Reaping the Joys (and Tears) of Quilting
Wedding quilt I made for my sister (the back-up version) made from a panel with coordinating fabrics.
Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. Psalm 126:5 (World English Bible)
As a person who quilts, sometimes I read this line as “those who sew in tears will reap in joy.”
This verse is a reference to sowing seeds for farming; the hardship of whether the seeds will sprout, what the weather will do, whether insects or disease will blight the crop. There is much to stress and worry about and only so much you can do, so you need to have a lot of faith. But come harvest time, there is joy. Few of us farm these days so we may have lost touch with this Psalm, but it still has relevance.
Like I mentioned above, you could apply the same to quilting or other types of creative activity. When you’re quilting there’s all kinds of areas that things can go wrong:
You need to read the instructions (always read the instructions first, as I remind myself each time I don’t read them and do something wrong!)
Select the fabrics (which you either pre-wash or don’t, there’s a lot of debate about that)
Press (aka iron) the material
Cut and sub-cut the material
Start piecing the cut pieces together (and cut again if you’re making half-square triangles, flying geese, or other quilt formations)
Double-check to make sure that you’re putting the correct pieces and fabric colours/patterns together
Press those seams flat
Sew the next pieces together to form your blocks,
Then press those seams (again!)
Assemble the blocks, either sewing them to each other or to sashing to form rows
Then press the seams (yet again)
Sew the finished rows together and guess what? Yup!
Press again
Then add the outside border
And press those seams, yet again. (Is it any wonder I have 3 irons, and they’re all for quilting??)
Okay, now the top is finished - time to sandwich the quilt top with the batting and backing (which you may need to sew two or three pieces together to make a big enough piece for the size of the quilt top), then either baste or pin to keep in place.
Then you get to “quilt” the quilt, either by hand or machine, and if by machine, either by standard home machine or by long-arm machine. I have deep respect for the women who still quilt their quilts by hand — it looks fantastic! I use a standard home machine which has it’s own issues, especially when it’s a much larger quilt. You have to determine what free motion or quilting with rulers patterns you’ll use on the quilt top, and then have to maneuver that through the machine, hoping to not knock everything off your table as you work.
Finished? Not quite yet, now you have to trim the edges of the quilt and add the binding. But once it’s all done, you’ve got a beautiful quilt. Or if not so beautiful, a functional blanket that can keep you warm.
You can see the amount of areas that can go wrong, from cutting your fabric wrong and having to piece together scraps to fix it (done that), or mixing up the fabrics and creating the wrong patterns (did that too), or cut the sizes to the wrong size overall (yup, that too.)
And guess what — I made all those mistakes on the same quilt - one I was making for my sister’s wedding present.
I quit that project while I was ahead and picked up another set of material and made my own quilt pattern from a central panel, which had fewer options for making mistakes (other than my calculations for the amount of material I needed; thankfully I had enough.)
She and my brother-in-law loved the new quilt. I did go back eventually and finished off the “nightmare” quilt, thinking I’d use it for myself. Then I realized I made an even bigger mistake at the very beginning, where I had misinterpreted the fabric pairings I used. (Did I mention READ THE INSTRUCTIONS - CAREFULLY!!)
So my sister got a bonus wedding quilt. She saw only the beautiful end product, where I saw every single mistake I made on it. It was a lovely, functional blanket, but for me, there was only reminders of the tears along the way. My sister reaped the joy there, and I was happy to share it with her.
The “nightmare” quilt where I made every mistake imaginable. Quilters will notice an obvious one, that I made at the very beginning, but it is still a comfortable and lovely quilt
Life is like that sometimes. We do our best, but sometimes our best will have flaws, and that is perfectly okay.
We are not meant to be perfect, and all we can do is our best each day, whatever level that may be on that given day. God loves us anyways. Amen!