Cheaper Than Therapy Quilting

Kilt

2012-01-02T23:41:00.000-05:00

I wish I could say I was getting in touch with my Scots/Irish/English heritage with a title like that, but of course, in eastern KY, being "kilt" has an entirely different meaning!

I allowed myself yesterday, January 1st, to continue my completely self-absorbed devil-may-care descent into hog-heaven. For those of you who don't know, hog heaven is that blissful place where you do what you want, when you want, for as long as you want....

My hog heaven? Movies (Lord of the Rings trilogy!!), Facebook, Words with Friends, gallons of ice-cold Pepsi, cheddar jalapeno crunchy Cheetos and these seasonal favorites: Snyder's of Hanover's White Chocolate covered Pretzel Dips.....Bliss in a salty/sweet combo that melts in your mouth. Yummy goodness that is highly addictive! Sigh.

And today, of course, the New Year really began for all us self-improvement, get the heck-outta-hog-heaven individuals.

So off to Step Aerobics this morning. My first foray there in over 3 months, and I haven't been regular since back when Jeff came home from Afghanistan in May!! So, yeah! Might be time.

Surprisingly, I've only gained about 5 lbs (and 3 or more of that has been holiday eating!! But I'm sure it had nothing to do with the pretzels!!!! :-D)

Working through the routine today was difficult. Manageable, but difficult! :-) I had too much pride to go back down a level on the step, or to use less than the 8 lb weights I was using when I was a regular worker-outer. So, tonight, as soreness settles in, I am well and truly kilt!!!

I'm sure my dilemma would seem less serious if I could drink an ice-cold Pepsi, but I'm off those, too -- AGAIN. It's only about the 103rd time I've quit them. But I really mean it this time!! LOL

Otherwise, it's been a good second day of the new year. I started my "Boxer Rebellion" quilt with Sam's boxers! :-D What a hoot!! The "Dizzy Geese" pattern is one I've wanted to do for a long time, and Sam's plaids (kinda makes you think of kilts, too, huh!? :-D) are gonna be just perfect!

I've got this and another quilt top to finish in time for classes I'm teaching in a couple of weeks!! My "Contrary Wife in Kansas" quilt uses two traditional blocks, and I'm waffling over the fabrics I wanna use. Need to have both these quilt tops done by January 18th!

This deadline is why I've not "joined up" with Judy's UFO Challenge for 2012! I will get there! It's just gonna be February. So, no time for wallowing in Hog Heaven! No time to be well and truly kilt!

Paul wrote to the Philippians,

^"Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." (Philippians 3:17-21 NIV)

"...their god is their stomach...
our citizenship is in heaven..."

I'm pretty sure Paul didn't mean Hog Heaven.
Here's hoping that step aerobics, better eating habits and the Lord Jesus Christ will "transform our lowly bodies!"

Blessings,

Tribute

2011-12-26T23:30:00.001-05:00

You can tell by my few blog posts in the last several month that I've not quilted a whole lot. Farmer's Wife blocks for a class I was teaching, memorial quilts that I'd contracted before Sam passed away, the club mystery quilt...That's about it! :-( Very unusual for someone who usually quilted every single day!! My friend Jennifer says it's 'cause when I'm sewing at home, I'm usually alone, and too much alone time was resulting in too many tears. True enough, I suppose.

The gals at the local quilt shop talked me into doing Bonnie Hunter's Orca Bay mystery. I got them into Roll, Roll Cotton Boll last year, so turn about was fair play. Just rifling through fabric and cutting fabric and sitting with them each Friday to work on it together -- all these seem to have brought some of my quilting joy back!! And after completing a particularly difficult (for me) memorial quilt for a friend, I tied into Sam's Darlin' Hearts! And today, I finished the quilt top.

And I'm just in awe.

Not of my work. Far from it.

I'm in awe all over again of the beauty of friendships and heartfelt sympathy and prayers and love that was given to me in the weeks following Sam's death. Who could believe people are so kind! And to me!! As I've looked over the blocks, many are from "close" quilting blog friends. And just as many are from people whose blog paths I've never crossed, or if I have, it was a periferal thing. And yet they cared enough to make a block (or two, or FOUR!) and send them to me in the most difficult days of my life!!

There are no words to properly thank you!! I tried to send cards (I saved every card, envelope and note! :-D), but my tears smeared the ink. Maybe this small recognition will let you know how grateful I am. Each name is a link to their blog (if they have one and I know it :-D ) Check them out! They are all amazing!

Row 1

Sharon, Miki, Jacque (1 block of 2 she made!), Stephanie (1 of 2 she made! and I think that's the right blog!) and Ann...

Row 2

Selma Jean, Rhonda (the first block I received!), Cassey, and Rebecca...

Row 3

Debbie (the strawberry fabric was a definite clue! :-D), Sarah, and Teresa...

Row 4

Mary, Crispy (this is the one that sparked the quilt name -- because it made me cry like Charlene Darling on Andy Griffith! :-D), Barb (the sparrow story is amazing!), and Janet...

Row 5

Diane (my Hands 2 Help quilt-for-Romania exchange partner through Sarah's blog), Ann (1 of 4 blocks!!), and LuAnn (who also checked on me through Jeff's deployment! Thank you!!)...

Row 6

Sue (1 of 2 blocks!), Jacque, Ann, and Stephanie...

Row 7

Ann, and Sue, and Cindy Lou :-)...

Row 8

Beth, Tonya, Paulette, and Staci (this is the only one I'm not sure of...and isn't that a hoot, Stace, since your blog is The Confused Quilter! :-D)... Correction! :-) The last one on this row is Kate's (Kathleen, below)!! So. is the blue pieced one Staci's!?!? LOL Let me know, if you know!)

And Row 9

Kathy, Ann, Robbie, Kathleen, and Karen.

Many of the blocks came from quilters who participated in Sarah's Hands 2 Help challenge. Such generous gals!! Thank you so much!

I think the quilt top is just stunning!! I have a couple of quilters in mind to complete it, and then it's snuggle time. :-)

This is the first of three pieced quilts I'll make in Sam's memory -- I'll be piecing one with his boxers :-D (there are 24 pair of them!! :-D) in the next couple of weeks, and I have a bunch of blue fat quarters that my quilt club gave me to use in another.

I received a quilt from Mary at Quilt Hollow, and it's already a favorite. She won the quilt top, then quilted it and sent it to me to bind. What a blessing!!

And then I have his t-shirts and other memorabilia to place in quilts for Emily and Will. Sweet!!

Philippians 1:3-8 expresses some of what I feel for you all. :-) I like the Message translation...

Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God's Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.

It's not at all fanciful for me to think this way about you. My prayers and hopes have deep roots in reality. You have, after all, stuck with me all the way from the time I was thrown in jail, put on trial, and came out of it in one piece. All along you have experienced with me the most generous help from God. He knows how much I love and miss you these days. Sometimes I think I feel as strongly about you as Christ does!

Thank you for being God's grace to me. Thank you for giving from the heart. Thank you for, as was said of Sam, loving "without filters." Thank you for being a part of my finding my quilt joy again! May you be blessed a hundred fold!!

Blessings,

Angels, Blessings and Christmas

2011-12-24T22:18:00.002-05:00

It's hard to believe that another Christmas is here...another year we've been blessed to celebrate the birth of Christ, the gift of Hope to the world, the promise of abundant life to all who receive Him.

I find myself drawn to the story of God made flesh -- even though it is old and familiar, this year it seems amazing to me again in a way I hadn't experienced in a while. Perhaps because I'm remembering the birth of my own children.

We've been singing a song at church this month by Chris Tomlin called Hallowed Manger Ground. The last verse begins, "The Son of God, here born to bleed, a crown of thorns would pierce His brow..." And I wonder that He came at all, knowing all that was in store for Him.

And I'm struck that another son -- my Sam -- was also known by God, and sent by Him, and all that has transpired this year with his homegoing and our loss....none of it was a surprise to God, and He is still working a plan, the fruit of which I have yet to see. Hard to fathom! Hard to understand. Hard to take, sometimes. :-) And yet, as Mary must have understood, we have to trust God.

I guess I've cried just about every day. But blessings abound. Some new angels on the mantle...

"Remember" from a friend at church. So appropriate, so perfect. Just to the left of Remember is the "Angel of Summer" that Mary at Quilt Hollow sent me last Christmas because Jeff was deployed and she knew there'd not be much under the tree for me. :-) What good friends!!

Another dear friend gave me "Heart of Gold," also a Willow Tree figurine... just the perfect representation of our Sam.

Sam's Boot Camp friends gave us ornaments from a race he ran last winter called the "Jingle Bell Run." :-D Last year's race photo becomes the current year's trophy ornament...and the Boot Campers checked out the engraving, contacted the company and added Sam's name to it for them and for us to have as keepsakes. Awesome! :-)

Sam is number 110--'bout fourth in the start, and he looks cold, but not as cold as those guys without shirts! LOL

So many changes this year. I look back over all that I've written here in the last several months...It feels like eons ago. It feels like yesterday!! I'm in awe at what God has done and is doing.

Ephesians 3:14-21 (The Message)

^14-19My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
^20-21God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

Just like the angels sang to the shepherds on that first Christmas morn!
"Glory to God in the Highest!"

May every blessing of Christmas be yours today and in the New Year!

Timing

2011-12-07T08:47:00.001-05:00

We had a very large package arrive on our doorstep a few days ago. One I'm not too excited about...

The freight guy wasn't thrilled either. This thing was over 300 pounds!! So it wasn't going any further than the front porch 'til Jeff got home! After a brief chat about politics (he was a conservative like me, so we were able to groan about the state of the union together! LOL), Delivery Guy skedaddled and left me with this monstrosity.

Jeff has high hopes for it.
He spent the better part of the evening assembling it...

I'm still not impressed.

It's in the basement. How can I convert the basement into a Quilt Cave (like Teresa's over at Fabric Therapy) with this THING in the way!?!

He expects I'll use it. Maybe. If I can figure out how to unfold it!! Goans!!
This is normal me (see, I don't have on my Mary Kay face yet! And don't mind the facial hair! LOL).

This is me contemplating the use of a treadmill.

Definite groans!!

I seriously don't know why Santa has covered his face. Maybe because he doesn't have one!! I don't really like embroidery, so this is one block of a wall hanging I may never get done! It's a beautiful pattern, but I'd rather applique than embroider.

I probably will use the treadmill, eventually. But not right now!! I have mysteries to solve!!

I've been working on Orca Bay, Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt.

Amidst the chaos of my sewing room is this pile of my progress...

I've almost finished the blue strings, and I'm still working on black/neutral quarter and half-square triangles.

In the meantime, I've also got Farmer's Wife blocks to finish (my class is finishing up the last of the 111 blocks this month!), a memory quilt to finish for a client in time for Christmas (oh the pressure!), a Mary Kay open house and several parties to complete...

And all I wanna do is play in this....

Not a real snow yet.
But it could be.
It will be.
Soon, I hope!! :-)

Timing is everything. A white Christmas in Kentucky!? Maybe.

God knows all about timing. In the book of Galatians, the apostle Paul talks about the coming of Jesus.

"But when the time had fully come," Galatians 4:4 tells us, "God sent his Son..."

I've no doubt the snows will come to Kentucky. They've been here before, and I've relished their beauty and the joy they've brought.

Just like God's grace. I've seen it and felt it, experienced it daily. His timing is always perfect!

And when the snows come, I just might give that old treadmill a try!

Blessings!

Never Alone

2011-11-24T00:03:00.001-05:00

I'm finding it hard this just-turned Thanksgiving morning to find words...

This is our first without Sam, and it surely feels like something vital is missing...laughter, noise, and that greatest of all holiday accessories, the teenage-boy-eating-machine!! :-) I've dreaded the holidays this year, knowing these "firsts" will be difficult. Funny...we anticipate with such impatience the firsts of life's beginning. First teeth, first steps, first words. Not so much those firsts of life's end.

I spent some time earlier this evening looking at photos from last Thanksgiving...

We traveled to Mississippi with "adopted" family -- ties forged between children and mothers who share adventures and hobbies, and time and treasures. What a blessed, sweet time we had together!

And I find myself thankful for friends and family and times that can never be recaptured but can always be remembered.

And thankful for here and now...

And all that is to come.

As I shed a few tears tonight, a Word came to me from Joshua...

The book of Joshua in the Old Testament begins, "After the death of Moses..." and God gives a charge to Joshua as he is to be the leader of Israel. "Be strong and courageous" God tells him, three different times!

The final time He says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1: 9 NIV)

Perhaps I can find words, after all.

Thank You, Lord, for so many blessings. Beautiful children that You entrused to me and Jeff, one who has already accomplished all You purposed for him and who is with You now!, a wonderful home, memories that are not only precious to this momma's heart, but include testimony of Your goodness and mercy and what You can do with a life given to You.

And thank You for Your Presence and Your promises to never leave nor forsake. How well I know You keep Your word!!

May God richly bless YOU this Thanksgiving!!

Blessings,

Following

2011-11-13T18:57:00.001-05:00

I have always enjoyed Bonnie Hunter's pics. You know the ones...taken from her car as she travels along. Sunrises, sunsets, trees, highways, byways... It's a fascinating look at her perspective in life, a snapshot of adventures we are all taking with her as we quilt!!

I was traveling home after spending Thursday, Friday and Saturday with my "posse" of Mountain Laurel Quilters at our fall retreat, and I had to pull out my camera and snap what was in front of my minivan!

Let me get a little closer so you can see...

Uh-huh.
Bonnie gets vistas; I get...
Well! LOL

That would be the worst of my retreat this past weekend! :-D I got some much needed quilt therapy, working on some projects that have been lanquishing far too long (kinda like my blog!!)!

I finally got the alternate blocks pieced for Sam's Darlin' Hearts! I was able to put them up on the design wall when I got home. My wall is not quite big enough to hold all the blocks (and it's behind my sewing table, so I have to get an angle shot to capture the bottom. :-D)...but they are simply gorgeous.

I also pieced blocks for the Shiners View quilt that I found through Sarah's Confessions of a Fabric Addict blog. I love how the big prints play in this design!!

I "leader-ed and ender-ed" 1 1/2" squares for my Crabapples (one of Bonnie Hunter's
:-D), and just for funsies, also worked a little on a Tumbler quilt for which I've had a kit for at least a couple of years. These 5+" blocks make for easy piecing!! And wonderful scrappy, dark fabrics -- my usual pallette, unlike the other blocks I worked on during the weekend!

It's the most time I've spent on quilting since Sam passed away. It was much needed therapy!! Being around other quilters is always good for the soul!

And following a donkey all the way home was a reminder....

I need to be sure I'm following the right people!!
I don't mean the rich or famous, or government leaders, or ambitious or even influential people, or even people exactly like me...

But people who are positive. People I want to emulate because they are excellent quilters, excellent designers, excellent people. People who have HEART!!

Paul writes, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV). Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27-28 NIV).

I pray I'll be someone who always follows the right Person -- so that if others find themselves behind me, they won't be jerking out their camera to capture a jackass in all her glory!! :-D

Blessings!

Faith

2011-10-25T06:13:00.001-04:00

It's 4:30 am and I should be sleeping!
I want (!) to be sleeping! but allergies (runny nose) and a million things circling in my head have me awake, so it's better to just get on up and do something productive until I feel sleepy again.

Do you ever have those kind of nights?

One part of my brain is wondering if I got everything to Konda that she needed...
She's hosting the Fat Quarter Stars Quilt-Along at Moose on the Porch and I designed a block that goes on today. It's called Friendly Winds. It's over there, so that must have worked out OK!

Another part of my brain is wondering about the Cathedral Stars blocks I made.

I started this quilt back in March when Bonnie Hunter was gonna be at Pigeon Forge. Jeff came home from Afghanistan (he's always disrupting my quilting plans! LOL), so I didn't get to go to Bonnie's class. I'd mocked up the quilt in EQ in different colorways than Bonnie's:

It looks good on paper, but I'm not so sure about it on the design wall.

I'm up anyway, might as well try something else.

So I've made a block with yellow star points and one with blue -- closer to Bonnie's original:

I'm liking the blue the best.

Isn't it funny how things always look better on paper than they do in real life?

A budget.
A schedule.
A plan.

