A Beautiful Labor of Love

Sunday, November 19 - we received a most wonderful gift from our friend Nancy Austin. She had been working on a beautiful quilt for our family and since the Austins live in France, we had no idea that she was preparing the quilt. Nancy told us that as she was sewing, she used the time to pray for our arrival from China, Joanna. Our hearts are touched by her thoughtfulness and love. We visited the family in France, about 30 miles outside Paris,
several times and we
have 2 photo albums
full of happy memories
of our visits. They are
stationed there
with Campus Crusade for Christ providing translation services for various projects.

The squares on the quilt:

for Joanna - a floral pattern in with Asian script and the traditional 'ladybug'.

for Be - the pink squares (on the border and the outer edge of the design) for breast cancer
awareness - purchase of the fabric included a
donation to breast cancer research. Be is a survivor.

for Don - the blue/green squares are named "All That Jazz" for Don's appreciation of good jazz. (He says "I was really jazzed" a whole lot.)


About the pictures:

(Top) The door to Joanna's room: We bought the door at a yard sale (for 20 bucks) when our home was being built inn 1983. It was probably used in an old farm house and dates to the early 1900s, if not earlier. It has carvings in each of the panels and the stained glass is a design we saw on a billboard in North Carolina when we were on vacation the same year. We fashioned original stained glass designs as a hobby in the early 80s and took the picture of the billboard and adapted it to the window opening in the door. It has been the 'welcome pineapple' to our guest room for the last 22 years. It will now welcome Joanna to her room each time she goes to bed with her new quilt.

(Center) Diva - the Multi-Ethnic Canine Love Sponge - says "Joanna, I'm waitin' for ya, baby! Like your new quilt?"

(Bottom) Aerial view of Nancy's Labor of Love.