"And Ruth the Moabitess said unto
Naomi,
Let me now go to the field,
and glean ears of corn after him
In whose sight I shall find grace.
And she said unto her, Go, my
daughter."
Ruth 2:2 KJV
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| Meetingroom |
‘B’
is for Bibles . . . As a Third Grade I received a King
James Bible from my Church, Zion United Church of Christ in South Bend,
Indiana. I still have that Bible . . . or should I say Bibles – the
original with my name spelled wrong and the replacement with my name spelled
correctly, my mom noticed the misspelling and made me go ask Pastor Brueseke
for a new one with my name spelled right, which he did. Several years later one
of the Sunday School teachers handed me my Bible . . . the one with my name
misspelled and insisted I take it, I was taught to obey my elders, so I did.
I went to Church camp for four years; I'm thinking it was like 5th-8th grade. One year at Junior High camp, one of my counselors had a Good News for Modern Man Bible and shortly after I got home from camp I purchased one. Can't explain why, at the time I suppose that it was the wording of the scriptures we were reading that just made more sense to me.
During my four years at Ball State University
I acquired quite a few Gideon New Testaments walking across the Quad – the
Gideon’s won’t let you get past them without taking one of their Testaments,
even when you tell them you already have a Bible in your room or that they have
already given you 3 or 4 Testaments that day. Over the years I’ve also
purchased several more Bibles for myself, including a King James and New
International Version.
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| Adult Sunday School Bibles |
Bibles are also in abundance at
Mooresville Friends Meeting. There’s a Bible on the table in the front of the Meetingroom,
opened to Psalms 33:12-35:25, not sure that there’s any significance to any
scripture here or not. We have NIV Bibles in the pews, a mix of regular and
large print, along with our hymnals and a selection of Bibles in our Library.
The bookshelf in our adult Sunday School classroom has an assortment of Bibles
including King James, New International, American Standard, The Living Bible, The
Children’s Living Bible, and a variety of Devotional Bibles. A variety of Children’s
Bibles can be found in the Noah’s Ark Sunday School classroom and even more
Children & Teen Bibles in the basement where we have our Kid’s Club
program.
Our Christian Education Committee
has given Bibles to our Young Friends for years, traditionally at the end of
Third Grade, but there doesn’t seem to be a specific age or time now. As a
member of CE, I remember buying Bibles, usually New International versions, but
the last several years I’ve noticed that they’ve been giving various Children’s
Bibles. Bibles have also been given to many of the youth who attend our
Wednesday evening Kid’s Club program, when one asks for one or a need is seen
by one of our adults.
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| Some of the Bibles for older youth |
During a Christian Education
Committee meeting, about 14 years ago, we talked about gifts for our youth members
that would be given to them at our Salad Supper – a pitch-in dinner held before
Christmas. After I volunteered to go out and purchase the gifts, another member
of the committee said that whatever the gift was, it had to tell the real story
of Christmas AND it had to be the exact same thing for ALL the children. WOW,
what did I just get myself into???
Not coming up with any ideas, I went
up to the Christian Bookstore. As I entered, a display by the door caught my
eye . . . and although it did tell the real story of Christmas, but it just
didn’t seem to fit the huge age range I was buying for – from just a few months
of age up to like 17 years old! I walked around for quite a while and just
wasn’t finding anything that spoke to me. I went back to the table by the front
door . . . well, it did tell the real story of Christmas, and there were two
colors (black and red) – so for most families it would work, except for mine (I
have four children) and the price was right. OK, why not! So I picked-up what I
needed plus a few extras – half black and half red.
I didn’t tell anyone what I had gotten;
I just wrapped them up and took them to the Salad Supper. Before I passed them
out to the children, I shared the task that was given to me, the same gift for
all the children and it had to tell the real story of Christmas – there were
some puzzled looks. I then passed the gifts out to all the children and had
them open them at the same time. Amazingly, the Bibles were well received by
all. The two youngest children belonged to our Pastor, he and his wife loved
the Bibles, and told me later that even though their children were so young,
these Bibles would be something that they would have to remember their Church
family.
Bibles have also been given to
several adult members and attenders of the Meeting, some receiving large print
Bibles while others received Study Bibles. Some asked, while others received
them when a need was seen or heard.
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| Camp Bible |
In July 2013 as I was preparing to
go on a Pilgrimage with and among Friends, to Ireland/Northern Ireland, I
received a small, soft covered Study Bible from my Pastor, after one of our
conversations. Interesting as I had been trying to figure out which of my
Bibles I would take with me on the Pilgrimage . . . I ended up taking my new
Study Bible.
One morning during Ireland Yearly
Meeting I felt so lost during devotions, I had forgotten to grab my Bible that
morning. I noticed several Friends on their phones reading the scriptures and I
thought, hey I can get online and pull up the scriptures!
So what version/versions of the
Bible do you have? Why? If you have more than one version like me, which one is
your favorite, OR the one that you use most often? Why? What is it that you
like? Do you carry your Bible to Meeting with you? Does your Meeting have
Bibles in the pews or on the benches that you can use?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
‘B’
is for Bow Tie.
