Three little words

The moment I saw them on the supermarket shelf I knew I had to have them to decorate the lunch table at our final St Mark’s Quilters (Darling Point, Sydney) Saturday workshop for the year.

If ever there were three words that sum up the message of Christmas, here they are.

While we enjoyed an al fresco lunch together I took the opportunity to share how, for me, believing that the baby born in a shed to a poor Jewish couple more than 2000 years ago was indeed God “with skin on” gives me hope for the future, and peace here and now.

Nobody manages to sail through an entire year without some challenges, but this year has thrown up some biggies for a few of us. I think a good measure of hope and peace was on all our Christmas wish lists, so you can imagine we were all a tad emotional by the time I’d said my short piece (or rather, read it from my DiPad ‘cos I’m not too clever at speaking and I  was afraid I’d forget what I wanted to say!).

But just when I thought I could sit down Di B thrust a bundle of Kaffe fabric, in the shape of a book, into my hands, and as I lapsed, mouth gaping, into a half-decent impression of a stunned mullet she explained what it was all about.

Over the previous 2 months she had mobilised these amazing women to make pages for a fabric book of messages to me. She had done it entirely without my knowledge, and everyone had managed to keep the project a complete secret from me. My ears weren’t even burning!

Such a unique and special gift deserves its own blog post (soon) where I’ll show you the beautiful pages in detail. This is one incredible gift!

But it must be said these friends of mine are quite remarkable women.

As usual we weren’t short of delicious sweet treats to keep up our energy levels!

There was even some creative activity going on. Ruth, who came all the way from her new home in Canberra just for the day, attached the binding to a kindy quilt.

Kirstin, who is knitting a baby quilt in the finest, softest cotton yarn, settled on a layout, and I helped her to package up her knitted squares in labelled rows for storage, to make the stitching together easier.

Helen, meanwhile, was making great progress with her pretty and fresh hand-pieced hexagon baby quilt.

“Santa Di” made an appearance too, with our Christmas gifts of pincushions – even for the naughty ones!

Wherever in the world you are reading my blog right now, the St Mark’s Quilters, along with Di B and myself, want to wish you a Christmas full of hope, peace, and the unshakeable belief that the God who made the universe cares deeply for you.

Yes, you!

 Di