A Patchwork Quilt in a Glass Cabinet – a story from Matthew Barker

A Patchwork Quilt in a Glass Cabinet – a story from Matthew Barker

A Patchwork Quilt in a Glass Cabinet – a story from Matthew Barker
There once was a patchwork quilt that was given to a quilting community and they came to see it as the holy grail of quilts. The stories on the each patch of the quilt resonated as truth to the community.  The quilt meant so much to the community that they honored the quilt on a schedule. They recapped the stories in speech and song and were happy when they did it, because the quilt had united everyone.
One day, having looked at the quilt from all angles and discussed it at length the community decided there was a quality to the quilt they were yet to experience.
So they took the quilt out of the glass cabinet and each member of the community lined up to wrap themselves inside the quilt.
The quilt was so warm and had a softness that they couldn’t describe.
The community had a deeper connection then ever and because of this they had an uncontrollable desire to tell the non-quilting community what it was like.
But the quilting community became divided.
“But not everyone likes quilting!” One member cried.
“They won’t understand its beauty!” Wailed another.
“Its too frail for the commoners!” Sobbed another
“We don’t want to impose our quilting ways on non-quilters!” Screamed the president’s wife.
There was chaos. So the Quilting president stepped in.
“Such hysterical passion has done no good for our community. We should put the quilt back in its glass cabinet and never let it out again.” Proclaimed the president.
So, they placed it back in the glass cabinet and continued on their schedule. They all continued singing, talking, recapping. Their songs became dreary, the organ out of tune and the president’s recaps lobotomizing.
One day members of the community started to ignore the schedule, people’s passions waned, and even the members who did stick to the schedule did not feel the same fire they once had for the quilt in the cabinet. For now, the quilt was dust covered, light stained and rotting.
A symbol of community’s boredom.
They were bored and started to blame each other for why the schedule wasn’t working.
One day the quilting president went to drearily recap the story one more time to a sleepy group of quilters, but instead felt the urge to do something much more exciting. Tell the truth.
“What are we doing here?”
There was a silence from its members, which in truth was not uncommon from the once passionate quilters.
“We are a quilting community. Shouldn’t we be off quilting?”
“We haven’t quilted in years. We’ve been too busy recapping the story on the quilt in the glass cabinet.” A member replied.
“Well maybe we should get back to it.” The president said.
Having nothing better to do, every member of the community got out their needles and thread, wool and silk materials and started quilting again.
They started by doing patches! They were rusty at it at first, but once they all got going, they began to produce glorious patches! So diverse and original.
They came together and shared each other’s patches one evening and were thrilled by each other’s work. They all decided they liked each others patches better then the quilt that they once worshiped in the cabinet.
The stories they had on each other’s patches were richer then the one in the cabinet.  There was pain and suffering, love and loss and the best thing about their patches were you could tell that they were alive when they were quilting them. The same feeling they all once had for the quilt in the cabinet.
The community was so moved by each other’s stories that they thought they were as good as in the ones in the cabinet.
So to symbolize this, they took the quilt they once worshiped out of the cabinet. They dusted it off and added their own patches to the end of the quilt.
After adding all the new patches the quilt looked glorious and you could see how the community had taken inspiration from the original quilt and because of this it now looked even better.
Beaming with stories of truth, love, and hope, as well as sadness, loss and pain.
A rich tapestry.
From that day forth the quilting community kept on quilting, because it made them come alive. When they felt sick of quilting, they knew to stop and do something else. If the quilting community wasn’t coming alive and learning from what they were doing, they were not afraid to say, lets stop, and start doing something new.  They knew if they followed this rule and they would be a benefit to their community and themselves.
The quilt grew bigger and bigger and soon it was out the door of the quilting hall and down the street to the shops! Soon because of the quilting communities passion, non-quilters started to become interested in joining in and interested in the stories that were printed on their quilt.
By Matthew Barker Nov 2016