Beyond the Porch Swing

Days of Change

I am a quilter. 

Longarm quilting is my job which limits my time for piecing quilts.  In my off hours I’m working on piecing a toddler quilt. I enjoy the process.  I’d compare it to putting together a puzzle. However there is one step I hate, squaring my blocks. 

As I said before, I’m a longarm quilter. Let me explain my job.  Customers bring me their pieced quilt top, batting and backing. I layer these parts, and quilt them together with my big sewing machine called a longarm. 

I’ve estimated that I’ve quilted around 3,000 quilts.  Some of these lay flat and are square, others not. Some I’ve had to ease in extra border or center fabric. In some cases I’ve even had to add tucks for the quilt top to lay properly.  Problems like these let me know I’m not the only one who dislikes squareing up their blocks! 

The key to a distinguished, eye catching quilt: square up your blocks, don’t stretch, and measure!  

Squaring a block requires measuring and cutting away.  My toddler quilt project has taken me over a year and I just finished piecing my blocks. I want it done!  Squaring things up isn’t speeding up the process. 

Today I read Isaiah 55.

““Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink— even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk— it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food. “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David. See how I used him to display my power among the peoples. I made him a leader among the nations. You also will command nations you do not know, and peoples unknown to you will come running to obey, because I, the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious.” Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously. “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up. These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.””

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭55:1-13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

https://www.bible.com/116/isa.55.1-13.nlt

The Coronavirus brought unexpected changes into our lives.  I get longing to do normal things like buy a new summer dress. I could wear it to my nieces graduation… Oh, will there be a graduation to go to? 

The loss of normal hurts.  Disappointment clouds hang hiding my anticipations.  Are the things I took for granted, events I planned on, just clouded over? Will they happen again?  Are they supposed to happen again? Is God, see the big picture, redirecting my normal?

I catch myself wanting to go back to my old normal.

The Coronavirus has unsquared my quilt.  

Or…

Is the Coronavirus the tool God is using to square my quilt?

Oh God,

Remind me that You are not only my God but You are my Father. Father’s want the very best for their children.

You see a perspective that I can’t. 

You have an end goal far beyond what I can imagine.

Thank You for giving me Your Spirit to reshape my thinking.  

Thank You for not leaving me to myself even though I get content being crooked and stretched out like my quilt blocks.

You have given me the privilege to be part of Your plan.

May Your Spirit call my thinking back when I start wavering into my ways and not Yours.

Open my eyes to see how squaring up is a symbol of Your love.

Amen