April 30, 2019

Dresden placemats

I've finally finished my mother-in-law's Christmas gift! Only 4 months late, lol, but better late than never, right?
Dresden placemats | DevotedQuilter.com
Last fall, when I was working on my Hexie Rainbow quilt, my MIL pointed to a lemony-yellow hexie and told me that she'd love to have placemats made with that shade of yellow. A little later, she pointed out a lime green hexie and said that green would be perfect with the lemon yellow for a set of placemats. I can recognize a hint that broad, so I asked what colour she'd want with them 😊 She picked navy and maybe white, if the design needed another colour.

Then I debated what design to use until the middle of December, so I knew this particular gift would be late, though I didn't expect it to be this late. In the end, I came up with this dresden design because I wanted to make more dresdens after making my Dresden Log Cabin back in November.

My MIL is definitely right - those three colours look fabulous together! All three are Northcott solids and I used Warm and Natural batting along with Aurifil thread.

I started by quilting the center of the dresden with Aurifil 2785 and then I outlined the dresden twice, once right at the edge and once ¼" away. The swirl hooks in the background were a lot of fun to quilt, but it was hard to squeeze them in some of the small spaces. That's where my love of tiny quilting came in handy, lol.
Dresden placemats | DevotedQuilter.com
FYI, the placemat is flat, the brick wall behind it isn't
I wasn't sure what to quilt in the dresden itself at this point, so I quilted the borders next. Simple back and forth lines in the green and wishbones in the yellow add wonderful texture. Both are done with Aurifil 1231 (spring green) which had the remarkable ability to look yellow on the green fabric and green on the yellow fabric 😊
Dresden placemats | DevotedQuilter.com
Then, thanks to a Pinterest search, I found this quick and simple, but oh-so-pretty design for in the dresden, which is also done with 1231.
Dresden placemats | DevotedQuilter.com
Dresden placemats | DevotedQuilter.com
I love a solid for quilt backings! I backed the placemats with the navy, even though it looks lighter in this picture. Isn't all of that quilted texture amazing??
Dresden placemats | DevotedQuilter.com
I love the Aurifil 1231 on the navy 😊
Dresden placemats | DevotedQuilter.com
I love my labels from Finer Ribbon, but I don't like how they flap on smaller projects. I decided to try stitching them into the corners of the placemats and I'm so pleased with how they look. In fact, I may start attaching them to all of my quilts this way, not just the small ones.
Quilt label | DevotedQuilter.com
We'll be seeing my MIL this weekend when we're out of town for Zach's basketball games, so I'll get to deliver the placemats to her. I hope she likes them as much as I do!

April 29, 2019

Our Primary Message

Devotion for the Week...

When Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after the resurrection, He reassured them that everything that had happened to Him was according to the Father's plan as revealed in Scripture. "Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45). What a relief that must have been for them! Not only was Jesus there with them, but everything was exactly as it was supposed to be. You can almost feel the collective relief.

Then Jesus continued with this: "It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ (v. 47).

This should be our primary message: There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.
Weekly devotions on Christian living | DevotedQuilter.com
We can make teaching others about God complicated, full of rules and regulations, or we can simply teach them that there is forgiveness of sins available to anyone and everyone who repents.

It may not be the easiest conversation starter, especially if we don't know the other person well, but if we allow God to lead us, there will be moments when we're able to share this simple and profound truth with people who need to hear it. And, of course, everyone needs to hear it.

April 26, 2019

Slim Fit Raglan

I made a new shirt!
Slim fit raglan | DevotedQuilter.com
 I'm very excited about this Slim Fit Raglan pattern by Patterns for Pirates 😊 It went together so easily, even for this sewing-with-knits beginner and I love how it feels.
Slim fit raglan | DevotedQuilter.com
I chose to do this one all in one fabric, but I have enough to make another one with the body in this fabric and the sleeves in a print. The pattern includes three sleeve lengths and I'll probably use the 3/4 length for the next one. I bought the fabric from L'Oiseaux Fabrics and it feels like a much higher quality fabric than what you find used for store bought shirts. I used Aurifil 2785 for all of the stitching.

I used my twin needle to hem the sleeves and the bottom hem and this time I remembered to sew with the right side facing up so the twin needle detail actual shows on the outside of the shirt.
Slim fit raglan | DevotedQuilter.com
Slim fit raglan | DevotedQuilter.com
I have an old serger, but it makes me a little nervous because sergers cut off the extra seam allowance as you sew, which makes me feel like I can't rip out any mistakes as easily. For that reason, I sewed this on my Janome and it went perfectly. I didn't even have to rip any seams!

