Block #9

Date:     December 8, 2016

Location:     Winnipeg, MB

Quilt:  Square in Squares

Quilt Recipient:   My Significant Other

God has blessed me with a soul mate.  We make a good pair.  We met online, each of us not long after our previous marriages.  Two children each, almost all the same age.  We married within three years.  He asked my father for permission and in doing so, made my mother cry.  He is very much like my father.  I love him with all my heart.

Lord Creator God, you are breath and life, who formed dust and dirt and ash and made creatures in Your image.  You crafted us as companions for one another, placed us with families that we might love and support one another.  Your compassion for our needs is beyond all imagining.
I give you thanks for my husband, for his strength and courage, his love and care for me.  I give you thanks for his amazing sense of humour, his sensitive heart, his willingness to grieve, his open nature.  I give you thanks that my life is better for his love, for his willingness to sacrifice that I might follow your call on my life.  Give him patience, tolerance, gratitude and joy.  Give us peace and contentment all the days we share together.  Amen.

Genesis 2:18

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the Adam should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”

Block #8

Date:     December 4, 2016

Location:     Winnipeg, MB

Quilt:  Seasonal Bowties

Quilt Recipient:   Personal

Fabric:  Seasonal Gatherings

Hospitable and welcoming Lord of life, you are the source of abundant life and all blessings.  Place you protecting hand upon our house, may it always be a refuge and rest.  May those who reside here reflect the warmth and light of your love, and all who enter be blessed and welcomed.  Help us to be faithful witnesses to the Christ through showing hospitality and acceptance to our neighbours and travelers on our street.  May they find confidence in the peace and protection only You can give.  Amen.

 

Sirach 29:21

[ Home and Hospitality ] The necessities of life are water, bread, and clothing, and also a house to assure privacy.

Block #7

Date:     December 3, 2016

Location:     Winnipeg, MB

Quilt:  In the Bulb

Quilt Recipient:   For Sale

Church Bazaars are a popular way of meeting church budgets.  Typically they are held around the beginning of Advent.  This year I donated a quilt for the craft table.  Our efforts this year realized the highest receipts ever.

I pray that my church be a witness to the Good News, that we remain a service to the surrounding community.  May we look beyond our walls, be bold in reaching out, have courage in the face of injustice, advocate for the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked.  May we resist the temptation to erect boundaries, judge others, oppress the weak.  May Christ always be our example and receive our love and obedience.  May all we do, all we say, all we sing be to God’s praise and glory.

Revelation 7:12

“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”

Block #6

Date:     August 25, 2013

Location:     Dawson Creek, BC

Quilt:    Ordination Stole- Ordinary Time

Quilt Recipient:    the Reverend JY

Saturday our Presbytery had the privilege of ordaining another amazing woman into the ministry.  Again I was commissioned to design and quilt a stole for her.

I pray that God’s joy and love accompany her in all her endeavours.  I pray that her congregation love and support her, that they partner with her in worshipping and serving the Lord.

Jeremiah 1:9 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth.”

Block #5

Date:     June 29, 2013

Location:     Dawson Creek, BC

Quilt:    Ordination Stole

Quilt Recipient:    the Reverend MP

In March of 2012 I had the privilege of ordaining a colleague as a Minister of Word and Sacrament.  It brought to mind my own ordination in September of 2009.  It is an exciting, humbling and extremely anxious moment.  You second guess yourself, wondering how God managed to get you to agree to this huge responsibility.  Somehow, there is some expectation that you are different.  A difference that is as varied as the number of people who either have been along for the entirety of your life’s flight or briefly alight and flit away.  It is a calling filled with doubt and uncertainty.  It is a calling resisted by the greatest prophets in the Bible.  For the least and lesser of us, not having a similar resistence might reveal an arrogance undesirable for effective mininstry.

I prayed for and over MP when we laid our hands on her.  Prayers for faithfulness, earnestness, humilty, God’s guidance and grace.  Prayers for her congregation, their love and support, their aid and committment as the body of Christ to walk alongside her, assist her and recognize her as one set aside for a particular priesthood within the priesthood of all believers.  We prayed that she continue to rely on God for strength and steadfasness and praise.  Prayers all of us pray for ourselves every day as those called as mininsters for the people of God.

Exodus 4:12  “Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.”

Praying for Success

No, this is not a ‘prosperity Gospel‘ theology but an offering of prayers for the victims of the Oklahoma tornado.  I will be praying for the efforts of various organizations that are responding to provide comfort and assistance in the wake of the devastation.  I will be donating a quilt to this cause through ‘Quilting for Others‘.  Of course, fabric from it will be incorporated into a future crane block.  Watch for it!

