Rays of Hope Quilt came as an answer to my prayers for a special quilt to put into the NOMADS live auction in September 2011. On Easter Sunday 2011 at 4:30 am I awoke with this design! I laid in bed for the next two hours constructing it in my head. Little did I know about the journey that design would have for me!
After I got the first one made, a couple of friends asked me to make them one before the auction. At the auction it did amazingly well! The full story is in my book and on a YouTube video.
As I made another one alongside my other quilting friends, they asked for a pattern. That led to a pattern, an Etsy shop Rays of Hope Quilts, and orders from many places since 2012.
The Stained glass version came about six months after the original version was published. Fabric kits are available from the Sew Batik website. The pictures show the first pattern and then the final Stained Glass version.
The dark area behind the cross, to me, represents the sin in our lives that Jesus died on the cross to cover. The lighter areas represent the lives lived in the kingdom of Christ now living in the light of Jesus. In the stained glass version the dark areas are also colorful as some of the sin in our life is colorful! While life in the kingdom is also colorful and alive!