Home to Roost

This quilt has come back home.

 It's "Mrs. Lebo's Kitchen II" and was made in 2009 from one of the first charm packs I ever purchased. Below are photos that show a little bit of the quilting close up.

When I was injured at work a couple of weeks ago, my assistant reminded me to go home and lie under my prayer quilt.  She says she still uses the one she received, even when she is stressed and immediately feels the prayers and love that went into it. She was surprised to learn I didn't have one.  However, in all the years I've been working on prayer quilts, I've had no need for one.

When I went to the cupboard to get a dedicated quilt, this one was still available.  Now I have to say that there have been several times over the past couple of years when I have needed to give a prayer quilt to someone, and this one was not there.  We do encourage our pastor and others giving quilts to take several and let the person choose since at a time when illness or injury changes a life, it seems important to give people a chance to choose.  In any case, when I needed a quilt, this one was available, so it has come home to "roost."  I should say that the injuries I received led the orthopedist to put me on some restrictions for work, but those restrictions  had to do with weight limits.  It was the school principal who refused to allow me to work.  Sadly, I feel that decision translates to "not combat ready," and I really don't think that should be a requirement for teaching.  In the nearly 40 years I've been teaching, I've had only three to five students who were as dangerous as one we're dealing with now, and in all those previous situations the administration took action to keep us safe.

A couple of weeks ago our church had another commissioning service for new quilts.  When we do this, they are placed on the communion railing at the front of the church....

 and this time there were so many that they were also hung on the sound booth at the back of the sanctuary.

During the blessing the people of the church lay hands on the quilts as we pray.  I used to see numerous quilts that I'd worked on.  Now that we've had new sewers join the ministry (we started with just four of us, one of whom had never made quilts and is now expert), there are a lot more quilts from more people.

Below is the altar cloth several of us worked on.  This quilted cloth will be used each time we have a quilt dedication service. I thought I had some closeups of the quilting, but didn't find them.

So, while I'm not allowed to work, I hope to be accomplishing a lot of quilting since quilting and praying provide respite from the excess stress.

Happy quilting, all.....