Scraps of Life

January 28, 2009 by Debbie.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the new (OK, new to me as I’m always behind the times) phase people are going through with the ’slow living’ idea.  First I heard of it was in reading the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about 2 years ago. Then my daughter mentioned a blog of a family in France who are ’slow living’ - trying to scrounge instead of buying for at least a year. Since then I’ve read of others choosing to cut out commercialism/materialism from their lives. I guess the reason I referred to this as a “phase” earlier because this is the way I was raised and have lived most of my life. As a homesteader it’s nothing new but it appears to be new and fashionable to most people. That is FANTASTIC - I’m all for it, regardless of why or when or who because I think it brings us face to face with our value system.

I listened to the radio this morning, which is unusual, but was checking on the weather and heard of a husband and wife who had both been laid off and chose to kill themselves and their 5 children out of desperation. That has laid very heavily on my heart and I can’t help but wonder how many others are even considering such thoughts.

What would you fill in this sentence with -  “I cannot live without _________?” All my life people around me have answered that with, “Sure you can” with very little, if any, sympathy for me having to live without ______________, so I never knew any different. We lived by the “Make it last, make it do, or do without” mindset that did not have any loopholes (credit cards). Looking backwards I realize what a blessing that was. Wasn’t fun at the time, but I’m so grateful it’s nothing foreign or new to me.

I know quilts aren’t a necessity unless they are truly used in place of blankets (yes!) but look at the beauty that can be made from almost nothing. If God cares enough to do this with quilts which are ‘extras’, what can He do with the true needs in our lives?

Here’s some of the blessings of making do with what you have and not buying new in my quilting world. This was my first introduction to a scrap quilt. Helen Shoemaker made this for us more than 20 years ago. She was living in poverty, newly divorced and hurting terribly.  She sewed her love into this quilt for us.

This quilt was made from leftover muslin (trimmed from backing of another quilt), scraps from Yards of Fun quilts and scraps from my own quilts.  This will be a Foster Kids Quilt.

This is my favorite I’ve done with scraps of John’s flannel shirts. This is another Foster Kids Quilt.

Here’s quilts in progress that are completely made from scraps -

I think our grandparents or great grandparents who survived the Great Depression KNEW what they were saying when they said, “Money isn’t everything.”  If you know someone hurting from the current economy, take more than a minute to reach out to them, please. It may be their last lifeline. Encourage them, help them, touch them, love them. I’m going to do the same.

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