Skip to main content

Quilted Memories by Laurie Pace


©Laurie Pace       Graphics One Design 2022

Quilted Memories



Yesterday I was doing Saturday morning pick up and was carrying some books into my bedroom and I heard the word "USE". I looked at the stack of books I had collected to move and it was the Torah, the Chumash and two Bibles.  When I read and study them, I usually compare passages and cross reference things. 

I believe God was making a point of giving this word to me for many reasons that will reveal themselves over the course of time. The immediate thought was over those books first.  I usually read in my Bible in the evenings and spend 45 minutes to an hour in study with them.  Use it....your Bible or your Torah. Spend time during the day with the Lord.

Later in the day, I pulled out two large cloth containers with quilts in them. Some were family quilts and some were Ebay quilts I bought over the years. My mind was still on the USE word and I knew it was time to sift through all of these and share some with my Daughter in Law next door.  There were quilts from an Aunt, my Mother, my grandmother, my dearest friend -that-is-a-sister, and among 15 quilts were a dozen tablecloths with hand made napkins, embroidery, cross stitch, and lots of colors. 

Terry and I sifted through things first and I kept one table cloth from his family used on Thanksgiving. Many of them were over 130 inches and even my table with two leaves in it does not reach a need that long. Christmas, Spring flowers, and we came across another surprise I will share tomorrow. USE... what would we use.  I have always had a thing about 'treasures' behind glass doors that children see and cannot touch. At this age I am pretty well done with glass doors and items we were not using. Yes, I would keep a handful of things that date back several centuries, but I did not want to keep things we would not use.  My daughter in law took four quilts home... and this morning when I woke up at five, I curled up on the couch in our bedroom with a quilt surrounding me and spent time reading in the Chumash this morning.  The word USE came up as in how God uses each of us, and has provided us with exactly what we need to help others with our gifts. Are we sharing those gifts?

Terry gets nervous when I start doing this.  Why do we allow things to remain in storage or boxes and never use them?  They need to be out of our lives. Use it or lose it. 

What are you not using in your life? Why are we emotionally attached to so many things? Our possessions are part of our life and our memories.  If we let go of something, do we lose the memory? What if someone else could benefit from something and it would become special to them and improve their life?

Terry has that feeling he might need it some day.  A good example is when we moved to the lake 13 years ago, he made massive recordings of movies to watch at the lake because he was threatened by the thought of no have access to TV channels. Here we are 13 years later with 8-10 HUGE binders stuffed full of movies he recorded to watch.  I might be swayed if he had kept a list in each binder of what was in it, but no way...  He will not stop carting those binders around and rarely are they opened... 

Terry also has a shoe box in the garage with all the 'notes' I wrote him in Jr high and high school. No one wants to read them. I was pretty insecure and jealous back then at age 11 and up. I will make them disappear one day.  I read through them 30 years ago and tried to ditch them then... no way I want my children to find them or my adult grandchildren!!

What about the things we save for a special occasion?  We have two champagne goblets from our wedding. We use to drink a toast on our anniversary but we have not done that in 20 years. We did make it through the Christmas boxes and narrowed that down. Sets of Dishes... I do not even want to count them.  I did convince him to give his grandmother's china to one of his cousins daughters who would cherish them. We had them for 25 years and used them often. It was time for someone else to use them. 

The last horizon of 'stuff' is everything he stuffed in our attic as we moved from across the street from 3100 sq ft to 1850 sq ft. I have no clue what is up there but it could bring some nightmares along if I thought about it.  We cannot use anything in the attic.

I will share a borrowed thought. I read a blog two years ago about a woman who had china from her grandmother. She kept a coffee creamer and a serving dish. She uses both and always thinks of her grandmother. The rest of the dishes she donated.   I may be doing that as I continue on the summer of USE.

When I hold up the quilt above, my memories of my mother's room with this beautiful quilt on her bed come to my mind. My grandmother made this for her. She and Dad only had a double bed back in the olden days...  It was used for 10-12 years and even now 58 years later, is in beautiful condition.  Every quilt has thousands of stitches holding pieces together or binding layers together. My grandmother's hands sewed love in every stitch she took. In our lives we stitch together our days with food, work, TV, computers and family communications. Some days are stitched loosely, others are tight and hurried.  God wants us to use our time wisely... helping others as often as we can. 

I did work on a painting today. The angel tears painting needed something and I am still working on it tonight. More to come as this week unfolds. May the Lord watch over you and me, continuing his unending love, his gift of mercy, and his forgiveness of our sins. 


Follow the Spirit of the Paint... with Laurie Pace


For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10


Laurie Pace - A Texas Artist 


             


INSTAGRAM : @LauriePaceBlog   Facebook

Laurie is an international artist, her paintings are collected in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, DuBai, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, St Thomas, Romania, Greece, Croatia, and Ecuador.  



GALLERY LINKS

© Graphics One Design 2021

Comments

E JULIE BAXTER said…
I have a quilt just like that, except mine was made in 1934 by my Grandmother & her at home quilting group.
Julie... mine was made in the forties... it was a popular pattern. I cherish my quilts and I know you do as well! Thank you!

Popular posts from this blog

A Bit of Wonder Contemporary Horse Oil Daily Painting Art by Laurie Justus Pace 24 x 30 x 2 inches of thick buttery oils! Contact me to purchase: Laurie "This is the day that the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it". Psalm 118:24 It was a day of celebration yesterday as Lauren Gracen was born. Stacey began her labor around nine in the morning and was ready to push by 12:15, but they held her off while getting things set up. Took four good contractions with multiple pushes and the baby was there! All grandparents accounted for to count the toes and fingers! My admiration is for my daughter and her bravery and calmness despite the tension and newness of what she faced. I was honored to be there as the baby was delivered seeing my granddaughter push out into the light and take her first breathe... and then cry... and that she did. Terry was able to participate and he and Larry helped with pushing and getting Stacey upright for the process and then Terry was hon...

Arrival...Refrigerator?

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2024 Arrival Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   Proverbs 16:3 "Commit to the Lord whtever you do, and he will establish your plans."   Worrisome times laced with prayers.   The world seems like a scary place lately. Praying for everyone affected by the last two hurricanes.  My adventures today were the result of a dead refrigerator. I have loved my Kitchen Aid refrigerator very much. The first one in the 'French Kitchen' look died at 13 months. Hubby wanted the same refrigerator. Well this one made it four years and a few months. I cannot believe appliances are not made to last longer...but wait, is that because they make more money if we have to replace it in 4-5 years?  You replace your mattress at least every 7 years... and your washer dryer, you might get 7 years out of those... The stoves seem to make it closer to 10 years. We are Lowe's customers, and Robert ...

The Marsh... of our lives? Walking with God.

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2024 The Marsh 6 x 12 inches Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   I did two of these paintings about three years ago. They both sold immediately to a Florida Collector. Simple and elegant for a horse painting.  Ephesians 5:1-2 "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma."  One of the biggest challenges in walking with God is trusting Him and not trying to out think Him or to do everything your way. It never works.  The Apostle Paul wrote of his own struggles in Romans 7 .  Romans 7: 22-23 “ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the ...