The song below is sung in a way that expresses a longing of heart, a yearning of spirit that captured my heart through this day. All through the day the song returns reminding me of the beautiful things God makes from things that seem to not make so much sense, are challenging or are downright painful. And I’m fine. Yes friends I’m fine. Pondering has settled in for the long haul and I surrender to it.
Beautiful Things by Michael Gungor
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You
You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
I like waking up to beautiful music in my head. Beautiful things, yes, God makes beautiful things out of dust, out of things, situations, times that we think sit here scratching our head, wondering what in heavens’ name is happening here. We’ve all had those moments, those months, those years. Those extended periods of time where we wonder, like St. Therese of Lisieux or Mother Teresa, where God is in this situation. Perhaps the thought is framed differently, the sentiments the same.
There is something incredibly beautiful with straight lines and curves. We understand in quilting that straight lines and curves complement one another. Straight lines and curves give each other depth.
There’s something fascinating
hmmm
How do I say this
Hmmm So here’s this tree. I don’t remember exactly where I took this shot. I know that the tree drew me in. The tree has lived a long full life. It’s stood through great storms, gentle breezes, critters living in it, kids climbing in it.
Character develops over time.
Understanding develops over time.
Depth develops over time.
In quilting the more we quilt, the more we spend time doing the work the more character will develop, the more our understanding of my chosen craft develops.
The more I see the beauty in the greater world of quilting.
I love seeing beginner quilts.
I love seeing quilts from quilters who are on their third or 4th quilt.
I love seeing quilts from quilters who have been quilting for a very long time.
Time has nothing to do with it.
A willingness to embrace the tough moments of quilting, make them part of who we are and change our quilting.
A willingness to be vulnerable and share our hearts.
A willingness to see the beauty in something that may not appear to be beautiful….on the surface.
Mostly in my classes I teach technique. I remain committed to technique. Because technique offers quilters the greatest opportunity to grow. It’s HOW I grew as a quilter.
I see the beautiful thing in my students work. I see progress. I see growth. Yes, I do see the mistakes and missteps but I also see how to fix them. I see how to make changes in how I teach to offer a different solution hopefully that will work best for them. And probably not anyone else. For some leftie students I have them stitch from the other side of the foot, making the most of their machine, foot and the way their brain works. I have intentionally taught myself how to use my left hand to doodle and use a rotary cutter and ruler so that I can be of service to my students. Its bleeping hard but I choose to do it because the look on their face when I use the ruler/rotary cutter the way they see it makes a huge amount of difference. Please understand – this is my choice I do not expect any one else, any other teacher to do this, somehow I can wrap my brain around it and it works for me.
I really want to encourage looking for finding the beauty, finding the beauty helps us look for solutions.
God bless!
Teri
A Quilter's Heart 