Welcome, Sweet Girl,

Your Papaw, your aunts and uncles, your cousins, and I are so excited you’re come!

I don’t know the name of this quilt pattern–maybe it should be the Love Doesn’t Give Up pattern.

The material is part of a group called The Secret Garden. I love a beautiful garden—and Francis Hodges Burnett’s book is a favorite–from 5th grade to age 63 (and beyond). It’s a story of goodness prevailing—when goodness is chosen (sometimes choosing goodness is a relenting-not-trusting choosing until one day you realize goodness choices are so very good).

The pattern? I followed the pattern handed out at the quilt store, and when all my squares were cut and sorted (either 1 five-inch square, or two rectangles out of the five-inch-square, or (4) 2.5 inch squares), sorted and sewn into a bigger square, then I set all the newly made squares side-by-side into the one big quilt pattern, the one the store gave me—I despaired. The pattern I had chosen to follow was chaos. It left me feeling cross-eyed.

Throughout the cutting and sorting, I’d remembered how Nanny–your namesake–Ann– talked me through my first (and only) quilt ten 13 years before we knew you were coming. She’d come to wait for your cousin Ava’s birth, Nanny’s great-granddaughter. Nanny talked me through the entire process. It was as though she was there with me again when I made yours–except it was harder because she wasn’t, and I had to remember all her wisdoms. She was a great quilter, making quilts for her children, their wives–and those 12 grandsons she loved with her beautifully unconditional Nanny-kind-of-love.

“This is what the LORD says:
‘Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is,
and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.'”
~ Jeremiah 6:16

I pulled out the quilt I’d made when Nanny tutored me, and I paused in the middle of making your quilt and studied it. Then I took all those squares that looked like chaos when set side-by-side–and made the hard decision to slow down, to change the pattern–even though that meant it wouldn’t be ready for your baby shower. There’s an important lesson in that Elle–that sometimes to create something well-loved and valuable, we have to change the plan we’ve chosen or maybe others chose for us, re-sort the work in our stack, and do things differently. When God’s part of that process, things manage to work out even more beautifully than hoped. Our hopes are sometimes so much smaller than God planned because we only know what we’ve experienced.

Changing the plan we’ve chosen doesn’t mean we throw everything out, that everything we’ve done up to that point is a waste, a loss. Somehow, God shows us how to redeem goodness from our messiness–our mistakes, mis-judgements, mis-steps. He shows us how to find the goodness worth saving from all that messiness. Not all is a wash, a waste.

First, I made space in the chaos, literally and figuratively. It takes intentionality and planning to make space in the chaos. I went back to the quilt store, taking my first quilt with me, looked at the old pattern, and let it guide me. I chose a quiet-patterned material to go between the five-inch squares with the rectangles and 2.5 inch squares. I added rows I hadn’t planned. I made room for the stories and characters (the bunnies, the blue birds, the watering can).

When I looked at what I’d done, it looked much better. Papaw and I were still a bit unsure, but we were filled with a peace that we were on the right track.

Then, It was time to put the quilt together–to sew the finished blocks together.

I wrote notes to you as I quilted, things that quilting and life taught me.

