Quiltmakers and ministry have a long history together. Missionaries of today and yesteryear have used quilting as a way to preach God’s Word. For the last two centuries, quiltmakers have been gathering in parish basements, rectory halls, and in individual homes to make quilts full of love to spread the Word of God.

These quilts mean many things—warmth and prayers for the sick and abandoned, greetings to newborns, best wishes to newlyweds, fund-raising opportunities for parishes, or messages of hope to those in crises.

Like many others, my life changed in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. I was safe and sound in Kentucky at the time, but I belonged to the American Quilter’s Society (AQS), and we quickly put out a call for quilts—baby quilts, lap quilts, bed quilts, afghans, and more. The first quilt arrived the next day. It was a beauty, lovingly sewn by a church group in Iowa. It had been made as the raffle quilt for the spring fair. It would have brought in over $2,000 for the church, but the group had voted to send it to a Katrina victim.

On day two, I received the first of many calls from church groups asking if it was OK if they sent “prayer” quilts (knotted quilts). Though this may seem like a silly question to those outside the quilting industry, AQS is renowned for its opinion that “a quilt is not a quilt unless it is quilted” (thread-sewing through the layers of the quilt to hold it together). “Of course,” I replied. I knew all about prayer quilts, having participated in the prayerful tying of the yarn knots that hold the textile sandwiches together.

By day three, boxes and boxes of quilts had begun arriving at the AQS warehouse. The first truckload of quilts was headed for Louisiana seven days after the arrival of the first quilt. Most of these quilts were from church groups and quilting guilds. We all cried as the truck carrying four skids of quilts headed out of the parking lot, then it was back to gathering more quilts. Additional trucks carried more than ten thousand quilts over the next three months.

Some of the trucks contained lots of other supplies for the victims too. And we were getting offers of help delivering our bundles of warmth. A local church group headed down to help clean up the flood mess stuffed our quilts around the other supplies on the trailers.