Holy Pieced

I was beckoned by the soft morning light, so I got out early today (still in my pjs) and took some photos of my latest completed quilt.

I think I began piecing it as long as 10 years ago, but failures assembling the star centers made me shelve it until I could attempt to resolve its MAJOR issues. Long story short, as the pandemic raged, I decided to pull out the unfinished blocks and give them a new ‘think-over’.
As hard and scary as it was, the decision was made to cut away the offending centers. I then appliquéd a medallion fabric circle over each ugly hole, and finally joined the blocks together. I was short on batting, so I pieced some large strips together. Piecing the back of the quilt and the binding were necessities, too, because I was short on yardage. The hand-quilting, I kept simple – all straight line quilting.

It’s a small quilt – great for what I call the, “cozy factor” when the air has a bite to it, but the journey the quilt and I went through – the thoughts thought, the prayers prayed – all the days I could have been swallowed up by the events and circumstances of these past few months, have made it much more than just a quilt to take the chill off. 

I don’t know if it’s the tactile feel of the fabric, the pattern of the piecing, or the accomplishment of the quilting, but I love to run my hand over the fabric as each portion is quilted.  Curiously,  though, on this quilt, my gliding hand would stop on the center medallions – these places known once to me by failure and disappointment. These were the places I began to think of as my God-Spots.

It was pausing on each one where holiness broke in…where the Lord taught me that when things don’t come together as I may have planned, He can, if I’m willing, cut out the offensive parts, cover it with His mercy and seal it with His grace, piecing new life together out of the chaos my choosings have created. For all His goodness and this lesson He taught me, I’m so glad for me, and the world around me, that He proved to me that it wasn’t too late for a ‘think-over’…