If there is anything I've learned this year it's that things don't always work out as we plan. We'd planned Sam's senior year and college visits. Things we wanted to get accomplished before the winter set in. I have no less than a dozen quilts I wanted to finish by year's end. Not much of what we planned is gonna come about. I wonder how this difficult year will end.

At our church over the last several weeks, we've been hearing a series of messages called "Champions" on Faith from Hebrews 11. (You can check them out here.) Hebrews 11:1 tell us "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Faith is resting in all Christ is and all Christ has done. Faith is having confidence in what God has said. Faith cultivates a life that is in agreement with God. Faith lives in light of future anticipation....

That the best is yet to come.
That the present reality is not an indication of the future and what it holds for we who believe!!

One of my favorite movies is The Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, tell his friend, "Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

At the end of the movie, Red, played by Morgan Freeman, says, "I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope."

Proverbs -- always full of practical wisdom! -- tells us "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD." (Proverbs 21:30) There is so much to hope for, so much to believe!

I hope my quilt turns out as pretty as Bonnie's.
I hope I can get everything done today that needs to be done.
I hope I can go back to sleep!

Blessings,

Junk in the Trunk

2011-10-10T13:43:00.000-04:00

We were driving through Lexington the other day and I saw an amazing and comical sight. Now, understand that I'm a little old-fashioned, and my daughter is quick to inform me that fashionista! I am not!! LOL

A young man was standing alongside the road, with pants slung so low they were about to fall off...hanging only by a, well... small protrusion up front!!

All I could think was, "That poor kid has no butt!!"

Granted, you'd think I'd have more to dwell on these days, what with school and quilts and working out and my Mary Kay business and what not...But today, as we are doing reverse curls in aerobics...

(And just by the way, WHO decided that lifting your rump off the floor was a good way to build abdominal muscles!?! Don't they know it's made for sitting on!? Don't they know the force of gravity is stronger than our ability to rock the thing all the way off the floor multiple times when lying on our back!?!)

And I'm thinking, "At least I've got some butt to lift!"
You know that there are foundation garments out there (remember I was shopping for foundation garments a couple of weeks ago!) that actually build up a woman's posterier end?

But I've never, no never! seen such a product for a man.
Shouldn't he have a little something back there as well!?! I mean, seriously! Wasn't Glutimus Maximus the name of Russell Crowe's character in The Gladiator!!?!! He doesn't need a thing to improve the view!

I can remember some of the older generation talking about "Coal Miner Pants." When I inquired, I learned it meant he had "slack" in his drawers. No rear. No caboose.

Back in the olden days, when I was about 19 years old, I got down to 125 lbs -- skin and bone for this 5'6" girl. My collar bones stuck out weirdly, my arms looked all twiggy, and I can remember my momma telling me I was too skinny and had no butt. I soon got over the boy who made me sad and I retrieved my backside glory!!

My family has always been blessed with full posterior ends. Male and female -- no flat rears, no saggy britches, no pockets without something to fill them. They've always told me I look good from the backside...but that might mean I look better going than coming. Hmmmmm....

I'm pretty sure God has no preference for flat or rounds ones, since He made them all. Proof positive, however, that He has a sense of humor, with all the variety in shapes and sizes. I'm pretty sure, though, He wouldn't mind if the saggy britches were pulled up a bit. I don't need to see the hook those pants are hanging on. Just sayin'....

And He would have this to say, from Isaiah 52:12 (NIV):
"But you will not leave in haste
or go in flight;
for the LORD will go before you,
the God of Israel will be your rear guard."

:-D
Think I better get off my rear and get some work done. Or maybe get ON my rear and get some quilting done. That sampler isn't gonna quilt itself, now is it!?

Blessings,

Amazing Lift

2011-09-29T12:13:00.000-04:00

After my makeover photos, I've been on a mission to keep up my appearance, even shopping for (gasp!) clothes instead of fabric!!!! Who knew!?! LOL I've not been much of a "high maintenance" woman, to be sure.

I told Jeff that for some 15 years as a stay-at-home/homeschooling mom, I haven't spent money on clothes, make-up, or jewelry, but that's all about to change!! He took the news like a man. Busted out in a big cry and begged me to be just as plain-jane as I've always been!! LOL Nah...I think he's down with my new bad self. :-D

So, shopping!! And since I wanna look good, I figured some new, um..."foundation garments" were in order. :-D Wanna see!?! NO...I'm not gonna show you my big-girl panties!! LOL

I admit, however, to being intrigued with the phrases the brands are using to tout their wares...

"Amazing Lift!"

Who couldn't use some amazing lift!!?
Got me thinking about what "lifts" me....

A couple of Sundays ago, my friend Lynette gave me a "Sunshine Bag." A bright green tote filled with lots of little packages, with notes attached to each one. What the...!? Her card said, "Your 'sunshine bag' is filled with just 'stuff' that will hopefully bring a smile and encourage."

Check this out!

There are about 25 different little gifts. The greedy girl in me wanted to snap them all up and unwrap them at the same time. But I've tempered my impulses and I only open them when I'm feeling particularly blue or discouraged. I've opened four little packages so far. Amazing lift!!

What else lifts me?
Words with friends, definitely. Not the game (although I love it!! lol!), but words with/from/to friends. I love each and every kind word I receive, either in person or in writing. I've been wickedly remiss in replying to so many sweet responses here on the blog!! Each one is precious to me -- healing and solace to my spirit! My lack of response is a perfectionist impulse....I wanna say the right thing back, and can't find the time to formulate the words like I want to...I should be just as lifting to you as you are to me, doncha think?!

Beauty! is another thing...
Quilts, of course...

The red and green I was fortunate enough to photograph at a museum display before being told that photographs weren't allowed. (There weren't any signs! hehehe) The log cabin is my own, and the quilting still takes my breath!! Done by Mary at Quilt Hollow, there's not another quilt in my house that rivals its beauty. I fondle it frequently! LOL

Humor -- always a lifter!! My friend Rebecca tagged me in this one on facebook...

And of course, family.
We snapped this photo on Skype while Jeff was in Afghanistan...
The fuzzy blue robe on the left?? That's me....
Yet another reason for new "foundation garments!" LOL

Paul wrote to the Philippians a verse you've heard me quote before....

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praise-worthy -- think about such things." (Philippians 4:8)

All around us are things that God has provided for "amazing lift!" What is lifting you today!?

Blessings,

Half my life...

2011-09-25T22:24:00.000-04:00

Is it me, or is time passing very, very quickly from summer to fall, from year to year...so fast!!

It was a year ago that I posted this beauty:

Just a measly 24 years since Jeff and I tied the knot :-D, and three children, and some 20 lbs per child have passed. The loss of my parents and my son, a house built, three deployments, countless weekend National Guard drills, one kid off to college, and all three off to camp several times. 5K's, Boy Scouts, music lessons, mission trips, makeovers, sports events, chickens, bees, and quilts...

Happy Anniversary, Jeff!!

We celebrated tonight at Outback Steakhouse (hey, it's rural KY...that's as good as it gets! LOL), meeting there after Jeff's military duty and my taking Emily back to campus. Every year I ask him, "Any regrets?!" He's gracious enough always to say "I don't reckon." :-D

It dawned on me tonight as I drove home that I've now been married for half my life!! Is that scary or what!?

I wonder what I've been doing with the other half of my life!? LOL

Looking back at photos over the past few years...we're not much of a picture-taking family...

We managed to record a few memorable moments.

A trip to Monticello in 2007...
Lots of homeschooling memories....
Memories of camp...

Lots and lots of fabric and quilts....
And lots and lots of new friends.

I'm thankful for all that these 24 years have brought (and the 24 years before that, too! :-D)

The Psalmist wrote, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:12 NIV).

David is a little more direct in Psalm 39 (NLT):

“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.” (v. 4-5)

Much has happened in twenty-four years, in forty-eight years!...and time passes very, very quickly!! So many memories still to make! So many more people to know and love. So many quilts, so little time!!

I best get busy!!

Blessings,

Irene-isms

2011-09-19T22:53:00.000-04:00

I had the great pleasure of hosting several of my girlfriends for a while on Sunday afternoon for a session of laughter, man-bashing (LOL), strategizing, reminiscing, and just plain girl time that always does something wonderful for the soul!! Do you know about those kinds of girl afternoons!? Women at their best....I LOVE it!!

Whenever such afternoons occur, it is inevitable that I quote my mother. Her birthday is next week, and she would have been 79 years old.

Zouri Irene Boone Burke was a phenomenally independent spirited lady who was so very wise and witty. At first meeting, she was shy and carefully observant of you, although she was good to offer sparkling eyes and a genuine smile. But when you got to know her, she was practical, extremely funny, and had a way of "cutting to the chase" that all who knew her enjoyed.

(Doncha just love her glam photo, probably taken in 1949 or 1950?)

I don't know the origin of some her sayings, but see if you can appreciate the wisdom (and humor!) in them!!

1."Every tub has to sit on its own bottom."
Is that true or what!?! Even when I'm teaching quilting classes, I'm reminded that I am not responsible for other people's choices, and they are not responsible for mine. You wanna use that color!? I probably wouldn't, but it's your quilt. Do what you want! :-)

2. "[They] let their skimmer leak." Huh!? :-D

Mom's and Dad's wedding day, 1952

This refers to missed opportunities. She was especially fond of saying this to me and my sister in reference to all the boys who wouldn't date us in high school and now wish they had!! :-D I use it when I realize I should have bought 8 yards of that fabric because it would have been the perfect backing for my quilt. :-)

3. "If cows pooped butter, we wouldn't have to churn!" And yes, she actually said "pooped."
:-D No "blackguarding" from my mother! :-) Mom believed hard work would solve most problems in life and anything worth having you'll probably have to work hard for. The equivalent would be "no free lunch!" In this age of entitlement, a reminder that cows don't poop butter might be important to teach, huh?

4. "The more you stir manure, the more it stinks." Mom used this one mostly in reference to running down gossip and trying to determine who did what to whom when... Nonsense!! Don't sweat the small stuff. The more it's gossiped about or fretted over or messed in, the uglier it's gonna get. Better to let it go!

5. "Some people wouldn't be happy if you pooped in their plate." LOL We're country and grew up on a farm; poop figures prominently in our reality and our vernacular!! :-D Mom wasn't especially sarcastic, but this one is a classic!! The wisdom? Some people you can never make happy!

There's many, many more of these "Irene-isms." :-) As you might imagine, I'm keeping a list of them to include in her memory quilt.

I've shared her one intricately pieced quilt before....

The little red triangles are no more than an inch at their widest point. After this scrappy beauty, she decided it was crazy to cut big pieces of fabric into smaller ones and sew them back together. LOL

She loved my quilts, but it was "dreamin' of the 'tater hole" to think she'd make another one with little pieces! :-D

"A wife of noble character who can find?" the author of the Proverb wrote.

"She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue...Her children arise and call her blessed." Proverbs 31:26, 28

I was very blessed to have such a mother. I'm doing everything I can to make sure my children can say the same!!

Do you have any wise sayings from your family to share?

Blessings,

In Memory of Irene Burke

September 26, 1932 - May 10, 2007

Seeing Things Differently

2011-09-11T00:47:00.001-04:00

I spent the weekend working on my Farmer's Wife blocks and watching 9/11 remembered on all the major news networks. I admit to being somewhat flip about this ten-year anniversary. The sites in New York City, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon seem very, very far removed from my little corner of the world in southeastern Kentucky. Even Jeff's two tours in Afghanistan seem somehow unrelated, although both were part of the operations that grew out of those terrorist acts on American soil.

I recently met someone who worked in the South Tower in 2001. I don't know him well enough to have heard much of his story, but knowing someone who survived the devastation makes 9/11 more personal, more real. It is one thing to remember where you were while watching the footage on television; it's quite another to think about someone you know at Ground Zero.

What if...?

As I listened again to the stories of last words, of heroic acts, of courage and compassion, I was struck again by how we impact other people.

When we laid Sam to rest, we're told that over 1,500 people came to pay their last respects, many with stories of how this young homeschooled boy had impacted their lives.

And ten years after 9/11, the stories of the fallen and those who survived still have meaning, still have power.

In Scripture, stones of remembrance were laid for major events in Israel's history. As they crossed the Jordan river, Joshua instructed them, "In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them... These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever." He explains the reason behind remembering: "...so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God." (Joshua 4:6-7, 24 NIV)

I sew my Farmer's Wife blocks together and realize that quilters are all about remembering. Whether it's the memorial quilts that I've sewn for other people, or the ones I plan for Sam, or remaking the patterns made by quilters long ago...As quilters, we remember and pay homage to those who have gone before us.

We celebrate those who are yet to be.

And we use every opportunity to give comfort, warmth, peace and joy to those who are touched by our craft. I think of so many quilts -- 9/11 quilts, the AIDS quilts, quilts for abused children, tsunami and hurricane and fire victims...so many tragedies in which quilts helped in the healing process.

We do not always know the reasons things happen, but God's hand is powerful. And every act of remembrance, every time a story inspires or informs our lives, makes us aspire to greatness...then His hand is revealed.

I do not ever want to forget!
May God richly bless all who remain and remember!

Blessings,

Makeover!

2011-09-01T15:15:00.001-04:00

Before Emily went back to college we decided to do a facial together. A local and wonderful Mary Kay consultant (thanks Brenda Howell!) agreed to come to our house and bring "the works" with her!

And boy, did she!! We had a great time being "girly" and cutting up with Brenda, a regular old "hen party" with just us three.

A "hen party" is kinda appropriate. After I got dolled up, my mother would have told me that my "comb was getting red!" It's an old expression for older hens (like me, I guess! LOL) whose comb turns a brighter color to attract the roosters for the up-coming mating season and resulting chicks! LOL

I don't know about "mating season" (and as for chicks, well...I think that ship has sailed, if not physically just yet, certainly mentally! LOL), but I am feeling the need to reclaim some health and beauty, and Mary Kay is as good a way as any to start.

Brenda also invited me to a makeover photo shoot...and it was so much fun!! Take a look at some of the shots they achieved....I, who have NEVER been photogenic!! These pics are of ME! :-)

Change is inevitable and difficult! After doing well with fitness and weight loss earlier in the year, I slacked off when Jeff came home, then just couldn't find the heart or the time to go after Sam passed away.

But as the year slides away, I'm mindful of the time that I'm losing! Of the opportunities that might be hindered if I am not healthy, looking my best, accomplishing all that I can in the short time I have remaining. Even if God lets me live to be 100 years old, the time will pass all too quickly, as I'm discovering in my middle age. :-)

There can be makeovers by the dozen, but no do-overs.

I was pulling out quilts to work on with my Hobby Quilter and found Ribbons from Kim Brackett's Scrap Bag Surprises. When I laid it out, I found -- much to my dismay -- one of the blocks turned the wrong way...

I "carved" the block out of the top (thankfully it was close to the border!), and turned it around so that the pattern was preserved.

If the quilt top had "feelings" :-D, I'm sure it would have protested the ripping, pulling, pressing, pinning and mending that took place
to bring it a little closer to perfection. :-)

I know I'm not having an easy time of this "perfecting" thing...
The Apostle Paul called it work!! :-)

"We proclaim him," (referring to Jesus), "admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy which so powerfully works in me." (Colossians 1: 28-29 NIV)

Christ is in the business of makeovers, more's the praise!! And the result is -- well, what we hoped we looked like all along!! I'm glad His energy can work powerfully in me, even when I'm not too excited about the prospect.

Even when this old hen doesn't feel like it. When pain and loss and mending are difficult.

So! It's up at 5:30 to walk in the mornings, aerobics three times a week. Beauty products and rest instead of staying up all hours to quilt and play Words with Friends! LOL

And the perfecting of the spirit--just as difficult and painful--but so worth the end result!!

Blessings,

Memory Eye Candy

2011-08-25T10:11:00.000-04:00

The weekend is coming! The weekend is coming!! :-)
And it's gonna be a good one!!
I've gotten several things done this week, and I'm as pleased as punch about it! Nothing like actually finishing something (I am, after all, Queen Starts-a-lot) to make me feel that I'm not THE most useless person on the planet right now!

AND! I'm getting company! My friend Jennifer and her boys are coming up for a special Memorial Run for my Sam...more about that in a minute....

