I’ve written before of the process of quilting. For me, it is a commitment to pray for those who will use the quilt. I usually machine-piece and hand-quilt, and as I sit under the pieces of material and battering, as I pull the thread through the layers to connect them, I savor the connection I have to the person who will be using the quilt.

Most recently, I quilted for my granddaughter. I had the fabric for about a month before I pieced it together. I prefer simple patterns although I admire people who piece with creativity. I’m not sure if it’s because I grew up with basic patterned quilts or if I prefer to save my energy for the small quilting stitches. Even after I pieced this quilt, it was several weeks before I began the quilting process.

I like blocks of time for quilting. I tend to get focused and don’t want to stop, so if I only have an hour to quilt, I’m more likely to keep going and stay up way too late instead of wisely stopping and resting. So, weekend quilting is best for me. I began one weekend and quilted most evenings the following week, but I intentionally set aside the following weekend. Besides work and church, I’d focus on quilting. I turned down a couple invitations to spend time with family and friends, but I wanted to focus.

It was a cozy weekend, snuggled under my granddaughter’s quilt. Whether she finds warmth under it or plays on top of it…or drags it behind her through the yard…she has been prayed for. Even if it is shoved under a bed or misplaced, she has been prayed for. Of course, my prayers for her are not limited to my quilting time, but setting aside that concentrated time made me feel that much closer to her.

She wasn’t expected for three more weeks, but I was close to being finished, so the next three weekday evenings, I quilted and prayed, finishing on a Wednesday night. I stayed up to wash it in gentle detergent and dry it to pull up the cotton batting and give it a vintage quilt look, wrapped it, and delivered it to my daughter’s work the next morning, along with a meal for she and her husband to enjoy that night.

Only they didn’t open the quilt or eat the meal that night, because they were at the hospital. They welcomed their first daughter into the world the next day.

It would have been okay had I not completed the quilt in time. Yet the timing seemed perfect. As I prayed over her in the hospital, I felt as if I was simply continuing to stitch with prayers. Only this time, I got to pray with her in my sight and reach. I already felt as if our lives were sewn together. We had definitely already been prayed together. And that is the best place to be.