Blessings and More Blessings!

Saturday, June 1, 2013

God is good!  So are my friends!   In an earlier blog entry, I mentioned that I had been piecing a Quiet Quilt to mark this time in my life.  I collect fabrics.  Lots of fabrics!  In quilt stores, many sell pre-cut fabric in what they call a "Fat Quarter".  This is a quarter yard of fabric, but instead of cutting  a quarter yard across the width of the fabric, giving you a piece 9" inches by 42", they cut across the fabric at 18" and then cut it in half the other direction, giving you a piece 18" x 21".  That is a much more useful shape for a quilter to work with.

Over the years, I have collected hundreds of "Fat Quarters" and I cut smaller squares, triangles, or other shapes from them and often just use one square each from multiple fabrics in the quilts I make.  This is especially true of children's quilts.  There may be fabrics with dogs, cats, birds, fire engines, trucks, flowers, Popsicles, and any number of other child-pleasing pictures.  They love to look for their favorites on the quilts.  Other fat quarters are cut into strips and used in log cabin quilts or other designs.

After I lost my hearing in January, my evenings were no longer spent with the TV on as I watched news programs, or old comedy shows,while sewing, so I turned to my fabric "stash" (as quilters call their collections of fabrics) and began to wonder what new project I could start.  It needed to be simple since, in all honesty, my hearing loss at that point basically had me in a state of shock and I found it hard to concentrate on something complex.  As I went through some of my stacks of fat quarters, I began to notice that I had collected many with scenes on them that looked peaceful and decided to make a quilt using only fabrics that were pictures depicting things that I could enjoy without the ability to hear.

Since many of these "pictures" depicted in the fabrics were a little large, I chose to make the pictures in my quilt 6 inches by 8 inches.  Then I would "frame" those pictures (quilters call those frames sashing).  I began cutting out the pictures and putting them on my design wall, rearranging them, and tried to decide what size I wanted it to be when I finished it.  We have one bedroom with a day bed in it and I had never made a quilt that seemed "just right" to go on it.  I had made one right after I bought the day bed, and I love it, but it made the room on my yard seem dark and the quilt was now showing a lot of wear.  My new Quiet Quilt will go on that bed. 

This morning, Saturday, June 1, I spent 2 1/2 working on my yard.  when I quit and went into the house, the housekeeper said, "Pattie from the quilt group" called and she is bringing your Quiet Quilt. 

This is a photo of Pattie with my Quiet Quilt.  I made the quilt, but Pattie made it extra special for me by doing the hand quilting.  While I was waiting for Pattie to arrive, I was thanking God for the talent and creativity He gave to her and that I am able to hire her to complete some of my projects.  An unexpected blessing came when I went to pay Pattie.  She told me that someone had already paid her for her work, and wished to remain anonymous. I was totally speechless and blessed.

When I told Patti how I wanted the Quilting done, I gave her a list of the songs I had been listening to in my head since my hearing loss in January. I asked that she quilt those song titles into the sashing under the pictures. In the sashings that go up and down between the pictures, I asked her to quilt assorted musical symbols. In the yellow corner squares, she quilted in music notes.

Not only is One Day one of my favorite Hymns, but it is also the song that my son David sang as a solo in our church shortly after I lost my hearing.  Along the outer sashings, Pattie quilted a couple of my favorite scriptures.

Saturday, June 1, started out as a day filled with blessings and I had no way of imagining what was to come at the end of that day. But that is a story for another day.