Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Comfort with Comforters



A few months ago I started a sewing ministry that makes comforters for the homeless.  My love for helping people was ingrained in me from childhood.  Even though we were poor living in the projects of Fresno, we were taught to help others in any way that we could.
As a child I fell in love with the idea of quilts from a cartoon picture.  It was just a simple illustration of a person wrapped in a quilt to keep warm.  The person looked happy and contented in the colorful patchwork cover.

I had never seen a handmade quilt except on television.  I longed to have a quilt wrapped around me in a comforting hug.  However it would be a long time before my dream of owning a simple thing as a quilt would become a part of my reality.

In the early 1990’s I worked at a Denny’s off highway 99 in Fresno.  There was a new waitress in her 50’s that was showing a quilt to a customer.  I was drawn to that quilt like a moth to a flame.  You would have thought I was brought up with no manners, because I barged into their conversation asking, “Betty, do you quilt?” and before she could finish saying yes, I was asking, “Would you teach me?”

That was the beginning of mine and Betty’s friendship.  She called me “daughter” and I called her “mom”.  She was a wonderful woman who took this parent-less girl under her wings.  Not only did she teach me how to make quilts but she taught me all kinds of things that a mother teaches her daughter.  From making curtains to canning jelly, this woman could do it all!!  If she knew it how to do something, she was teaching it to me.  I was young mother of 3 children who in the next year would become a widow at the age of 26.

Betty opened a door to the love of quilts and sewing that impacted me more that I ever thought possible.  It sparked a passion that didn’t exist before that day at Denny’s.  I became obsessed trying to learn all I could about them.  I found quilting shows to record, classes to take and books to purchase.  I even joined a quilter’s guild and met other women who were even more passionate for quilts than I was.  Pretty soon I was teaching Betty new techniques.  The day before Betty moved to Oklahoma she came to tell me good bye and to see my new sewing room.  As she looked around the room she shook her head stating, “The student has surpassed the teacher.”   

Betty taught this girl how to create comfort with some fabric.  When you look in my linen closet you will only find one of the quilts that I have made.  I have given them all out; no one will be without comfort in my presence.

All my grandchildren live in other states and I don’t get to see them as often as I would like.  I have made each one of them special blankets.  As I gave them the blankets I told them when you miss me; wrap yourself up in this blanket to get a hug from Nana Jojo.  I am able to comfort them even when I am not there.

In the fall of 2010 a dear friend of mine was gathering blankets to give to the homeless.  Since that moment I felt a tugging on my heart to make comforters to give out. I have a ton of fabric just gathering dust; we should use it to comfort people.  Every year I brought it up to the women of my church to do as a community project; however they were all too busy with their own lives and obligations to help.

This last November as I again was trying to get help to make the comforters I was hitting the proverbial brick wall.  No one had the time or energy to help.  A young woman pulled me a side telling me that if God gave you the vision; you should start the ministry on your own.  I will be honest with you that is the last thing I wanted to hear.  No way was I going to do this on my own and thought no more about it.

In January I got a call from my church Pastor.  He had called to see how I was doing and talk about my plans for the upcoming year.  Toward the end of our conversation he kept emphasizing that as members of the church we are the ones responsible for ministry work.  It is up to us to take the love of God to the streets.  I felt the tug on my heart again.  As I hung up the phone, God told me, “It is time for you to start the sewing ministry.”

That is the day Comfort with Comforters was born.  

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