Publishing one of my favorite blogs again today. I’m visiting my oldest son and his family and adding some memories sprinkled with laughter to my life’s quilt. My grandchildren are quilting some squares on their quilts, too!

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. The sky was a dark blue. Cold and crisp. I picked steel from the color chart for today’s blue color. No clouds till late afternoon. All the trees have almost leafed out so that changed my horizon view, no dark branchy shapes of the trees during the sunset.

Sat on the porch for a short time in the swing in my down vest, wrapped in an old quilt, watching the goldfinches frolicking around the feeders. They are cleaning out their favorite feeders every day they visit. Those little things can eat. The bamboo forest was dancing in the wind with the wind chimes, back and forth, dancing the Hawaiian hula dance. I was watching them and started humming the song. If you could see them you’d understand. They’re fun to watch in the wind.

As I sat in the swing my hand was resting on my favorite quilt, a gift from Kathryn Awbrey when I was in high school. Some how when I was talking to her the subject of quilts came up and I proceeded to tell her we’d didn’t have any homemade quilts in our family and how I always wanted a quilt to put across the foot of my bed. The next day she called me over to her home and gave me a beautiful quilt. I was thrilled with the gift.

This quilt has been such a comfort to me for 49 years. I carried it off to college and put it on the foot of my bed. It covered me up when I was sick and kept me warm in the winter. Helped heal my hurts when I was homesick for my family. I would take it to the beach and lake and use it as a beach towel to sun bathe on. When I got married I used it for a curtain in the bathroom of our first home. When our children came along they all learned to sit up and crawl on that quilt. I’ve even used it as a table cloth on birthday occasions. It’s old and used and has been in the washer and dryer several times. I love it and all the memories I associate with it.

I started to ponder on how our lives can be like a well loved quilt. I think God designs our quilt and we design the quilt top as we live our lives. Our quilt top can represent the strong bonds of love and family that are woven together throughout our lives. The cloth squares for our quilt are our memories and dreams and personal experiences. Each part of our lives hold a space on our life quilt.

When we’re born our quilt is pure white with the innocence of our childhood. As we grow and develop we have a joyful period where yellow and oranges and pink and red squares are added to the quilt. As we leave our childhood and progress through the teenage years we add the dark blues and purples of teenage angst to mark our passage to adulthood. In adulthood we add some green squares for life and vitality and pink and light blue squares for the birth of our children. As our quilt top design continues, we add some grays and inky black for the turmoil and sadness that happens as we age. For the twilight of our old age, we add some whimsical patterned squares in happy colors.

We stuff our quilt with all the memories and love we have for family and friends. The backing of our quilt would be our Christian faith that gives us strength when life has its heartbreaking moments. The binding around our quilt would be our resiliency and strength to face life as it ebbs and flows. The quilt quilting would be the love of all the mothers in our family, generations of women pulling their life’s threads through the quilt top and backing.

“Our lives are like quilts — bits and pieces, joy and sorrow, stitched with love.”—Unknown.