I'm finally offically IN

I had wanted to write a really great essay on the photos you see above. The process of bringing this quilt together for a Relief Society Service Project caused me to really ponder and reflect on a lot of things. But I have to say the thing that I thought and felt the most as I labored with my friend (the talented quilter friend who really brought the project to a timely completion; thank you Tamara!) Was this:

FINALLY, I am in.

For some 20 years I have been a member of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. No where in the welcome packet does it mention the making of quilts as a right to passage into this great organization for women. But, oh, how it is talked about. "When we used to have our meetings..." and the quilting stories began. The very founders of Relief Society met and organized themselves over the need for the men working on the Nauvoo Temple to have newly sewn shirts-theirs having become worn with the labor of the cutting the stones and laying the foundation for the Temple. Quilt making is kind of like a fringe right to those who belong, and other than tying some knots at meetings I've avoided the process as best I could.

I am a timid seamstress to say the least. Plus, I like having time, not fabric, on my hands.

Please don't misunderstand, I love to look at fabric. I've tried my hand at applique and I even made a little crib quilt (or 3) when I was a younger mother. But never a real quilt for Relief Society. I'd never been asked and I'd never volunteered. It didn't bother me, like I said ; membership didn't require sewing squares of material into artful blankets.

But as I stood in my studio ironing seems just so it really hit me hard; I'm participating in a right of passage. I am now linked in a different, homemade kind of way to my grandmothers and their relief society sisters of yore, who gathered to serve through sewing.

The words haven't come as eloquently as I'd like. It doesn't sound as profound or artful as I'd hoped. But at least I've made an attempt to let you know.

I'm finally officially IN the Relief Society

(to see what we as an international Relief Society do and why; go here.)