The Heart of a Community

In September of 2005, a devastating hurricane....Katrina...attacked the entire Gulf Coast. As the news media reported its effects, communities everywhere wondered what they might do to help.

Those of us, here were no different. Only some people act while others, react. One woman in town decided to do something about it. She was a quilter and she knew in her own heart that the gift of a quilt was a gift of faith and of love and she brought us into her field of giving by doing all of the legwork to set up a gigantic quilt making arena.

In two days, over 200 women gathered together in our brand new downtown Convention Center, and those 200 of us actually created 200 quilts in two days. It was amazing and wonderful and great, great fun.

We formed small groups of 4 or 5, selected from pre-bagged, pre-cut, donated fabric and used the accompanying pattern to work at whatever level we felt most comfortable. I had never met any of the women in my group, but we formed our own little sewing pattern and we had one quilt finished and three more started by the end of that day and all four completed by the end of the second day. It was exciting and exhilarating at the same time!

At the end of those two days, another wonderful woman decided that since so much donated fabric remained, and so much work still needed to be done, that we might as well keep on sewing and quilting..and so we did. We followed her to her church where we have been given a quilting haven for a full year, now. So, that one event has grown into a movement by one woman, then another woman, into a diverse group of coming and going women, creating and giving as they are able or led to do...all from their own hearts into the communities heart and out into the heart of a nation.

As the Heart Opens

I can still remember my very first 'real' quilt. For some reason I had decided that it should be one big enough to actually sleep under. That is should be a pretty pattern, match our colors and be worthwhile in the process of its creation.

Little did I know, that I selected a medium hard pattern...Buttons and Bows....and that it would consume my entire life for the entire process of sewing it. I barely stopped to eat. I certainly did not stop to sleep. But I got that quilt done! It was in the brown tones of the 1970's to go with the 'paprika' tones..again of the 70's. And, I am sorry to say, it faded from the beautiful sunlight streaming into the bedroom within a very few months.

I learned that beauty can be transitory so the joy must be in the creation of that beauty. I never looked at quilts or quilting quite the same again. I just went forward into that opening of understanding. So now as I quilt, I quilt in all colors...inside and out. I quilt in the colors of the heart, the colors of courage, and all of the colors of the rainbows in between.

Journey Through the Heart

They say that the heart is the gateway between the lower consciousness of this world and the higher consciousness of a much greater one.

As I have journeyed through the chapters of my own life, I have discovered that the simple acts of creation in this world, when catalyzed by the powers of the heart, can manifest a far greater awareness of both life and living.

I have learned that that the simple act of giving, the greater act of sharing, and the greatest of all gifts....that of true charity, create a wellspring of goodness....once given and twice received. And on this journey of giving and of sharing, there seems to be no greater gift.....of both hands and heart...than the creation of the time-honored presence of the giving of a gift....made by those hands...and from that heart.