Who He Says I Am

Devotion for the Week...

The past few days, I've had the song Who You Say I Am, by Hillsong Worship, going through my head. Mostly it has been just this one line, which is repeated often in the song: "I am who you say I am." I'll be sewing or walking or whatever and realize that line has been on repeat for a while, kind of like it was just running in the background. There are some songs that bug me when they get stuck in my head like that, especially if it's only one line on repeat, but this one doesn't bother me at all. It's a comfort and a reassurance, to be constantly reminded that He is the one who defines me, not my insecurities or other people.

This is true for all of us. We are who He says we are, not who we think we are, not who the world says we are, not who a disapproving parent or ex or friend says we are. God alone has the final word on our identity and our worth.

1 Peter 2:9 says, "you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession." Do you see what incredible value God places on us?

We are a chosen people. 

God chose to redeem us. He chose to have relationship with us. Why? Because He loves us! "See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!" (1 John3:1). 

We are royal priests.

The royal part is pretty easy to understand: we are children of the Most High, which makes us heirs with Jesus. "And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory" (Romans 8:17). 

The priest part is a little less obvious. The priests in the Old Testament were the ones who had access to God, the ones who mediated between the people and God through the offering of sacrifices. Now, because of our belief in Jesus, we have access to God without needing to go through someone else and we are able to offer sacrifices of prayers and praise ourselves. "And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God" (1 Peter 2:5).

We are a holy nation.

It doesn't matter where we were born or where we live now, we are part of God's kingdom. "For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins" (Colossians 1:13-14).

We are God's very own possession.

We are treasured by God. "God bought you with a high price" (1 Corinthians 6:20). That high price was Jesus' death on the cross, which He willingly paid for our salvation because He thinks we're worth the price. 

Whenever we find ourselves thinking we're not good enough or we're not _____ enough, it would be helpful to remember we are who He says we are.

Women of Wisdom QAL and Devotional Journey

It's time for my third annual QAL and devotional journey leading up to Easter! Registration is now open for Women of Wisdom!

Would you like to preparing for Easter by learning about the wisdom of biblical women, while also making a beautiful quilt together? That's exactly what we'll be doing in this 40 day QAL and devotional journey!

Register now Women of Wisdom

The devotional journey consists of 40 daily devotions sent directly to your inbox, beginning on February 22 (that's Ash Wednesday) and continuing until the day before Easter Sunday. The devotions focus on the stories of women in the Bible, some well known and some lesser known. We'll learn from their wise responses to life's twists and turns, or in some cases, from their very unwise responses. 

While we grow in wisdom through the daily devotions, we'll also be stitching up a new quilt! It's a generous throw size and it's confident beginner friendly, machine pieced with a bit of paper piecing. Here's my test version, made with Northcott solids. That deep purple background really makes those bright colours pop!

It was such a struggle to get that picture! First, the snow is deep, but with a crust of ice on the top. So we could walk on it, but every now and then we'd suddenly sink to our knees! Then it was just a little bit breezy. If I'd had a finished quilt, it would have been no problem, but the quilt top is so light that it just wouldn't hang straight. After trying, and failing, for a while to get something decent, Paul went into his workshop and found a piece of wood moulding long enough to cover the width of the quilt. We taped that to the bottom and voila! The quilt stopped blowing all over!

Once you register, you'll receive an email with the Fabric Requirements PDF so you'll have plenty of time to shop your stash or visit your favourite LQS or online shop before our February 22 start. The PDF also includes a colouring sheet to help you plan your colour placement. I can't wait to see what fabrics you choose for your quilt!

What if you just don't have the bandwidth for another QAL right now, but you'd still like to prepare for Easter by focusing on biblical wisdom? Don't worry, I've got you covered 😊 You can choose to register for the devotional journey on its own, without the quilt pattern included, and the daily devotions will arrive in your inbox starting on February 22.

If you'd like to grow in wisdom while making a dazzling new quilt, register today for the Women of Wisdom QAL and devotional journey!

I'm linking with TGIFF, NTT, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, Finished (or not) Friday and Beauties Pageant.

