I made lots of new friends at our recent guild quilt show. Two of them, Flo and Jan, invited me to visit their Prayers and Squares group at one of their meetings. I went this past Sunday and was touched by the love they are stitching together.
I had heard of Prayers and Squares before; I have a friend who is a cancer survivor. Faye had received a loving gift of a quilt from a group during her time of healing. I didn’t realize there was an international organization involved.
Prayers & Squares is an interfaith outreach organization that combines the gift of prayer with the gift of a hand-tied quilt. That statement is from their website, here. Begun in 1992 in California, their website now lists thousands of chapters worldwide. I visited with the one at Hopewell United Methodist Church near Milledgeville, chapter #1241.
This group of eleven women meets monthly. On the day I visited, they were celebrating their fifth anniversary as a Prayers and Squares chapter, and they were putting finishing touches on their quilt #170.
The emphasis is on the prayers, not the squares. Each of the quilts is tied, not stitched, to secure the layers of love. “Each knot represents a prayer.”
Not all of the members are quilters outside of this group. Flo, who learned of the organization and started this chapter, says that some people said, “I’d like to help, but I don’t know how to sew.” Her reply was, “can you pin, can you cut, can you tie a knot?” All skills are welcomed.
Especially welcomed in this group was the talent for organization possessed by Patty. A retired helicopter pilot, Patty used her military-like precision to ensure efficient work habits. Every quilt has a design sheet specifying each step of the project. Projects are carefully labeled with what’s to be done next. Zippered bags hold projects at every stage of development – so when the group meets to work, each person just picks up a packet and proceeds to the next step. Patty has since moved away, but her presence is felt with every quilt this group makes.
I wrote earlier about a quilt I made for a friend, Every Stitch a Prayer. That experience ties me to these women who meet to sew and pray for someone in need every month.
If you want to know more about this organization, perhaps joining a chapter near you, or even starting another group, check out the website at prayerquilt.org.
Thank you for sharing this story! What a blessing those ladies are and are all over our country. I can’t join but I think I might add the group and their outreach to my prayers!
I am so touched by what they are doing. I’m sure they will feel your prayers strengthening them as they work.