioneer history of its era—around 1810-1830. Pioneer women endured rustic homes, with those homesteading often starting with a house of sod. (Lucinda's fun remark: “How do you clean house when it's mud to begin with?”). Later came a log cabin of trees felled on the land, not sawn to precision in a computer-supervised mill. Thus, unique quilts of shaded colors and graded fabric strips.

But a deeper symbolism of the quilts is this, Lucinda noted. Those who consider themselves “home-makers” (and men are as much a part of the team as women) “also become builders of a sort: We build atmosphere; we build belonging; we build lives” (p. 63).

Life isn't perfect. And maybe that makes my amateur quilt more true to life. My circle of influence include families broken in health and spirit. Those who care about them try to prop up a sagging relational wall or patch a leaky reality roof. But only Jesus can renovate or repair in the ways that really matter. “Unless the Lord builds the house,” the psalmist said (127:1), “they labor in vain that build it.”

My internet home page recently featured photos of multi-million-dollar mansions that stand today in disrepair, so run down the most cost-efficient “repair” would be to bulldoze them and start over. Perhaps with something more affordable! And maybe that's a picture of common pipe dreams of how life should “be.” We imagine the perfect spouse, children or house—but those dreams fall apart because we live in a fallen world.

There's only one Builder who can repair and reconstruct in things that matter. And it's not Bob the Builder. It's the One who was born in a barn, and now lives in heavenly grandeur we can't even imagine. But He also lives in and among us, ready to help us shape the scraps of our lives into something unique...and truly splendid.

HAPPY PLACE

Noticed this sign at a fabric and craft store--yes!

My late mother (she would have been 101 this year!) had many happy places in her life, all of which my dad graciously encouraged. One was sewing, and after years of cramming her sewing machine into what should have been the breakfast nook in our kitchen, she moved it all to my old 10x10 bedroom when I moved out on my own.  The other was her art, mostly oils and pastels, which my sister and I shared among ourselves and with relatives after her death.

I am not an artist, but I have found joy in sewing simple projects, like grandkid pajamas and baby quilts.  I leave the intricate quilting to the real pros who exhibit their masterpieces at our local quilt show. But I have made more than 1,000 simple patchwork baby quilts in the last five or so years, none of which stayed in our home. I donated them to hospitals and ministries serving people in need or advocating for unborn babies. This was my “happy place,” to create and give away. That’s why I resonated with this sign at a local fabric store (where I often stop to check the remnants bin!).

A few mornings ago my husband had the television news going while I was still trying to admit that daytime had come. (I am not a morning person.)  They featured a guest who said there were three important elements to cardiac health.  One was exercise, then healthy diet, and finally, a “happy place”—that is, something that brings you the altruistic joy of serving people.

Bingo! That’s what my crazy blanket-sewing project had become as I continued to pursue it during a time of enduring emotional negatives from a troubled person.It’s prompted me to consider these scriptures in the light of a God-pleasing “happy place”:

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 NIV)

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. (Ecclesiastes 9:10 NIV)
Now, fear not if the sewing gene skipped your generation. I know several who serve with willing hands and “with all their might” in a local soup kitchen, week after week after week. Others are “lunch buddies” for grade school children at emotional risk. Or they take food and encouragement to seniors or families in need. One woman, who never had a bike as a kid, tries to match used bikes to kids in poverty who have none.  

On and on the list of hidden ministries could go. The principle is there in Jesus’ teaching about the vine and the branches (John 15). When we stay vitally connected to Him, “fruit” is going to happen through growing godly character and serving others for Him. Far better than a kid’s “happy meal,” my “happy place” feeds my soul, one patchwork square at a time.

What's your 700?

I was so tired, I could hardly wait to get to bed.  But I was minutes away from reaching a long-sought goal. So I pushed the needle with its long tail of yarn once again into the quilt, tied and cut it, pushed it again, and again. Finally, I  finished my 700^th baby quilt to donate to a local hospital for a baby from a family in need.  For the last five and a half years I have sewn these blankets  from materials found at thrift stores, yard sales, and store clearance bins. I originally thought I’d stop at 10, 50, then 100, then 500...while my family chuckled, “You’re not done yet.”  After 700, I’m ready for the break.

