The Tie That Binds

Every Monday morning, I spend three vibrant hours at Emmanuel Lutheran with 35-40 women of the Dorcas Quilt Mission who turn donated fabrics into tied quilts. This year, we completed 753 gifts of cloth that will reach refugees through Lutheran World Relief. Our mornings are filled with laughter, creativity, and a fun fellowship that comes from knowing that the works of our hands will offer
 comfort, versatility, portability, and color to the needy souls who receive them.

This is my station at the cutting table.
Four of us cut 21- and 11-inch-square quilt blocks. For me, the pleasures of the cutting process come with a need for precision and efficiency. Plus, the parade of colors and patterns passing across my cutting board provides brain games and creative problem-solving opportunities~~the donated fabrics arrive in random sizes and shapes that must be turned into as many 21- or 11-inch blocks as possible to meet the standardized size requirements of Lutheran World Relief.
 It's also a thrill to bring so many church members' dormant fabric stashes to life.

After our blocks are stitched into quilt tops by volunteers at home, they return to our assembly line (Henry Ford would be proud) where quilt batting is sandwiched between each quilt top and a bottom made from a flat bedsheet or large yardage. Four women at each of the two assembly tables wrap, fold and pin the bottom layer into bindings over the quilt top edges.

In the stitching room, five women machine-sew the bindings firmly to the quilt. It's a busy room with five sewing machines humming away, quilts falling from hands to floor in soft avalanches of color.

Then the quilts go off to the "tying room" where eight or ten chatty souls hand-tie the fabric layers together to keep them from shifting. Using coordinating crochet threads, they measure the distance between each place to tie a knot with a spread of their fingers.

 At the end of each Monday morning, they place their hands on the quilts they've completed
and say a blessing over them. It might go like this:

"Gracious God, as we place our hands on these quilts,
 we join giver and receiver,
 recognizing the unity of all your people in the body of Christ."
~~ LaVonne Batalden

 A quilt finds many uses in a refugee camp, hospital, clinic, or shelter. It wraps the whole body like a hug in a time of deepest need or is used on a bed for comfort and warmth. It's a sleeping pad on a dirt floor, a soft and colorful space for a playing baby. It might be a tent, a partition for privacy, a drapery or a door, even a blanket to pad the back of a camel.

 Folded or bunched up and tied at the corners, it carries a baby in a sling on a mother's back or gathers clothes in a bundle slung over a shoulder. A quilt tied to each end of a pole carries two loads at once. When worn as a coat, one size fits all, depending on how it's folded. Over the head, it's protection from wind, rain, snow or sun. Shade in a hot climate, warmth in a cold one.

Blessed be the tie that binds.

+    +    +