Look what I've done!! :-D
This is a "Little Jo" pattern from Jo Morton. I've had it pieced for a while, and finally machine quilted it on my Bernina. I used the walking foot on the 4-patches, and did some free-motion "L's" and "U's" in the sashing strips and some curly waves in the borders. I used matching thread, of course! So you can't see my blunders, but I'm thrilled with the finish!

I also managed to complete two t-shirt quilts I had in the works for a friend. One is bound (yippee!) and the other is at the quilter.

They are for members of the same family, so they are similar, but uniquely their own with their memories represented in those wonderful t-shirts. The mom asked for quotations on her son's quilt. It was fun figuring out how to do the letters, and they turned out really cool....

So much so that I used them on Jennifer's quilt -- which is actually finished in time for her visit here this weekend!! I've called the quilt "The Best of Times" -- and it is representative of the many places we went and memories our families made together. I wanted the quilt to be a kind of scrap book of our time together.

A dear friend of mine, Mary Greene, made a scrap book for me of Sam...She is such an artist!! Look at some of the pages she created:

The rest of the album is just as beautiful, like memory eye-candy! My quilt doesn't approach Mary's kind of artistry, but at least it brings to mind many of our adventures together. We'll reminisce while they are here.

Also this weekend, Cumberland Homeschool Athletic Teams (CHAT :-) is hosting the Sam Casada Trail Blazer Memorial Run. This is the organization through which Sam and Jennifer's boys got to compete in cross country and basketball. Jennifer and her boys are coming up to participate in the run and spend some time with us.

A local girl drew a likeness of Sam for the run's t-shirt.

It's gonna be a great weekend!

The book of Proverbs tells us that "The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot." (Proverbs 10:7 NIV)
Love it!!

At the end of the story of Esther, that brave queen who intervened for her people in the Old Testament, the writer admonishes us, "These days should be remembered and observed in every generation, by every family..." (Esther 9:28 NIV)

How are you making memory eye candy? Will your memory be a blessing?

Blessings!

Hearts Fly Free

2011-08-16T01:39:00.001-04:00

I've been sorta paralyzed for the last several weeks, getting only a little bit done on projects with deadlines, but not really accomplishing as much as I'd like, nor getting to projects that are burning in my brain to be started! And the truth is, I don't really function well in chaos....which is a shame, 'cause I don't really function well as a housekeeper, either! LOL

We had a bunch of friends over on Saturday night, though, and the impending cook-out/games night meant getting my house in order for company! My sewing room looked like the villains from Raiders of the Lost Ark had come through, ransacking for ancient powerful artifacts!! Is that the Ark of the Covenant!!! The Holy Grail? Glowing stones for ancient gods or crystals left by aliens!?!

NO! just gigantic piles of fabrics, scraps, and tools, thank you very much!

Since I can't seem to clean the rest of the house until the sewing room is done, I tied in and got-r-done!

Finally, then, I'm free from the weeks of clutter and ever-mounting piles of stuff! in my sewing room (although I dare not open the closet door too fast for fear of an avalanche!! That is a project for another day!), and I'm able to start something I've been wanting to do for a while.

I delved into my scraps today to make a leader/ender project. Many of the pieces had already been cut into 1 1/2" strips, so I started whittling them down into squares for "Crabapples" from Bonnie Hunter's Adventures with Leaders and Enders book.

I'll feed my leaders and enders through as I work on a couple more quilts for others (I've got a t-shirt quilt and a couple of memorial quilts on the burner) and on Sam's Darling Hearts. Last week I received a block from Teresa at Fabric Therapy, and it's another beautiful addition to the quilt:

That brings the total of blocks I've received up to 34!!! I'm eager to start putting them together!!

I love the words Teresa embroidered on her block: "Hearts Fly Free"

I've been reading in the gospel of John this month, and Jesus talks a lot about freedom! "The truth will set you free," He says in chapter 8, verse 32. A little further in the chapter He says this...

"I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:34-35)

There's no doubt in my mind that my son Sam is free!! What a blessing! What a testimony! So Teresa's block is another beautiful expression of Sam's life and death. I've been amazed at how people have understood his heart and made blocks that just "fit," you know?

Now if I could just get all my sewing stuff to fit....
I'm not sure even Indiana Jones could help me with that!!

Blessings,

Temptation!

2011-08-10T01:55:00.002-04:00

Temptation comes in many forms and I've had more than my share in the last little while!! :-) Who knew I would be so easily led astray!! LOL

Our pastor called our church to a corporate Daniel fast this month. Like Daniel in the Bible, he encouraged the congregation to eat simply and Biblically. Traditionally, Daniel is said to have eaten vegetables and fruits, no meats or sweets or the "rich foods of the king." Jeff and I agreed to give it a try. I did very well at home, even lost 4 lbs in the first 4 days! ...

But when I traveled with some friends to Berea, KY for their annual Quilt Extravaganza, I didn't fare so well!

My friends and I ate at the inestimable historic Boone Tavern, Berea College's hotel and restaurant of modern Southern cuisine. I was done for!! Chicken in a Bird's nest (the nest is made of deep fried, thin strips of potatoes) with cranberry orange jelly! Spoon bread!! It was fantastic. Not so good for my consistency on the Daniel fast! :-)

And then there were the vendors at the quilt show!! I do not need fabric. But it's difficult to resist some of the beautiful things I saw. I managed to pick up just a few goodies. I still don't know how to use batiks or hand-dyes, but I'm drawn to their rich color and silky texture. I succumbed to temptation all too easily!

In the wake of my loss this summer, I find myself lonely for Sam so often. And with that loneliness comes the temptation to fill the emptiness with the wrong things.

Wanting to be closer than is appropriate with a fun male friend.
Spending too much.
Giving in to depression.
Pulling away from God.
Telling Him, "I don't want to be close to You right now!"

He is so big and so mighty, though, that my pain and the resulting temptations do not scare or surprise Him! In fact, He is aware in every way of what I am going through.

The writer of Hebrews explains:
"...He had to be made like his brothers in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people." (Hebrews 2:17 NIV)

Then, catch this in verse 18:

"Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."

The Apostle Paul says, "And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." (1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV)

I don't think it's ever easy to resist temptation. Sometimes, it's downright painful. And right now, that pain seems to compound the other loss that I feel. But Jesus knows all about suffering, and He is able to help.

I don't know exactly what way of escape will be available, but when I need it, He will provide it. It will probably include that perfect little word that is so hard to say: "No!" But He will help me say it.

And He will fill the empty places as no one and nothing else can!

Blessings,

10th Hour

2011-08-01T22:25:00.001-04:00

A day late and a dollar short....
Yeah! That's about right!! LOL
Finally! Finally got my Hands 2 Help Challenge Quilt top completed!! I've struggled with this one!!

Diane sent me some beautiful bright fabrics along with a soothing gray. (Her blog -- click here -- is just beautiful, too!) I added fabrics from my stash and this is the finished flimsey:

The quilt has to be in the mail no later than the end of this week, so I'll be putting it on the Hobby Quilter tomorrow to finish it up and get it mailed on time.

My friend Pat from upstate New York :-), the Project Linus Coordinator in our area, volunteered to send a quilt for the children in Romania!! Pat's quilt, like mine, is bright colors -- and she used the cutest print for the backing!! I'm so thrilled to have an extra quilt to send with mine!!

Seems like for weeks now that I've spun my wheels and not gotten much done, but perhaps I've turned a corner by getting Jennifer's quilt top (last post) and this one complete.

I need to work on Farmer's Wife blocks this week, complete a block for a friend (due on Saturday), get my club's Mystery Quilt installment written...
Lots to do!

My church is reading the Gospel of John together during the next 21 days -- one chapter a day. Today was the first day and first chapter. It tickled me to read that a couple of John the Baptist's desciples followed Jesus about the "tenth hour." :-) (Wonder if they were working on quilts for orphans?! :-D)

Even more impressive, though, is Andrew's response to Jesus:

The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. (John 1:41-42a)

It's never too late -- 10th hour or no! -- to know Jesus. It's never to late to tell someone else and bring them to Him!!

Blessings,

Friendship

2011-07-30T23:57:00.000-04:00

On Sunday morning, bright and early, my best friend pulls out of the driveway I've driven up and down at least a hundred times in the last year and heads for her new home in another state. I'm not quite ready to let her go!! :-)

You'd think it would be easy....I have lots of friends! Quilting friends, church friends, school friends, homeschooling friends -- and even Words with Friends friends! :-D

But it's a very rare thing when all the planets converge and all those friendship properties collide in one person! Jennifer has been friend, confidante, sounding board (probably a sounding BORED from her end! LOL), networker, quilter, shopper, purse maker (she came to my house and said, "We're sewing those purses you've had cut out for over a year TODAY! Here, sew this seam!")...

We go to church together, quilt club together, quilt shows, homeschool events, Boy Scouts....
She even has a son named Sam!! Could any two people be more destined to become friends?

Her boys and my Sam were best friends. Luke and Sam were nearly inseparable, and my Emily is big sister to all of them. Last fall we traveled with them to Mississippi for their family reunion, stopping by Operation Christmas Child (the shoebox people! :-D) to serve on the way home.

Our families ate dinner together tonight and I gave her a "scrapbook" quilt memento of our combined history (this is the "sneak peaks" I've been showing):

It has all the states we traveled together. "In-jokes" our families have shared. (We'd laugh to split a gut over the Geico commercial with the militant therapist who asks, "You know what makes me sad...? You do!" he answers himself! LOL). A World Changers mission trip emblem; "Yo tengo hambre!" (I am hungry!! from teenage boys in the backseat of my van from KY all the way to Louisiana! LOL). Runners for our boys and their cross country races and 5K's. Names and words and phrases and memories in the borders. Favorite restaurants and funny experiences.

When Sam died, Jennifer and her boys were on their way to meet her husband, who had already started his new job there, to house-hunt in their new locale. She was past Chattanooga, more than 3 hours from us. When I called with the news that Monday morning, she immediately turned the car around -- put their life on hold!! -- and came to me. And stayed all week. And served. And cried with me and for me.

She is beautiful and talented, wise, compassionate and practical, a gifted leader, teacher, organizer and networker. She is wonderful at putting people together. And I am missing her already. We'll remain close, of course, but I will miss the everyday things! I will miss her boys! Our lives -- and now our memories! -- are so intertwined....It's as if she is taking not only herself and her family but also a part of us, too.

In Scripture there was such a friend.

The son of King Saul, Jonathan, befriended a shepherd named David. "Jonathan," 1 Samuel 18:1 says, "became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself." Later in chapter 20, Jonathan chooses David's welfare and future as king over his own (much to Saul's dismay and disappointment!). When Jonathan warns David of the danger of King Saul,

"...David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most. Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town." (1 Samuel 20:41-42 NIV)

Only God can bring people together in such a way. I am so blessed to have Jennifer as a friend!! I hope I AM such a friend!!

Blessings,

More Heart

2011-07-27T00:30:00.000-04:00

I arrived home from camp on Saturday to find some lovelies waiting for me!
Two more beautiful blocks for Sam's Darling Hearts:

One from Mrs. G at From the Strawberry Patch and one from Janet O. at Rogue Quilter! They are perfect! I took the other blocks to camp to show the gals there, and I haven't put them back up on the design wall with these yet, but I will. I can't wait to see how they all look together.

I can't just yet because of the I-can't-reveal-it-yet project that I'm working on.

I have another sneak peak (or two)....

For those of you who guessed states last time, yes...! We are journeying through the south. I should know by this weekend where I'm going! LOL (Sorry, Crispy! I know how you hate sneak peaks!! :-D)

I also received a package containing my Farmhouse Quilt Kit from Laundry Basket Quilts. Just look at how Edyta puts her kit together!

Everything is labeled and folded beautifully so that you can see all the colors and textures. I love her use of color!! And since I'm terrible at using batiks, I figure I'll take advantage of her flair for them to make the Farmhouse quilt from her Friendship Strips and Scraps book.

We also received word while I was at camp that our Sam died of cardiac disrhythmia of unknown etiology. Which means, of course, that his heart stopped and they don't know why. Profound, huh!?

:-) We will probably not know in this life the physiological cause of his death. Paul tells us, though, in 1 Corinthians 13 (Amplified) that the time will come when we will understand "fully and clearly":

¹²For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as ^[a]in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand ^[b]fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been ^[c]fully and clearly known and understood [^[d]by God].

Our family doctor looked over the medical examiner's report and commented that Sam had a large heart! Not at all unusual for a runner like Sam. But we knew he had a big heart long before he started running! :-) Sam's best friend, Luke, commented that Sam loved without filters.

Like Jesus.

Paul ends his chapter this way:

¹³And so faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Sam's Darling Hearts will be a visible reminder of what love looks like! I hope my own legacy is that my heart was big and I loved without filters! .

Blessings!

Home Away From Home

2011-07-20T07:25:00.001-04:00

I'm spending this week in LaFollette, TN at Galilee Bible Camp where the kids and I have served during the last several summers. It's Middle School week and Will is a camper and I'm leading worship each evening at chapel.

The staff and volunteers here pour themselves into the campers week after week during the summer. They are dear friends, and they have been a wonderful influence on our family. We are blessed to be a part of the ministry here.

This week, I'm not as active as usual at camp. It's a kind of retreat for me, as there are memories of Sam everywhere. Emily and Will, too -- so it's sweet and sad to be here with Sam gone, Emily grown up, and Will so quickly growing, too.

One of the missionaries, Rebecca, gave me a couple of heart blocks for Sam's Darling Hearts quilt. She is catching the quilting bug (YES!! :-D), and rightly so with Selma Jean and I helping her catch it!!

Selma Jean, a prolific wonderful quilter, also made a heart block. And she surprised me yesterday with beautiful handmade ornaments, each embroidered with my children's names.

On Sam's she included the dates of his birth and death. It struck me that from now on, people will see Emily and Will and think I only have two children. But I have three. I'll always have three. :-) So three ornaments!! Selma Jean understands!!!

I brought projects to work on while at camp. It's a nice quiet time for me, and I have some deadlines approaching....the Hands-2-Help quilt for Romania, for one! I've got the blocks laid out and ready to be put together. The deadline is the end of the month....so yeah! Onward!! LOL

I also have another project that is short on time (aren't they all! LOL)! This one, I can't reveal just yet, but here is a hint....

I have the rest of that quilt in my head...and it's gotta get outa there and onto fabric in the next couple of weeks....Let's hope I can make that transition from vision to concrete reality! LOL

Between the heat and my working on projects, I'm ready for sleep tonight. I'm resting on a beautiful pillowcase made by my friend, Lil. She makes dozens of pillowcases to share with friends, family and people in need. She knows my colors (red, green and gold!!), and I love that she included a label on the inside, too.

It's an oasis here, a home away from home. Maybe because I take "home" with me! :-D My sewing machine! My pillow and my quilts. My Pepsi! :-D (and a bit of zucchini bread). My family. My friends. My memories.

And the God of all Comfort and Peace:

Psalm 139:7-10

⁷Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence?
⁸If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the place of the dead), behold, You are there.
⁹If I take the wings of the morning or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.

There's no place like Home!

Blessings!

Words with Friends

2011-07-14T00:02:00.002-04:00

I haven't gotten much done in the last few days. I find that I've been captivated by a little game called Words with Friends!!

I inherited Sam's iPod -- everybody else in the family already had one!! -- and I figured I'd use it to listen to audio books while I work or walk. Sam had mostly games and music on his, and 99% of the games didn't interest me at all, but I really wanted to play Words!

And boy, have I been playing!! LOL
I blame my children, of course. They'd never play Scrabble with me.

And while it's true that I'm a TINY (teeny, tiny, really!!!) bit competitive, I would have given them a sporting chance. At first. Until the opportunity came to use all my letters....

Tracy from Back to Basics plays with me. And when she's busy (cooking, canning, gardening, quilting, walking....she gets LOTS of stuff done!!!) or her kids are busy (they really are very good sports!), I troll for random players online. I'm enthralled!!! I keep the game up by my sewing machine and respond when I hear the "ding-a-ling" signalling a word has been proffered!

The t-shirt quilt I've been working on has a lot of words on it...

