Prayers and Squares

Whew! Just finished March's Prayer and Square Quilt! Yeah! I get to mark one more goal finished!

I joined the Prayer and Square organization last September when I came upon the website while looking for some easy quilts to make. After reading the information a number of times I talked to Tetsu about it and then asked the pastor if he would let me use the church information to apply for membership. The idea of prayers and quilts really appealed to me. For years and years, in one group or another, I have participated in making quilts for people. Sometimes baby gifts or wedding gifts, sometimes house-warming gifts, sometimes in a desire to show someone who is sick that the person is being thought about and often prayed for. Unfortunately with all these quilt gifts it meant that a couple of us did the planning, the sewing, the quilting, and others in the group participated by helping to pay for materials but that was about all they could do. Of course the person who received the quilt would rave about the colors or the pattern or the stitching and praise the quilters to high heaven but the non-sewers in the group got very little recognition.

When I came across Prayers and Squares I thought "this is it!" I could make a quilt for a group very quickly without a lot of fuss or materials and everybody could pray over it and tie knots. Everybody! No matter how old and almost no matter how young, everyone could tie knots and pray.
First I approached Tetsu and explained what I wanted to do. There is the cost of course for the minimum of materials, batting, backing, scraps. Would he let me assume the cost and donate all materials as well as time. "Go ahead." he said. "You're going to make quilts anyway."

Not more than two days later a neighbor showed up at my door and asked if I could use some left-over fabric. To say that I thought I was witnessing a miracle is an understatement! This neighbor had only ever just stepped in my entryway and had happened to see some of the quilts hanging there and she had access to fabric that was going to be thrown out. The next day she brought a garbage bag full of heavy cotton material! The company that the neighbor works for makes use of yards and yards of this heavy fabric (in two colors) and they threw away a good portion of it every month. When I looked at the fabric I thought that it really was too heavy for patchwork and quilting, but not for machine piecing and since no quilting is involved in the Prayer and Square quilts it was absolutely perfect! Another gift from God! Since September my neighbor occasionally brings over another load of fabric and I am really up to my ears in it now! (Do I ask God to stop His blessings?) She also brings rolls of burlap too, but I haven't figured out how to use that anywhere. Any suggestions?

The Prayer and Square Organization's motto is "It's not about the quilt; it's all about the prayers" so I've been making the simplest Around the World pattern and trying to have a stock of flimsys in case of sudden need. I think today's quilt is the eighth quilt I've made. Sometimes I wonder if my scraps are going to hold out much longer, but I guess I'll just let God supply my needs.