Tuesday, January 14, 2014

A Quilt For Amanda

Hi, all!

See that beautiful girl holding a quilt in the middle of the picture?  That's Amanda, a member of the girls' basketball team at one of our local high schools.  Unfortunately, she was recently diagnosed with leukemia.  Deborah, a member of our quilt ministry (the pretty brunette standing next to her) heard about it, and I want to share with you the story of this quilt.  What follows is in Deborah's own words...

I found out from a student, a couple of weeks before Christmas break, that one of her friends had just found out she has leukemia.  I took down some information and began to pray for her.  Later that day, I went and talked to the basketball coach and learned a little more background about Amanda, finding out that her treatment would begin the next day.  On Friday, we had a pep rally at the school where I work and Amanda goes to school.  Two of her teammates skyped Amanda and told the school to say hi and that we were thinking about her.  Amanda's teammates were so emotional - but I knew I could do something for all of them.

God has given me a talent - creativity!  And a heart for giving!  I have been working with my church's quilt ministry for the past three years.  It has grown exponentially each year but all through giving to those in need.  All of the material and supplies have been donated.  I just bring my talent and heart plus my sewing machine! I give God all the Glory!


I went through all our donated fabric and began a design.  I didn't know what colors would appeal to Amanda the most, but I was drawn to some beautiful blue floral fabric to use as a focus fabric and also a print that had encouraging phrases on it.  Little did I know that blue was Amanda's favorite color!  I also wanted to include all of Amanda's teammates, so I took some white material to the school and her coach got all the teammates and other coaches to write some blessings and encouragement to Amanda.  This became the back of her quilt.


During the Christmas break I finished the top and back of the quilt. I enlisted the help of Debbie, one of our long arm quilters, to pull the quilt together.  She let me do most of the quilting, my first time on a long arm, and it was complete!


I got a text from Amanda's coach letting me know that Amanda would be coming to the next basketball game, so we decided that we would present the quilt to her with all of her teammates around.  So after the game ended, I was taken back into the girls locker room to give Amanda her beautiful quilt.  She was so stunned and surprised!  She decided that it would be her treatment blanket to keep her warm.  


Before we give any quilt away, it is prayed over.  I just pray that the warmth of this quilt is giving Amanda a feeling of being loved and knowing we are praying for her healing!

*&*&*&*&*&*&*

This is why we love what we do - seeing God's hand moving in people to bring comfort and healing to others!  It always thrills me when I hear that a quilt we gave someone was the recipient's favorite color, knowing that God intended it that way.  I'm thankful that Deborah was sensitive to God's leading in this whole process, especially involving Amanda's teammates in the quilt.  I'm sure that gave them a feeling that they were helping Amanda out, too!  

Here's Deborah with her very first quilt!
Hugs!

Sarah


12 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. (Oh I can see I'm going to need a hankie whenever I read this blog.)
    This is a beautiful story - so glad you wrote it up to share. Thanks Deborah for us, too. We need more good news in this world.
    Hugs

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  3. I'm with Terri! What a lovely, heart-warming story!

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  4. Yes, tissue warnings should be posted! Going to love reading these.

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  5. Thank you both for using your talents to bring God's hope and love to others.

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  6. Very heart warming story. Your ministry is a true blessing to all that it touches including me. Your ministry is an inspiration of pure love from the heart.

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  7. This is why I keep sewing and asking God to bring recipients my way. Keep the stories coming. Real people who need comfort in a tangible way. What a blessing quilts are! And everyone is so different.

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  8. What a great story :) And such a beautiful quilt.

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  9. Absolutely, lots of tissues needed for this blog. Thank you for sharing the wonderful story.

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  10. Thank you for sharing this story and for inspiring us to do kind things for others. I do have a couple of questions to ask you on how I can participate, but the email address you have on your sidebar comes up as an "invalid address." Please let me know how I can best contact you. I'd like to know about sending unquilted tops,etc.

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  11. It's wonderful that Deborah found a way to make the team a part of the quilt. It even looks like the quilt matches the team colors. I'm sure it means a lot to Amanda to be reminded of how much her friends care for her.

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