I like some of the sentiments that are going into the quilt. Like this one:

Scripture says "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." (Proverbs 18:21 KJV)
I like how the Message version states it:
"Words kill, words give life;
they're either poison or fruit—you choose."

I have received literally hundreds of words of comfort and blessing since I started blogging last year, and most especially in the last few weeks.

Good words make such a difference, don't they?

"A word fitly spoken," says the Proverbs, "is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." (Proverbs 25:11 KJV)
Doesn't that description make you wanna applique? LOL

"Picture" is a seven-letter word...it's serious bonus points if I use all seven of my letters. My ID is mlcasada if you wanna play!!

Blessings,

Hearts and Sparrows and a UFO or two

2011-07-06T16:05:00.001-04:00

July is passing too quickly!

I'm hoping to put the Heart blocks together along with completing this month's UFO's for Judy's UFO Challenge. My #2's are the top of the Victory Quilt (for which I have all the blocks done!), and quilting for Somerset (a Jo Morton pattern).

I've decided to name the Heart quilt, "Sam's Darlin' Hearts." :-) Mostly because all the blocks are sweet and because they make me cry like Charlene Darlin' on Andy Griffith! :-D

The latest addition to the collection of blocks in memory of Sam comes from Barb at Fun with Barb.

Somerset (I "tweaked" Jo's pattern
by putting the blocks on point)

Barb pieced the background of her block from scraps of her Mother's Garden quilt. She designed the beautiful memory quilt, completed the top last year, and she is hand quilting it. It's a stunning tribute to her mom, and you can read about it here: Good Mourning.

Her card said, "...I have only scraps left over from my 'Mother's Garden' quilt and very much wanted to use it for you. I have one of my sparrows flying in with a double dose of Friendship and Love."

Quilt-in-a-Day's Victory Quilt blocks

The sparrow....well, that's another beautiful story. Barb wrote about it in The Sparrow Story and you'll be blessed as I was to note it's symbolism.

I had to look up the lyrics to the song by Simon and Garfunkel that Barb referenced (it'd been a long, long time since I'd heard it!). The last verse says this....

Who will love a little Sparrow?

Will no one write her eulogy?

"I will," said the Earth,

"For all I've created returns unto me,

From dust were ye made and dust ye shall be."

The little sparrow is a perfect addition to the quilt!

I've started planning the setting for the blocks...

I'm gonna use Sam's favorite blue to frame the lighter blocks, and a creamy delicate floral to frame the darker ones. I've not arranged them yet in their final layout (there are a couple of blocks still coming, I think!), but I love shifting them around, standing back and listening as they sing to me.

They are an orchestra of color, and the sum total of them more amazing than any single block. And each has a story or a card or an encouraging word to go with it. I'm making a page to tell their story (see above, Sam's Quilts) and the story of the quilts that will be made in his memory.

Barb references Psalm 84 --
³ Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God. ⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

She couldn't know that one of my "life verses" is Psalm 84:11: For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Coincidence? Maybe, but I prefer to think that even in these little details God is being Himself and watching out for His little sparrows!

I think God is all about the details...

See what He says (another passage with sparrows...):

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Matthew 10: 29-31

You are more precious than many sparrows!!! Don't that'n just make you wanna cry!!?? :-)

Blessings!

More than I Deserve!

2011-06-30T01:05:00.003-04:00

I'm winding down a couple of t-shirt quilts I'd committed to do for others and looking forward to moving on to other projects! :-) I have another few memorial quilts in the works for people, but they don't have strict deadlines so I can be more leisurely about getting them done.

I've been taking a few minutes each evening to work on the binding of this quilt:

I got it in the mail earlier this week from Mary at Quilt Hollow. She actually won the quilt top from Kelly at Cottage Charm Quilt's blog, Charming Chatter!

Mary quilted it with her fabulous quilting (she always uses the most beautiful thread, too!) and sent it along to me with the binding attached, but not finished. Her note said that she hoped I would sit on my porch and think beautiful thoughts of Sam while doing the hand work. And that's exactly what I've been doing, a little each evening.

Quilts are always comfort -- but this one will hold a special place in my heart, as you might imagine!! I'm gonna have a whole collection of "Sam" quilts between those made with his clothing, my heart blocks, the blue fat quarters my club gave me in his memory, and this beautiful piece. It's just so very humbling to be the recipient of such generosity!!

Another wonderful mailbox blessing was the 41 yards (!!!!!) that I won from Vicky at LAQuilter. Beautiful florals and pastels -- colors that I don't have any of in my stash.

You may have seen my stash or photos of it here or at Stash Manicure when I've guested over there. I don't need fabric, but I do love fabric! :-D And I've recently been stretching my color palette beyond the repros and Thimbleberries into lights and brights -- and I honestly don't have a clue how to use them! LOL I'm starting out simply, though.... We'll see how it goes.

Some friends of ours here in town asked us over to pick blueberries.

We had a rich, wonderful time with them and collected nearly 3 gallons of berries. I found out later that they are running $20/gallon from pick-your-own patches!! Such phenemenal generosity from Jeff and Vicky. After grazing over our buckets for a day, I still managed to freeze 10 quarts!!

Our Will had a fun time....

Even more so when he nabbed the camera for himself!

I told Mary that one humbling Biblical truth I keep encountering is that we always reap more than we sow.

Scripture tells us,

⁶ Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷ Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)

I think of myself as a generous person; I don't claim ownership of a lot (I've even understood that my family -- my children, in particular -- is just on loan from God), so it's always been easy for me to give.

But what I have received in this past month since Sam died is way, way, way more than I deserve, way out of proportion to what I've ever done for anyone else.

The writer of Hebrews tells us, "Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)

Just when I need it, His grace is there, administered to me by your loving hands!!

Thank you so very much!
Thank You, Lord, so very much!!

Blessings,

Sam's Journal

2011-06-23T00:05:00.002-04:00

Check it out! I'm the guest blogger over at Stash Manicure today!! I spent some time over there talking about Quilt Journals and how meaningful journaling about my quilts has become.

Here are some journal entries I didn't show over there:

I found some photos of Sam stuck in my journal...they hadn't quite made it to the narrative pages yet! (I'm further behind in my quilt journal than I want to be, for sure!!)

There are photos of a signature quilt I'd made for Emily's and Sam's youth leaders a few years back. He'd signed his name "Sam ("The Man") Casada."
:-D He loved that I let him immortalize his nick-name on a quilt! LOL

Sam journaled a little in the weeks before he died. He was participating in a "Throw Down" (like Bobby Flay! :-D) with his youth group, and along with reading the New Testament in 40 days and also reading a couple of books, specific prayer times, and other character-building exercises :-), he was challenged to write something in a journal each day. Listen to some of the things he wrote....

Today I started a throwdown. Something to really stretch me in my walk with Christ. As of right now, I am struggling with different temptations such as, porn, lust, lies....Also I'm trying to get to that place of total surrender. God is working in my life with different things, but some of these things are what I'm supposed to do in life, also how to serve Him in the present. Philippians 2:5-13 I'm overwhelmed. But God...He will use me. (5/11/11)

Loving reading our Bible plan so far. It's great to follow Jesus around. It's like hanging with a friend. I also realize that this needs to be a consistent thing. I'm not sure what God has planned for me yet, but I'm sure it will be something great! (5/13/11)

Already starting to fall behind. Sticking on schedule is harder than it seems. Thought for the day: My joy is found in serving. (5/16/11)

I laugh when I see his entries getting shorter! Journaling was hard for him. I love knowing some of his thoughts in the days just before he died. No wonder I have peace!!! He was a normal kid with normal struggles....but he was also extraordinary!! :-) He was always the "lover" of our family -- affectionate, soft-hearted, eager to help. Like the moon and stars of the quilt he wanted for Christmas (the top that I'd completed just a few weeks before he passed!), he could not be contained on earth!

Philippians 2:5-13 (ESV)

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

ThereforeGod has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

I'm eager to see the great things God does with Sam's life and death. I'm glad Sam knew it would be great!!

Blessings!

The Darlin's...

2011-06-19T21:09:00.000-04:00

I've been thinkin' about the Darlin's -- you know? from Andy Griffith!? and seems like everytime I turn around someone's mentioned them and we roll in the floor laughing 'bout them and Earnest T. Bass. Classic stuff!!

I know why I've been thinking about the Darlin's.
It's that line that Charlene says.
"How 'bout playin' 'Never Hit Your Granma with a Great Big Stick!'" says one of the brothers. "Aw, no, Dub...That'n makes me cry!"

I got a heart block in the mail from Crispy on Friday. And to quote dear old Charlene,

"That'n makes me cry!"

Is it perfect or what!? Chris said she knew instantly what she wanted to do for the block -- and it is exactly what my heart feels!! I can't wait to put it with the other beautiful blocks -- 26 of them so far!!! -- and marvel at how God can use quilt blocks to so effectively minister and bless our family. How can I possibly repay any of you for the love you've shown me in the wake of Sam's death!?

All I know to do is pray MAJOR blessings on you all -- As Jesus said, "give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be putinto your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you." (Luke 6:38 ESV) Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over... Yeah! That's what I want for you!!

It's been a good week. We had our Farmer's Wife class...I'm up to 71 of the 111 blocks!! Whoohoo!!

My flowers are blooming.... (boy, does that make me wanna applique!! Weird, huh!? :-D)

I'm making progress on the t-shirt quilts I'm making for someone, and I've gotten started on the Tina Givens fat quarters quilt...(and this old Civil War/Thimbleberries gal is LOVIN' the colors!!!)

And for those who enjoy the Darlin's....

Blessings!

Gobs of Grace!

2011-06-14T16:39:00.000-04:00

I stopped by Paula's Quilting Pantry today as the last of the Project Linus gals were finishing up. Today Pat, our Project Linus Coordinator, was putting labels on quilts for Joplin, MO. Other gals in the shop were hard at work! It reminds me I need to get back into the groove -- quilts for Hands-2-Help/Romania, quilts for friends having babies, "Boxer Rebellion"s :-D, quilts for classes, quilts for hire...quilts, quilts, quilts!! Exactly what I need!

It's been a good day. :-)
Look at what Shelley sent me:
She's fabulous with wool projects (check her out at http://www.redquilts.blogspot.com/) and as sweet a friend as there is. Keep her in your prayers! Her husband David is dealing with some health stuff, and they need "grace for the hour," as the old saying goes.

Grace abounds around here!! Missing Sam daily is new, very hard stuff. But I make my way to my porch....

and rock and remember and cry and sigh. For just a while. Peace restored, and I'm able to get up and go on. The rockers were brought to us by Scottie and Patty -- very dear friends who've known us since Sam was in diapers and can tell you stories on us and Sam that make you split a gut with laughter! :-D Check Patty's blog out here: http://www.mymountainblessings.blogspot.com/

Still more grace in the mail...
Two more heart blocks, bringing the total to 24. Each of you will be hearing from me...I'm so grateful for the beauty and joy you are bringing to our home right now!

Jeff took me out for some "retail therapy" on the way to the in-laws on Friday. Some Whimsicals fat quarters are totally me! LOL

...and Tina Givens fats -- totally out of my comfort zone, not me at all! :-D, but I had a quilt in mind when I got them. AND I got 36 fat quarters for $39.99....Yeah, they were feeling VERY much like me by the time I got them home! LOL

I wanna make a quilt like Sarah made for the Hand-2-Help Challenge. Won't her quilt look good in my fabrics?

Um, Yeah! Love it!! :-D
So gobs and gobs of grace around here!!
And why not!? It's just like the Father, isn't it!?

¹⁸ Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you,
And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
How blessed are all those who long for Him.
¹⁹ O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.
²⁰ Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. ²¹ Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it" (Isaiah 30: 18-21 NASB)

Thank you, Lord, for Your grace (especially today as shown by others to us!)!

Blessings,

Treasures

2011-06-09T22:53:00.001-04:00

Unexpected treasures have made their way into my world this week! Gifts too numerous to count, but I'm gonna list a few...
:-D

1) Newly discovered photos!! I found several pictures of Sam this week that I either didn't remember I had or that others had taken and shared with me. A couple that I particularly loved was one of Sam and Emily, his little BIG sister (she looks younger, but she's in college! :-D) and another of Sam at camp playing carpet ball. Priceless!!

No doubt about it, I have beautiful kids! :-D (Not a speck of bias in that statement of course! A photo of the "baby" is below, too! LOL)

Although we are not so much a picture-taking family, the photos we have are even more precious to us now, a treasure for sure!! We got to see lots of them at a tribute for Sam at Galilee Bible Camp in Lafollette, TN! Another precious treasure of memories made by and with Sam!

2) Knock-outs!! Roses, of course!
My incredible quilt club, the Mountain Laurel Quilters not only provided dinner for us all last week while we were cleaning Sam's room and going through his things. This week they delivered not one, not two, not even three....but TEN!! knock-out roses to us to plant in memory of Sam! They are beautiful and Jeff and Will put five of them in the ground today.

3) Front porch peace! :-)
Thanks to the Cumberland Homeschool Athletic Teams, the group with which Sam ran cross country and played basketball (and the coach's wife, Tracy, is one of my quilting friends and has a beautiful blog here!), we have a new glider/bench gracing our front porch! We've spent precious time there admiring our knock-out roses and....

4) The RAIN!! After 90+ degree-days, stuffy and humid, an intense and wonderful thunderstorm line went through, watering our new plantings and our garden. Awesome!!

And 5) Sweet Hearts!
More beautiful heart blocks have come in the mail -- a total of 22 so far! Now coming up on three weeks since Sam's passing, the "reality" of his absence hits us daily. But we cannot help but count our blessings, and appreciate the treasures God has given us!

Jesus said,“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21 NIV)

I've never been one that focused on Heaven; knowing Jesus is about more than a ticket out of Hell. Knowing Jesus is having a relationship with the Creator God of the universe. And He is my ultimate treasure.

But now, as loved ones -- my mom, dad, and son -- have gone ahead of me to the Presence of God, I find that those treasures, too, call me Home. Truly, where my treasure is, my heart is as well!

Won't you join us there someday!?

Blessings!

Finding Normal

2011-06-03T14:00:00.001-04:00

I'm having a productive Friday! After some difficult days, we are finding a rhythm while preparing our home and our hearts for days without our middle child. His absence is a tangible thing...we stop mid-task and remember and laugh about something Sam said or did. Or we sit and listen to the silence and cry some. It's all good. He is well loved and will be well remembered.

I'm slowly making my way back into the sewing room. Other things have had priority this week like some much-needed deep cleaning, some gardening (corn, beans, tomatoes, okra, zucchini and zinnias :-D), going through Sam's things and determining what is "keeper" and what should be saved or donated.

But my sewing room calls me! :-) I have a couple of t-shirt quilts, a couple of memory quilts, and three pieced quilt tops (I have the blocks, so I design the setting and sew them together) to do for other people, and I really need to get them done this month. And as I'm preparing them, I'm thinking about how I can use Sam's t-shirts and dress shirts for quilts (Bonnie Hunter wouldn't waste them!! LOL).

Speaking of Bonnie, she sent me the sweetest email expressing sympathy over Sam's passing, and I had to ask her, "Can I use Sam's boxer shorts in a quilt!?" :-D

TWENTY-FOUR pairs! 2 Dozen! AND...About 18 of them were on the floor. LOL We've laughed while cleaning his room. If he hadn't died, we'd have "killed him" over the dust and debris and multiple piles of laundry! LOL Washing his clothes gave me much solace, sorting as I went along into "Will will grow into these," goodwill, and "going into a quilt" piles.

Bonnie says the boxers can be used...I'll have to watch for the thinner parts (in the seat and inner thighs :-D), but if old feedsacks and recycled clothing from eras past have lasted, there's no reason his boxers won't work. I've had in mind a while to do something with the boxers he outgrew (and those Jeff rips out along the way as well! :-D), and my idea was to call the quilt, "Boxer Rebellion." LOL I have plenty to work with, I think, for a good-sized quilt.

Bonnie's note was one of literally hundreds. Thank you all SO very, very much for the sweet cards and emails and blog posts....I'm just overwhelmed by the love and sympathy.

And someone got a quilt block thing going for me....

Hearts!!

I've gotten eleven heart blocks in the mail!! When we realised Sam was gone home, I turned into Jeff's arms and whispered, "He was the son of my heart!" -- So much like me, outgoing and always laughing and quipping. With me all the time, self-professed on his facebook profile a "momma's boy." :-D ...

