The JOY Quilt is my latest Morse Code quilt. My LOVE Quilt was my first Morse Code quilt. After LOVE, I created FAITH and HOPE to complete my I Corinthians 13 Quilt Series. A few months ago, I created the PEACE Quilt and offered a prayer of peace for us during this pandemic. I was inspired to make the JOY Quilt for several reasons.

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” ~ Galatians‬ ‭5:22-23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Additionally, in the time of the Coronavirus, it can be difficult to maintain joy. I want to encourage my friends and family to hold on to joy despite the circumstances of the pandemic.  Learning about new Coronavirus cases and deaths daily can be quite depressing. Personally, I know someone who died from COVID-19.  Also, I know several people who contracted the Coronavirus and recovered.

As you may know, I have a Master of Divinity degree. As a Black woman preacher, I consider myself a Womanist Theologian. Womanist Theology is a religious conceptual framework which reconsiders and revises the traditions, practices, scriptures and biblical interpretation with a special lens to empower and liberate Black women.

The Black woman writer and activist Alice Walker discussed womanism in her collection of essays, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. In this text, Walker makes the point that “A Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.”

The purple-lavender analogy is the reason I selected the purple fabric for my JOY Quilt. Thank you for reading. In the comments, please let me know how you are maintaining joy during the pandemic. Stay safe. Be blessed.