Back in the 19th century it was a practice to have a wedding or marriage quilt. Apparently the bride-to-be had to make a number of quilts for everyday use and one special quilt which was the wedding quilt. These became part of her trousseau. Friends could gather and help with the quilts but the bride-to-be must make the wedding quilt herself and it must be finished before the wedding. All I can say is I’m glad that doesn’t happen any more. Otherwise this non crafty person, who couldn’t sew or make a quilt to save her life, would never have been able to get married.
Recently a friend told me about a quilt she made for her sister and as part of it she included pieces of materials and photographs from their lives, sewn together into a quilt. It started me thinking that marriage is rather like a patchwork quilt. You take lots of different experiences, some good and some bad, and they all are pieced together to make up the fabric of a marriage.
Some pieces of the quilt will be like springtime fabrics, light and flowery and colorful. Other pieces, the times when sadness and trouble come, will be heavy and more somber in color.
According to information I read about wedding quilts, once a pattern was used for a couple it was then destroyed so no-one else could use it. So no two patterns ended up exactly the same. No two marriages are exactly the same either. They might start off with the same basic materials of love, respect, enthusiasm and excitement, but since each of our lives is different the pattern that emerges will be different because our experiences and the way we deal with them are different.
If you could picture your marriage as a quilt what sort of quilt would it be? I’d love to hear your responses. Would it end up in a pattern that would make others stop and say, ‘Wow! I’d love a marriage like that!’ Would it be one they would seek to copy?
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