I love going into fabric stores and gazing at all the beautiful fabrics.  It’s like a feast for my eyes as I gaze at the colors, patterns, and designs.  I am particularly intrigued at what happens when fabric is pieced into a quilt.  My daughter Kristen is currently putting together a quilt and I am in awe at the gazillion pieces of fabric she has combined.  Kristen is interested in traditional quilts and the story behind the different patterns.  When I looked up some names for quilt block patterns, I found hundreds of them with names like “Aunt Sukey’s Patch” and “Four Little Birds” to “Twelve Triangles” and “Wild Goose Chase”.

In my book, “Amanda, Perfectly Made” I actually made reference to a patchwork quilt.  Here’s an excerpt from chapter two, page eight:

“Like a beautiful quilt being pieced together with fabrics that were chosen by both Ted and me, we had picked the pattern we wanted as we worked together constructing our lives together.  We had created the perfect baby nursery with fresh wallpaper, waiting for us to bring home the perfect baby.  The life we were planning, like a quilt, was starting to take shape when the fabric and design were suddenly changed on us.  My Monday phone call from the doctor changed our design completely.  As I waited for Ted to drive home from Indiana, we both felt our plans unraveling.  The road had turned, plans had changed, and the previous design disintegrated before our eyes like fraying fabric.”

Life is like a quilt, isn’t it?

Is your life structured and organized like a precision-pieced quilt, or more like a ‘crazy quilt’ with lots of disorganization and shapes?  Are you warm and comforting, or have you lost your heart and become thread-bare and cold?  Are you colored bright and cheerful?  Or have you faded through the years, a shadow of your former self?  Are you made of quality stuff and secure stitching?  Or are you barely holding together?

It’s an interesting analogy.

When my life is done on this earth, I wonder what my life quilt would look like.  It would be full of bright colors, for sure! … No pastels here!  My quilt would have lots of reds – because red in quilting is a powerful color – representing passion and love – from the heart.  And I think there would be lots of little pieces, but they would form a lovely pattern.  And there would be some crazy patches, too!  I hope that there would be at least one common thread running through the entire thing – my faith.  Perhaps that would be my gold thread?

If your life were displayed as a story in a quilt, what would yours look like?

I found no references in the bible about quilts, but cloth and linen were spoken of.  And there’s a parable about patches:

Luke 5:36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.”

And then there is this from Proverbs 31:  “She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.  She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.  She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”

Kristen is indeed making a king-size quilt for her bed, although she is not clothed in linen.  Her husband is respected, but I would not call him an elder.  And she does hope to sell her handiwork someday!  Oh my Martha-Stewart-Proverbs-Woman-Daughter-Kristen!

I hope your life is a beautiful quilt 🙂

Just Laurel

(btw – the photo above shows Kristen layering her quilt – backing, batting, and top – on my living room floor with all the furniture and rug pushed out of the way)