Holding On

Devotion for the week...

When I was at our provincial women's retreat a couple of weeks ago, the Scripture for the weekend was Psalm 139, where verses 7 -10 say:

"I can never escape from your Spirit! 

    I can never get away from your presence!

If I go up to heaven, you are there;

    if I go down to the grave, you are there.

If I ride the wings of the morning,

    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

even there your hand will guide me,

    and your strength will support me."

Our speaker, Faith Eury Cho, shared a powerful illustration in one of her messages that has really stuck with me. Faith had another woman join her on stage and told us to pretend that woman was God. She then said, "We think this is what our relationship with God is like." She reached out and took the woman's hand, "We go to church and we get with God, but then we go home and we get annoyed at our husband and we yell at the kids." Faith dropped the woman's hand and stalked across the stage. 

"Then we turn on some worship music so we can get back with God." She rushed back and took her hand again.

"Monday morning someone cuts us off in traffic and we get angry." She dropped her hand and stalked across the stage again. "So we go to prayer meeting to get back with God." She rushed back and took her hand. She gave several more examples of things we do that make us pull away from God, and ways we try to get back with Him again, rushing back and forth across the stage.

"It's exhausting!" she said. "But that's not what our relationship with God is like." She then turned to face the other woman and they clasped each other's forearms.

"I get angry at my husband," she said as she let go of the woman's arm and tried to pull away, but the other woman didn't let go. 

"I yell at my kids," Pastor Faith said, pulling harder, but still the other woman didn't let go. "God doesn't let me go. Through it all, He's there. We don't have to get back with God because He never let us go."

He never let us go. What a wonderful thing to remember!

As I've been thinking about that illustration, it made me think of Jesus' promise to His disciples and to us. "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). That promise isn't dependent on us. He didn't say, "As long as you hold onto me, I'll stay by your side." Nope. He simply said He's with us always. No matter what we're going through, no matter what our mood is like today, no matter what the kids are doing, what happened at work, or what diagnosis the doctor just laid out before us. He is with us, and He's always holding on.

My First Quilt with Erin Grogan

It's the last Friday of the month, which means it's time for a My First Quilt interview! This month Erin Grogan of Love Sew Modern is sharing the story of her first quilt.

Erin is a modern quilt pattern designer who enjoys creating colorful, nostalgic quilts under the name Love Sew Modern. Over the last 4 years she’s become an international quilting instructor and published over 30 quilt patterns, including her book Retro Curved Pieced Quilts.

You can connect with Erin at her website, on Instagram, and on Facebook.

And now, here's Erin's first quilt. Isn't it amazing??? 

What year did you make your first quilt? What prompted you to make it?

I have been making garments since I was in the 4th grade, but it’s always been hard to find garment fabric. Whenever I was out I would type fabric into my GPS and see where it would take me. One day in 2017 I found myself inside my first modern quilt shop. I fell immediately in love with the bright colors and bold prints of the fabric. I knew then I wanted to make a quilt. I purchased a quilt kit from the shop not knowing how challenging it would actually be. 

What techniques were used in that first quilt? Did you quilt it yourself?

The quilt pattern used flying geese and economy blocks surrounding a foundation pieced Mariner’s Compass block. I purchased a 1890’s treadle machine off of Craigslist to be able to quilt it, which turned out to be really difficult to quilt on. 

Who taught you to make the quilt?

I took an intro to quilting class at the modern quilt shop where I got the kit where I learned how to make the flying geese blocks. I spent a whole day at the shop trying to figure out how FPP worked to be able to piece the center. 

Are the colours you chose for your first quilt ones you would still choose today?

The quilt was made using a kit in blues, pinks, and purples. Today I’m more attracted to retro color palettes including yellows or oranges. 

Did you fall in love with quilting right away? Or was there a gap between making the first quilt and the next one?

I was hooked immediately after learning the basic steps of piecing a quilt. 

Where is the quilt now?