This was my first time attaching a neckband, which went okay. It's not perfect, but the ripples are all fairly small and they're at the back so it looks good from the front 😊
Slim fit raglan | DevotedQuilter.com
There's something very satisfying about wearing a shirt I made myself. I think it's safe to say I've been bitten by the garment sewing bug! In fact, I may or may not have paused the writing of this post twice while distracted by garment pattern and knit fabric shopping...

April 23, 2019

April Island Batik/Accuquilt Baby Quilt - Blowing in the Wind

Note, the fabric and batting for this project and the Accuquilt Go! fabric cutting system were given to me as part of the Island Batik ambassador program.

The Island Batik challenge for this month is a joint challenge with industry partner Accuquilt. Accuquilt sent the Ready, Set, Go! ultimate fabric cutting system to each of the ambassadors and our challenge for this month was to use it to make a baby quilt. The Go! fabric cutting system comes with 8 dies and a book with tons of inspiration. The hardest part was choosing which blocks I wanted to use, lol.
Island Batik baby quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
Once I chose my blocks, I picked through the remains of my Blossom fabrics. This is now my third quilt with the Blossom line (Sparkler and one I still can't share were the first two) and though I have some left, it's not much. That makes me sad because I love, love, love the colours and prints in this line! The Island Batik solid grey is the perfect choice for the background.

With the kids I babysit, I sometimes have days where it's only me and the 3 year old, Silas. I figured he'd have a blast rolling the fabric through the Go! so I brought it out one afternoon. I was right! He loved it 😊 I sent his mom pictures with the message, "He's having so much fun he doesn't realize it's child labour, lol!" She responded with "FYI, he loves vacuuming, too 😉"
This picture is shared with permission from his mom.
In no time at all we had all the pieces cut for the quilt. I didn't have enough of either of the teal fabrics, so I used them both. They're close enough to work together, but different enough that it adds a little extra interest for anyone who looks carefully.
Island Batik fabric and Accuquilt Go! | DevotedQuilter.com
Here are all those pieces, sewn together 😊 I really like the diagonal movement in this design.
Baby quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
I chose to use two different blocks. Clay's Choice, because I love a good pinwheel block.
Clay's Choice quilt block | DevotedQuilter.com
And a Double Four Patch because I loved the movement and the way it connected with the cornerstones of the Clay's Choice blocks.
Double Four Patch quilt block | DevotedQuilter.com
I added 2" finished sashing, with teal cornerstones to continue the design. Can you see the difference between the two teal fabrics in this picture?
Swirl hooks free motion quilting | DevotedQuilter.com
I basted with Hobb's 100% cotton batting and then I tried to plan some custom quilting, but between the swirls in the pink fabric and the pinwheels in the Clay's Choice blocks, this quilt was practically begging for some swirl hook quilting. Who am I to argue with the quilt? I used Aurifil 2600 and reminded myself to quilt big. I think I'm getting better at it, so I was very amused when I posted a picture on IG and the first comment was someone asking if they have to be so small and close together! Ha!

I backed the quilt with solid white and I love the texture from the quilting. And yes, there are definitely some small swirls in there, but I had to fill those small spaces somehow. Right?
Swirl hook free motion quilting | DevotedQuilter.com
Silas and I have since used the Accuquilt Go! two other afternoons to cut up scraps for future projects. He loves that it's something only he gets to do, since he's the oldest. I love that we're slowly taming the scraps, lol 😊
Baby quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
This was such a fun quilt to make! Have I mentioned how much I enjoy being an Island Batik ambassador and getting to play with these beautiful fabrics?

Note, the pattern for this quilt is now available! Click to buy your copy today.
Blowing in the Wind quilt pattern | DevotedQuilter.com

April 22, 2019

Good From the Bad

Devotion for the Week...

Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." It's a wonderful verse that always helps me remember that God is in control and that His purpose for my life will prevail. Not only for my life, but for your life and even for the world as a whole. He is in control.

Even so, there are plenty of situations that make me wonder how God could possibly use them to bring about something good. On the other hand, I've definitely heard about wonderful things coming from awful situations, like the story of a soldier Aiden told me recently: the soldier stepped on a landmine and lost both of his legs, which is awful. But in the course of his recovery he met a nurse and she eventually became his wife, which is wonderful.

