Scrappy Triangles WIP

Way back in 2011 I bought the November/December issue of Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting magazine and it had the pattern for this gorgeous scrappy quilt called Scrappy Triangles. designed by Jean Nolte. 

At some point fairly soon after getting the magazine, I decided to make it, but since it requires 864 2" finished HSTs, I decided to just start cutting the squares whenever I had scraps big enough. Eventually I had a big bag of light and dark squares, so I started sewing the HSTs as leaders and enders.

I'm never good at sticking with leaders and enders. I love them in theory, but before long I forget to take them out when I start sewing or I don't have pieced prepped, so I move on without them. This starting and stopping sequence has happened a couple of times with these scrappy HSTs.

I'm working on a quilt for Make Modern, to be published in the summer, and when it came time to sew the blocks together I decided to pull out the HSTs again. I was surprised to see a big pile of completed HSTs in a bag with the cut squares, so it seemed like a good idea to count them up and see just how many I already have. Can you imagine how surprised I was to find I had 400 already finished??

While piecing the top for the Make Modern quilt, I finished another small stack of pretty little HSTs.

I also thought a lot about whether or not I still want to recreate the whole quilt. I really love the blocks, but I don't feel like making the throw size anymore. Plus, with my set goal of making more small quilts and the fact that I've decided to donate baby quilts to the province's Ronald McDonald house, I decided that making a couple of baby quilts from the blocks would be a better plan.

Each block requires 52 HSTs and I'll use 4 blocks with sashing to make each baby quilt. So 208 HSTs gives me a baby quilt and 416 gives me 2 baby quilts. Since I already have over 400 HSTs, I have enough to start piecing the blocks! With the ones I made last week, I have extras which is good because there are a few I'll probably set aside because their light/dark contrast isn't great.

My plan is to assemble the HSTs into pairs as leaders and enders, preferably without falling off the leader/ender wagon again. So these two baby quilts will still take a super long time, but that's perfectly okay. They've already been a WIP for 10 or 11 years, so I don't think there's any rush!

Do you do leaders and enders? If you do, do you have any tips for being consistent with them? I'd love to make them a permanent part of my quilting process, especially for this kind of scrappy quilt.

No Capacity Limit

 Devotion for the Week...

When I was in high school Bon Jovi came to Halifax for a concert. The day the tickets went on sale, I spent a long time with the phone to my ear - calling the number to buy tickets, hearing a busy signal, hanging up and then pressing redial again. I want to say it was hours, though I can’t remember for sure how long it actually was. I did eventually get through to buy tickets for myself and my friends, but it was definitely stressful hearing that busy signal so many times. I thought for sure the show would sell out and there wouldn’t be room left for us!

Fortunately, salvation isn’t an offer that can sell out. The ‘seats’ in heaven aren’t limited like ticket sales. John wrote, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God” (John 1:12-13). And Jesus Himself said, "Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am" (John 14:1-3).

This offer is available to all who believe. Anyone and everyone, so long as they believe in Jesus, becomes a child of God. I love that heaven has no capacity limit!

With His death on the cross, Jesus paid the ticket price for the entire world and there’s no risk there won’t be room left for us.

Properly Dressed

 Devotion for the Week...

Last weekend we bought Zach's suit for his graduation next month. Paul needed a new suit, too, so we bought his at the same time. Somehow in the midst of picking out everything for them, I managed to forget that Nathan needs a new dress shirt to wear, so we're still not done shopping for grad. As for me, the fabric has arrived for me to make myself a new dress so I just have to actually get that bit of sewing done before grad arrives.

As I was thinking about the clothes we all need to be properly dressed for grad, it made me think of a parable Jesus told about a man who prepared a wedding feast, but then the invited guests wouldn't come. Some were too busy and others actually assaulted the messengers the man had sent to tell them the feast was prepared. In response, the man sends his servants out to bring in anyone they can find. The parable, found in Matthew 22:1-13, shows that the kingdom of heaven is open to everyone, not only to the Jews (represented by the invited guests).

There was one guest who got himself thrown out of the banquet, though. "But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. 'Friend,' he asked, 'how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?' But the man had no reply. Then the king said to his aides, 'Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth'" (vv. 11-13).

In this parable, the 'proper clothes for a wedding' refers to the righteousness that comes from God through faith in Jesus. As part of his prophecy, Isaiah wrote, "I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10). Our faith in Jesus is what makes us properly dressed to enter the kingdom of heaven, because we are clothed in His righteousness.

The man not wearing the proper clothes at the wedding feast represents those who try to get into heaven on their own righteousness. About our own righteousness, Isaiah wrote, "We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). The words we read translated as 'filthy rags' are more accurately described as 'used feminine hygiene products'. That's rather graphic, isn't it? No matter how good we try to be, that's what our attempts at righteousness look like to God. 

Fortunately, getting properly dressed doesn't mean we have to become more righteous on our own. Good thing, because we can't anyway! All we need do is put out trust in Jesus as our Savior and then we will be like Isaiah - "overwhelmed with joy in the Lord [our] God! For he has dressed [us] with the clothing of salvation and draped [us] in a robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).