Shoo Fly Garden Quilt Tutorial

Months before I finished the EPP portion of my Hexie Rainbow quilt, I started thinking about what would be my next EPP project. I knew I didn't want to be without one, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next. I considered buying a pattern from Jodi at Tales of Cloth (she has some beautiful ones!), but ultimately I decided I wanted to stick with hexies, but play with ones that were smaller than the 1" size I used for the Hexie Rainbow. 

I have to say, ½" hexies are so cute!

Once I settled on the ½" hexies, I needed a plan for them. I remembered the Flowers for Eleni quilt Jodi created with donated hexie flowers back in 2015 (including two flowers from me). There was something about the hexie flowers appliquéd to a background square that I loved, and I've wanted to do something similar ever since. 

I played in EQ8 with some different options. Sashing or no sashing? Offset blocks or straight set or on point? Eventually I settled on this, with shoo fly blocks formed by the stitch-and-flip corners and the cornerstones of the sashing. Ignore the one corner of the block that was added a little wonky and then repeated across the whole quilt; I haven't bothered to go back and fix it, but all the corners will be straight in the quilt. 

My quilt will finish at 54" x 69" and will require 154 hexie flowers. That's 1,078 hexies hand stitched into flowers, then hand stitched to their background squares, so I think I'm good for a travel project for a while 😊 I love having a project to take with me when we're driving around the province or traveling anywhere else, and I don't want to have to keep coming up with a new one, so a multi-year hand stitching project suits me just fine.

I have a few rules for myself as I make the blocks:

1. All the flowers will have yellow centers, and those fabrics will be repeated.

2. That means no yellow flowers.

3. No black flowers, since the shoo fly 'blocks' will be solid black. All other colours are fair game.

4. Flowers can be prints or solids.

5. All the hexies for a flower's petals are made from the same fabric.

6. I'm trying not to repeat fabrics for the flower petals, though it's possible I'll lose track of what I've already used and I'm not going to stress about it if something sneaks in for a second flower.

7. The backgrounds will be solid white and white-on-white prints.

I've been stitching flowers for a few months now and I have 31 made. 

I've also stitched some to their background squares and added the black stitch-and-flip corners so I could get an idea how they'd look together. Even without the sashing, I like where this is going!

For now, they're all hanging out on the side of my design wall, keeping my Kitchen Party blocks company. I love watching the collection grow!

Want to make a Shoo Fly Garden quilt of your own? Here's how!

For each block, you'll need:

• scraps for the flower petal hexies and the flower center hexie
• ½" hexie papers (see below for mine)
• 4 ½" square of white solid or tone-on-tone print
• 4 1 ½" squares of black solid
• thread to match your hexies
• thread or glue for basting the hexies
• small pins (optional, but very helpful)

Make a block

1. Print and cut out the hexie papers. Be sure to print at 'actual size' or '100% scaling'. The sides of the hexies should measure exactly ½".

2. Pin the hexie papers to the wrong side of your fabric scraps, leaving enough room between them for the seam allowance. A ¼" seam allowance looks huge compared to the ½" hexie paper, but you still need that full ¼" seam allowance. I love these tiny Clover applique pins for this, especially with the ½" hexies.

3. Cut out the fabric hexies. This doesn't need to be precise, as long as you have a good seam allowance. Because they're so small, they're easy to cut with scissors, which is what I've been doing. You need 6 for the flower petals and 1 for the flower center.

4. Thread baste or glue baste the hexies. I prefer to thread baste, only going through the fabric, not the papers. I have a tutorial on how to prepare shapes for English Paper Piecing you can check out if you've never done it before.

5. Once your hexies are all basted, stitch the flower together using a thread that blends with your fabric. I prefer to use a whip stitch, but you can also try the flat back method of stitching EPP to see what you prefer. Once the flower is stitched, remove the papers.

6. Fold the background square in half horizontally and vertically and finger press it to create creases. Using the creases to help, center the flower on the background square and pin it in place.

7. Again using a thread that blends with the fabric of your flower, stitch the flower to the background. I love the ladder stitch for this because it's almost completely invisible. You could also stitch them by machine if you prefer.

8. For the stitch-and-flip corners, you can draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the wrong side of the black 1 ½" squares or you can eyeball it, which is what I've been doing. Normally I draw the lines, but these squares are small enough I'm comfortable winging it. Place a black square on the corner of the background square as shown and stitch from corner to corner.

9. Repeat for the other three corners.

10. Trim off the excess, leaving a ¼" seam allowance. 

11. Press the black triangles open. You have a finished block! Now go make a whole bunch more 😂

To make a quilt top

I don't have any pictures of this part because it's going to be quite a while yet before I get there!

