Quilting Bees!!
They happened in different homes, and sometimes with different women, but typically it was the same core group of ladies that went from home to home to work on quilts.
They came to my home when I was a child. I had aunts who were there, neighbors, and ladies I did not know. I remember lying underneath the quilt as they worked and listening to them share stories of their families, express concerns and relay their hopes and dreams. It was a magical time for me. I didn’t know it at the time – but that was my first exposure to the Relief Society in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the sisterhood that comes when you participate in it.
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Fast-forward 40 years.
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I returned to that little community I had grown up in on a summer day, looking for an older cousin to chat with. I was told she was at the church, quilting. My husband and I went to my home church building, and there on the stage was a beautiful quilt in progress. But even more beautiful were the women gathered around it with needles in hand. Some of them were the same women who had been in my living room those many years before. Some were the daughters or daughters-in-law of those women. There were grandmothers, women whose lives had taken some tragic turns, widows, those who had never married, young mothers and newlyweds.
My mother passed away a few short months before I got married, and many of these women were responsible for some of the beautiful quilts that I now enjoy. Two were made from scratch, and another was given to me by a sweet woman in our congregation who shared with me that my mother had worked on that quilt. She knew it would be a treasure to me.
This sisterhood had blessed their lives in so many ways throughout the years.
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I recognized stability there, and the feeling of being needed.
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Strength and support from others who had already walked the path that someone else was currently traversing.
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Trust. A physical, emotional and spiritual source for when it was needed.
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If I could go back to my younger self - one thing I would change would be to include more people in my circle. There are so many things I could have learned from others if I had only let myself invite them in.
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So maybe - those lessons learned from under the quilts can be applied to a time such as this...
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We need one another - there is always room for one more!
