Labor of Love ....

     This Christmas I wanted to do something special for my husband.  I wanted to make something myself, something that would hold meaning for him.  He is a football coach, and he coaches at the same High School that he attended and played football for.  He has been a part of the program there for around 20 years, first playing as a freshmen, then on through JV & Varsity.  He had some time in between while he was in the Army, then college and his first teaching gig in Oklahoma.  He came back to Oregon in 2005, gaining a teaching position at his old high school, and was also given the opportunity to coach.

     As you can imagine, he has quite the t-shirt collection going, dating back to t-shirts from his time as a player (including winning the State Championship in 1994 - undefeated!) and on through the coaching years.  While on pinterest, I noticed some t-shirt quilts that had been made, and I thought that would be a cool thing to do for him.  In our house, we all have our favorite blankies, including the adults!

     I was thinking of it as a "labor of love" because I only started sewing in September, when my Mother-in-law gifted me with a sewing machine.  To say I am a "beginner" is an understatement!!  Based on current experience, I knew it would be many hours of frustration, ripping out seams and starting over.  And over.  It actually went really well, not too many problems and only one seam had to be ripped out!  It isn't perfect, far from it.  There are some crooked stitch lines, some puckers in the fabric that I just couldn't get to lay quite right, but all in all, it turned out pretty well!  I was really proud of myself.

     Something changed however, as I was making this gift, thinking the labor of love was all mine.  As I spent several hours stitching away, I started noticing, and really paying attention to all of the names that graced the backs of those shirts.  Years of names.  Names of players, coaches, administrators, ball boys (and girls!).  Hundreds of names.  Then it hit me.  My husband had impacted the lives of most of the names listed.  He was a friend, player, coach, co-worker, teacher or mentor to each of those names. All of those lives, he touched in some way.

     He is the type of teacher that, after graduation, the kids come back to.  Each year on his birthday, he gets birthday wishes from people scattered all over the world.  Kids will call him up and ask advice on something, just to say hi or just to let him know what they are doing now.  He not only coaches football, he also coaches girls basketball and track.  The names listed on that quilt are not the only lives he has made an impact on, they are just a fraction.

     I hope he loves his Christmas gift, as much as I loved making it for him.  I hope it keeps him warm on cold nights as we watch a movie together, or at the beach when we have a bonfire.  I hope it is something he keeps with him for a long time to come.

     This quilt was indeed a labor of love, but I was wrong in one thing - it wasn't mine.  The labor of love that quilt represents belongs to the wonderful man that I am so blessed to share my life with.

The labor of love is his.