According to Wikipedia “The bow
tie is a type of necktie. It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the
collar in a symmetrical manner such that the two opposite ends form loops.”
Ah, yes, this reminds me of my oldest son, Charles, and the red bow tie that he
often wore to Meeting for Worship when he was a toddler. And one week reading
all about one of those Sundays in ‘Becky’s
Bits,’ a small article in the local Mooresville
Times (hometown newspaper) written by a member of our Meeting, in which she
talked about sitting behind us during Worship that Sunday morning and Charles’
red bow tie. Oh, wait, that’s not right . . . this part is supposed to be about
quilts and quilt patterns.
‘B’
is for Bow Tie quilts and quilt blocks. Bow Tie
quilts/quilt blocks are believed to have been used along the Underground
Railroad here in the United States during the 1840’s and 1850’s. History of the Bow Tie pattern used for the Underground Railroad
tells us that it was used to let the runaway slaves know that it was
time to change out of their tattered clothing into clothing worn by those of
higher status, making it easier to blend in with those around them. I have
three samples of the Bow Ties to
share with all of you.
First, I whipped up this version of
the Bow Tie pattern, found in Quilt in a Day Underground Railroad Sampler
book, by Eleanor Burns & Sue Bouchard, today. This Bow Tie quilt is made up of four equally sized triangles, sewn
together in what I know as the Hourglass
pattern. According to the book, the four pieces indicated morning, midday, evening
and night. This pattern was also known as Broken
Dishes and when arranged on a grave site is a superstition among Southern
African Americans. Turned on its side the Hourglass
pattern can be seen – symbolizing time well managed, implying that one was
among friends. Hummmm, one pattern, three different names . . . Bow Tie, Hourglass and Broken Dishes.
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| Underground Railroad Bow Tie Quilt Block |
I purchased the Quilt in a Day book, in the fall of 2007, planning to make a small
Underground Railroad quilt to use during Girl Scout Day Camp in June of 2008 –
we were going with an Underground Railroad theme for our session and I thought
we could work something like this into our decorations. This book was perfect,
as it had some history of the Underground Railroad and each of the quilt
blocks. I purchased fabrics to use for this project, but never got it started.
Second, a tattered antique Bow Tie quilt that was found in my husbands' Great Aunt
Sylvia’s house after she died in October 2010, two
months shy of 102 years of age. I don’t remember if it was known that Aunt
Sylvia made this quilt, or if it had been made by her sister Beryl (my
mother-in-laws mother) or their mother. I’m not sure the photo shows it very
well, but this quilt is very well worn . . . VERY WELL LOVED. Notice that one
end had been covered, on both sides, with a piece of light blue fabric – an
attempt to add a few more years of life to this beloved quilt.
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| Aunt Sylvia's Bow Tie Quilt |
After finding this Bow Tie quilt my mother-in-law talked
about making my two daughters each a vest from this quilt, but she couldn’t
find enough ‘good fabric’ to cut just
two front panels to make one vest for the girls to share. It was tossed on the
floor in the family room and my son’s little dog, Harley, found it a nice place
to curl up and take a nap. Next thing I knew, a few days later it was out in
the garage - in the trash.
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| Aunt Sylvia's Bow Tie Quilt Close -up |
Something told me that I couldn’t
let that happen, so I rescued this old quilt from the trash and took it home
with me. An early thought, which I’m still hoping to turn into a reality, was
to make some angel ornaments out of it as keepsakes . . . I’ve got the vision
in my head, but just haven’t been able to find the right design/pattern to use.
Last fall, I had a thought of framing pieces of the quilt as keepsakes, haven’t
gotten that done yet either. Maybe now, that I’ve laid it out and taken
pictures of it and shared it here, I can cut those pieces and put them in shadow
box frames and I’ll finally find the right angel pattern and can get those
made.
Third, is this small (20x20-inch) Bow Tie wall hanging OR table topper,
created from Bow Tie blocks I made
about two years ago during one of our quilting sessions at my Meeting. One of
the fun things we do in our quilting group at my Meeting is to take turns
picking out quilt patterns and then teaching
each other how to make different quilts OR quilt blocks and sharing
techniques to each other. One Friend taught us how to make the Bow Tie block and then showed us how
four Bow Tie blocks could be put
together to create a wreath.
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| Bow Tie Wreath |
After reading about Bow Tie quilts, I looked at the antique
quilt from Aunt Sylvia, my wreath and the one shown in my book – and noticed
that they were all totally different! Three examples of the same quilt block
and representing three different time periods – the first one from the 1840’s –
1850’s, the second around 1930’s and the third made 2012-13. Amazing to see how
this block has evolved over the last 170+ years.
Interesting that I found another
source that said: “The bow-tie arrived in
the 1890’s and was also a part of the underground railroad blocks . . .”
How interesting, as the Underground Railroad was during the 1840’s to 1850’s.
Wondering if the writer of this particular piece (sorry I lost the reference
information on this) got her date from one of the variations of this pattern.
Do you have a well-worn antique
family quilt in your life? Have you ever made a bow tie block or quilt?
