Quilt #73 Terry Powell donated by Mary Duke and Stacey Tate

Stacey, Terry and Mary

 Quilt #73 was gifted to Terry Powell. Since being back in Utah, I have spent some quality time with Terry and really appreciate her strength. Terry embodies the concept of endurance. She suffers with a rare neurological disorder called Cervical Dystonia for which there is no cure.

The disorder is characterized by involuntary contractions in the neck causing pain. possible twisting and distortion of the neck. One of the things that helps Terry's symptoms are botox shots which she receives about every three months. The botox helps but she generally has a short period of time before the botox wears off and the spasms begin anew causing the contracting and pain all over again.

Mary and I had talked about making a quilt for Terry. At our weekly quilting get together, I was working on this quilt  when Terry volunteered to sew a couple of seams. She remarked on how beautiful it was and each additional step she seemed drawn to this quilt. At a certain point Mary and I decided to finish it together and that it belonged to her.

Every stitch was removed the first time

This was the first quilt I quilted solo on my long arm. After I finished the entire quilt I took it off the frame and noticed that one backside there was a fairly large portion where the tension was wrong which resulted in loose loops. I was heartbroken. I took it to Mary and she gently let me know that there were two choices--unpick the entire quilt using seam rippers or start over with new fabric. After a few tears, Mary and I began unpicking the stitches. Thirty hours and thousands of stitches later, it was time to sew the original quilt top with a new minky back. The second time there were no loose stitches and you would never have known.

I share this part of the quilt story because during this frustrating process, it made me think of what Terry endures. She is always in process of trying to get comfort from this  disorder. As soon as her muscles relax to the point that her neck and spine feel normal she knows that soon she will experience the tightening spasms. She experiences a period of pain to get to the part where she feels normal only to understand that she will start the cycle all over again.  I am so impressed with her as she endures these cycles with grace.

Ironically, we ended up gifting the quilt to Terry on  February 28 which is designated as Rare Disease Day.  Later the night Mary and I both received a text from Terry saying that each time she walked in and looked at her beautiful quilt, she knew it was stitched with love.

She is right, there is love in these stitches, including those that had to be unpicked...thanks Terry for the lessons you teach us all.

One of my favorites so far

After reading the post, Terry asked me to add this text response:

Oh my goodness Stacey, I can hardly see through all my tears. I'm not sure I'm worthy of all the wonderful things you said (she is) but I appreciate it with all my heart. I was truly drawn to this quilt while sewing a little on it not really knowing what it would look like. When the top was finished and I could see the whole design, it spoke to my heart. I'll always remember how much you struggled to finish the beautiful quilting. Just like the Lord works with us toward perfection, you never gave up till it was perfect for me! Whenever I look at it I know I'm loved. Thanks so very much. Love and hugs to you Stacey and Mary!