S'Witched

Welcome to my stop on the Villa Rose blog hop! Today I'm sharing my version of the S'Witched quilt, which was so much fun to make. There are giveaways happening as part of the blog hop, so be sure to read right to the end of the post and visit the other bloggers to see their quilts and enter their giveaways, too. Who doesn't love prizes?

Before I share my quilt, I have a couple of other quick things to share 😊 First, on Thursday, registration will be opening for my third annual QAL and devotional journey leading up to Easter. This year it's called Women of Wisdom and the 40 daily devotions will help us glean wisdom from the stories of women in the Bible. Wouldn't it be great to have more wisdom? Edited to say, registration is now open! You can register here.

And second, if you're wanting to get your scrap situation under control, download my free PDF guide, Escape Scrap Overwhelm. It'll help you get those scraps sorted and stored in a way that makes sense for the kinds of quilts you like to make. Just imagine the beautiful scrap quilts you can make when your scraps are easy to use!

Okay, on to my S'Witched quilt! 

The Villa Rose blog hop is highlighting 5 Fast & Fun patterns. The whole pattern for each quilt fits on one side of a postcard, so you know there's nothing complicated about them 😊 You can get the bundle of patterns here.

S'Witched uses 10" squares. I don't usually buy pre-cuts, so I dug into my stash to find pinks, purples and yellows to cut my own squares. I was surprised to find how many of my stash fabrics were not quite 10" wide, so it took a little while to find enough fabrics that were the right size and worked well together. I got there in the end, though! Once everything was cut, the top came together quickly.

At 54" wide, it's a little narrower than the throws I usually make, which meant it fit perfectly onto one of the batting off-cuts I had. It's one of the pieces of batting I always pull out because I think it's going to be wide enough, only to find out it's just a little too narrow, so it felt great to finally use it up! Of course, I could probably save myself that trouble if I measured my batting scraps and stuck a note to each one saying its size, but I've never gotten around to that.

I very rarely piece my backings, other than a seam to make yardage wide enough, but I convinced myself to piece the back this time. I'm not sure how making a back with so few seams feels like way more work than piecing the front, but it does. And yes, Nathan was holding it upside down - you can see the label on the top corner 😆

Since some of the fabrics on the front had hearts, a meander with scattered hearts seemed like the perfect quilting design. I chose Aurifil 2560 (Iris) for the quilting. It really shows on some fabrics, especially the solids...

and blends in on others.

I tried to quilt it fairly large, which meant it went just as quickly as piecing the front. A few small hearts snuck in, though! They always do!

A solid pink binding finishes it off nicely.

I mentioned giveaways, didn't I? Before we get to them, though, here are the rest of the participants in the blog hop. Be sure to visit them to see their beautiful quilts and enter their giveaways, too!

January 19

Villa Rosa Quilts (Blog Hop Kick-Off)

January 20

From Bolt to Beauty

Kathleen McMusing

Jaftex Companies

January 21

Pieceful Thoughts

Little Penguin Quilts

January 22 

Quilt with a View

mmmquilts

January 23

Cheryl’s Teapots 2 Quilting

Devoted Quilter - That's me!

Quilts of Valor Foundation

January 24

Needle and Foot

Am I Shouting Yet?

Electric Quilt

January 25

The Crafty Quilter

Jo’s Country Junction

Keepsake Quilting

Stitchin At Home

January 26

Villa Rosa Quilts (Blog Hop Wrap-Up)

And now, the prizes! Two winners from my blog will win a set of the 5 Villa Rose Fast & Fun pattern cards. Three more winners will win a surprise from the blog hop sponsors. And another two names will be entered to win one of two grand prize boxes. That's a lot of prizes, I know. 

The giveaway will close at 11:59 on January 29th and prizes will be shipped in February. International entries are welcome and winners outside the US will win a digital pattern card collection.

To enter, just leave me a comment and tell me what your fabric scrap situation is like. And remember to download the Escape Scrap Overwhelm PDF if you want to get your scraps organized and easy to use 😊