Deuteronomy 30:15  See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.

Block # 4

Date:     May 9, 2013

Location:     Dawson Creek, BC

Quilt:     Black Snowballs & Summer Flowers

Quilt Recipient:     Livingroom Couch

This is one of the first quilts I attempted.  It has more than fulfilled its purpose.  I enjoy it almost every night while reading, writing, thinking or watching the tube.  Of course for this block I had to use one of my favourite fabrics, something from Barbara Brackman’s “A Morris Garden”.

Today’s prayer is one of gratitude, thanks for a warm home, leisure time, an education that enables me to read, the resources and ability to pursue creative activities, for my husband that is central to my life and sits in company with me in the evenings whether I am paying attention to him or not.  I am so blessed, all thanks be to the Creator.

Judges 19:9     When the man with his concubine and his servant got up to leave, his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look, the day has worn on until it is almost evening. Spend the night. See, the day has drawn to a close. Spend the night here and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow you can get up early in the morning for your journey, and go home.”

Block # 3 – Mother’s Day

Date:     May 9, 2013

Location:     Dawson Creek, BC

Quilt:     Pink Tulips

Quilt Recipient:     Mother

I decided this block combination was next due to the proximity of Mother’s Day.

Being a mother encompasses all the emotions we have.  Desiring to be a mother encompasses all the emotions we have.  Mother’s Day is an exercise in diplomacy in the church, particularly when it falls on feast day as it does this year, Ascension Sunday.

Mother’s Day is  a secular holiday, as a result, ministers/priests/pastors struggle with meeting a balance that; acknowledges the day but doesn’t dwell on it, approaches with sensitivity all aspects of being or wanting to be a mother.  This includes – those who have been predeceased by their children, those who have been abused/abandoned/predeceased by their mothers, mothers whose children are separated from them, mothers whose children are missing/in jail/murdered/exiled, all the guilt feelings surrounding the lifelong relationship between mothers and children, women who became mothers unwillingly, women who are unable to conceive or carry a child to term.  The individual and unique situations of every mother reveals the messiness and joy of life.  I pray for all those mothers, and also celebrate all their accomplishments and the contributions they have made to the amazing world God has given us.  May all mothers experience Christ’s peace and love Mother’s Day and every day.

Exodus 20:12     Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Block # 2

Date:     May 3, 2013

Location:     Dawson Creek, BC

Quilt:     First Quilt

Quilt Recipient:     Sister NJK

The prayer for this quilt is not for my sister, but for all of those in her vocation.  She recently retired from the Canadian federal police force, the RCMP.  When she was posted to her first jurisdiction, she began to collect pigs, a somewhat derogatory term for those in law enforcement.  My first quilted project was a table runner for her dinning room in her favourite colours; white, black and red.  You can see the result at the above link.

Lord Protector, keep those called to keep us safe and to enforce the laws of the land under your gracious protection.  Guide them in paths of righteousness, help them to resist the temptations that come with power, may your love show them the way to maintain their relationships with spouses, children and family, save them from the frustration that they are not making a difference. Finally, God of abundant grace and justice, deliver them from the travails of substance abuse and may they know the peace of Christ in the face of cruelty, disaster, oppression and all the sins of humanity against your commandments.

Luke 4:9-11     ⁹ Then the he took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, ¹⁰ for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’

¹¹ and

‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

 

Block # 1

Date:     April 21, 2013

Location:     Dawson Creek, BC

Quilt:     Hearts for Baby

Quilt Recipient:     granddaughter AAEP

In November of last year I became a grandmother for the first time.  A granddaughter of my own blood.  Grand children are different.  It is an indescribable feeling of your genes contributing to this new life.  She is so beautiful, because of course, she  belongs to me.

She adds to the regrets that I live so far away from ‘home,’ one more member of the family I can’t see every day if I chose to.

She was baptised yesterday.  I made a ‘grownup’ quilt for her, that is, not entirely of flannel.  It was a slightly stressful day.  She is privileged enough to have sixteen grandparents.  Three great-greats, seven greats, and six grandparents.  Two of the latter are a step grandparent and a common-law step grandparent.  It gets complicated and strained.

My prayer for this little gem – that she grow healthy, happy, and well adjusted; that she find joy and accomplishment in her growing; that she soar through life with confidence; that God be with her in her breathing and singing and laughing and guide her in her dreaming and doing; that she be kind, compassionate and generous; that her sense of family be strong; may she find wonder in the world around her and may beauty visit her every day of her living.

Genesis 34:3  And his soul was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the girl, and spoke tenderly to her.