BELOVED Juried into Road to California 2016
Beloved, 26" x 27", Margaret Brewster Willingham 100% Dupioni and Bengalore silk, silk batting. Reverse needle-turn applique by hand with silk thread, hand quilted with red 100% cotton thread
I am pleased to announce that my quilt BELOVED has been accepted for inclusion in Road to California quilt contest in Ontario, CA (January 21-24, 2016).
"I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine." (Song of Songs)
And my Beloved, the Lord, is a deep, lustrous, red, red rose. A single long stemmed rose that says, "I love you", given every moment of every day for always. Can you smell its fragrance? That's the aroma of love.
My Beloved Rose has journeyed with me through a tangled, thorny wilderness of pain and loss, causing me to bloom with hopeful joy in spite of the desert. He has tenderly watered me with His extravagant love, healing me from the wounds of abuse, brokenness and fear (Isaiah 35). He has patiently, stubbornly loved me with an inviting, velvety rose petal softness and a deep, red richness. He has meticulously and intricately revealed who I was created to be, as He has revealed Himself to me, and He personally hand-stitches me all together. My Beloved gives me lavish, lustrous silk in exchange for my tattered, threadbare cotton. He is the quilting that holds me together and makes me whole. And He binds me all up in His arms of love.
My Beloved is ravished for me, and He is ravished for you. This blows me away. Yet the Lord, the deep, lustrous, red, red rose, blooms on and on, bestowing His gift of extravagant love on me...on you.
"You turned my wailing into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever." (Psalm 30:11)
Beloved, quilting detail.