Creativity

Devotion for the Week...

The countdown to the end of the school year is on! We have to get through three more weeks of regular schedule and then we're on summer break, and let me tell you we're all ready for the break! On top of the regular end of year exhaustion, I'm fighting a cold, so it wasn't a very productive weekend, though I did enjoy teaching a workshop on Saturday afternoon. All of that to say, I didn't have the mental capacity to finish a devotion for today, so I've pulled one from the archive. I hope you enjoy it!

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Early one morning recently I woke up from a dream that had something to do with scrolling through Instagram on my phone and all I could think in that 'barely awake' state was that it's pretty amazing that someone was able to program a computer I carry around in my back pocket to recognize what I want to do based on where on the screen I touch. Not only that, but I can touch the a spot on the first page of apps and open one thing, then swipe to the second page of apps and touch the same place to open something different entirely. Who thought of that? And who figured out how to make it work?

Computers mystify me. I have no clue how they actually work or how to change what they can do and I'm grateful that other people have been able to create ways for me to work with computers without needing to know everything about their inner workings.

The same is true in a lot of other categories as well. I don't create new recipes, but I love following ones that other people create. I wouldn't know how to design a washing machine or a dishwasher, but I'm extremely grateful to the people who created them!

Throughout history, people have created so many amazing things, in so many different fields, that it's kind of mind boggling.

Genesis 1:26 says, "Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us." The 'in our image' part doesn't mean that we look like God, since He doesn't have a physical body for us to resemble. It's talking about His character. We are meant to be like Him in our character. Unfortunately, sin often gets in the way of that. We don't always express love and compassion, kindness, generosity and faithfulness as He does because our sinful nature is too selfish.

One expression of His character that we don't often think about imitating is His creativity, but it is a large part of who He is. Just think about the variety we see in flowers or in the animal kingdom, not to mention the huge variety of appearances and personalities among people. God created all of it and designed it all to work together flawlessly.

A lot of people protest that they're not creative at all, but I don't think that's true. Creativity doesn't have to be painting or writing books or designing quilts. One friend talks about her mother, who can go to almost bare cupboards and somehow still create a delicious meal. Other people think of ways to teach children who are having trouble understanding a lesson at school or they come up with ways to raise money to help a charity they believe in. Still others design apps and computer programs that do things never thought of before. There is no limit to the ways people can be creative, because there is no limit to the creativity God has instilled in us.

How are you creative most often?

100 Days of Scrappy Sewing Wrap-up

Thursday was the last day of this year's 100 Day Project. My plan for the Project was to spend at least 15 minutes working on any of my many scrappy projects each day, and I'm happy to say I only missed 3 days out of the 100. Here's my daily tracker as proof 😊

I wrote a post about the projects I worked on over the first 50 days, which you can see here. The second half of the project was not quite what I expected when I planned it...Aiden and Zach both came home just before the end of April, which meant I moved my sewing machine back down to the kitchen so Aiden could sleep in the sewing room. We expected Aiden to only be home for two or three weeks, but he's still here over a month later, so I'm still sewing in the kitchen. That is not at all a complaint! I am so happy to have all three boys home together! It does mean less rummaging around in my scrap boxes, though, since I don't want to be invading his space all the time, and less leaving things out to be a leader/ender project, since we need the kitchen table for other things. It has also meant I've done a lot of hand stitching, since apparently I'm out of the habit of setting things up and putting things away constantly for sewing by machine, and lots of days I just worked on one of my two hand stitching projects.

With all that hand stitching, I've added a lot more stars to the design wall! When I took the picture for the halfway post, I had 51 stars stitched to their backgrounds; I now have 71. 

That gives me about 63" in length, and I've started on column 8, which will give me about 48" in width when it's finished. I definitely want at least one more column. I haven't decided yet if I want to add another square to each column, too, for a little extra length. So, I either need 18 more stars, or 27. That may be decided by how many stars I have left! Next up, I need to cut some more background squares and count the remaining stars.

I made a good bit of progress on the frame around my Hexie Rainbow, too. I stitched three rows to two sides of the hexagon, which gives me as much width as I want, I think, and now I'm working to square up one of the corners. The next chunk of three rows is almost finished and ready to be added. The nice thing about squaring up the corner is that each row is shorter than the one before!

I did do some machine sewing, too. I made my Sunshine on a Cloudy Day mini.

I made Berry Pi, too. Read more about it, and get the free pattern here.

I pieced the back for Berry Pi, using some of the scraps from the front and the white pieces I cut incorrectly. I needed more than those pieces, though, so I used up even more of my 2 1/2" strips to make the back. I can't show the finished quilt yet, but I will say I've never pieced a back with so many seams before!

In the halfway post, I shared some scrappy 4 patches I had been making. Over the second half of the Project, they became a top that I absolutely love. Here's a sneak peek at how that looks, from when it was still on the design wall.

Scrappy butterflies! Aren't they cute? Looking at them makes me ridiculously happy. I need to get a back ready for them so I can get it quilted. And yes, the pattern will be coming soon 😊 Look for an announcement about that coming in a few weeks.

All in all, I'm calling the 100 Days of Scrappy Sewing a success. There weren't many finishes, but I made a lot of progress on a bunch of different things and I really enjoyed focusing on my scrappy projects. I found the hand stitching, especially, to be very relaxing, and I want to keep that going. Summer stitching in the backyard is calling my name!

It's Quiz Time!

How many times have you taken a "What Kind of _____ Are You" quiz? Whether it's a serious quiz (What Kind of Financial Planner Are You), or a silly one (What Kind of Animal Are You), there's something about quizzes that is just plain fun. Well, as long as they're not school quizzes, those were never fun!

Today I have a quilting quiz to share with you, just for the fun of it! Though after you take the quiz to find out what kind of scrap quilter you are, I'll also give you some free pattern suggestions, so you'll be ready to tackle your next scrap quilt 😊

Ready? Jump on into the quiz!