When I was 13 years old, I wanted a pen pal. At that time the local newspaper, the Cleveland Press, had a Pen Friends club that would match you up with a pen pal somewhere in the world. My mom showed it to me and suggested I send in a request. I did.
A few weeks later I received the name of a girl my age in Scotland, Kay Letham, now Kay Dorrat. I wrote to her and she wrote back right away. We had a lot in common and a beautiful friendship was born that day. We have been writing for… Well, let’s just say we have been writing for many, many years. Now we do not really write letters anymore but we keep in touch via Facebook.
Our lives paralleled in so many ways. We married a year apart. Our kids are like stepping stones, born a year apart. We both became Christians around the same time and we are both survivors of cancer that threatened to end our lives. But God is faithful and here we are, still alive, still friends and still communicating. Yes, we have met. In 1990 we traveled to their home in Dunfermline and toured Scotland and England with the wonderful Dorrat family! Those are very cherished memories for our entire family.
So, it is no wonder that when I read my first Outlander book by Diana Gabaldon I fell in love with the story and have read or listened to every book in the series twice! That is my Scotland and I love it. Yes, we will be going back one day for sure.
Well, I was at a quilt store one day and saw two Outlander fabric panels that I simply could not resist. I bought them and when I got home looked them up online. To my delight, there was a pattern for a quilt using one of them and it was amazing! So, I headed down to Zinck’s in Holmes County, Ohio and picked out fabrics that would work in the quilt. They weren’t the exact ones in the pattern, but with the help of my husband’s eye for color, we found just the perfect selection.
It took a long time to finish this quilt but it was well worth the effort. When I look at it, I think not only of the Outlander stories but of Scotland, Kay, her husband Ian, and their wonderful family.
LucyCrafter 