Category Archives: Church Therapy

Flashback Tuesday: Prayer Shawl

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In 2009, we lost a very special lady.  But, our loss is His gain!

She was a nun earlier in life, and left the order to marry a pastor.  Pastor Jim and Ms. Stone were very special people to us.  My husband attended a men’s Bible study that Pastor Stone led for a few years.  Ms. Stone was battling dementia.

I still recall the Easter that they joined with our family.  Those memories are cherished.

But, this flashback is about the prayer shawl I made for Pastor Stone when his wife passed away.  I have not put the instructions to it up.  But, it is very simple to make with three cross blocks and two Jacob’s Ladder blocks.

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Since Mrs. Stone was cremated, Pastor Stone wanted me to put the shawl in the narthex of our church with Mrs. Stone’s photos so folks attending the service would notice the photos because of the bright Texas Hill Country fabrics.

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I have made a number of these prayer shawls and they are special to everyone who has received one.  I am just grateful that folks enjoy my quilted gifts to them.

A Quilt Made of Love

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  gifting a quilt to someone special is one of the most satisfying moments for this quilter.

Our oldest daughter wanted a quilt from Mom for graduation.  But, she received TWO of them…one from our home church and one from the church my husband has been the lay minister for:

Hence, I told her I was not making her a quilt for graduation.  She didn’t like my answer but she did like the laptop we gave her, so my quilt to her was temporarily forgotten.

Unbeknownst to her, I had actually made her a quilt when I was in Iowa last summer visiting my foster parents.  I left the quilt with my foster mother so she could hand-quilt it.  We decided and agreed that we would gift the quilt to my daughter for her birthday instead of graduation.

And to say that the opening of her quilt present was well received, it made her cry tears of joy.  We done good!

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Happy 4th of July!

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

Old quilt patterns never die – they just sit in your sewing room until you uncover them and find yourself with a compulsion to complete them.  This one I unearthed from my 2007 block of the month named “TT Calendar Quilt“.  I had pieced the squares and blocks and even put it all together – except the quilting.  Unfortunately, we were living in the camper at the time and sewing space was extremely limited so I didn’t get to complete a lot of the blocks and found a treasure trove of them in my files!

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Get your quilting groove on and piece this delicious set of July blocks – took me less than 30 minutes to quilt it and I have no clue how much time it took me to put the blocks and squares completed.

Quilt On!

Yet Another Quilt with Many Blessings for the Graduate

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

My husband has been a lay minister for a church down in Alice, Texas for more than six months.  They REALLY like him, especially the little elderly ladies.  They are all cute and very lovely to myself and our kids, the few times we’ve gone down with hubby.  Alice is about four hours southeast of us, so it’s quite a drive on a Saturday evening and hubby making the return trip home on Sunday evening – tires him out, that’s for sure!  And the ladies spoil him with home-baked goodies.  Some he actually brings home to share and I suspect, some he eats all by himself while he’s down at their parsonage and church.

And it’s not just my husband who they are so happy with, but they’ve basically adopted our kids, too!  They know most of their names and ply them with treats (both edible and things like puzzles).  It’s truly become a second home-church for our family – though we will retain our home church status until further down the road.

This past Sunday, they had a graduate celebration and they included our oldest daughter in their celebration.  Not only did she get a quilt from our home church, now she has another from the wonderful ladies at the church in Alice!

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She has been sleeping with this one because it’s all fluffy and she likes that.  But, you can bet she’ll have both of her quilts adorning her bed when she heads to the dorms in August!

As for my first child graduating high school?  I am playing the ostrich and sticking my head in the sand…or, better yet, taking a queue from my children by turning on my iTunes, setting my music to an eardrum pounding level and plugging my ears up with my earbuds.  Not gonna take this one easily…though, I am betting as each of our other three children reach this adult-like stage in their lives, I will be ready to boot that last one out the door and change the locks!

Wrapped in His Quilted Love

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

Although I normally do not post photos of other people’s quilts, I make an exception for this quilt.  Yesterday was the ‘graduation’ service at our home church.  Our oldest is a graduating senior and wanted to be sure we participated in the service so she could be blessed and recognized by our wonderful church family – the church we’ve been members of for the seven years we’ve been back in Texas.

Our Pastor has a special blessing for the graduates and their parents, incorporating a beautiful quilt that our quilting church ladies made for each graduate.  After the blessing, he re-baptizes the graduating senior with a sign of the cross on their foreheads, just as a reminder that they continue to be a child in God’s family.  As it came to DD#1 to be re-baptized, she made a joke to our Pastor and he mentioned (his mic was still on) that he should probably pour then entire bowl of water from the baptismal over her head.  :-)  He has taken her on two mission trips and their experiences have been wonderful – great way for the Pastor to connect with the youth and a great way to see that Pastor is a man and not just a Pastor.  Obviously, she was a handful for him.  🙂

Here she is, wrapped up in her quilt, and then a photo taken later with the whole quilt in the image.  From one parent of a graduation quilt recipient, many thanks and love from my quilted heart to yours!

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