Saturday,
July 5, 2003
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Quilting the church
By AMY GINGERICH
Saturday, July 5, 2003
 Rhoda
Keener does not sew. So the executive director of Mennonite Women
USA surprised herself by accepting the boxes of fabric that arrived
at her Pennsylvania home.The swatches of bright red, orange, vermilion and fuchsia fabric had been used as table dressings at the 2001 Nashville assembly to represent the colors of Pentecost. Keener volunteered to coordinate the transformation of the scraps into quilts. “I thought this was God’s great sense of humor because they sat in my garage – and I am not a seamstress,” Keener said. But the president of Mennonite Women USA, Elaine Good, came on board right away. Good had the idea to make 33 wall hangings, one to represent each Mennonite Church USA denominational agency, office, group or conference. Some 300 pieces of fabric – ranging in size from 10 inch- to 2 inch-square blocks – soon made their way to Good’s house, where she washed and hung out each to dry. She then prepared to divide the fabric into separate kits. “There was no way to make the kits identical,” Good recalled. So she did the best she could, making 33 piles of each fabric. Good bundled each pack of cloth with instructions for transforming them into wall hangings, each to measure 2 feet by 2 feet square when completed. The quilt makers were to incorporate these fabrics into their designs. “It was totally up to them, though,” Good said. “I told them a little bit about what the theme for Atlanta was going be.” Some women had no idea what to do initially with these brightly colored fabrics, and some of the pieces were more difficult to sew. Yet 33 kits returned as completed wall hangings, each with a story. “They are all special in their own ways,” Good said. 
Florence Siebert of Reedley, Calif., described the endeavor in a Mennonite
Women USA booklet: “When I first heard about this project, my
thoughts went immediately to a dove of peace.” After searching for and adapting a pattern with a friend, Melva Ewy, the two women designed a “Dove of Peace” pattern. Debra Layman of Harrisonburg, Va., picked up on the convention’s theme with a wall hanging depicting God’s Table – set for four to symbolize those coming from the north, south, east and west. “It’s God’s table, Southern style, complete with fried chicken, deep fried okra and homemade bread with strawberry jam,” Layman said in the booklet. In March the wall hangings went out as prayer quilts – distributed at the Constituency Leadership Council meeting – to help individuals, congregations, conferences and agencies prepare for the first convention of the newly formed Mennonite Church USA. Keener also worked with Les Horning of Richmond, Va., on a prayer calendar to lead up to Atlanta 2003 using images of the quilts. Now the wall hangings are together again, assembled on a frame created by Good and her husband, Leon. The quilt debuted Thursday in Atlanta at the first delegate session. The display has since moved to the B Building concourse (level four). At Monday’s final delegate session the combined quilt will again come down, with the separate pieces returned home. “They really go as a reminder and memory to the first Mennonite Church USA conference,” Keener said. In addition to the wall pieces, a comforter made by Good from scraps of fabrics from Nashville 2001 will go home with a convention participant. Convention-goers can register to win the “Atlanta Comforter” – now on display at the Mennonite Women booth in A-Junction – through today. The winner of the drawing will be announced tonight at the dinner for Mennonite Women USA.  |
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