How absolutely lovely and perfect the hearts are! Words cannot express my joy and overwhelming gratitude at such an outpouring by you all. Without a doubt, you have helped me immeasurably through this tragedy, and my blessings are too many to number in it!!

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

⁹ Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. ¹⁰ For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

Thank you all so much for lifting me up!

Blessings,

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.
Psalm 116:15 (NKJV)

Peace

2011-05-27T21:24:00.002-04:00

We celebrated Sam's life today and laid him to rest beside his granny and papaw. It was a celebration of a life well lived!!!

We heard testimony of people from all ages and walks of life who were impacted by knowing him. We heard of his devotion to his family and to God, of how he wanted to follow Jesus, and of his servant heart.

We were so blessed.
And we had to laugh!
He was just our Sam!
The noise of our home.
The kid who kissed us goodnight (what 17 year old does that!?! :-D).
The one who poked his sister Emily 'til she bonked him on the head. (No injuries, just laughter!)
The one who mocked his little brother Will until Will screamed, "Shut up, Sam!!!"
The one who, when asked to unload the dishwasher, said, "I don't believe I will!!" then laughed and cheerfully obeyed.

As we viewed him for the last time, Jeff and I both felt the loss of our responsibility as a parent to him. It is no longer our concern that he is home safe. No longer a worry that his studies aren't complete, that he prepares for the ACT, does his chores ("Hey Sam! Did you...!?"), eats or drinks or...

And we wept.

I thought about tucking him into the quilts I'd made for him when he was younger! But no, I'll hold them close in the days to come, breathe in his fragrance ("A little too much Axe, Sam!!" lol) and remember.

We have been able to find purpose and joy and laughter amid all the grief, and people tell us "You are so strong!"

The truth is, of course, that we are not.

But we agree with the apostle Paul who said, "'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10)

And His strength came to us from people all over the world praying for us!!

We are so very grateful for our amazing family! Our remaining two children and extended family who ministered and blessed us in incredible ways. Our Faith Family -- a former pastor and current pastor who phenomenally presented the Gospel of Christ while celebrating Sam's life, and staff and friends who gave and gave and gave. Our Quilt family, awesome ladies! Our Blog family -- Oh my word!!! what an outpouring of support and sympathy and love.

Yes indeed, when we are weak, HE is strong. Mighty to Save! Awesome in power! Phenomenal in grace!

And Sam's legacy begins...

The gift of life to others through organ and tissue donation.
The gift of inspiration to, as his godmother says,(and he quoted on Facebook :-D), "Be different! Do better!"
The gift of joy, in running the race well and finishing well.

He loved the story of Eric Liddell, Olympic runner featured in the film Chariots of Fire. Two quotes were among his favorites --

"I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast! When I run, I feel His pleasure."

But the one that gives me the greatest peace is this one:

"We are all missionaries. Wherever we go, we either bring people nearer to Christ, or we repel them from Christ."

Without a doubt, our little Sam brought people nearer to Christ.
So we grieve. But we bid him GODSPEED! Run home, baby!

Thank you, Father God, for giving him to us.

Thank you, Father God, for making his life count!!

Thank you, Father God, for the life that remains for us with Emily and Will.

And for Your peace, Lord, that passes understanding!!

Blessings,

Hope

2011-05-24T00:36:00.002-04:00

Today, we very unexpectedly and unaccountably lost our 17 year old son.
He was perfectly healthy, an athlete, and a completely beautiful fine young man. And with no rhyme or reason, we found him this morning, already gone home to be with God.

He loved my quilts and indulged my quilting! :-) He'd picked one for his bed, and I finally, finally got the top done earlier this year with hopes to quilt it for him before Christmas. He never complained that I was UFO poor or that his top would get pushed back for other projects, other exciting new adventures or techniques or tools.

He was the joy of our home -- a prankster and a ham, with a servant's heart and compassion for stray cats and hurting people, and every single person he met found a friend. He was a total extrovert. Every meet he ran in cross country, every 5-K, every Boot Camp, he shook hands and said, "I'm Sam. Who are you?! It's my pleasure to meet you!"

He loved God with all his heart and soul. When I started this blog last year, he thought he'd give it a try. We're homeschoolers -- so yeah, that counts! LOL These were his "Things to Think About." along with random thoughts on "Chuck" and running and what not here.

His quotes on Facebook included lyrics from Christian rapper LaCrae:
"Living to know God, dying to make Him known."
That was our beloved Sam.

Welcome home, baby. We'll be along shortly.

"‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’" Matthew 25:21

Please lift up our family in your prayers. We are so blessed. We are so grateful. We are so humbled to have been Sam's parents, caretakers of him for a while.

¹³Now also we would not have you ignorant, brethren, about those who fall asleep [^[a]in death], that you may not grieve [for them] as the rest do who have no hope [beyond the grave]. ¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring with Him through Jesus those who have fallen asleep [^[a]in death]. I Thessalonians 4:13-14 (Amplified)

Blessings and Peace,

The Cheese Stands Alone

2011-05-19T13:07:00.000-04:00

When we were at retreat last month, we had several discussions about the Farmer's Wife. A new gal joined our group, Heidi, and she kept calling it Farmer's Daughter, and after a discussion about using bright neon colors, we decided it would have to be the Farmer's Mistress or Girlfriend! LOL

I'm making progress on those 111 blocks! (And it's taking way less time than a mistress would! LOL And money, too, since I'm stash shopping for this one! :-D)

Adding these ten to my others, I'm nearly at the 2/3rds mark! Very cool! Most of the class is keeping up, too!!

For the class, I broke the Farmer's Wife down into "units" each month -- beginning with blocks with squares and rectangles, then half-square-triangles -- and we've been doing HST's since February! June's blocks (above, I'm trying to stay a month ahead of the class!) are mostly "quick-piecing" type blocks, and July's will move us into quarter-square-triangles.

We'll eventually get into flying geese, and square-in-a-squares, and diamonds, hopefully building skill levels as we go!

I've also managed to make some progress on the Hands-2-Help quilt for Romania! Sarah Craig at Confessions of a Fabric Addict arranged a charity quilt exchange/challenge a couple of months ago...but I'm sure if you wanted to make a quilt for Romania, she (and Judi at Green Fairy Quilts) would happily accept them!! Diane sent me this beautiful bright fabric for my quilt:

And I've added some more bright colors to Diane's fat quarters and made these so far for the pinwheel-y quilt top I designed in EQ:

All those different names we thought of for the Farmer's Wife make me think of the Farmer in the Dell! and the inevitable conclusion -- the cheese stands alone! Makes you feel sorry for the cheese, doesn't it? Everybody's got somebody in the old nursery-room song, except the cheese.

Working together is so much more fun that working alone... whether it's charity quilts or ongoing projects or classes!!

One of the greatest blessings of the Christian life is the promise that we are never alone. Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah:

When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom...
Do not be afraid, for I am with you

(Isaiah 43:2-3a, 5a)

No cheese standing alone, here!

Blessings,

Slacker!

2011-05-13T20:30:00.001-04:00

This has been one of those ~~weeks~~ months (!) that I have accomplished absolutely nothing!

The boys have continued on with their school work, no thanks to me. We're all getting spring-itus, so they are in a hurry to complete their days and their varied curriculums in vocabulary, math, science, English, Spanish and the rest. Me, too!! :-)

Spring-itus, I can understand. Giving in to the lazy days of summer....well, it's a little early for that!

I'm perilously behind in blog reading, blog commenting, replying to your wonderful comments, blog writing....Pitiful!!

And after being fairly productive during retreat at the end of April, May has gone through 13 days of my finishing absolutely nothing! I haven't even pulled out the May UFO's to pretend to work on them. UGH!

My accomplishments so far this month?
I clipped Blackie's (the only remaining adult chicken I have who bonded with the cats) wing, so she will stay in the fence and not terrorize the kitten and poop on the porch. I was raised in the country, but clipping a chicken wing was a first for me!! (I used some super sharp gingher 5" scissors! :-D)

Sadly, she doesn't seem any closer emotionally to the other chickens in the yard (perhaps because she thinks she's a cat?). Chicken whisperer, I ain't! :-D

Accomplishment #2: I kept Jeff from banishing the cats and kitten to the back of our out-building. They get to stay on the porch (unlike the poor chicken). Could you resist this face?

Accomplishment #3

I stayed in the house and hyperventilated while Jeff installed his new hive of these:

Can you believe bees come in the mail like that!?! He picked them up at the post office and deposited them on the porch table. Yikes!!! Needless to say, they did not stay there long!

Accomplishment #4

I went to step aerobics THREE times this week... a first in, like, six weeks or more! I've not gained any significant weight (about 4/10ths of a pound), but I've been slacking big-time on my Temple Maintenance and Weight Watchers. I finally updated the page here.

Accomplishment #5:

I pinned up this little quilt (Jo Morton's Little Women Club) for some more experimental machine quilting. I may or may not get to it, but when I take steps to overcome this slacker-itus, it'll be waiting for me...

Along with a bazillion other projects, including a couple of t-shirt quilts, a couple of memory quilts and about three samplers I need to put together for other people. All by early June.

Steps to overcome my uselessness!? Looks like those are steps I need to take now, huh!?

I feel very much like the prophet Jeremiah, who said,

"I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own;
it is not for man to direct his steps.
Correct me, LORD, but only with justice—
not in your anger,
lest you reduce me to nothing."

Jeremiah 10:23-24

Time to step up!!

Blessings,

Advance or Retreat!?

2011-05-06T10:08:00.003-04:00

My household has taken a dramatic turn!

I've gone from just me and the boys -- easy living, really. There's the running, but we mostly foraged for food and went to our corners of the house: Sam with his drums, Will with his video games, and I in my sewing room!! So from me and the boys to me and the boys and the husband (home on Sunday)and the college age daughter (home on Wednesday) all home at the same time!!

Yesterday morning I was struck the by the CROWD!!
In my little sewing room, first one boy then the other came in. Then Emily, then Jeff....FIVE people in my sewing room. Asking me stuff. Needing or wanting my attention. All talking at the same time. Wanting to be fed!!

Calgon take me away!!!!

Advance or retreat? Too late. I already retreated BEFORE they came! LOL I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday at a retreat center in Central KY far out in the country. I live in the country! This was even further out in the country. And it was lovely! The gals were such fun. Games, giveaways, stories, projects, food -- all the good stuff!

I mostly worked on one UFO -- my Thimbleberries Hometown Christmas -- and a new project, Spools, from Edyta Sitar's book, Friendship Strips and Scraps.

Autumn took some great photos of the different projects and quilts at the retreat and you can see them here. I took photos while I was there, but hers were so much better than mine. So pop over and take a look!!

I came home from retreat on Saturday and picked Jeff up on Sunday. Then Wednesday, we packed up Emily's dorm room at Asbury and headed south.

It really is good to have the whole family under one roof again for the first time in over a year!

It will take a while to get back into our routine. Jeff will return to his "real" job in a few weeks; he's an Agriculture Extension Agent for a local county through the University of KY Cooperative Extension Service. He'll take some much needed R & R time at home, though. :-D My sewing time may get curtailed a little! :-D

Emily is spending her summer home with the family, too. In previous years she did summer missions work with a camp in Lafollette, TN, but this year the luxury of our family being together is one she's going to take advantage of. Jeff says there is work enough here at home to keep her busy if she doesn't find a summer job locally.

So advance it is!
Into renovated routines. Into postponed projects (UFO #9 - the Circuit Rider and another recently "discovered" (that's what I get for cleaning out the closet! :-D) UFO, Star Sprinkles from Adkinson Designs).

Into the haven of home!

I am so very, very, blessed!

Psalm 13: 5-6
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

Blessings!

Getting Ready!

2011-04-27T11:09:00.001-04:00

Twice a year, a bunch of my Quilt Club gals and I get away from it all for three days and two nights of games, food and quilting!! It's always a hoot -- and I was so afraid I wasn't going to get to go!! Jeff was scheduled to return from Afghanistan this same week, so my plans were to skip the spring retreat and hope for the timing to be better in the fall.

But the army is never predictable! LOL and Jeff's Welcome Home ceremony is Sunday!! Which means, I get to go to retreat (which ends Saturday), AND I won't have to keep him waiting at the armory while I diddle-daddle with the gals! :-D (As if I would!!)

So I've got double duty for getting ready. Retreat stuff, the house, my toenails!! :-D

(Don't mind the grime; I just fed the cats and chickens -- and Oh! Look at little "Smokey" (? tentative name since we don't know if it's a he or a she, yet! :-D)! It's a wonder my feet didn't scare the little thing!! LOL

I've got most of my sewing stuff ready to go:

I always take way too much. I wanna be prepared for whatever I'm in the mood to sew, you know? That's the thing with UFO's ....the reason they are UFO's is that you get out of the mood to finish them!

Some things are mandatory, though.
My leaders-and-enders 2" squares.

Chocolate (the good stuff! :-D)

My annual hauling out of the scrappy-spools-which-I-have-already-made-two-large-quilts-and-one-lap-quilt-of project:
Then, of course, there's the new project that I'm totally inspired with and wanna get started on!
I spent the better part of this week sorting my scraps by color. I'll eventually cut them into Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User's System, but I had to sort them so I could find scraps for this quilt by Edyta Sitar in her Friendship Strips and Scraps book!!

The pattern calls for 1" strips!! I'll be using some small stuff on this one!

(What is it with me and spool quilts!?!)

So after cleaning up my messes and packing clothes (I should probably wear some on retreat! Jeff probably won't mind if I don't! LOL), I'll be ready to walk out the door.

I can't wait! No dishes. No phone calls ('cept to check on the young-uns). Just friends, fabric and fun!

And Jeff on Sunday, home for a good while, thank the Lord! I'm so ready!!

“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready."
Revelation 19:6-7

Blessings,

Things to Remember...

2011-04-24T20:11:00.000-04:00

Is it my age?
I'm getting so forgetful!! A few really nice things happened to me this past week that I forgot about...!
I'm straightening up the living room, and what do I find? Some beautiful mail!

Thelma at Cupcakes 'n Daisies sent this beautiful mug rug and lovely encouraging letter AND post-it notes!! How did she know I love, love, love post-it notes!?! :-D I even have post-it note fabric in my All about Me quilt!! Very cool, Thelma! and thank you so much. She sent the gift to me for finishing Eventide, a Miss Rosie pattern quilt-along she hosted. It was such fun to do -- and she's giving me a gift!?! Awesome!

I also got my fabric from Diane in the Hands-2-Help Challenge over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict! The quilts we make from this challenge will go to orphans in Romania.

I'm seeing pinwheels or something equally light-hearted and playful with this bright fabric! Fun, fun, fun!

Joanne over at Thread Head is hosting two weeks of practicing your free-motion quilting! I've not officially joined (I'm so intimidated!), but I practiced and managed to passably quilt one of my UFO's for this month. Pick Up Sticks is a Jo Morton quilt, and I used my walking foot to quilt in the ditch between the "sticks" then free-motioned the feathers on the border. The back doesn't look as good as the front (I should have used a better matching thread to camouflage my mistakes!! LOL), but it's not too bad as one of my first efforts on my home sewing machine.

Finally, I got this in the mail yesterday:

The Mary Mannakee Quilt block-of-the-month from Common Threads. I have NO recollection of ordering this BOM! LOL None!! But I love it -- and it's red and green and so pretty!!!! So, whether I remember it or not, I'm NOT sending it back!! LOL It goes on the list. Or I may break over and start it...

If I don't forget!!

Psalm 103
¹ Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

On this Easter Sunday, I dare not forget His benefits -- the most important being that He conquered death, hell and the grave!! -- and that He did this for you and me!!

Praise the Lord!
Blessings,

P.S.!! I almost forgot -- the Traveling Stash!!! Random.org chose number 37 from the entries: Jen W who said, "Would love to explore this box!!! I've got MANY things to add to it also - just never want to GIVE away good sewing supplies...I always want them to go to a good home where they'll be used. Awesome idea!!!" An email is winging it's way to Jen!! Thanks to everyone who commented!!

He's a SHE!

