Two Little Gutt Girls: Quilting for Haiti

I’m making a quilt top. I’m doing it for a mother. But really, my quilt is going to an orphanage in Haiti called Grace Village through Healing Haiti. Eagle Brook Church is a very active sponsor and when the call came out to make some quilt tops, 88 I think, I felt I had to do it. I’m a sucker for helping those in need. I stare at those two adorable faces of children we sponsor in Mozambique through World Vision. I’ve got my TOMS shoes. Rallied my sixth graders to sell friendship bracelets for Heifer Project to purchase a farm load of animals, and I’ve purchased enough school supplies to supply a small army of children this fall. But I felt completely compelled, despite the busyness of raising to small children, to whip out a quilt. So during nap times, I’ve slowly cut, pieced and put together my quilt top. My sewing machine started out strong, sputtered half-way through, requiring I dust off the manual, make a few tweaks and now my trusty 1960 Elna machine is purring away, finishing the quilt strong.

The quilt has me thinking. A lot. I’ve been praying over each row I’m stitching. Praying for the children who will cuddle up underneath it. Trying to impart as much motherly love as I can into each cut and stitch. Praying for peace and comfort and trying to impart wisdom within the stitches. And I’m trying really hard not to curse in its presence…but that sputtering half way through really tested my fortitude. A child will use my quilt for comfort, shelter and warmth, and I hope a blanket fort…at least once! I hope the bright colors and whimsical cat fabrics bring a smile. Most of the fabric is leftover from the baby quilts I made for my own girls. When I made those quilts, they were inside of me, and as I stitched, I dreamed of what they would be like, what they would look like and what they would become. This quilt brings along the same nostalgia and dreaming, and the same motherly love.

I didn’t start the quilt expecting to have a deeper, spiritual connection to it. I figured it was something that I could easily do, that would help someone else. But I’m finding that the quilt is helping me. It’s helping me find a deeper connection to God. And helping me realize God’s love for His children. Not just the children who will use the quilt, but His children who lost their lives in unthinkable ways; to earthquakes and hurricanes, AIDS and other suffering. The children who left behind their precious babies. That is why I’m quilting for another mother. A mother whose own life was cut short and who isn’t able to hold her baby and keep him/her warm. Who can’t sing lullabies in the middle of the night or rub a queasy tummy. A mother who can’t impart her wisdom, family stories or funny stories onto her child. I’m doing it for a mother in heaven who is in her child’s heart, imparted in their soul, but not able to be an active participant in their life. Sure, I’m just another suburban housewife, trying to raise a couple of kids while her husband brings home the bacon, driving an SUV to and from gymnastics and swimming. Very stereotypical. But I’m more than that. I’m a mother and a child of God and I need to help others. It’s programmed into me. So while I may be afforded luxuries that most of the world is not, I don’t take that lightly. I pray that my quilt will comfort a child, that in some way, they will feel a mother’s love. Because these scraps of fabric didn’t mean much to me last week, and now they bring me to tears.