Do you ever just wonder about yourself? You know what I mean; those times when you "think" you're doing something really smart, only to find later that you've put your TV remote in the refrigerator. These days when My Stanley or I lose something, the first place we look is in the refrigerator. (I wish I could tell you that we never find what we're looking for in the refrigerator, but, sadly, you can only imagine.)
I'll tell you a funny one on My Stanley if you promise not to tell him how you found out. (If you go to church with us, you already know, so bear with me while I tell the rest of the world.) This happened last year and I still laugh when I remember. I had missed church that Sunday morning, and I hate it when funny stuff happens and I'm not an eyewitness to see it firsthand. Apparently during the sermon, somehow Stan hit the alarm button on the key ring, so of course the horn began to blare. But apparently he didn't think it was our car, because, well, he would just never do that. So he ignored it. He ignored it for so long that someone else thought it was their car, and pushed their button, so then there were two horns honking at once. Poor Kelly (our preacher); I'm not sure you could recover a sermon from something like that.
And there's other kinds of crazy.
So . . . speaking of crazy, I have absolutely fallen in love with crazy quilts and "collect" them by the hundreds on my Pinterest boards. I browse though my virtual quilt collections and the memories come flooding in. Some of my fondest memories are playing with my Barbie underneath the quilts that my mom and our neighbor, Mrs. Beard, were working on. I loved listening as they told stories of their childhood and days past. I especially loved it when they would tell funny stories and would laugh from start to finish. My Barbie especially loved it when she was gifted a new outfit from a scrap of fabric. Underneath that quilt I was a warrior princess in a far away land; Barbie was just along for the adventure.
It seems like they quilted year round; they would take turns between their homes with the quilts so that neither one had a big quilt in the way all the time. (They used those big frames that hung from the ceiling. As the quilting progressed, the work of art took over just about the whole room. After they put in a morning of tiny stitches by the hundreds, they would raise the quilt up out of the way and get on to the next project.) As much as I loved watching them, I had no desire whatsoever to learn to do this. I regret this decision almost every day. I must have been crazy!! (And yes, if you know me, you know that I still am crazy. It's what I do best.)
The part about making quilts that fascinated me the most was the preparation before the quilting could actually begin. My mom kept a stash of quilt-worthy scraps - anything from feed sacks to old clothes too tattered to wear; just remnants or scraps that could be of no other possible use. Sometimes she used a pattern, but most times she made the crazy quilts. I loved them all, but the crazy quilts were my favorites. Hers were always plain with no pretty embellishments, but I know that they were always made with love. After all the pieces were cut out and sewn together on her treadle sewing machine, it would be time to attach the batting between the quilt top and the backing (for warmth); that's when the quilt would go on the frames and the quilting process would begin. The very last step in the process would be to bind the unfinished edges. Mom used to tell me that whatever good dream you had when you slept under a new quilt for the first time would come true. (Nightmares didn't count, thank goodness.) There's nothing better than the comfort of a cozy crazy quilt on a cold rainy night.
I think that God would like the idea of a quilt. I think that anything that could be a measure of comfort would fit in nicely with some of His plans. (But sometimes we do need to step out of our comfort zone; save that comfy quilt for another day!) I read a quote on Facebook the other day; I didn't write it down, so this is the Chadwick translation: You can't fully know peace until you've been through the storm. We've all had those storms, haven't we? And how wonderful it is to get on the other side of the storm and look back and see how God gave us comfort and that "peace that passes all understanding". I love that. So here's a few of my crazy thoughts about quilts as it might pertain to our fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ, because let's face it, we NEED each other, especially in these crazy times. That's how God designed it!
A PATTERNED QUILT:
Mom's neighbor, Mrs. Beard, only made patterned quilts. And they were beautiful. But there wasn't much room for error. If the pieces within the block didn't fit together just right, it would throw off the whole quilt. And pattern quilts were much more time consuming than mom's crazy quilts; very labor intensive. God has called His church to work together in harmony, allowing room for each member to contribute their own unique talents to add to the beauty of the whole worship experience. If we're not all doing our part, it throws off the whole church family, doesn't it? There's lots of work to be done!
CRAZY QUILTS:
I think that these were called "crazy" because life was just plain crazy then and there really wasn't a lot of extra time to devote to quilting. Although the quilts were a necessity for warmth, there were other necessities that also had to be given priority - the garden, canning, washing clothes without the convenience of running water, and the list goes on and on. God understands our crazy schedules, but offers peace for our troubling times. "Come unto Me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
STITCHES:
In the 50's and 60's, there wasn't an option to have a quilt machine-quilted; each stitch was meticulously made by hand, and there were, no doubt, thousands of stitches involved. But as seemingly insignificant as a tiny stitch might initially appear, the stitches were vital to the integrity of the quilt. Without the "quilting", the work of art would literally fall apart and be totally useless. God's Word is the stitch that lovingly holds our lives together as we follow His plan designed specifically for our unique selves. Without God and His Word, our lives would literally fall apart.