I used to have the quilt hanging in my cubical at work to remind me that I can do hard things. Now it’s folded into a cabinet in my living room. I like to take it out sometimes when I’m sharing my quilting journey at trunk shows. 

Is there anything you wish you could go back and tell yourself as you made that first quilt?

Quilts from the center out. I regret quilting from the outside in because it created some bunching spots. 

Anything else you want to share about your first quilt?

My first two quilts used FPP, but I’ve avoided that technique ever since. 

Thank you for sharing your gorgeous first quilt, Erin! I love that you had it hanging in your cubicle at work!

When They're Doing Well

Devotion for the week...

A friend of mine took her oldest child to university the same weekend we took Zach back. When I messaged to check on her that Sunday, when I knew they were heading home, she said it was so hard to leave him and that they were having a very quiet drive home. I remember driving home after leaving both Aiden and Zach for the first time, so I understand how she was feeling, and I assured her leaving them the first time is the hardest, and that it gets  easier after that.

The first time we leave our university students behind, there are so many unknowns. Will they get homesick? Will they be able to keep up with their classes? Will they like the program they've chosen? Will they make friends? Will they be happy? Once we know they're doing well, though, leaving them doesn't feel like a big deal anymore. In fact, dropping Zach off this time was easy because I knew how much he was looking forward to being back there. Knowing he's happy there makes me happy.

That made me think about John writing to his friend Gaius. John wrote, "Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth" (3 John 1:2-4).

You can feel the lightness in John's words as he writes to his friend because, thanks to a report from other believers, John knew Gaius was doing well. We love to know that the people we care about are doing well. My mother-in-law has said she doesn't need to have long phone calls from her children (all in their 40s and 50s), but she loves to just hear their voices (and now see their faces, thanks to video calls), so she can know they're okay.

In our own lives, we can go both directions with this. Is there someone who made an impact on our lives and who might love to hear how we're doing now? Maybe someone who isn't on the same social media networks we are, so they don't ever see the updates we share? How could we connect with them and let them know we are doing well? A phone call, text message, or even an in-person visit could bring great joy to them just as the believer's report of Gaius' wellbeing did for John. And on the flip side, is there someone we'd like to connect with, to find out how they're doing? How could we make that happen?

Donut Time Pattern Release!

What's your favourite donut? Mine lately is the blueberry sour cream glazed from Tim Horton's, though when I was there yesterday they didn't have any, so I had to settle for my second favourite, a plain sour cream glazed. A classic Boston Cream is always good, too.

One thing I've been finding with my new job is that I now have more time and energy for the quilty business things I've had on my to-do list for ages. Getting this pattern updated and ready to add to my shop is one of those things, and today I'm happy to say the Donut Time pattern is done and available in the shop!

When it comes to fabric donuts, scrappy is the way to go! Donut Time is great for highlighting your favourite small scraps. With lots of space around/between them, they stand out so nicely against the background.

I recommend the Olfa circle cutter for cutting out the circles; it's so much easier and faster than cutting them with scissors! Of course, the circles can be cut with scissors, so you don't need to have the Olfa circle cutter.

The pattern for the throw size Donut Time shown here was originally published in Make Modern in July 2022. In getting it ready to add to my shop, I've added the instructions for a baby size, too. Wouldn't it make the sweetest baby quilt (see what I did there? 😂)?

How many fabrics do you have that would make beautiful donuts?

When Saul Met Jesus

Devotion for the week...

I spent the weekend at a church women's retreat with a friend and more than 500 other women. It was fantastic! On Saturday, during a prayer session, the speaker asked us to raise our hands if our husband wasn't a believer. Hands went up all over the room. Then asked those whose children weren't believers to raise their hands. More hands went up. Then she asked those whose parents weren't believers, then siblings, then extended family, then friends. By the time she was done, every woman in the room had raised her hand.

I had another devotion for today, but standing there in that room I remembered one devotion I wrote for this year's Moments with Jesus QAL and Devotional Journey, and I decided to share that one instead. The story of Saul's conversion is one of hope and encouragement for everyone who cares for someone who doesn't believe in Jesus (yet!), which, as was shown on Saturday, is all of us.

