HOW LAURA’S QUILT SPOKE TO ME
August 27, 2024
Laura had a great idea for a project! She was a high school student at Cair-Paravel Latin School. She purchased the items needed and worked night and day with her “puffy paints.” The lettering was painted on squares of fabric that she painstakingly cut out. As she came close to concluding her work, she let me know that she would need my sewing skills for the wrapping up of the project. I was going a little out of my area of expertise, but I was willing to try—anything to see this project to its completion. My sewing experience from years past was primarily clothes for my daughters—nothing fancy! Now, I was asked to put together a quilt. Any person who does quilts can see right away that I was a novice, but I am proud of the finished product—by mother and daughter!
When I saw a quilt rack in front of the Hallmark store on sale for $19.99--a beautiful bargain--I bought it and now I proudly display the quilt in my living room.
Her idea was a timeline of the Apostle Paul’s life, from his birth in AD 5 to his death in AD 68, with all his travels and writing of epistles in between. Thirty-eight squares in all!
Guess who stayed up all night sewing all the squares together? Yes, one of those night-before- it-is-due efforts! This is what it became—a work of inspiration. As I pondered each square, the life of this man who gave it all to the One he loved kept me awake and looking forward to the next inspiring piece to sew.
Laura turned it in and in a few days brought it home after the teacher gave her credit for an outstanding effort. She spread it out on a chair in the living room and that night, after everyone was in bed, I sat across from it and my eyes fell on one square—
67/68
Writing of
2 Timothy from
Mamertime dungeon
I was struck with this realization. The book he wrote to Timothy, his “dear son in the faith,” was written from a dungeon where he had been imprisoned, soon to die for his faith. This impacte me in ways I can’t describe. I was moved to tears by the appearance of those words on the quilt square.
I got my Bible and read through the book—only four chapters. With now a sense of the setting, these words meant more than ever to me.
Like these words--
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for
my departure.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
But that’s not the end of the story of my quilt inspiration. Several days passed and I received a letter in the mail which gave the details of a Bible study I had signed up to attend in Kansas City. It was to be a three-day study of a book and several friends also signed up to go.
As I read the instructions, we were told to read through the book of the Bible before we attended so we were ready to discuss it. It was then I learned the name of the book we were to study—the book of 2 Timothy.
My Dad’s Bible