hope anchors the soul | a quilt for Pastor & Mrs. Emerson

Ocean State Baptist Church is the church that I've been going to since I was about five or six years old. Pursuing my faith in God there alongside my mentors and friends has been one of the most formative experiences of my life. Many of my memories feature OSBC as the setting - attending Sunday School with Mrs. Chihowski as my teacher, singing in the children's choir under the direction of Mrs. Hackett, accepting Jesus as my personal savior with Maria DePina to help guide me in prayer, being part of the youth group and participating in every crazy game and activity our leaders dreamed up, getting baptized by Pastor Emerson, going to camp every summer, working in children's church, serving with the teens at various nursing homes in the area, going on a missions trip to New Jersey, singing on the worship team as a young adult, helping to organize a women's retreat, serving as one of the youth group leaders, and dedicating each of our boys to Jesus. There are so many more memories I could share, and I know more to be made in the future. Pastor Emerson and his wife Linda have dedicated their lives to doing the work of Jesus in Smithfield, RI and beyond for the past forty-three years. I have been blessed to have a small part in their work for about twenty-six years. They've decided that the time has come to retire (somewhat - Pastor Emerson is still on staff as Pastor Emeritus) and I asked my mom and my aunt (who are also long time members of OSBC) if they wanted to join me in making a quilt to thank them for their service.

I drew inspiration from one of Denyse Schmidt's quilts for the Stone House Inn in Little Compton, RI. The top is lots of blues and grays, solids and very subtle prints. We paper pieced letters to add a portion of one of Pastor and Linda's favorite scriptures - Proverbs 3:5-6, which says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." - to the top, and I'm thrilled with how it came out. It's pretty much exactly as I imagined it. The back is just two large cuts of fabric that have a nautical vibe (this is a common theme in my quilts since RI is the Ocean State - we love our coastline!) and a simple handwritten label. As I wrote this post I remembered that I wanted to make a more complex label with an anchor, a cross, and a heart, but obviously I completely forgot about that part of my plan. I quilted horizontal straight lines over the whole quilt, not too dense because it's huge and I was getting tired, haha. Then I passed it on to my mom who added some lines of hand quilting. My aunt made the binding, I attached it, and then she washed it so it would be nice and crinkly.

We gave it to them one Wednesday night before church and I think it's safe to say they loved it. Pastor Emerson posted about it on facebook shortly thereafter (see my screenshot below), and he doesn't seem to use facebook that often so his post made me smile :) I know I say this all the time, but this quilt is one of my favorite makes to date. It's definitely one of the more special pieces. We're so thankful for Pastor and Linda Emerson and and we were honored to make this quilt for them as a small way of showing our appreciation and gratitude.

my baptism, 1998