____________

Saul, who would later be known as Paul, enters the biblical story with the death of Stephen, who was stoned to death by the religious leaders. "Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria" (Acts 8:1). Saul was right there in the midst of the persecution: "Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison" (v. 3). Not only that, he "was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers" (Acts 9:1).

Not satisfied with only persecuting the believers who remained in Jerusalem, Saul went to the high priest for letters introducing him to the leaders of the synagogues in Damascus, and asking for their cooperation as he went about hunting down any believers in their city, too. "He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains" (v. 2). He sounds like a peach of a guy, doesn’t he? 

Letters of introduction in hand, Saul headed out for Damascus. "As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?'

'Who are you, lord?' Saul asked.

And the voice replied, 'I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.'" (vv. 3-6). 

This is another one of those times I really wish the Bible told us what people were thinking instead of just giving us the bare bones of the story. What must have been going through Saul’s mind as he heard Jesus Himself speaking to him? Considering where he was headed and why, and his history of persecuting people who believed in Jesus, I would think Saul’s primary reaction to Jesus speaking to him would be one of fear. Unfortunately, all we know is that "Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink" (vv. 8-9).

We don’t know what happened during those three days, but we can probably assume Saul spent the time in prayer, and that he was 'told what he must do', as Jesus had said to him on the road. After the three days, God sent a man named Ananais who "laid his hands on him and said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.' Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized" (vv. 17-18). Even more amazing, "immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 'He is indeed the Son of God!'" (v. 20). 

Can you imagine how shocked everyone who knew him must have been by how quickly he changed his tune? He went from persecuting believers to being an outspoken believer himself in just a matter of days! He was the last person anyone would have expected to see believe in Jesus, until the very moment it happened.

Is there someone you love who feels like the last person you’d ever expect to see come to Jesus? Someone adamant they don’t need Him, or they don’t want anything to do with Him? Maybe they get angry if they hear the name of Jesus, like Saul would have, or maybe they just tune out whenever He comes up. Either way, it feels like there’s no way to reach them.

Saul’s conversion gives us hope for anyone who seems far away from God. He did a sudden and complete turnaround after his encounter with Jesus. Maybe the people we love will someday shock us with their sudden acceptance of Him after an encounter of their own.

WIPS-B-GONE 2024!

It's time to turn some WIPs into finishes! The WIPS-B-GONE challenge is back for another year and I can't wait to see the finished projects start to pile up 😊 You can click here to join the challenge.

In case you're not familiar with WIPS-B-GONE, this is my annual challenge to help us finish up lingering works-in-progress so we can free up space (physical and mental) for new things. Those newly finished projects can then be used, displayed, gifted, donated, or sold - any of which is better than sitting unfinished in a cupboard or closet.

There's no set rule for what counts as a WIP - you decide if you're only going to count things that have been started, or if you'll include the projects you've pulled fabric for or even the ones that are only a vague idea right now.

For October and November, work on your WIPs each day and you'll be amazed how much you can accomplish, just like I am every year! To help keep us on track, I have daily trackers you can download once you sign up for the challenge. It is so satisfying to colour in the icon for each day after working on my projects! This year there are 5 daily trackers to choose from, some the same as last year and some different. These daily tracking sheets are probably the most popular part of the challenge, aside from the actual finished projects, of course.

Throughout the challenge, you'll also receive Monday Motivation emails to help, well, motivate you to stick to it and keep making progress. It's easy to lose steam in a challenge that lasts 61 days, so I aim to make the Monday Motivation emails a little boost to keep us in the game and having fun 😊

If you have projects stashed in a cupboard, closet, bag, or drawer and you'd love to see them finished, join us for WIPS-B-GONE 2024!

