June 2013 Prayer Quilt Dedication

 Today was not only Father's Day but also Prayer Quilt Dedication day.

 Our Victory Quilters group was formed in 2007 as a ministry of our church in order to provide prayer quilts to people who were diagnosed with cancer.  A short while later we realized that many members and friends of our church were dealing with diagnoses which were just as life-altering, and we expanded our ministry to include them.

 Because we pray for the recipients while we are making the quilts, each quilt carries hours of prayer from those who make them as well as the prayers of the congregation as we lay hands on the quilts during the dedication.

We dedicated about 50 quilts today, although I did not get photos of all of them. While I managed to photograph only a few of the quilts, I'm hopeful others were able to get more.  We had about five finished quilts come in with barely enough time to document them and attach the letters to recipients before the service began.  (I see that as a good thing.)

 I even failed to get good photos of what it looks like when one enters on prayer quilt dedication day.  It is always breathtaking--both from a visual standpoint and from the knowledge of all the hours of prayer those quilts represent.

 In addition to covering the railings surrounding the altar and podium, the sound booth was covered.

 These quilts are made by four to six women of our church, although sometimes we are blessed with gifts of blocks and fabric. At first we each made quilts from start to finish; as time went on, I've been able to quilt the quilts made by others, sometimes just adding more quilting after they layer them or do the stabilizing stitching.  Of course, the quilting part is still my favorite part.

A couple of things we noted as we were talking about the quilts after the service is that not only are we as blessed as the recipients, but also we've stretched our skills and tried things we would have been unlikely to attempt if it were not for the need to create these quilts for others.

I am sure there are countless prayer quilt groups across the country, and that many have varying criteria for who receives the quilts.  Our quilts go to members and friends of our church and to our members' friends, families, and colleagues. Our challenge is to create enough quilts to meet the needs of those among us and to do it with such a small group.  Yesterday a "new" person came to our meeting, so we hope our numbers will grow.  We were also blessed today with a sewing machine we will be able to keep at church; I have been blessed with another machine to donate.  That should make it easier for some people to come and quilt with us without having to transport a machine from home.  (None of us are as young as we used to be.)

One of the things weighing on my heart is that we need to make some prayer quilts for older members of our congregation who are not facing health challenges--just because they have so blessed us for so many years/decades [and we certainly don't want them to have to face a health crisis in order to be blessed by a quilt].

Sweet Teen played for offertory today, and then after church she took off to visit a friend's grandfather for Father's Day.

We captured this picture of her and one of her best friends in front of the fountain at New Mexico Tech in Socorro following the concert they gave at the end of their 3.5 days at New Mexico Youth Harmony Camp.

Happy quiltmaking.....