Labyrinth quilt finish!

I have another finish to announce!  The Labyrinth quilt!

I didn't know anything about labyrinths until I went to a women's retreat a few years ago and learned about prayer walking a labyrinth.  There was a canvas labyrinth laid out in the chapel and in the evening the room was lit with candles and we were encouraged to find time during the weekend to walk it and meditate.  It seemed a little mystical and my thoughts wandered but after the retreat I read up on the meaning of the labyrinth and I was interested to find many labyrinth gardens in the world and in churches.  

Labyrinths are NOT mazes.  A maze is a puzzle where one tries to find the way to the center or to the exit and there are many misleading turns and dead-ends.  A labyrinth has a path that leads only one way, and no matter how winding the path is, one can't get lost.  The path leads to the center, in my case, a place to pray and think, and then the same path is taken back to the starting point.  It is interesting to experience the way you think you are almost to the center, almost knowing where God is leading you, and then suddenly the path veers far into the edges of the labyrinth, but it will always lead to the center (God) and it will always give you time to rejoin the world and take what you've learned from Him.  

Although labyrinths are not specifically of Christian faith, one of the most famous is the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth that has the pretty center design.  It is laid out in tile on the cathedral floor and there are various theories of what the rosette in the middle means and the attitudes one should have when walking it.

I blogged about how I drew up the labyrinth pattern from the Chartres model (I couldn't fathom putting all the outer decorative indentations on mine however) and I chose light and dark colors as symbolic of the mysterious path in the midst of God.  I didn't want completely solid fabric and used a multi-colored batik for the purple path, as life hits bright spots and dull spots and we never know what we will be walking through next.  I debated adding embellishments or meaningful symbols etc, but stayed with simplicity.  

For the month of August, just the act of slowly appliquing from the labyrinth entrance to the center and back has been its own meditative experience, and I enjoyed making this immensely.  Just my needle and thread, my fabric and thoughts.  My labyrinth is small enough to fit on the wall and I am able to trace the path with my fingers as I meditate on the day's occurences.  Someday I would like to find a garden labyrinth to walk, but for now my fingers are doing the walking.

While I was at it, I also made up a page in my Celtic Knots journal which is gradually being filled with favorite gospel songs.  And I added a quote from Thomas Merton 

My Lord God I have no idea where I am going.  I do not see the road ahead of me.  I cannot know for certain where it will end.  Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You.  And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.  And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.  Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.  I will not fear for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to fact my perils alone.  Amen.  --  Thomas Merton  --  Thoughts on Solitude

Julieta saw my labyrinth and commented that she really liked it so I've offered it to her once we figure out how to send it.  In the meantime it is hanging behind my door in the sewing room, ready for me to pass my fingers over it.