I love fabric! I can’t pass a fabric shop without going in and rummaging through the remnant bin, the possibility that I may find a treasure to include in my next quilt! Then with each sewing project I complete (or try to complete!) I squirrel away those precious cut offs, no piece too small to become part of a beautiful patchwork!
I started this hobby at a difficult time in my life, at first it was a happy distraction. I could lose myself in the colours and texture and the next project I had on the go and then I began to realise the process itself was sparking life and hope in other areas of my life. I began to notice that the joy of creating something beautiful out of the pieces most people would discard went beyond just a sense of achievement to the hope that this was possible for life. I wrote:
Life’s memories are like many scraps of fabric, there are beautiful exotic pieces, there are mundane, ordinary, nothing special pieces and there are the pieces we don’t like, but, all are part of our story, not to be relinquished to the scrap heap. Watch what happens when they become creatively and intricately ‘peaced’ together, the quilt that emerges is beautiful, it has value and purpose and it will comfort those that rest in it delight those that look upon it and speak of a story of restoration …’Peaced Together’.
Yes, I had made up a new word ‘Peaced Together’ – The process of piecing together one’s life by making choices that lead to hope and peace! In the midst of my own pain I was finding hope, I was choosing to be thankful and I was discovering that I had a new sense of purpose. As I was creative I kept a journal and began to share my thoughts with a close friend she encouraged me that there were many others that could benefit from them. So it was through my own personal journey of choosing thankfulness, forgiveness, hope and courage and seeing this expressed in the creative process that I developed the course ‘Peaced Together’. I count myself privileged to have made this journey with many other women and see them rediscover hope for their lives.
So as my Dad once said…’when life hands you rags, make a patchwork quilt!’
