Quilted Prayer Shawls

Well, the quilted prayer shawl is finished and has been given to it's intended recipient.  Several of you have asked what a quilted prayer shawl is so I thought I might try to explain here.  You might be familiar with prayer shawls in general and these follow along the same concept.  In case you're not, a typical prayer shawl is knitted or crocheted.  While the person is making the shawl, they are praying for the person who is to get the shawl.  They aren't necessarily praying non-stop for that person the entire time they are making the shawl but they are thinking of them and sending up prayers on their behalf.  Then, when the prayer shawl is given to the recipient, it is to serve as a tangible reminder of the prayers that are being lifted up for that person and hopefully, they will feel hugged and loved each time they wrap that shawl around themselves.

Quilted prayer shawls are a newer phenomenon.  These are small quilts designed to be wrapped around the person like a stole.  Basically, as the quilter is piecing the quilt together and doing the quilting, they are also praying for the person and so the concept is very similar to the prayer shawls.  It's a way for people who don't knit or crochet but DO sew to also be part of this caring ministry.  I happen to knit, crochet, AND sew but I just wanted to try my hand at making a quilted prayer shawl and that's why I chose this form.

I kind of made the pattern up as I went along.  I had a general idea of the proportions I was aiming for and knew that this would equate to a 2-block-wide long rectangular quilted piece.  I wanted to have several blocks that would encompass Christian symbols and thus my pieced cross.

I added several heart blocks.  In this block I freeform machine quilted dragonflies around the heart.

This heart had a simple stipple pattern of quilting around the heart.

The rest of the quilt were simple fabric squares that I used to machine quilt freehand phrases such as this square where I put the words "Be comforted."  (I made this quilt shawl for a young mother whose baby passed away)

 This one says "Peace to you."

I quilted a block with little suns  and some with Bible verse citations. The quilt sashing was just freeform stipple quilted.

This is how the back looks.

And there you have the final quilted prayer shawl.

Project 365 - June 13, 2010 (Day 17)

A closeup of the back of the quilted prayer shawl.