EMBELLISHMENTS:
A quilt with beautiful embellishments is a sight to behold! But can you just imagine covering up a sleepy, stinky little boy with muddy feet with a beautifully embellished quilt?? Nah. Get out that old tattered crazy quilt for sleepy little boys with frogs in their pockets. Beauty has to be functional, not just appealing to the eye. Remember that verse above about "Come unto me"? There was no mention at all about cleaning up our stinky, muddy souls; Jesus just simply said "Come" and He'll do the rest!
BATTING:
Although not pretty at all, the quilt batting is probably the most important functional component of the quilt. Growing up as a country kid, the only source of heat on a cold Arkansas winter night was a pile of warm quilts. The quilt might be pretty on the outside, but it was the INSIDE that really mattered. (My grandma has feather beds. Combine a warm comfy quilt and a soft feather bed, and there was nothing much better than that. Everything was comforting at my mawmaw's house.) God doesn't care what we look like on the outside; He doesn't care if we wear the finest clothes or have the nicest home. It's what's in our hearts that really matters; it's the most functional component of our relationship with God.
BINDING:
The thing that I remember most about the binding for the quilt was the precision involved in making everything just so-so. The long strips of fabric had to be cut on the bias to ensure a good fit; (there were never any LONG strips of fabric by this time in the quilting process, so even more piecing was required); lots of pinning was involved; nothing was left to chance. If the binding was omitted, the stuffing (batting) could easily come out, and the beautiful quilt just wouldn't have that polished look without it. The binding wasn't optional. If there was no binding, all that hard work had been done in vane. God's Word tells us to put on charity (love), which binds us all together in perfect harmony. If we live our lives without the binding of love, our lives have been lived in vane. Love is not optional; actually it's a commandment, and certainly not necessarily based on feelings. The binding was not necessarily an easy part of the quilting process; loving our unlovable neighbor is not necessarily an easy part of being a Christian . . . but the rewards will cover us in comfort.
REMNANTS:
The quilting process may start even years before the pieces magically come together. My momma and Mrs. Beard (our quilting neighbor) never had the "luxury" of going to a fabric store to purchase fabric for a quilt; they had to wait for a piece of clothing to wear out, and it wasn't until that point in time that the quilt blocks could be cut and pieced together. On the rare occasions they they actually had enough "store bought" fabric to make a dress, even the tiniest of remnants were carefully saved to use later as pieces for the quilt blocks. I hate to even admit this, but I am actually old enough to remember them using feed sacks to make my Sunday dresses. (For you young whippersnappers, feed for the animals and chickens used to come in large fabric sacks made especially so that they could be recycled into something much more beautiful than just a sack; I'm pretty sure that flour came in printed sacks also. As I sit here typing this blog, I am actually looking at a quilt my momma made at least 60 years ago that was made entirely from feed sack fabric. Precious memories!) The commentary in my Bible for 2 Kings 19:31, concerning a remnant of believers, says this: "As long as a tiny spark remains, a fire can be rekindled and fanned into a roaring blaze. Similarly, if just the smallest remnant of true believers retains the spark of faith, God can rebuild it into a strong nation. And if only a glimmer of faith remains in a heart, God can use it to restore blazing faith in that believer." So suddenly what looks like just a tiny scrap (remnant) can become something beautiful once again. Pretty powerful stuff!
It always hurts my heart to see families or friends who are struggling with "cold" relationships. I'm a fixer by nature and want so badly to just step in and make those relationships right again. But you can only imagine what a disaster that could end up being. We've all had situations like that, and if they were easily fixed, then there probably just wouldn't be a situation. We have to get back to the basics; we have to reach out and LOVE. That was God's commandment. He didn't suggest it; he COMMANDED it. He didn't say, "It's ok not to love if you don't feel like it." He didn't say, "You wait until THEY come to YOU." He just tells us to LOVE. Bring the remnants of those relationships back together; don't be crazy; don't embellish; just bind that relationship back together with love. God wants this kind of relationship with us. Why would we want anything different???
And what's more comforting than to be covered with a quilt made with love?
"He shall cover thee with his feathers."
Psalm 91:4
My momma's feed sack quilt, stitched with love.