2011-04-19T12:31:00.003-04:00

It's been an interesting week so far at the ol' Casada homestead! I'm diligently working on my #4 UFO, "Wilfred and Cloves" with it's applique'd center (which I've changed, of course! :-D), but I've been thwarted somewhat in my sewing plans....

It started Sunday afternoon as I was returning home from Asbury University where I'd dropped my daughter for another week of school. I called home to check on the boys, and they told me about a huge rat/mouse the cats were playing with on the porch. Lovely!! (not) "I'll check on it when I get home!!"

So an hour later, I'm looking at this thing Lucky cat has under the paws....
And it's moving.
And it's got a tail like a rat/mouse...but the head is not right...

Oh.
My.
Word.
It's a KITTEN!!!!

Lucky is not, as we'd assumed -- as we'd been TOLD by my brother who brought him to me after rescuing him (um, HER!) from the motor of a car -- a MALE cat! He's a SHE!! Lucky had ridden into town inside the whirring motor of a car and survived to tell the tale, thus the name and my brother's subsequent rescue and arrangment of our adopting him (HER!). We'd have never taken a female (for obvious reasons).

But the kitten....Sigh. Sweetest thing. EVER! It's little eyes aren't open yet, and Lucky cat is the sweetest mama cat ever. What's a chicken-owning, quilting, homeschooling mama like me gonna do!? Fix her, of course. Ironic, really, that he's a she ....here I was lamenting a few days ago about the identity crisis of my chicken. Apparently there are LOTS of secrets on this erswhile homestead of mine.

See what happens when your husband goes to Afghanistan!!?!

Oh!
And the bees swarmed. They COULDN"T wait until he is home in a couple of weeks. NOOOOOO! They do it now.

Kittens. (Well, blessedly, only 1 kitten!) Fine. I can handle that.

Swarming bees!?! NO. I worried about killing Jeff's bees through neglect, and the dern things have prospered and multiplied until there's enough for two hives!! The chickens, which I actually kinda liked, are knocked off one by one by varmints or pestilence or neighbor's villainous dogs, and the bees which freak me totally out are taking over the place!!

Where's the justice!?! Where's the fairness of it all!?!

In Afghanistan, apparently. As usual, my beloved if annoying husband gets the last laugh! :-D

Oh well. I'll tell him my stash has reproduced in proportion to the bees.

Those piles of fabric on the tables and chairs are SWARM.

Hehehehe. Maybe there is some justice in the world after all!! LOL

He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 (NASB)

Did I mention my husband hates cats!?! God is good. All the time!! :-D

Blessings!

P.S. Don't forget to qualify for the Traveling Stash drawing!!! You'll find the post here!

Give Away: Traveling Stash!! and some finishes (Yippee!!)

2011-04-14T22:19:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I got it in the mail; opened it up and spread all the wonders inside out on the table around the box:

Patterns and fabric and quilted blocks and panels and lace and pin cushions.....

I won the box from Anne at Write Here, and this box has been making the rounds in blogworld!!!

Here's how Anne told it:

"So far, the box originated at potsandpins.com the next stop was arianescrafts.blogspot.com then on to debaeremaeker.blogspot.com next it traveled to nunusquiltworld.blogspot.com and then to Kelly at cottoncharmquilts.typepad.com. Kelly split the growing stash into two boxes, and box #1 came to me. Yippee! Box #2 headed to committingmyway.blogspot.com." So from Kelly to Anne to me -- and now to you!

I like how Anne says, "Yippee!" My kinda gal, for sure!!! :-D

I pulled a few goodies out of the box.
And put a few goodies INTO the box (but you'll have to win it to see what!!) But just to give you a little hint, here are 20 things I put inside:

So if you wanna be the recipient of this marvelous traveling stash, you need only to comment, and I'll randomly draw a winner and send the stash to you.

You take what you want from it, put some more stuff in and send it on its way!!

Fun, huh!!! I love it!!

It was a great mail day for me. Besides the stash, I got some "Pie Crust" muslin of Primitive Gatherings' Primitive Muslins line by Moda. Yummy aged muslin that's not too dark. It's creamy and light and has some agey character colored into it. I got some patterns from Mary at Quilt Hollow (Thank you so much, Mary! I love them!!). Wonderful stuff to use some of my Jo Morton stash! :-D

And I've been productive this week!
I have 46% of my Farmer's Wife done! Yippee! :-D (Can you tell I'm a homeschooling mom who's been teaching perccents!?) 51 of the 111 blocks are complete:

And today, I finished February's quilt top UFO #10 Moon and Stars Whimsy. The last of the appliques went on the border and it's ready to be quilted....to happen sometime between now and Christmas since Son #1 (Kid #2) has claimed it for his own. :-D

I love finishing things and accomplishing something with my hands! :-)

I read this and it makes me feel wonderfully blessed:

Psalm 90:14-17

¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.
¹⁶ May your deeds be shown to your servants,
your splendor to their children.
¹⁷ May the favor^[a] of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.

In some translations, the word "favor" in verse 17 is translated as "beauty." May the beauty of the Lord God rest upon us and establish the work of our hands!!

Blessings!

P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment to win the Traveling Stash!! I'll close the drawing on Saturday, April 23rd at midnight (Eastern Standard :-D), and announce the winner on Easter Sunday!

Who I AM

2011-04-07T10:21:00.002-04:00

My chicken is having an identity crisis!
Since her sisters were eaten by coyotes or foxes or wolves or something...well, she's been a little lonely, and I've had a time trying to keep her off the back porch. I don't mind her presence per se'...it's what she leaves behind that is rather, well...not cool. :-D

But she's made some unlikely friends. Tommy and Lucky, our cats, don't know what to do with her! She eases up and starts eating out of their cans, like she's one of them!

I even put chicken feed in a can for her...She won't have it! She wants to eat what the cats are eating. Doesn't she know who and what she is!?!

My sister stopped by yesterday and noticed my design wall with my "All About Me" blocks, so far, on it. I'm working on framing the fabrics that represent "me" a little at a time, when I'm in the mood. :-)

I have a weird assortment of fabrics representing "me." And my quilt is only going to be a lap-sized quilt. I've figured out that I'm kinda a boring person! LOL

I've not been many places, so there are no exotic locales represented by my fabrics. I love movies and books and quilts and fabrics, scripture and Christmas, and quilts and fabrics, post-it notes, pens, music and ships. Did I mention quilts and fabrics?

I have some army-type fabric for my husband, and school-marm fabric since I homeschool. I have a purse with my name on it -- not because I like purses (that would be interesting!), but because how often do you find a piece of fabric with your name!?!

I'm framing my novelty squares and rectangles with fabrics and colors that I love, and when I'm finished the quilt will be a snapshot of who I am.

It won't be everything....but it will be representative of many things that are dear to me.

It's a very important thing to know who you are, I think. Especially as women! We are cast into so many roles -- wife, mother, chef, chauffeur, doctor, nurse, teacher, counselor, lover, quilter -- and we excel at multi-tasking. It's easy to lose sight of those things that are quintessentially "me."
I cannot let my many roles define me. Rather, who I am should define them.

Jesus understood all about identity!! As you read the Gospel of John, Jesus takes you on a journey of His "I Am's":

I am the Messiah (John 4:26).
I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35).
I am the Eternal One (John 8:58).
I am the Light of the World (John 9:5).
I am the Door (John 10:7).
I am the Son of God (John 10:36).
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).

He knew Who He was, and that determined all that He did...right down to His gift of death on the cross and His gift of Life through the resurrection!

I suspect my lonely chicken will figure out who she is when the chicks are big enough to roam the yard with her. On the other hand, she may totally freak me out one of these days by meowing at me!

Either way, I know who -- and whose!! -- I am!!

Blessings,

SWEET!!

2011-04-01T00:02:00.001-04:00

I've declared EVERY year since I started quilting to be the "Year of the Finish!" -- aspiring to complete things, perhaps even that quilt masterpiece we all dream of doing.

Because of Judy's UFO Challenge, I've actually make a plan and I'm following through, and there are some lovely things happening!

My UFO (#1) for this month was Stars Around the Garden, a Bits 'n Pieces Block of the Month that I ended up "tweaking" a little. It's now finished (well, the top, anyway! :-P) and ready for quilting! Yippee!

It seems success breeds success... might this actually be a finish year!?! :-D Just maybe!!!!

I finished quilting -- on my little Nolting Hobby Quilter, no less! -- my Thimbleberries Take 5 quilt. It was on my 2nd UFO list (the list of quilting/binding finishes I hoped to accomplish) for the month of January!! One more finish!!

I (duh) forgot to set aside binding fabric, so I found some of the blue-with-dots "Circle of Love" Thimbleberries line on ebay, and when it arrives, this baby will be DONE!

I'm still in the simple meandering stage of my learning curve with the mid-arm....but it's definitely progress!

The Pièce de Résistance (probably for the whole year and beyond!), though, has to be my Log Cabins and Fans...

This UFO quilt top that I completed in January has been phenomenally quilted by Mary at Quilt Hollow.

I'm just totally in awe. Who knew!?!? I just don't think of my quilts being anything beyond ordinary, but what Mary has done with my Log Cabins and fans:

It feels so good to see finishes for a change.

And then to see what looks to be a masterpiece (thank you, Mary!)....

There's a verse in Proverbs that echos what I feel about these finishes, the Log Cabin in particular:

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12 NKJV) Verse 19 goes on to say, "A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but fools detest turning from evil."

Longing fulfilled.

A tree of life.

Sweet to the Soul.

Oh, my yes!!

Blessings,

Changes

2011-03-29T00:05:00.003-04:00

Let's face it.
I'm a quilting meddler.
I'm one of those pattern changers who cannot leave well enough alone!
If it's square, I make it oblong. If's it's fusible, I make it needle-turn. If it's in pastels, I force it into my pallete of brown, green, gold and red. (Blue is for cool people: I think I'm a "warm" person. :-P)

All that changing is working well for me so far this week, though! :-D

First is my UFO (Judy's UFO Challenge) for the month of March. #1 for me was Stars Around the Garden, a block of the month from Bits 'n Pieces. I've had the 14 pieced blocks done for a while, but could NOT seem to get "into" the applique center medallion. What to do, what to do.....?

I rummaged around, found some pinwheel blocks I'd planned to use with another quilt that I meddled with (the one Mary at Quilt Hollow is quilting now!! Isn't she just a fabulous quilter!?!), and thought, "Hmmmm......"

So I had enough pinwheels for most of the center, and just had a 10 1/2" x 21" space to fill....what can I put in there? OH! Why not Bear Paw blocks!!!!

Here's the result, a finished top for the UFO Challenge! The lighter brighter colors intended for the flowers sorta make my pieced center glow. I don't mind a bit! :-) It's DONE! (well, the top is! :-D and now I can get back to February's and see if I can get caught up! :-D)

I've also been working on Eventide (the quilt-along with Thelma at Cupcakes 'n Daisies).

Yeah, I'm thinking of changing it up a little, too. It's very nearly square. I just prefer oblong quilts. Probably because beds are oblong. I don't have any square beds in the house. I probably don't have any square walls either! LOL (That's a little carpentry humor...very little! :-P)

Here's my progress so far on Eventide. I have some more quarter-square triangles and Ohio Star blocks pieced....gonna play around and see if I want to make changes to it.

I've got some other projects to complete.....

My "Brown Bag Quilt Challenge" quilt has an April 1st deadline.

My other UFO for March is my Mountain Laurel Sampler (I've got about 2/3rds of it hand quilted; here's one of the blocks)....NOT gonna get that one done this month.

I've been watching Teresa at Fabric Therapy as she hand quilts her All Around the Town quilt. I love how she has made the quilt her own with her whimsical additions to the pattern.

I think it's interesting that what we do as quilters is so very similar to what God does with us. There is a very clear pattern that He has designed for us; we are to be like Jesus!

Yet He never intended that we should be only clones of His Master Design. One of my favorite passages, 1 John 3:2 (NIV), says,

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

I don't always know exactly how my quilts are gonna turn out. But my hope is that they will be like the design, yet uniquely mine. I rejoice that, as I follow and emulate Jesus, I am still free to be who God made me to be! His design; my colors and personality and size! I will not be Him, but I will be like Him.

Hallelujah!

Cut it out!!

2011-03-22T21:00:00.000-04:00

Earlier in the year there was a lot of hubbub about choosing your word for the year. I thought and thought about it. But none of the words that occurred to me early in the year were right for me. Other people picked really good ones.

Shelley chose "KISS" (for Keep It Simple, Shelley!). No more complicating things. Good word!
My friend Paula chose "accept." To accept circumstances in life that we don't always understand. To accept generosity and grace....Another excellent word.

I think I've found my word. Finally.

NO -- finally isn't the word, silly!! My word is

CUT!

I'm cutting this year.

Cutting out things that suck the life outa me.

Like the politics of women. I don't mean national politics. I mean women-on-women crime. Nastiness. Competitiveness. "If you're friends with her you can't be friends with me." Or the insidious "Did you know...." about so-n-so (otherwise known as "gossip").

Do you get any of that with the women you know? CUT!!! I'm finding that if I walk away from conversations that cut down other women, I'm a whole lot less likely to get dragged into the politics of females, AND I never have to worry about what I've said! Help me, Lord, to cut out my eager ear and wagging tongue!!

I'm cutting out the fat!!

Two kinds of fat, actually.

All the stuff I don't need to do. I don't need to volunteer for every worthy notion that comes along in my kids' activities or church or even quilt club! I don't need to say YES just because I CAN. Can and should are two very different things.

There are specific things I'm called to do....Be a wife, a mother, a homeschooler, a worship leader, and a quilter. (Well, of course, a quilter! DUH! :-P) Anything that doesn't fit into the mission statement of those things is open game for the blade.

I'm cutting the fat on my body! It's about time. Three months into the year, and I'm down nearly 20 lbs. It's slow going, but I'm determined. A dear friend of mine, a former pastor who has always been in excellent shape, suffered a heart attack a few nights ago. He will recover, but how much worse would he have fared if he hadn't been in pretty good shape to begin with? So -- I'm cutting the fat and the junk foods and trying to eat and exercise in a way that promotes health.

I'm cutting down the spending. The stash I have is enough fabric to provide quilts down to the 5th generation. (Lord help me live long enough!! :-D) I'm trying to make everything from stash from now on. I'll probably still buy the occasional small piece of fabric (like I did today, Paula! :-D) -- but I'm not indulging in every "That's so pretty!" I feel at quilt shows, quilt shops, online haunts and ebay. Enough!!

And finally, I'm cutting my fabric!!!

With the help of so many of you, who inspire me to be creative and use what I have and LOVE it....I'm cutting into all those pieces I've been saving for "just the right project." THIS project -- whatever it is! -- is the right project. THIS project -- will have a place for that yardage or fat quarter or scrap that's waiting in closets or bins or shelves to be cut.

Jesus was all about cutting deadwood in your life. "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off...If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off..." (Mark 9: 43, 45). Better, He says, that you go through life maimed than let the deadwood drag you to hell. Strong words.
Good words.

His and my soapbox message to me! :-) (Thank you, Jesus!)
Is there anything you need to cut out this year?

Blessings!

Chicks, Blocks and Stacks

2011-03-15T00:59:00.002-04:00

It's been a productive week for me!! Since Jeff left on Wednesday, I've been burning the midnight oil -- partly to exhaust myself because, just as I've gotten accustomed to having a bed-fellow again, he's gone and I have to figure out how to keep myself warm!

:-) Sigh....

I tied into a several-day project of re-organizing my sewing room.

Oh.

My.

Word.

It was SUCH a mess!! So all the furniture went out, all the fabric went out, all the projects -- finished and unfinished! -- went out, and the cleaning and sorting began.

I didn't realize how much fabric I have....!! I got it all sorted by color, and stacked to the ceiling in the closet. Before I'd kept lines or types separated, but this is much better. I can see at a glance what I have.

Um....I think I can lay off the background fabrics for a while. I think I don't need to buy any fabric until the next millennium!!

I organized my projects, too. I bought hang-up shelves for my closet rod, and stacked boxed-up projects into them so I can pull them out easily. Before they were stacked willy-nilly on the closet floor and I could never find something without pulling out a million things! UGH! How can I complete Judy's UFO Challenge if I can't find the UFO!? So that's much better!