• Know the goal, but don’t focus on it. Focus on the step you are on and the possible one to follow in order to reach the goal:
  • Day 1: buy the material, have a pattern,
  • Day 2: cut the material into the squares required,
  • Day 3: make each square one-by-one
  • Day 4: lay it all out; review
  • Day 5: sew all the squares together
  • Day 6: sew the trim around the quilt
  • Day 7: take to the quilter and rest
  • Every Day: Focus on God in the daily steps, hope in the far away goal.
• It’s not just o.k., but sometimes a good necessary, to look at where you are and do something differently. God’s just waiting for you to make that decision. He’ll help you choose what’s redeemable to carry into the change.
• Sometimes you have to look at the old ways in order to see how to move forward, like I looked at the quilt Nanny had made with me and the quilts she had made that the boys hadn’t taken with them yet and the one she had made me.
• The material I chose was so beautiful. However, my lack of perfectionism or skill, left me with crooked squares or squares due to their imperfections that didn’t match up to the square below or above. Because of that, I had to pluck out stitches, take apart the 2.5’s, the five-inch squares, the rectangles–and rebuild. Not all was lost–not the material. I could have thrown it away in a frustrated self-sulk. Instead, I redid–and as I redid a square, I prayed and invited God into it. That’s where you find the Joy of the Lord–in time with God–even in the re-do of a stack of quilt squares. God wasn’t surprised about the need to re-do. He knows me–and He knows you, too. He knows all about your needs to re-do, re-set–He’s just waiting for you to invite Him to come alongside you as you do.
• Sometimes it feels like there are forces that want you to fail–as though everyone and everything is against you. I went through two sewing machines. The pedal stopped working on my mother’s Bernina. Then I borrowed a friend’s–and the foot stopped rising on hers. I began to wonder how many sewing machines were needed to make one quilt. The stack of dishes in the kitchen grew. The golden retriever hair on the floor turned into new puppies. Papaw didn’t get dinner.
• Sometimes life is messy–and that’s o.k., too. When you’re making something special, like a school project, raising kiddos, making Christmas happen, making a quilt–things get messy. It’s only when it’s all over do you realize the beautiful thing you did.
• Trust the process; it’s an age-old process. God uses challenges to grow us into something more than we can even imagine (God’s imagination is so much better than ours—yours and mine are limited by our experience). After every hard challenge is a period of spiritual, physical, and emotional refreshing–if we don’t give up in the challenge and turn back.

Your quilt? It turned out lovelier than planned. Papaw loved it, too! We thought it fitting that a little girl named after his mother should have her very own, hand-made quilt. Nanny would love it, too. She would especially love you!

We are so glad you’ve come!

Love,

Muddy and Papaw

Remember Me Monday: #166 Link-up

“I’ll make a list of God’s gracious dealings,
    all the things God has done that need praising,
All the generous bounties of God,
    his great goodness to the family of Israel—
Compassion lavished,
.    love extravagant.”
~ Isaiah 63:7, The Message

In the Old Testament, God repeatedly, quietly and loudly, tells his children, “You have forgotten me!”  (Jeremiah 3:32, Ezekiel 22:12, to name a few). It’s a heart cry from a father to a child who has forgotten all the love, all the saving, helping, little and big blessings – and it leaves me stunned when I realize our Father, the creator of the universe, who knows things I cannot begin to fathom, who authors storylines that leave me amazed, delights in all of us so much, He cries out, “Remember Me.”

While every day is a Remember God Day, I am inviting you to join me on Monday mornings to come by and remember what God has done for you, for your family. Maybe God sent a cardinal darting out in front of you, as if to tell you, “I’m here,” or broke a child’s fever after you laid it all down at His feet in a 2 a.m. bedside vigil. Maybe He stood with you in the wait of a prayer sent out, or brought someone you loved to Christ. Maybe He healed your broken heart, gave your courage, or you gave Him your dreams as a love offering only to have Him give them back in an unimaginable way. Maybe God helped you survive to bedtime after a crazy Monday, or forgive yourself for missing it with your kiddos –– Whatever it is, let’s Remember Him. . . in a “Remember Me Monday” love letter.

“My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
Of your salvation all the day long,
Though I know not its measure.
I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign Lord”
~ Psalm 71:15-16.

Let us delight in Him by telling the  stories of what He’s done!  If you wrote a blog post remembering what He’s done for you, join the linky. If you didn’t but still want to praise Him for what He’s done – write it in the comment section. Then visit a comment before or after yours! One of the beautiful things about the blogging community is the relationships it builds!

Rules?  Write long or short, a list or a story, include photos or not. Just Remember Him and what He has done, and let the gratitude of your heart guide you. Let’s make Monday so Rejoice, that the goodness of God spills into the rest of the week! (Link opens Mondays at 6 a.m.)

Places I’m Linking at This Week:
  Instaencouragements, Legacy Link-Up, 
Let’s Have Coffee Wednesday 
Recharge Wednesday, Scripture & a Snapshot
Grace&Truth, Sweet Tea & Friends
The Good, The Random, The Fun