Twenty-seven years ago, Sister Nancy Murphy, the mission president's wife (or the sister mission president) hosted a Sister's Conference for the sister missionaries in the Massachusetts Boston Mission and handed each of us a small Ziplock sandwich bag filled with some fabric, some thread, some paper, and a needle. She began teaching us English Paper Piecing, a quilt piecing technique where you sew the fabric to the paper and then sew the perfectly formed fabric pieces together. We were going to create a Grandma's Flower Garden quilt square.
But Sister Murphy taught us more than just a new quilting technique. She taught us that tying (or sewing) ourselves to Christ by following his example in how he treats people, what he thinks is important, and the dedication he gives to following God's commandments will help us to overcome our own weaknesses, making us better disciples and helping our hearts change.
The first time you sew the fabric to your paper pieces, you pierce the paper at each corner and in the middle. As you sew the hexagons together, you have to manipulate the paper to sew the seams, leaving the paper creased and the edges of the paper becomes jagged. The next time you sew the fabric to the paper, it is less crisp but still capable of helping you form your corners.
As you add each new flower, the quilt top grows. One hexagon becomes seven, and then twelve, and then nineteen. Flowers are connected with white cotton, row by row and column by column. For me, this growth has taken twenty-seven years. There were years (and decades) where little work was done because I was invested in other things--babies, graduate degrees, callings. But I kept it on hand, collecting flowers and fabric, pulling it out to count how many flowers I had completed. Sewing fabric onto papers during General Conference. The greatest growth, however, occurred when I worked on the quilt regularly.
And people noticed the progress of the quilt. At homeschool coop and pipes and drum rehearsal, people commented on how much bigger the quilt top had grown, or how beautiful it was. They made goals to work on something themselves--a new crochet pattern, applesauce from their trees, completing the quilt top they had been handed down, finishing a book they have had on their to-read pile. My efforts inspired others. The same occurs when we follow Christ. People notice when we are really following Christ. His goodness reflects from us and inspires people to make changes in their life. The Holy Spirit touches them and they want to be better. It isn't us, but we are Christ's conduit.
None of us is perfect, and each one of us is different, but by tying ourselves to Christ, we are able to create a beautiful tapestry. The back may look a hot mess with narrow (or super generous) seam allowances and tangled thread and knots. But the front is beautiful. And in the end, it keeps us warm and helps us feel safe.
"And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do." (2 Nephi 31:7).