I started this project after learning that our hospital served some families so impoverished that they  had little to nothing to take their babies home in.  For some, “home” was a car, shelter, or relative or friend’s crowded house. In previous years, I’d randomly donated home-sewn baby blankets to our local pro-life clinic.  But this was a bigger need.  Plus, I got an elbow in the ribs from Galatians 2:10, about remembering the poor. Paul (author of that book) said he was eager to do that as part of his ministry.

'IN THE WAY'-OBEDIENCE
Like the patches in my quilts, God has a way of putting things together. I thought recently of the account in Genesis 24 about Abraham’s servant traveling to the ancestral land to find an appropriate bride for Abraham’s son Isaac. They certainly did “courtship” differently back then! But I have long appreciated the humble servant’s reaction when he found the young woman who seemed to be “just right.”  He didn’t pump his fist or call a town hall. He said, “I being in the way the Lord led me” (Genesis 24:27). In other words, as he committed himself to "the way" of a grueling faith trip and sought to keep a sensitive heart,  God brought it about.

As for the blankets, I constantly experienced God “leading” me. Yes, I opened my wallet to buy discounted “essentials.” At one estate sale I came across a huge roll of batting—almost as big as me.  As I wobbled down the street to my car with it, I wondered if I would ever use it up.  I did, within a few months.   I was also blessed by many who gave me fabric or batting, including a woman dying of cancer whose fabric-scraps gifting resulted in fifteen blankets.  One older lady and her daughter brought by a big box of serger cone thread in various colors. I rigged up a way to use it on my sewing machine.

A NUMBER FOR 'IT'S TIME'
Why 700? As other things needing time and emotional energy have come into my life, I sensed the need to fix a “goal.”  The number “7” is considered a perfect number in the Bible. God created in six days and rested on the seventh.  We still have a seven-day calendar.  He had Noah bring seven pairs of “clean” animals into the ark (just duos of all the rest).  Joshua marched about Jericho seven times before the walls fell.  Daniel and Revelation are full of prophetic sevens.

Our world bleeds with heart-breaking hurts, particularly for women, children and infants. I honor those who are there to help the helpless in my community and across the nation, and across the oceans at the front lines of disaster and war.  For a season, I felt God leading me to help my community’s poor,  even through such a simple thing as a baby blanket.

Care to share what God has called you to do?  I’d welcome feedback in the comments section.

"I can use that!"

I am in awe of Quilters—the Capital Q type—who turn fabric into art. I tried to Quilt (capital Q) but my mismatched corners caused weeping and gnashing of teeth. Simple patchwork quilts are my style! I’ve created hundreds, mostly baby quilts, from discarded fabric. I have a saying, “I could use that,” when folks offer me their sewing scraps. And when I finish off a quilt by tying the patchwork corners with yarn, then sewing a self-binding, I often think of a spiritual lesson.

It’s this: God is the greatest quilter and binder-upper! I draw this from Isaiah 61, where Isaiah had prophesied of Messiah who would minister to the broken and hurting. Fresh off the proving grounds of His desert temptations, Christ read that passage in His local synagogue, then declared, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).

I’m especially drawn to the second part of Isaiah 61:2: “He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted.” When only scraps are left of our lives, we may feel useless to God. We might think He can do nothing with the strips and odd pieces left after hardship or bad choices mess up our lives. But remember, Christ is the Redeemer. He knows how to redeem those scraps to a useful purpose. It requires some trimming…of certain habits, defeatist attitudes, worry, bitterness, laziness or other negative aspects of our character. But every swift cut is part of how He “fits” us into His greater plan.

In His wisdom, the dark pieces are just as useful as the bright ones, the plain ones as the ornate ones. I’ve watched people turn their greatest pain from bad relationships or difficult circumstances into something positive to help others in the spiritual journey. He can even “bind up” the hidden parts of our lives—I’m thinking of the quilt batting inside, which sometimes I also piece--turning heartache into the soft trait of gentleness.

After cutting fabric scraps into five-inch squares, I begin joining them, row upon row. I try to make sure dark colors are distributed throughout the quilt, not in one place. Christians are not exempt from dark times, but unlike non-believers, we have a Father who knows how much we can handle. Psalm 30:5 says: “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” That’s the favorite verse of a friend who suffers daily with severe post-polio pain, but who seeks the joy in every day.

Thus it’s appropriate that the baby quilts I sewed this past year from bits and pieces, for the hospital to give those in need (see July 6 blog on birthday blankets), be “patchwork.” When the Lord sees a life reduced to scraps, He says, “I can use that!” When He binds up the brokenhearted, He creates a masterpiece.