Week 52

Hard Things

It's been a hard couple of days. And that seems to be the way life goes, sometimes we're asked to do hard things. A sister in my ward is dying from breast cancer. Kris has been fighting the battle for a few years, with its good and bad times. I am not a close friend, but I love and admire her courage and her spirit. She was a Relief Society teacher when I was moved into the ward. A few weeks ago my friend and new RS President Pam Price asked me if I could help her make a simple quilt for Kris from the Relief Society. I said okay. We were planning to do it next week--after the Christmas rush. When Pam asked, I immediately thought of a quilt top I made several months. I thought about Kris as I sewed it, and wanted to make it for her but I let my fears of not really knowing Kris and worrying what she'd think of me stop me from doing what I felt was right. I was sad that I didn't make a better choice, but I let it go and hoped I'd do better in the future. Now I was being given an opportunity for a second chance to follow the prompting from this summer and I happily offered the quilt top to Pam.

I was blessed. Second chances don't come very often.

Pam called Wednesday saying Kris was in the hospital, doing really poorly and may not make it to Christmas. Pam wanted to know if we could get the quilt done immediately. She bought 4 yards of backing fabric and delivered it and the top to my house. I cut and sewed the back pice together, pressed it and the top, cut batting and finally spray basted the layers together. Pam tied the quilt overnight, then brought it back Thursday morning. I squared it up then made and attached the binding. Pam picked it up after lunch and was going to deliver it later that day.

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My angel was Jenna Patchett who came over and "babysat" my puppy Taffy which kept the pup away from dangling iron cords and fabric that she loves to chew. While I put Taffy in the kennel whenever I leave the house, I haven't put her in the kennel while I'm home since she's been potty trained. I didn't want to hear Taffy whine and cry as she heard me moving around the house--that would be way too distracting. Taffy and I sure do love Jenna!

The quilting wasn't hard. The emotions were. I thought of my grandmother who died from breast cancer December 20th over 30 years ago. I can remember that Christmas so clearly. And I remembered giving a different tulip quilt to my mother less than a week before she died. That was almost 20 years ago, but the tears still fall on days like today. I quilted my hope that Kris receive comfort and peace. I quilt my love for my mother and grandmother and Diana Jergensen and Shelley Horman Fuller and so many other great and nobel women. I quilt my knowledge that life is going to change for Kris' family and it will never be the same but somehow they'll find a way to get used to it and be happy again. And mostly I quilted my testimony of Jesus Christ that He keeps His promises. Families are forever. And then I cried some more. The tears do stop and the joy of living returns. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.

It was a hard thing. It was a joy.

Weeks 28 to 51

To meet the goal I established with this blog I needed to:

create a quilt item each week,

take a picture,

transfer the picture to my computer,

sign into the blog and

write something witty, or at least spelled correctly,

post.

During this year I have been challenged by each of these seemingly simple steps. Here's some of the projects from weeks 28 to 51.