Join the WIPS-B-GONE challenge here

Joy BOM

July was very Christmassy in my sewing room, between the Merry Mini QAL (I still haven't put the bindings on my minis!) and the Stash Artists BOM sample I was making that I'm finally taking the time to blog. Meet Joy 😊

The letters and the holly are each made up of a different classic quilt block, pieced in one colour (mostly) so the piecing stayed subtle. Designing this one took a long time because at first I tried to use a phrase, but it would have made a really big and oddly proportioned quilt. I tried a bunch of different variations before giving up on that version and switching to using joy instead.

If you look closely at the background, you may notice some of those squares are pieced, too. I love how the pieced squares add a little extra interest to the background, but that part is totally optional. I did some of each of the blocks in my white and cream scraps, but there was no rhyme or reason to how many I did of each block. It was honestly just however many pieces I felt like cutting at the time. 

Stash Artists members received the fabric requirements and instructions for the J in August, then the O at the beginning of September. The Y will be October's block, then the holly in November, and then assembly of the whole quilt top in December. So it's possible Stash Artists could have completed Joy quilts in time to display for Christmas this year. Will I have my own quilted by then? Only time will tell 😆

At The Right Time

Devotion for the week...

It's time to get back into the devotion-writing groove 😊 Over the summer there were a few times I thought I might need to extend the break past the beginning of September because there were just no devotion ideas coming. Usually I read something in my Bible that sparks an idea fairly often, or something happens during the day that brings a Bible verse to mind, but for weeks there was just nothing. I'll be honest, it made me wonder if it was time to give up writing devotions altogether, or at least if it was time to plan an extended, open-ended break.

Then one day in late August, I looked through a list of devotion ideas on my phone and one of them jumped right out at me, ready to be written (I used it for the September Stash Artists devotion). A day or two later, during my morning Bible reading, a verse stood out to me and I thought about it for the rest of the day, considering how I could write about what it had made me think.

After that happened a second time, I remembered a story Corrie Ten Boom tells in her book, The Hiding Place. It has been a while since I read the book, so I'm paraphrasing here: Corrie was a young girl when she talked to her father about being worried she wouldn't have the courage to face trials. 

He asked her, "When do I give you money for a train ticket?" 

Corrie replied, "When I'm ready to go on the train."

Her father then told her, "It's the same way with God giving us what we need in life. When the time comes for you to face a trial, He will give you the courage you need."

That made me think of Moses, who argued with God when God told him to return to Egypt to set the Israelites free from their slavery. Moses kept asking, "But what if this happens? What if that happens?" when really all his objections came down to, "What if I can't do it?" Then, in Exodus 4:10, he says, "Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." In other words, he was saying, 'I don't know what to say or how to say it. I don't have the words for what you're asking me to do.'

God wasn't worried about whether or not Moses knew what to say. "Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say" (vv. 11-12).

Jesus also reassured His disciples that they didn't need to worry about having the right words to say. "On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you' (Matthew 10:18-20).

Writing devotions isn't a trial for which I need courage, and I'm not intimidated by the thought of standing before Pharoah, governors or kings, but I do need inspiration for the things I write here, and I've always known that comes from Him. Over those few days in August, I felt like He was reminding me that He will provide the thoughts and ideas when I need them. I don't have to worry if there don't seem to be any ideas when I'm taking a break from writing, the well won't run dry, and He will provide what I need at the right time.

What do you need from Him? Whether it's courage, ideas, strength, or anything else, you can be assured that He will provide it at the right time.

Tiered Treasure

It's no secret I love scrappy quilts and quilts made from my stash. I created a membership based on stash-friendly quilts, after all, and I'm having so much fun designing and making alllll the scrappy quilts 😊 This newest Stash Artists pattern is no exception! Allow me to introduce you to Tiered Treasure.

The name is a nod to both this being my take on a classic coin quilt and the fact that our stash is every quilter's treasure. 

I've been looking at coin quilts for a while, thinking about making one, but not really wanting to just have simple stacks of 'coins'. When I turned alternate blocks in EQ8, I started to get excited about the design. When I added a smattering of friendship stars (my favourite star block), I knew I had to make this quilt!

