By Jennifer Mahnke
Quilt by Jennifer Mahnke
I started gathering fabric for my first quilt almost 20 years ago. I had the idea in my head that it was a process I needed to try at least once in my life–just to be able to say I’d done it. Being self taught, I stumbled along in the process and ended up with a beautiful blue and yellow postage-stamp quilt, with a little white and red thrown in, that I gave to a friend as a wedding present. I was hooked. Quilting became more than something I had to try once.
I’m not one for following patterns very well, although I have on a few occasions. I also tend to make things up as I go. I love most of the process of quilting. I feel a sense of real purpose as I go through each step. I like to count things too. I’ll start a quilt with a pile of squares in the hundreds and as I work the total number of pieces to sew together becomes less and less as the pieces become bigger and bigger. The quilt takes shape before my very eyes. By the time I get to hand sewing the binding, or edging, onto the back of the quilt I am sitting all cozy on the couch under the quilt and it’s almost a completed piece.
Quilting reminds me so much of our lives with God. When I make a quilt, I start with little pieces of fabric of different colors and patterns, and sometimes different shapes. How will they all look once put together? How like our lives, made up of many and varied experiences, some deeply broken and dark and others bright and beautiful. Sometimes when I quilt I make such a big mistake I have to take out my little seam ripper and cut out all the stitches and try again. By the grace given us through Jesus we are able to try again. To have new life. New chances. God’s mercies are new every morning. All the pieces of a quilt come together to create a whole–a vision held in the mind of the quilter. The dark pieces provide shade and contrast to the lighter ones. Colors that might not stand out all on their own suddenly pop because of their placement next to a complementary one.
Just like the quilter, God has a vision for our lives. The complete picture in his mind’s eye. So he is able to take the pieces of our lives and sew them together perfectly–all the dark pieces that highlight the lighter ones, all the colors put together in just the right way. We won’t see the completed picture of what God is sewing until Jesus returns, but we can trust that the ultimate Creator has vision and skill to make the most beautiful thing we will ever have seen. So I learn from the Lord as I sew and participate in his creative process.
Recently I’ve begun a new journey in my quilting. I’ve felt God leading me to start making quilts for women who have been rescued from being sex trafficked. I’m in the middle of my first one, for a teenage girl out in Colorado. I desire to give these women something of incredible beauty and value in the hope that it becomes a reflection to them of their own beauty and value as they go through their healing process. That they would see God taking all the broken pieces of their lives and sewing them together into something new and useful. Something with purpose and worth.
An exhibit of Jennifer’s quilts is currently on display at The Peabody Institute Library in Danvers–16 quilts showcasing a variety of techniques and patterns. Exhibit runs through March 31.
Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church © 2017
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