Rise, Take Your Quilt, And Walk!

Our WDP service yesterday was held in St Martin's URC Chapel. But the ladies from St Anthony's RC church did all the planning. St A's is in the middle of extensive redecoration, so St M's kindly hosted. Huge thank you to Pauline, Maggie, and my other St Martin's friends for that.
Here are Isabel [left] and Vera [right] who were at the service. Isabel belongs to St M's, but originally comes from Zimbabwe. Vera belongs to St A's. She was born in Goa, moved as a child to Uganda, then came here [as a refugee at the time of Idi Amin] She spent much of her working life in Africa, as an employee of the United Nations.
Vera just turned up with her quilt 10 minutes before the service and wondered if we could display it somewhere. She apologised she had not had time to finish it!

It is phenomenal. It is all handstitched. I was so busy pinning up and taking pictures that I forgot to ask her how long she had been working on it. Isn't it beautiful?
There are children playing in the trees

 Children sitting on the ground

The elephants, giraffes and wonderful birds round the borders. 

And of course the family at the centre. 
There is amazing detail on the quilt. As well as the basic fabrics, Vera has used lace, ribbon, ricrac and buttons as 3-d embellishments, plus lots of decorative stitch-work. 
It is all her own design and such a wonderful piece of needlecraft. I am quite in awe of this. I'm so thrilled Vera brought it to the church to show us. A real tribute to her work in Africa, and especially a reminder of the people of Zimbabwe. The doves at the top, the family embrace, and the mixing of all the colours, certainly exemplified the underlying theme of the service - peace, love and reconciliation. All so inspiring.
I think this was truly the highlight of my day yesterday! Thank you Vera!