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Proof that all our needlework projects come from a higher source!
Is there a special guy in your life who helps run your quilting Web site, who drives you to fabric stores, who humors you with "Honey, but that quilt looks lovely!" when you're too embarrassed to pull it out of the closet? Honor your special guy here in our special feature Quilt Guy of the Month!
Looking for information on how to use a sewing machine with a blow stick or help for quilting if your eyesight is failing? Here's some help.
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The Unfinished Objects Prayer
This is Copyright 2002 Judy Heim. You may link to this Web page, but please, please don't distribute this little essay in e-mail messages or post it on your Web site or in your quilting guild newsletter without my permission. I don't make a lot of money as a writer, I'm only a scribbler because I'm seriously handicapped and can't make my living in any other fashion. I eek out a living as best as I can. I don't mind sharing what I write with other people, and in fact enjoy it very much. But when I find things that I've written on other people's Web sites without my name and used without my permission, it's hurtful and it's frustrating. In the past year I've found entire chapters of books that I've written posted on other people's Web sites without my name or my permission. I've also found essays that I've written circulating anonymously on mailing lists and in newsgroups. Please respect what other people write. I'm happy to share, but I ask only that my work be respected. If you'd like to publish this essay in your quilting guild newsletter, I ask only that you drop me a note asking permission and you include my name.
The Unfinished Objects Prayer
by Judy Heim
Dear God,
I was cleaning the closet where I store my craft projects when I found some
things that you left here.
Do you remember that clothespin bag in the shape of a pig that I started
sewing in 1976? You sent the idea to me in a dream. I sprung from bed, as I
felt that you would have wanted me to, and started cutting the pig's face and ears out
of pink felt. Then I cut its snout and its curly tail.
For some reason, I never found the time to sew the pieces of the pig into a
clothespin bag as I had planned to do. I have put the unsewn felt pieces,
along with the thread, in a box. You may feel free to pick it up at any
time.
While I was cleaning I also found the half-completed hooked rug canvas
depicting The Last Supper that you left here. I finished stitching Saint
Luke's nose. I also started looping around the hem of Saint Mathew's
robe. That was as far as I got. That was in 1987. Somehow I got
distracted. Something tells me that you would prefer to finish hooking the rest
of the rug. I have tucked the unfinished canvas, along with all necessary
yarn, in the box along with the felt pig. You may pick it up at your convenience.
You might also remember--if you think back to 1992--that afghan picturing a
lighthouse that you inspired me to start crocheting. Unfortunately I lost
the stitching chart of the lighthouse. That was while driving through Arkansas. I felt really bad about this because I really did think the afghanwas divinely inspired.
I assume that you will not need the chart to finish the afghan so I am
leaving the partially finished afghan in the box along with the The Last
Supper and the clothespin bag pig. I am also leaving the crochet hook for
you in case you should need it.
Thank you, God, for blessing me with a bit of your creativity. Thank you
for giving me the hands and tools to crochet afghans, to hook rugs, and to sew
together things that I don't really need, but which make me happy just the
same.
Thank you, God, for reminding, me each time I pick up a needle or unwind a
spool of thread, of your own magnificent imagination which has sent planets
spinning, has peaked mountains toward the stars, and has molded people in
such a luminous array of colors, shapes, and sizes that one can't help but
to marvel at your genius each time one walks down a crowded street.
Thank you for sharing some of that imagination with me, even though about
all I ever do with it is to sew button-eyes on dolls and repair duvet covers with
fishing line.
I know that crocheted afghans and hooked rugs are silly in the cosmic whirl
of things, where people are dying because we haven't learned how to love and
care for each other properly yet. But I believe that you have given me this
thing--this ability to have a little fun with a needle and a handful of yarn
or a wad of cloth--because you hold out hope for us, we hapless creatures of
the human race, because if we make things and give them to others,
we might learn the joy that you feel when you make things to give to us.
Whenever I open the door of my craft closet, and see all the fabric,
needles, and canvas tumbling out of it, I can't help but to see you, your
face, your imagination, your hopes for us, and I thank you for it.
The box of unfinished craft projects will be waiting for you on the steps.
Love,
A Stitcher
 
Cats Who Quilt is a trademark of Fruitful Plains. Text on this Web site Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,
2002 Judy Heim. May not be reproduced in any form--in either e-mail
messages or on Web sites without written permission. All illustrations are
copyright 2000, 2001, and 2002 Irina Borisova. They may not be reproduced
without permission. Photos and quilts are copyrighted by their respective
artists, and may not be reproduced without their permission.
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