The Broken Dishes baby quilt is finally finished! I bound the corners this afternoon while catching up on Once Upon a Time and perusing hairdos for banquet. Well...maybe I didn't peruse and bind at the same time, but I took strategic breaks when the thread ran out to go on Pinterest, don't we all?
Before I lay this quilt to rest on my blog, I would like to explain the idea behind the quilt. Recently I've been considering the time and resources that will go into my senior quilt show and the other ways those resources could be used, i.e. feeding the hungry, tutoring the needy, sponsoring orphans. I realized that I would love for my quilt show to do those things. My newest idea is to create a quilt show of baby quilts that will then be donated to the Pregnancy Counseling Center for unwanted pregnancies and unwed mothers. Theoretically, each quilt would have a wish stitched into it, a hope for the child that it will enfold. That he would work with his hands and enjoy dirt under his fingernails. That she would see the love of God in her life and not seek it among those who can't provide it. Or this quilt: that his or her parents would remember that people are more important than things and that they would pass this truth along to him or her.
When children come into a house for the first time, things get broken. The cut crystal candy dish on the coffee table is knocked off by sticky fingers or the new car comes home dented after a distracted parking attempt with girlfriends in the backseat. However, when it happens, I want this child and its parents to remember that people are more important than things. The candy dish can be replaced; just praise the Lord that no toddling feet stepped on the glass. And the car may not be so shiny and new, but your daughter is still in one unbroken piece. Even if the broken thing is koolaid spilled on the baby quilt, at least it wasn't blood. In today's materialist world, a shift in perspective on a situation is healthy and necessary. A refocusing on those we love rather than that which we love reminds us what truly matters and what is alright left shattered.