While I was thinking about the different people in the Easter story these past few weeks, I kept coming back to this verse. There's Pilate, who ignored what he knew was right in order to keep the crowd happy, the chief priests, who were so worried about protecting their own position in society that they were willing to kill a man they knew was innocent, and Judas, who betrayed Jesus for his own gain. Their actions ranged from self-serving to downright evil, but God used those actions to bring about the greatest good in all of history.

I admit it's hard to wrap my mind around how God uses our sinful actions to bring about His plans, but that's exactly how He works. It's not that He's wanting us to sin, but He's not surprised by it, either. He knows that we will sin and He makes use of our sinful actions to further His own purposes for the world.

In the case of the Easter story, men were more than willing to sin to serve their own purposes. Little did they know they were also serving God's purposes at the same time.
Weekly devotions on Christian living | DevotedQuilter.com
Of course, no one could have imagined what God could do with a man they worked so hard to kill. No one saw the resurrection coming. Let that give us hope when we're in the midst of bad situations and we can't see how God could ever use it to bring about anything good. We don't need to know how He's going to do it, we simply trust that He will.

April 15, 2019

Medallion Magic QAL - Part 4

It's time for the next installment of the Medallion Magic QAL! I love seeing my quilt grow now that we've started sewing 😊 If you haven't started yet, there's still time to join in and I'd love to see your Medallion Magic quilt, too.
Medallion Magic QAL - DevotedQuilter.com
I'm aiming for this to be a slow, relaxed quilt along, with not so much to do each month that you can't keep up. We're all too busy to be stressing over keeping up with a QAL! Here's the schedule of events:

January 15th - Gather fabrics and pattern
February 15th - Cutting
March 15th - Center star
April 15th - Borders 1 and 2 - today!
May 15th - Borders 3 and 4
June 15th - Borders 5, 6 and 7
August 15th - Finish party link up opens

If you don't have your pattern yet, you can pick up your copy from my Etsy shop in either PDF or printed versions.

I know that adding two (or even three) borders in one month sounds like a lot, but one of my favourite things about this medallion quilt design is that 4 of the 7 borders are just plain fabric, which gives the pieced borders room to breathe. I've always found most medallion quilts are so busy it's hard to focus on anything and I intentionally designed Medallion Magic to allow the pieced borders to shine.

Here's my original Medallion Magic, made in Northcott fabrics:
Medallion Magic quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
And here is how my new Island Batik version looks with borders 1 and 2 added. I love how bright and airy it feels with the light background!
Medallion Magic quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
These strip blocks come together quickly thanks to the magic of strip piecing 😊 Isn't it great when we can use simple strategies to make blocks that look like they took a long time to make?

I love the springtime feel of these greens and purples, all from the Paisley Park line, especially now that we're in the mud stage of spring here in Newfoundland. My tulips have started coming up, though, so I'm looking forward to seeing colours that are more exciting than brown sometime in the future.
Medallion Magic quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
I've always loved pinwheel blocks and this double pinwheel is no exception. These corner blocks have quite a few small pieces, so an accurate ¼" seam allowance is really important.
Medallion Magic quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
Andrea, of 3rd Story Workshop, recently shared a great explanation of how to check and fix your seam allowance so check that out if you're not sure about yours. I may still be trying to zero in on the perfect ¼" with my new Janome 6700 (which I keep meaning to write a post about, but it hasn't happened yet). I naively assumed that using the ¼" foot that came with the machine would give me a perfect seam allowance, but it was off by quite a bit. We won't talk about how many things I sewed before I realized that...We also won't talk about what a beginner level mistake that was. I should definitely have known better.

That's it for this month. I'm looking forward to seeing your first couple of borders!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter

Judas

Devotion for the Week...

Over the past two weeks, we've looked at Pilate and the chief priests and their parts in the Easter story. Today I want to look at Judas' betrayal of Jesus.

"Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus" (Matthew 26:14-16).

The Bible doesn't tell us anything about why Judas betrayed Him, though people have speculated that Judas was looking for a king who would overthrow the Romans, who had conquered Israel. When it became apparent that Jesus wasn't going to do that, Judas betrayed him. Whatever his reason, I think it's interesting to note that it was Judas who approached the chief priests, not them coming to ask him to betray Jesus. Judas took the initiative to get rid of Jesus and even to make a profit from doing it.

