The Quilt Maker's Gift

During Thanksgiving, Grandmother Boggs brought a lovely book, The Quilt Maker’s Gift by Jeff Brumbeau. Thanksgiving came and went but the children continued to pour over the pages. One afternoon, George Wilder read it out loud to us. I don’t think we’ve ever poured over a book like this one. The pictures, the quilts, and the story captured us and took us on a long journey. The illustrations and the writing beautifully patched together a delightful tale reminding us that real happiness isn’t about getting but about giving. A great way to enter the holiday season.

The children became fascinated by quilt patterns and their names. I told them that they could design their own and name it and that I’d happily help them create it. Although, I’ve never quilted in my life I figured we could figure it out. They quickly found paper and pencil and set to work. And then Amelia said, “We have to make this right now or else we will never make it.” She is right, but I wish she wasn’t. Projects so easily find their way to the bottom of piles.

So, we got out piles of fabric and started cutting and started piecing it all together. It isn’t really quilting, but they have their first square. The Quilt Maker's Gift.


George Wilder’s is "War on Each Side".
Amelia named her square "Exchanging"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Love Them. Feed Them. Talk To Them. The Rest Is Icing On The Cake.

Image
We've been homeschooling for ten years. At LEAST once a week I think that homeschooling is the worst possible thing on the planet. I look at my kids and think, "I've got nothin'!" It is scary. It is hard. How many hundreds of times have I called my extremely patient husband and yelled, literally screamed into the phone, "I CAN'T DO THIS!" There was a day, in the middle of a lesson that wasn't going well at all, that I walked out the back door, walked to the pool, jumped in fully clothed and yelled as loud as I could under the water. I got back out of the pool, calmly walked inside, changed my clothes and continued with the day feeling much relieved. George, my husband and biggest cheerleader - also a major part of our homeschooling life, is diligent to walk me off the cliff of homeschool despair. When I feel like I am failing our children, he offers me this morsel... Before I give you his advice, I would like to mention at this poi...
Read more

Child's Play

Image
Amelia wanted to have a coffee shop party for her friends to celebrate her birthday. We planned it all week. We named the coffee shop, "Amaruma Coffee." George Wilder says it means, "Good Coffee". We made the logo. Of course it included a tree (Amelia draws trees constantly) and coffee beans. We made decisions about what to serve and how to serve it.  Then Amelia decided to make a castle. She found some bricks in the yard and started making a wall/castle. George Wilder was responsible for making the mortar from ash and water and dirt. They worked on the wall/castle for days. The coffee shop became the side show and the castle would be the center of play. They walked through exactly how the day would go all afternoon Thursday. It was nearly impossible to do any school work Friday. They looked longingly toward the castle/wall. There was work to do. It had to be finished and decorated and set up for extensive castle visiting. There were problems to be sol...
Read more

Wilderness Whines

Image
When the "but I want . . . " sirens wail and "just one more time. . . " voices ring in chorus, and the "when will we be there?" interrogations press hard against ear drum, we stop and talk about the power of wishing for something that isn't ours to have and how it is debilitating and hard and caused an entire nation to get stuck in a desert for 40 years and if they would have just seen past the "when will we get there" they might have enjoyed the journey and found glory waiting without so much turmoil. We are cuddled and there are lots of tears as I explain the weeding of the whine and how it must happen now. And suddenly I realize that perhaps I've been wandering around. Yes, I have. I am in a desert of whine. It is bedtime and we turn off the lights and pray for grace for the next day. The next day arrives quickly. I lace up and head out the door for a morning run and prayer. It comes to me as I put one foot in front of the...
Read more