I kept my peg racks on the wall for blocks to hang on. They're pretty!! :-) and they are a good reminder that those projects need attention.

I had to drop everything on Sunday, though, with a phone call from the post office. Did I wanna come up and get my baby chicks!? I wasn't expecting them 'til Monday, but okay. Yeah. :-) They are the cutest little things! My friend and fellow quilter Tracy and her family piggy-backed the order with us, so they came Monday to pick up their baker's dozen. Nothing bonds people like quilting and chickens! LOL

With all this going on, I managed to actually sew!!! I'd curtailed my sewing time while Jeff was home, so it was heaven to sew nearly the whole day today. I worked on Eventide (a Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. pattern), Thelma's sew-along at Cupcakes n' Daisies. I've also been working on the mystery quilt I'm leading at my club (a tease, since I can't show it to you!), and I've got 25 blocks finished on the Farmer's Wife. I'll be doing a dozen or so more blocks for the FW this week in preparation for our monthly class.

And while doing all these, I've also been "leaders and enders"-ing on Cathedral Stars, the class I missed with Bonnie Hunter. She's right...it's like getting a bonus quilt while you work on another one!!! I have my little basket of "twosies" -- 2 - 2" squares, a light and a medium/dark -- stacked up and ready to feed into the machine between chain sewing other units. Fun, fun, fun!!

And all in an orderly room that doesn't smother me anymore!

Paul wrote "For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is." (Colossians 2:5 NIV)

Thank the Lord that my faith in Christ is much firmer than my ability to keep my sewing room orderly!! :-D
Blessings!

Gains and Losses!

2011-03-09T01:48:00.000-05:00

The last two days have been wonderful and interesting and exhilerating and sad... Tuesday, in particular was a day of both gains and losses!!

Losses

I had to miss taking a class in Pigeon Forge with the fabulous Bonnie Hunter. I scheduled the class in Pigeon Forge back near the first of the year. Jeff's leave from Afghanistan was scheduled for the last two weeks of February, so I was sure I would be able to enjoy Bonnie with no guilt! :-D

The army is never particularly predictable...and sure enough Jeff's leave fell right before the class....and his LAST day of leave was on the day OF the class. Sigh. I sure would have loved to have been there with my friends. Bonnie was gracious enough to send a hello my way! Isn't that cool!?!?

I lost time with dear friends Lynn, Paula and Debbie in Pigeon Forge and lost getting started on Cathedral Stars, Bonnie's pattern (the quilt in the background!) in my choice of colors. What a great stash buster this quilt will be! I'll still make it; I just didn't get to start it with my friends. :-(

But I also gained some pretty fabulous stuff....

Gains
I gained time with Jeff who is by now winging his way back toward Afghanistan. He's only got another six to eight weeks of duty to pull, and he should be home by early May. Godspeed, my dear!!

(Here's some footage of what he's doing over there :-)

That's my hubby talking about grafting -- the one with the big grin in the beginning of the video. :-) He's doing something very good over there, but it will be better to have him home!

I gained other things this week, too.
The confirmation that I have great friends.
The generosity of alot of people. I mean really!! A pic of Bonnie saying hello posted to facebook! I smiled for the whole rest of the day!!!
I won a prize, today, too! My choice of a book from the Fat Quarter Shop from Thelma at Cupcakes and Daisies.
And I met another new-to-me quilter at my church.

A great week! A little bittersweet, but it's these times that make life so good.

Jesus had something to say about gains and losses...
Mark 8:34-36 (New American Standard Bible)

And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

Sometimes it's difficult to know in your circumstance if you are gaining or losing. A rare day with a lovely famous quilt instructor who won't be anywhere close for a couple of years or more :-) or a quiet day at home with the one you love. Hmmmm....

:-D

But one thing is sure. We don't want to exchange temporary gains only to lose what is most important!!

Blessings!

Instant Connection

2011-02-26T16:19:00.001-05:00

I picked my husband up at Lexington's Bluegrass Airport on Monday evening!! It's so very good to have him home!!

But....I'll just tell ya...Jeff being home on R & R from Afghanistan has put a damper on my sewing room time! :-) It's a good thing, of course, but I an accustomed to sewing everyday and leisurely reading blogs on my computer and leaving facebook up on my own I.D. Having him home means re-arranging my priorities a bit, and it's thrown me off my routine! I'm having withdrawals! LOL

But I've gotten little doses of quilt-mania that are sew refreshing! :-D

I went with Jeff to the doctor's office, and while I sat in the waiting room, I worked on my Tumbling Blocks -- an English paper piecing project that I keep in a box and carry with me when I'm in the mood. It's portable and interesting and fun....and what better way to while away the time!

As usually happens, a lady inquired about my quilt blocks....and then talked with me about her current projects!! Another quilter -- an instant connection!! Moira is new to the area, so I invited her to Mountain Laurel Quilters, gave her my phone number and was thrilled to talk "quilt" while Jeff talked with the doctor (nothing serious, a rash on his hands and feet that needs some prescription-strength cream).

Later, my friends Autumn and Tracy looked over the blocks and played with arranging them....one of my favorite parts of making the Tumbling Blocks!

I love the instant connection we make as quilters! It happens both off-line and on- and it is a blessing every time. During this week when I need to keep my quilting more subdued so as not to neglect my gone-for-the-last-eight-months spouse (!), having a dose of quilting tonic with new friends and old is an extra special blessing.

The apostle Paul told Timothy, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine." (2 Timothy 4:2 KJV)

Seems I am always ready to talk quilts! Summer or winter, hand- or machine-piecing or quilting, applique or patchwork...I'm "instant in season!" I hope I am also always ready to "give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have," (1 Peter 3:15) to tell them about the God Who gave His only begotton Son, so that we might have everlasting life!!

So Jeff has my (mostly!) undivided attention. The UFO for February, Moon and Stars Whimsy, is languishing; perhaps March will be more productive for all those projects I'm delaying while I spend time with Jeff and accomplish some things he wants to see done while he's home. For now, I have Tumbling Blocks for ballgames and doctor's offices, with old and new friends. Connections abound!!

It's always good to be a quilter!!

Blessings!

Ready or not?

2011-02-18T00:02:00.002-05:00

Sometime next week, the man of the house returns! :-D
Jeff gets 15 days leave from Afghanistan...and boy, has it been a busy week!!

I'm trying to prepare for his homecoming. Getting laundry actually put away (a minor miracle, you understand, not to dress from the clothes basket!). Floor swept. Furniture dusted. Bathrooms spic and span. Or they will be. BEFORE he arrives. (I hope!)

All the housework I've neglected for the ten months (2 months in training, 8 in country) he's been away, is now getting done! LOL

My story is that I've spent the last ten months keeping his bees and chickens alive...

Well, the bees, anyway. I saw them buzzing on a pretty day earlier this week (we've had temps in the 60's!). So they survived the winter (no thanks to me!).

The chickens, however, have not fared so well.

Coyotes or foxes got several. Neighbor's dogs probably got a few more. One we think was eaten by a possum or a minx (head of poor Bucky nipped clean off! UGH! He was such a pretty rooster!) Only three (of thirteen!) survived. Not good to be a chicken at our place these days.

The truth is, of course, that I've been too busy quilting. (Who has time for chickens and bees!?) I've done other things, too. Homeschooling and running with two active boys takes time.

But all the available time I've had I've spent in my sewing room. It is, truly, my therapy! :-)

And yes, my obsession! LOL
This week, while juggling the many things I need to do, I've worked on the Brown Bag Quilt! The top is complete, and it goes into the "to-be-quilted" pile. My deadline for the challenge is April 1st. Quilted and bound! :-) I've come this far, I'll try to see it through! :-D

It's amazing how my priorities change, though, with the eminent arrival of my deployed husband. Suddenly, the quilting can wait. I want the house to be ready. I'm preparing myself (I've lost about 15 lbs. My butt is firmer from step aerobics! and I got my hair done. I'll try to work in a pedicure --- what is it about painted toenails that guys like!?!?). I wanna get the taxes finished (so I can give him news of a refund, Lord willing! :-D). It wouldn't do for him to come home and find that he was second in my priorities!

All week long this scripture has circulated in my head:

“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. (Luke 12:35-38 NIV)

Wouldn't it be something if we lived like we thought Jesus would arrive at any moment!?

I want to be able to open the door immediately for Jeff. No scrambling to do what has not been done. No covering up misdeeds or mismanagement of what he's given me. Just,

"Come on in, honey! I'm so glad you are here!"

When He comes, will He find me ready!?

Blessings!

Cravings!

2011-02-15T00:26:00.000-05:00

The Keebler Elves have ruined my life!!!
Who knew!?! No one tells you that "reduced fat" fig newtons don't taste like real Fig Newtons! There are no warnings on the bags of "100 calorie" packs that these cookies don't AT ALL taste like real Oreos!!

It's a conspiracy!! "Woe is me! For I am like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers, there is not a cluster of grapes to eat, or a first-ripe fig which I crave." (Micah 7:1 NAS) :-D If the prophet had eaten fig newtons, he'd be even more depressed!!

As I overcome my do-nothings (and my discouraging weight gain this past week! Ugh!), I think what I really crave is a new project! So today I dove in!!

The Brown Bag Quilt Project!!

The fabrics I received from JaiCi were an odd collection of calicoes -- a neutral, a red, a black, a brown print, a purple and a gold from Connecting Threads and a pink-with-white dots. What to do with these....? When you have the do-nothin's, you have time to ponder the deep mysteries of life!!! LOL

I'd settled on "Granny's Jam" from the book, Laps from Fats, and I added three more fat quarters in teal, green and yellow and some more neutrals to have enough fabric for the pattern. Last night I started cutting and today I started sewing.

What a surprise!! I think I'm falling in love with these quilt blocks!! I still have pieced borders and sashing to add....but I think I may get this one done this week!

It's NOT on my UFO list...but I think it was the right project to inspire me to work on #10.

Who knew that a quilt challenge that was originally called The Ugly Quilt Challenge (or was it ugly fabric quilt challenge?) would produce something I might actually like!!?

I still have some red and some neutral to use, and a 2" strip or so of the remaining fabrics, all of which I will use for backing and/or binding (the challenge requires that we use 90% of the fabric we were sent). I have a pretty paisley I'm thinking of using for an outer border. What a fun challenge this is turning out to be!!

Who knew a craving could be a good thing!!?

Good ol' Peter -- he of the hot temper, cutting-off-of-ears, denying, impulsive temperament -- had sage advice about what we should crave:

"Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire)

the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk,

that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto [completed] salvation,

since you have [already] tasted the

goodness and kindness of the Lord."

(1 Peter 2:2-3, Amplified)

Once you have tasted the "real thing," it's hard to settle for less! I crave more of Him Whose goodness and kindness always taste like heaven!

And I believe I'll save some points for Oreos and Fig Newtons. Just sayin'.... :-D

Oh! And new quilt projects!!

Blessings!

Do Nothin's

2011-02-11T00:02:00.001-05:00

I've got a serious case of the do-nothin's!

Do you ever get them? It's not the blues exactly. It's not that I'm all that tired or frustrated or mad or lazy. I just don't feel like doing ANYthing!! Do you ever get afflicted with the malady? Maybe it's hormonal....It does seem to come around with some regularity. Yuck.

I've had them for two or three days now. I sit at the computer and read...following along with tears (like Teresa's mishap with her All Around Town quilt top) and with triumphs (like Thelma's Quilter's Tale) and wondering at the creativity and beauty of other people's projects! I wanna do something fabulous like that!

I'm not lacking inspiration or things to do! I have the UFO Challenge quilt #10. It's called Moon and Star Whimsey from the book Relax and Quilt.

I have only to add some moons and stars to the borders and it will be ready to quilt for Sam. I've done almost all the machine applique, and it shouldn't take too much time to get the remainder finished.

If I will get started!

Sam has a UK Wildcats print picked out for the backing. This is one he's wanted for a while. You can tell by the wrinkles and fold lines that it's been in the closet for too long.

I have the mystery quilt that I'm leading for the Mountain Laurel Quilters...Pieces cut, next steps planned. If you wanna follow along, I've added a page above with the fabric requirements and February's directions. Each month the next step will be added until we finish the quilt in October! I LOVE the fabrics I've selected. But I'm not in the mood today. Sigh.

I found a pattern to use with my Brown Bag Quilt fabrics...

It's called Granny's Jam Lap Quilt from Laps from Fats by Ellen Replogle. I think it will work beautifully with the variety of fabrics I was sent and the coordinating prints I've added from my own stash.

I just don't wanna sew today.
Or do the bills.
Or do my taxes.
Or do my laundry.
Or load the dishwasher.
Or take the boys anywhere.

I wanna sit and think or dream or leaf through magazines and blogs. I wanna play Spider Solitaire and eat the Turtles in the lovely pink and brown box that Emily bought me for Valentine's Day (not promising for this week's weight loss...)

I was reading in Ecclesiastes today. "To everything there is a season..." So true! Today is NOT my season for productivity! :-) The Psalmist writes, "Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you." (Psalm 116:7)

So today is a mental health day. A day of rest. A day to remember how good I've got it! Lord willing, tomorrow and all the days that follow will have sufficient work and inspiration to keep me busy. I'll be sewing again shortly....I get a little crazy if I go too long without touching my fabrics, making something.

Who knows! With a little soul rest, I might even tackle the taxes!!
.... Um...No. Let's not go so far as all that, OK!?

Blessings!

A Mystery!

2011-02-08T00:01:00.001-05:00

I love mysteries. When Emily was a girl, and we were starting our homeschooling journey, I accumulated the whole first 56 original Nancy Drew books for her and for me to read. It was the first indication that we might have more in common that blood after all!! LOL

In spite of her abhorrance for the concept of "legacy quilter" (I still have hope she will change her mind! She's only 20 -- and someday she'll want quilts for her babies!! :-D), we like many of the same books and movies.

Mystery quilts, however....that I have to share with people who understand! LOL Four of us from Mountain Laurel Quilters -- Paula, Debbie, Lynn and I -- worked on Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt Roll, Roll Cotton Boll. And we had so much fun doing it that we talked our club into doing a mystery, too. Since Bonnie's mysteries are on-line and available for all to peek at, we decided to use something else to mystify our club members, and I am fortunate enough to be the Magical Mystery Tour Guide! (It was too good an opportunity to quote the Beatles. You should never pass up a chance to quote the Beatles! LOL)

This past Saturday, we started with the first unit of the quilt. More and more of the mystery will be revealed until we put the quilt together in October.

I'm using Jo Morton fabrics in deep reds, greens, purples, blacks, and medium blues and browns, with a great mixture of her neutrals and shirtings for backgrounds. Our first unit is a simple four-patch of squares and half-square triangles.

The units we'll do in March will use the purples, greens and blacks. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I know the outcome of this mystery. :-D

One mystery that has me stumped, though, is what I'm gonna do with the Brown Bag Quilt Contest fabric!

I've had my fabric several months, now...and I don't have a clue what I will do. I found a nice print in my stash that will bring the different fabrics together nicely, and some neutrals to mix in, but beyond that I haven't a single clue!

I'm looking for inspiration among all the scrappy books and patterns that I have....I haven't found anything that speaks to me yet, but I gotta get crackin' since the quilt must be completed -- pieced/appliqued, quilted and bound!!! -- by April 1st.

Some mysteries end well -- like Nancy Drew! -- some don't. I'm hoping the Brown Bag quilt is one of the former, not the latter! LOL

The Apostle Paul mentioned mysteries quite often in his letters. I love what he wrote in Colossians:

"My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love...., in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 2:2-3 NIV)

In the movie City Slickers, there's this great scene between Billy Crystal and Jack Palance about the meaning of life. (Warning: film clip contains what some would consider an offensive word.)

What I love about this clip is that I know the mystery....I know what the "one thing" is! It is, as Paul said in the passage from Colossians, CHRIST! And the word that Jack uses is the very one that Paul uses in Philippians 3: 8 when he says he counts everything he's lost as but "dung" (KJV) that he may gain Christ.

There are many things I love -- my family, friends, homeschooling, church, music, quilting!!!! -- but none of them is equal to the "hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge" that is found in Jesus.

