The Story of a Quilt

"Why don't you design a quilt?"  I was asked after weeks of sewing seams at Gleanings for the Hungry in California, so eventually I did. An abundance of blue shades of fabric were available that needed to be used.  I love blue, so the colours of the pre-cut squares called to me.

Here I am, taking down the squares I had arranged in a random pattern on the wall, where a plastic tablecloth with the flocking side out, hung like a giant flannel board. I have to take them down in order from left to right, and number each row.

I was shown a wonderful method of sewing the squares together, linking them with the same thread, so that you don't have to stop and start at each square. You have to keep your wits about you to remember how to pick up the squares from the table and attach them to each other.




Here are the first two rows to be attached together.

Then when you sew the seams the other way, you have to remember that one seam goes up at the intersection, and the underside seam goes down, or vice-versa. On the next row it's the opposite.  The result is a pattern of nicely nesting seams that presses out flat. 

At a large table covered with short artificial turf, polyester batting is sandwiched between the backing (a Walmart twin sheet) and the finished quilt top. The green turf is to allow you to hear a scratchy sound when you poke the needle through, to make sure it goes through all layers. 

A group of ladies sew a long line of heavy cotton which is cut and knotted into ties in the corners and centre of each square.

I got to pick the colour of the contrasting thread.

After the edges are rolled up and pinned, it's time to bind them permanently by machine.  I hadn't done this before, so with a bit of coaching, I tackled it. It was easier than I expected.

A tag on the corner explains content and washing instructions written in Hebrew.  These quilts are contracted by the Israeli Food Outreach to give to Holocaust survivors in Israel living under the poverty level, and must have the tag visible through the plastic bag the quilt is rolled into.

The finished product

  
Picture the joy as each elderly person is wrapped around the shoulders by a cozy quilt,  and covered with a prayer as well. 

Isn't it interesting that the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter? John 14:16 (KJV)

Is it COLD, or just Cold?

It was going to be cold, the weather man announced in central California.  The overnight low would be -1 Celsius.
Meanwhile, back home in Alberta, it was really cold.  Something like -35 Celsius.

We got caught up in the TV announcer's hype.  The oranges we were keeping cool outside came in.  I put on my bed socks and an extra shirt for the night.  Our little heater ran steadily instead of being turned on in the wee hours.
"Do you think we need to keep the water running?" asked my better half.
"No, we'll just flush the toilet occasionally during the night," I replied.

Around 5:30 am I was wakened by a weird sound, like a huge vibration.  It wasn't the usual early morning traffic noise. What's that?  I tried to analyze it.  Is it the floor heater, straining?  Is it the furnace in the neighbouring trailer?  |Actually it sounded like a helicopter close by.  Oh!  I know!  It's the wind machine in the orchard!  Across the road is an orange orchard, and the sound was the blades whirring, or maybe it was the fan, that sucks up the rising warm air over the orange trees, so the blossoms don't freeze.

The orange orchard across the road

All of a sudden, this "cold" wasn't so amusing any longer.  It's was a question of someone's livelihood.

Interesting how perspective changes everything.

Orchards surround the Gleanings for the Hungry base