Do you have a particular direction friendship stars are supposed to spin? To me, they look backwards if they spin to the left, and you may notice these ones are, in fact, spinning to the left. I made the stitch-and-flip units without thinking about which direction the stars would spin, and was rather surprised to find I had all my stars going the 'wrong' way. Oops! I wasn't about to piece them all again, though, so I'm just saying these ones were designed for all the quilters who feel this is the correct way for friendship stars to go 😆 If that's you, you're welcome! Also, isn't this little ladybug adorable?

I love using a solid fabric for the background in my scrappy quilts. I feel like it tames the crazy and lets the scraps shine. For Tiered Treasure, I thought about using black or white for the background, but would have had to buy more of either one. Grey, on the other hand, I have in abundance after buying a full bolt a couple of months ago, so it was the obvious choice. Plus, I do love how scrappy quilts look with grey. See Love Birds, Pinwheel Garden, Scrappy Playground and Ombre Twirl as further proof!

As you can tell from these pictures, there are a lot of batiks in my stash. One of the things I love about batiks is that they don't have a right or wrong side. Apparently, though, it's still a good idea to pay attention in case the design on the fabric has a right and wrong side! Hopefully, whoever ends up as the recipient of this quilt won't mind a few backwards numbers.

At 58" square, Tiered Treasure isn't a small quilt, but I still used one of my batting off-cuts for it 😊 I had a piece of batting that was twice as long as I needed and more than half as wide, so I simply cut it in half and sewed it back together with a wide zig zag stitch to make a frankenbatting to fit. I think I usually avoid piecing batting scraps together for the same reason I avoid pieced backs - figuring them out feels like more work than I want to put into it, lol. One seam is manageable, though.

For the backing, I could have used the same grey I used for the background, but that felt boring, so I used this blue solid instead. I love the bright zing it gives when a corner is flipped over!

I did use grey for the binding, partly because I accidentally cut too many strips when cutting for the front, and it was conveniently the exact number of strips I needed for binding. It felt meant to be!

I chose my go-to double loops for the quilting, done with Aurifil 2600, which I also used for the piecing. It's the perfect match for the background, plus it blends beautifully with all the other fabrics. In this picture of the back, you can really see how imperfect my double loops are, but they still look great, which is one of the reasons I love quilting them. They're also really quick and easy to stitch, two more reasons I love them 😊

If you love stash-friendly, scrappy patterns like Tiered Treasure, get on the Stash Artists waitlist so you'll be notified when the membership doors open again in November.

And before you leave, did you know I'm having a pattern sale? All patterns in my shop are 25% off through Monday, September 9th! Shop the sale now 😊

Quilting Season Sale!

It's September and that means it's the start of quilting season! Okay, yes, every season is quilting season around here, but I tend to spend less time quilting in the summer because a) it's too hot in the house (no air conditioning) and b) I'm out hiking, walking, reading under the tree in the backyard, or spending time by the ocean. With September comes cooler weather and back-to-school, which also means the return to regular routines and schedules, and probably more time spent in my sewing room. 

So, let's have a QUILTING SEASON sale 😊 From now through Monday, September 9th, everything in my shop is 25% off, no coupon code needed. With over 30 patterns available (most in both printed and PDF formats) there's sure to be something to get you excited to spend more time in your own sewing room this quilting season!

If you need scrap friendly patterns, you might like the newest pattern in the shop, Scraps Take Flight.

Or the most popular pattern in the shop, Burst.

If you're looking for something fat quarter friendly, then you might like one of the sister patterns, Sparkler or Formal Garden. They were both inspired by the design on the same shower curtain, which is why I think of them as sisters 😊 

And if you want to learn to sew curved seams, I recommend Noodles.

Head to my shop to see the rest of the patterns I have available. But remember, the Quilting Season sale is only on through Monday, September 9th, so don't delay 😊

Shop the Quilting Season sale now!