When the time came, Judas brought "a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs...sent by the leading priests and elders of the people" (v. 47) to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane and "had given them a prearranged signal: 'You will know which one to arrest when I greet him with a kiss.' So Judas came straight to Jesus. 'Greetings, Rabbi!' he exclaimed and gave him the kiss" (vv.48,49).

The next morning, "When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. 'I have sinned,' he declared, 'for I have betrayed an innocent man.'...Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself" (Matthew 27:3-5).

What I can't help but wonder is what did he think was going to happen? He hanged himself upon realizing that Jesus was going to die, so obviously that wasn't his intention, but what did he intend? Was he aiming to have Jesus discredited, so people would stop following Him? Did he hope Jesus would be arrested and put in prison? Did he never really think about what would happen to Jesus, instead only focusing on what he stood to gain by turning Jesus in to the chief priests? We don't know what he expected to have happen, but when he realized that Jesus was going to die, he was so crushed by his guilt that he committed suicide.

I remember once hearing someone lament that because he committed suicide, Judas never got to experience Jesus' forgiveness. It was the first time I ever thought about how Jesus would have reacted to meeting Judas again after His resurrection, had Judas still been alive. Can you picture Judas, trying to make himself invisible, so Jesus wouldn't notice him? Or maybe falling on his knees, apologizing over and over for all the pain his actions caused, cringing from the anger he expected? Never in a million years would he have expected the love and forgiveness we know Jesus would have given him.
Weekly devotions on Christian living | DevotedQuilter.com
No matter how big our sins are, God's grace is always big enough to cover them. Even Judas' betrayal would have disappeared under the covering of His grace and love. That goes for all of our sins, too.

April 11, 2019

First Responder Quilts Delivered!

For anyone who doesn't know the story behind these quilts, they're the result of the generosity of hundreds of quilters who answered my call for blocks two years ago after a senior's home across the road from me burned down. All of the residents got out safely, but they lost everything, so I asked for help to make them quilts. Here's the original call for blocks, plus the quilts for the residents and the employees. And pictures of some of the residents with their quilts are here and here.

I am so excited to finally be able to say these quilts have all been delivered! On April 2 I took the first responder quilts to the fire hall to meet with the firefighters, paramedics and RCMP who could be there and give them their quilts. Here's the group shot with all three groups. I think I should have had a stool, lol! At 5'2" I've never thought of myself as tall, but I look ridiculously short in this picture 😏
One person didn't want his face shared publicly, which is why he's covered.
And here are the individual groups. First, the RCMP. One member has moved away since the fire, so his quilt will be mailed to him.
The paramedics. The two on the ends were working and arrived just in time to receive their quilts and be part of this picture, but they weren't in the big group picture above.
And here are the firefighters. Quite a few weren't able to make it that night, but I left their quilts with the fire chief and he'll give them out. Also, you might notice that two of the guys in the paramedics picture are also here in the firefighters picture. Our firefighters are all volunteers, with regular jobs as well and two of them serve the community as both firefighters and paramedics.
And now on to the quilts! There are 31, so be prepared for quilt overload, lol. Just a couple of notes first - I would have loved beautiful, outdoor pictures of these, but the weather and work schedules wouldn't cooperate, plus with 31 quilts it was pretty much just a matter of Zach and Michelle holding them up and me snapping the pictures quickly. And second, any quilts that look different or that are perfectly coordinated rather than scrappy were donated as either whole tops or even as finished quilts.

I'd love to know if you spot a block you made!
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Quilts for first responders | DevotedQuilter.com
Two years ago, I wanted to make 21 quilts for the residents. Because of the incredible generosity and support of this amazing community, we made 21 for the residents, 10 for the employees, 31 for the first responders and we sent another 21 quilt tops to help make quilts for people affected by hurricane Harvey. That's a total of 83 quilts/quilt tops! I've said it before, but it bears repeating - quilters are wonderful people!

I still have some backing fabric and binding left over, plus a small bag of blocks. All of that will be passed on to another quilter here in town who does a lot of charity sewing, especially for our province's children's hospital. I feel like that's the best way to honour the intent with which it was given to me.

I can never thank you enough for jumping in with such enthusiasm and helping me to bless so many people in my community 😊

I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday, TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Beauties Pageant