33 The Winter Quilt Show

The Quilting Ministry at our church is rather young, and has its second show hanging through February 14 sponsored by the Visual Arts Ministry. The Ministry encourages and instructs new quilters, offers workshops and gets together once a month at the church to work together. Although their primary ministry is to be a support group for each other, they made a quilt for a new owner of a Habitat for Humanity home as a housewarming gift, created a quilt to be raffled at a senior center, and other items for donations.

Yesterday was the reception for the quilters. We actually signed up three more potential quilters. One woman about 50 stopped to pick up a donut hole and asked me if I were a quilter, but I told her I was with the Visual Arts Ministry and didn't know anything about quilting. She told me it was something she'd always wanted to learn, and thought she might do it when she retires, some years away. "Why not start learning now," I suggested. "Think of it in the same way you do your investments. Your skills can be growing and will bear fruit when you retire." "I never thought of like that" she said and she picked up the pen and signed her name and phone number.

We asked visitors to sign the guest list, and our choir director mentioned that last week he was teaching at an in-service day for public school teachers held at our church. He had trouble getting the women to come in from the hallway where they were examining the quilts. So after his name we wrote "+400 teachers."