Oh, that all mysteries were so easily solved!! I bet Nancy Drew would have figured this one out! Maybe she'll help me with the Brown Bag Quilt!

Blessings,

Good Words!

2011-02-04T00:03:00.001-05:00

Yay!

My first finish of 2011....

Well, actually finishes! Two of them!!

Yippee!!

In spite of that cock-eyed, hair-crossways, dog-legged, turned bass-ackwards block in the corner of my orderly rows of log cabins and fans quilt top....(see here, and Lord, give me patience!! :-D), I got 'er straightened out, slapped two borders on her and and called 'er done!!

I'm hoping to ship 'er off to Mary at Quilt Hollow who does such beautiful breathtaking work, and since making her acquaintance, I can hardly wait to turn her loose on one of my humble pieces! (You should see her quilts in Scrap Basket Sensations by Kim Brackett! WOW! isn't even close!)

AND... hehehe! Another finish...this one even more satisfying since it's an actual finish, not just a top, but a whole quilt, binding and all!

"A Bushel of Baskets" -- a pattern from 1988 (is that a hoot, or what!?!)...My friend Paula taught a hand-piecing class using this pattern 'bout four years ago (can it have been that long!?!), and I got about 3 blocks in and started rotary cutting and machine piecing! I don't have the patience for hand piecing.

Sad. And weird! 'cause I LOVE hand quilting.
But I couldn't seem to get the knack for it, and the machine work suited me beautifully.

I did some English Paper Piecing by hand -- little half-inch hexagons (all those hexie-flowers you see in blogland? -- uh-huh, they are fun!), and it was so cool that I started a EPP tumbling blocks (yes, a UFO, thank you very much for reminding me, but I knew it would be a long-term project! :-P). It was a fun block to do.

So Paula quilted "A Bushel of Baskets" for me and returned it just a few weeks ago, and the binding is on...and it's ready for cuddling, or throwing across the bed where the baskets will be front and center, or across the couch where it will be rolled in and tucked under and shared with family and friends.

That's the thing about a quilt, isn't it? It's a finished quilt, for sure, when the last stitch goes into the binding. But it's not really finished until someone loves it.

I've been thinking alot about finished things today. "It is finished!" -- those are some good words!!

And it's no coincidence that they were the final words Jesus uttered from the cross. Without a doubt, His work on earth was complete. The price paid for sin. The atonement made, the veil in the temple rent. Redemption rendered. It was done. Finis! Complete.

The writer in Hebrews tells us "Unlike other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself." (Hebrews 7:27, emphasis mine)

But like a quilted and bound coverlet, complete and finished....it doesn't become finished for me until I roll up in it and feel the love. Until I appropriate its comfort and purpose in my life.

Isn't it just the same with Jesus!? His work for our redemption is done. But we must appropriate Him -- for His comfort and love and purpose in our lives! -- before what He has done means anything to us or those around us. Have you called Him your own, yet? Have you appropriated all He has to offer?

Just like a well-worn and -loved quilt, He will cover you with His love. And when you are well and truly "finished" -- He will welcome you home.

"It is finished!" Good words, indeed!

Blessings!

God Laffs

2011-02-01T00:02:00.007-05:00

My friend Becky says she's always wanted a vanity license plate -- if she could figure out how to reduce it to seven or eight letters/numbers -- that expresses, "Man plans; God Laughs!" Over at Acme License Plate Maker, I mocked one up that at least captures the latter half of the sentiment:

Cracks me up! :-D

And it's just as well that I have a sense of humor about plans....I've been playing around with my EQ6 (haven't convinced myself to spring for the newer version yet! :-D) looking at the Log Cabins and Fans that constitute my UFO #6....

The original was supposed to look something like this (from the cover of Simple Blocks Make Sensational Quilts by Winnie Fleming):

But I couldn't leave well enough alone and started playing around with the blocks for a different layout. My "mock-up" in EQ didn't inlcude my colors/fabrics (I didn't want to take the time to make it "scrappy! :-D), but I could see the layout possiblities.

After getting the center of the quilt top assembled, I started working on pinwheels for the border (knowing I was racing the clock to get my UFO done in January!!!) -- and then I laid them out alongside the quilt center -- and it looked terrible. Booo! EQ is a great tool, but things don't always look in "real time" like they do in the mock up.

So I'm gonna put on plain borders....and I'm putting on the corner triangles...

and I see this:

Isn't it funny that you can plan and look and look and plan and never see a block that's outa place!? It'll be me and the seam ripper this evening, and with a little diligence, the quilt top will be completed today, just one day past the end of the first UFO deadline.

Would I have seen the error if I'd gone ahead with my plans before auditioning the different borders? Probably not! LOL

I have a dear friend -- an expert quilter! -- who pieced her top, auditioned and attached lovely borders, showed it to family and friends, and hand-quilted the thing....Only to hang it in a quilt show with a large-half-square triangle in a block turned the opposite direction it should have gone! It was the first time anyone had seen the error!!

Sounds like something that could happen to me!!

I think God gets a kick out of all our planning. One of Job's friends said, "He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success" (Job 5:12). (Maybe I was being too crafty today!? :-D) Solomon had a lot to say about plans. "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. The LORD works out everything for his own ends -- even the wicked for a day of disaster." (Proverbs 16: 3-4) Later in Chapter 16, he writes, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps" (verse 9).

I do a lot of planning and list making -- but so many times my direction is changed by a circumstance or choice or, most difficult of all, an out-and-out error. When plans go awry, I can count on a righteous and loving Father to determine my steps, to guide me in the way I should go. It's like finding a block turned cock-eyed. He takes the time to correct me, and make me into something better than I first imagined.

Kinda like log cabins and fans with just the right borders. And all the blocks turned just the right way! And UFO #6 marked DONE (just a day later than I'd planned! :-D)

Blessings,

Strung Out Again :-D

2011-01-25T00:05:00.000-05:00

Since Roll Roll Cotton Boll, I find I'm being "strung out" again, working with 1-1/4" strips for my UFO #6! I've got lots and lots of strips cut from Thimbleberries fabrics, and I'm chain-piecing log cabins out of neutrals and rich dark colors.

I'll be sewing on UFO #6 all week, including Thimbleberries Sew Day that Sandie hosts on the last Wednesday of every month at Crazy 'bout Quilts! I'm constructing log cabins and fans to make "American Heritage" -- a pattern from Simple Blocks Make Sensational Quilts by Winnie Fleming. As I've played with the blocks, though, I've changed my mind about the design. Winnie's quilt sets the blocks straight turning fans and logs to make diagonal lines and curves. I've decided to put my blocks on point....

Winnie's American Heritage

And I, Miss "I-don't-care-for-the-strings-look" find that the controlled scrappiness of the logs really appeal to me -- especially marching along in even rows.

My "new" take on the log cabins and fans

This is my first log cabin! Some twenty years of playing around with quilt-making and I've never made a log cabin! So this project is not only a UFO but a long-overdue quilting rite of passage! :-D

And I'm totally in the mood to sew after a wonderful retreat at the Jabez Quilt Conference. I taught three classes, and in them renewed friendships from previous years and made new friends that were wonderful!

There were the "Northern Girls" -- a family of quilters that come from northern KY (just this side of the river from Cincinnati!) which includes Rose, Nancy, sister-in-law Patti and this year, their mother Esther! They always bring beautiful fabrics and we manage to rib each other mercilessly. They are such fun!

Cathy, sweet soul, took ALL THREE of my classes!! Brave, brave woman!! A very accomplished and generous quilter, she blessed me tremendously with her can-do attitude and patience when we found my cutting instructions for a block in my sampler were completely wrong! Quilters are a very forgiving lot, thank the Lord! :-D

A new friendship was born with Caterina, a brand new quilter who emigrated from Italy back in 1960. Upon her retirement, she's taken up quilting. An accomplished seamstress and needleworker (she brought some samples of her lace from the old country!), she's taken to quilting like a magnet!! What fun she was to teach!

In the evenings, I had a room all to myself and was able to sew into the night, just like at home! :-) I cut and assembled 14 more blocks for the Farmer's Wife, bringing my total up to 25.

As much as I enjoy my solitary sewing time, it's not nearly as much fun as sewing with my friends. My daughter tells me I'm an extrovert. I get energy being around people. And that's certainly true if they are quilters!!

Wise old Solomon wrote, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

My friends, old and new, warmed me this past week. I look forward to the next time I'm blessed with their company. I'm so thankful that I can count them and you among those who "help me up" and, along with the Lord Jesus, make up that three-strand cord!

Lord knows, I'll need strength to get UFO #6 completed in the month of January! :-D

Blessings,

I almost forgot!! LuAnn at Loose Threads sent me the "Stylish Blogger Award!" Thanks so much, LuAnn! I'm supposed to share eight things about myself and nominate eight blogs for the award. Pop on over to my "Awards" page to check that out!

Running!

2011-01-18T09:49:00.000-05:00

My friend Patty has a saying that fits me this week....

I'm so far behind, I'm ahead!

I didn't write at all last week, didn't get to read all my favorite blogs, didn't get to exercise, seems like all I did was run, run, run!! And I was so trying to "crank" out a few things. This week I'll be teaching at the Jabez Quilt Seminar and I'm just now getting one of my sample quilt tops completed, still have instructions to prepare, packing to do (and laundry before I pack!), a trip to college to return my daughter (they require her back until I pay her ransom, i.e. tuition! :-D), and drum lessons, and basketball practice, and errands, the funeral of a friend. and...and...and...

So my little hiatus from blogging seems long to me although it has only been about ten days. I managed during that time to get a few things finished.

Roll, Roll Cotton Boll!! YAY!!! :-D

I'm proud of myself for sticking out the mystery and pretty much keeping up with it from week to week (it kept me from adding RRCB to the way-too-long UFO list!!). I didn't care for string blocks before starting this mystery, but never having done them before, I took the plunge! I enjoyed the process!!

I still don't particularly like the string "look" (and if I'd seen JulieK's quilt top -- oh, my! Isn't that just gorgeous!?! -- I would have saved my string blocks for another project! LOL) -- but I like how this quilt turned out. The teal/turquoise is a little more muted than Bonnie's poison greens, but still nice. AND I used a TON of fabric! As Lori at Humble Quilts says, "Woo-Hoo!!"

I managed to get both my quilt tops from Kim Bracket's Scrap-Basket Surprises finished, too. Good thing, since I'm showing them at Jabez for my classes!

My favorite is "Christmas Ribbons." Mine isn't Christmas fabrics, just scrappy.

The "Bali Sea Star" turned out OK. You know -- and I know this is weird -- I don't love batiks.

There it is. I've said it. Out loud!!

The color saturation is cool. And I can see how they are wonderful -- but I don't seem to be able to present them to best advantage. This is a quilt I'll probably give away once it's quilted and bound.

When I get settled in at Jabez tonight (or tomorrow night, if I don't get my copying done for the Mountain Laurel Quilt Sampler that I'm teaching!), I hope that I can enjoy NOT running for the duration of the three day conference!

I thought I'd see what the Bible says about running.... :-)

Jeremiah, that prophet of doom and gloom (God love him!) said, "Run for your lives!!" three different times! :-D in chapters 48 and 51. There's nothing so dire going on in my world to require that admonition, thank the Lord! :-) O' course, Jeremiah's message was one of judgement. Best not to be in rebellion against God as Israel was in at the time, huh?

Isaiah 40:31 offers this beautiful encouragement to runners..."But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

So does Proverbs 18:10: "The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe."

And if I need to re-order priorities in my life (and I always do!! :-) -- Psalm 119:32 offers this admonition:

"I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free."

Makes me think of Daniel Day Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans (LOVE that movie!). The Native American brothers run constantly through the woods and paths of the wilderness that was North America -- but always with purpose and integrity and intensity. It's a sight to behold. Oh that I would run in the path of God's commands so beautifully!

Gotta run!!
Blessings,

What I Really Want to Do...

2011-01-08T00:03:00.000-05:00

No matter what I'm working on, something else sounds so much better!!

I'm knee deep in Cotton, with the Quiltville Mystery, "Roll Roll Cotton Boll," and I really want push through and get it finished since the border segment (and the last one to complete the top!) came out today. I'm still working on the string blocks, but I can finish the top this weekend, I'm sure. (Don't mind the Farmer's Wife blocks on the lower right corner! LOL)

The UFO Challenge keeps begging my attention, too! I put up the "American Heritage" pieces that make up the #6 UFO on the list of 12. They are in my beloved Thimbleberries colors, all dark and fallish and -- it's the only Log Cabin I've made (well, started, anyway!). Quilting for 20 years and never did a log cabin!! Crazy! And I so wanna get this four-year old start finished up!

But I also have a class coming up in a couple of weeks. I'm teaching quick piecing techniques and one of the quilts we're looking at is "Ribbons" from Kim Brackett's book Scrap Basket Surprises. I'm making a queen size, and I just need to sit down and finish up the last few blocks. It's also calling my name.

And well....I didn't work on any of them. Instead, I baked some homemade french bread sandwiches with ham and swiss (my friend Brenda's recipe! It's so easy and good! and my late momma's old, old rolling pin, how sweet!) -- somthing I didn't need to do since I'm watching what I eat to lose weight...

Do you ever find yourself doing the very thing you know you don't need to be doing right now!? Paul wrote about his inner conflict in Romans, chapter 7. He said, "For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [[b]which my moral instinct condemns]....I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.] I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing" (verses 15, 18-19 Amplified).

Baffled and bewildered. Uh huh. Know that feeling well. Paul said, though, that in spite of his inclination to do wrong, that Christ could and would set him free of this conflict. Furthermore, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

As quilters, we put a lot of guilt on ourselves and each other for not accomplishing, not completing, not perfecting...be it projects, or housework, or investments in the people we love. I think sometimes we need to stop and consider...that if the Lord Himself offers forgiveness and frees us from condemnation for our sin, we can also let these little things go and rest in Him.

I'm gonna work on Roll, Roll, and American Heritage and Ribbons in good time. I'm going to eat one of my yummy homemade bread sandwiches and not splurge unduly on my diet. Conflict resolved. I am free!! Doesn't it feel good!?!

Blessings!

Finishing School!

2011-01-04T00:07:00.004-05:00

I've decided that Judy at Patchwork Times is my "Finishing Governess." Back in the mother country (that would be merry old England), and back in the day (regency era, when men were rakes and women sat in drawing rooms and embroidered....sigh), a finishing governess would be employed the year before a girl's "come out" to polish her for presentation.

So I've got several projects that need finishing! And Judy's UFO Challenge is just the schoolmaster I need (at least I HOPE! :-D).

In addition to the Quilt Tops I listed here, I also want to complete the quilting on some tops that have piled up for way too long. I'd planned to learn to use my Hobby Quilter in 2010, but never got to it. So I want to rectify that neglect this year. I also want to get back into hand quilting, which I love. Here's what I want to finish up:

Quilts to Finish Completely (quilted/bound) in 2011:

Mountain Laurel Sampler (hand quilted)
Somerset (Jo Morton - machine)
Baby Rose (Jo Morton - machine)
Pick Up Sticks (Jo Morton - machine)
Razzle Dazzle (machine)
Thimbleberries Take 5 (machine)
Ocean Waves (hand quilted)
Christmas Friendship Star (machine)
Batik Stars (machine)
Ribbons (machine)
5-Stripe Thimbleberries (machine)
4-Patch Strippy (Jo Morton - machine)

All the challenges in Blogdom won't help me finish, though (notwithstanding Judy's valient efforts! :-), unless I am determined and persistent!

In Scripture, James had some thoughts about that...

He said, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4) I like how the Amplified version expounds on verse 4: "Let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work..."

I think I'm ready to let them have full play!! -- as long as they play nicely with the other projects waiting in the wings! :-D -- so that in the end, they may be "perfect and entire" (KJV).

Would that all areas of my life would be so surrended, that the trials that come and test my faith would find ME perfect and entire! Let it be so, Lord Jesus.

Blessings!

P.S. In keeping with my desire for accountability, I've added two pages above. One will document my UFO Challenge progress, the other my weight loss/fitness progress. :-) I'd also like to include one for my other 2011 Resolution for a daily quiet time, but I'm not sure how to chronicle that yet. I'll think more on it and see what works! :-) Pop over and take a look! Blessings!