Article January 16, 2006 Issue

'GATHER UP THE FRAGMENTS'

LINDA BUMPUS

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

MY GREAT-GRANDMA was a quilter, and I've spent many nights snuggled up beneath her handiwork. So I appreciate the care and precision that go into constructing a fine quilt.

The "Quilts of Gee's Bend" were nothing like Greatgrandma's. Hanging proudly on the walls of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, many were pieced together from faded blue jeans, old clothes, and flour sacks. The black and white photographs and the placards on the museum wall described a community that has for decades been economically depressed, but the quilts told a different story. They spoke of magnanimous hearts, hope, and determination. They spoke of women who rejoiced in every thread of good, in each remnant and scrap of beauty and usefulness that came into their lives.

As I studied the hip-pocket shadows and knee patches on the denim panels, my thought went back many centuries to a man, also of very modest means, who knew how to make the most of every particle of good that God gave.

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