Secret Quilt Story

When it was time to begin my second quilt, it felt like a momentous occasion. I could see a yet-unwritten story in all of those quilts I was destined to make. These quilts will wrap around friends and cousins and mothers and even little babies that haven’t begun to be imagined. All of these quilts will be connected by in invisible thread (pun!) that brings them together.

But I wanted something visible, too. A Secret Quilt Story, if you will.

Whenever a make a quilt for someone I care about, I will add one piece of fabric seen only in the previous quilt. It should be an oddball and it should stand out as not belonging. But it will belong, because it is as lovingly and carefully stitched as any other piece of that quilt.

And so when my niece wraps up in her quilt, she’ll have a little piece of the quilt that I wrap up in every night. When when my cousin wraps up in hers, she’ll be borrowing a little extra bit of warmth from my niece. And when my friend gets her tree quilt, she will share a tiny connection with my cousin. And so on.

Each of these people, and all of those yet to come, have faced blessings and hardships. Some they share with the world and some they keep tucked away. Each person lives out a quiet story–deep with color and texture and meaning–like a great reef under the surface of a calm ocean.

To me, this is more than using up scraps of fabric. It’s about sharing our humanity and acknowledging those invisible threads that tie us together. We are the same and yet so different. And that’s what makes us beautiful.