Determination

I saw T-san at church yesterday.  T-san is amazing...  For many reasons.  She's battling the Big C, she is witnessing to others and she is quite a quilter!  I can't figure out how she became such a quilter in such a short time!

A year and a half ago when T-san told me of her doctor's diagnosis, I immediately made her a prayer quilt and her friends gathered to pray over the quilt and tie knots.  She has kept her prayer quilt close to her throughout her many hospitalizations and treatments.

A few months ago T-san asked me to teach her patchwork and she began making coasters to give to a missionary.  Pretty soon she was making blocks for a someday grandchild's baby quilt.  A few weeks ago I blogged about the pretty blocks she was making while in the hospital.  My next lesson for T-san I THOUGHT was going to be how to join the blocks together to make a flimsy.  WRONG!!!

One Saturday I got an e-mail from T-san asking me to bring batting to church the next day, enough for a prayer quilt size quilt.  She said she was making a prayer quilt for someone.

"Prayer quilt?  T-san doesn't know how to make a prayer quilt.  I haven't taught her how to put blocks together yet... and besides, where did she get the fabric and the blocks...  if that is even what she is using...  We haven't got to that lesson yet!"

But the next day at church...  sure enough, T-san had a flimsy made about the size of a prayer quilt.  Blocks made from some of her left over coasters squares...  lattice fabric from the purchases she'd made when she was planning a baby quilt.  And she'd made one more block from a Bible quilt book I'd brought to the hospital as "reading material".  And she had incorporated a sample block that I had given her.  All together she had quite a sizable prayer quilt!

"How did you get this all done so quickly?  I thought you were in the hospital."

"I got a home leave and yesterday my husband and I sewed up the flimsy."  ("Yeah...  til 4:00am this morning." put in her husband dryly.)

So, T-san now had a flimsy and she was ready to baste it together into a sandwich for quilting.  I gave instructions as best I could while people filed by us in the sanctuary...  Really... How can a person learn to quilt in the few minutes between all the other stuff going on in life?

Two days later, T-san was back in the hospital.  I know because she called saying that she'd basted the quilt sandwich so that she could quilt it while away from home.

"How do I quilt a big quilt?"

Well, it is even harder to give a quilting lesson over the telephone so I dropped everything and with thimble and quilting hoop, headed to the hospital.  I had only about 45 minutes but I explained and demonstrated and left T-san at her quilting...

If determination makes the quilt...

And yesterday T-san was back at church with a quilted prayer quilt...  AND she'd put the binding on!  When did I ever give her a binding lesson?  I don't think I ever did but she figured it out herself.

T-san brought her own prayer quilt to church as well as the one she was making for a special someone who is battling her own Big C battle.  Quite a few of the church members joined T-san in praying over both quilts and tying the knots. (Prayer quilts can never get enough prayers tied into the ties.  The strings just keep getting knottier and knottier.)