1. Once you have all your blocks made, lay them out in whatever size layout you planned. Mine will be 11 x 14 (eventually). Here's how it would look for a 9 x 9 (44" square) baby quilt.

2. Cut your sashing and cornerstones.

• Sashing - 1 ½" x 4 ½" rectangles
• Cornerstones 1 ½" squares

3. Stitch the blocks, sashing, and cornerstones together into rows. Press the seams either open or towards the sashing.

4. Stitch the rows together to complete the quilt top.

If you make a Shoo Fly Garden block (or blocks), I'd love to see! Please tag me if you share it on social media or you can send me an email at devotedquilter@gmail.com.

My Hexie Rainbow quilt top took 8 years to make. I wonder how long my Shoo Fly Garden top will take! 

Use That Stash!

How many quilts do you think you could make with the fabric in your stash? If you're like me, it's probably quite a few! If you want to start using the fabric you already own, come join us inside the Stash Artists membership!

What's included in Stash Artists?

• 6 exclusive patterns each year

Stash Artists patterns are designed to be scrappy and stash-friendly. That means they use lots of different fabrics, rather than large amounts of just a few fabrics. The patterns are available only to members for at least a year from their release date.

• instant access to the Spin & Sparkle pattern

When you join Stash Artists, you'll be able to download the brand new Spin & Sparkle pattern. This giant scrappy pinwheel can be made in baby, throw, or queen sizes, and all sizes use the same number of HSTs.

• Instant access to the Reverberate baby quilt pattern

You'll also be able to download the Reverberate baby quilt pattern. This paper pieced pattern creates a fun secondary design between blocks.

• Sew Together Sessions

Quilty friends are the best, so let's sew together! Monthly Sew Together Sessions over Zoom allow us to stitch while we share about our favourite books, our travel plans, our families, and more. 

• Kitchen Party BOM

The Stash Artists 2025 block-of-the-month is Kitchen Party. It includes blocks that are traditionally pieced, paper pieced, and applique. Don't worry if any of those are new to you! There are video lessons in the membership to help you learn new techniques.

If you like what you see here, come join dozens of quilters making beautiful, scrappy quilts inside the Stash Artists membership! Don't delay, the doors are open for new members only through May 20th.

Join Stash Artists now!

Spin & Sparkle

I love pinwheel quilts, scrappy quilts, and the colour blue, so this new quilt checks all the boxes! Meet Spin & Sparkle 😍

Spin & Sparkle is the Stash Artists pattern for May (We're not talking about the fact that I still haven't blogged about the March pattern, Summer Dreamin' 😆 I'll get it posted eventually) The Spin & Sparkle pattern has baby, throw, and queen size instructions, all of them made with the same number of HSTs, just in different sizes. I made the baby size, since I'm still on a mission to use batting offcuts. Zach was thrilled to be hiding all 6'1" of himself behind the 48" quilt for these pictures!

To write a new pattern, I start by figuring out all the quilt math, so I know how many blocks I need, how many units, etc. Then I figure out the cutting instructions for the size I'm going to make (the other sizes usually get figured out later), then I make the sample quilt. When it comes to figuring out how many pieces to cut, HSTs are among the simplest blocks - you need 1 square of each fabric for every 2 HSTs. I know that. And yet somehow I still managed to cut, sew, and trim twice as many dark blue/light blue HSTs as I needed. I take that as incontrovertible proof that I am right to always send my patterns to a technical editor before they're released! Having someone else check my math will never be a bad idea.

When I was planning this quilt, I figured I would quilt it with the double-loop design that always makes me think of wind. That seemed appropriate for a giant pinwheel quilt, but the quilt had a different idea. Once the HSTs were all up on the design wall, the quilt started whispering that it wanted to be quilted with a big spiral. I resisted. I really don't enjoy walking foot quilting. I think it looks great, but it's incredibly boring to do, so I avoid it like the plague. The quilt insisted, though, and by the time the top was pieced I knew I'd have to quilt that spiral.

The quilt, of course, was right. The spiral was boring to do, but it does look fantastic!

I love how it looks from the back, too. It was a bit windy while we were at the beach, so getting straight pictures of the quilts was tough. You'll have to believe me when I say my Spin & Sparkle is not a parallelogram!

When I quilted the spiral for my Burst quilt, I got myself stitching in the wrong direction, so that the part of the quilt already quilted went to the right of the needle. That meant as I got closer to the edges of the quilt, more and more had to pass through the throat space. When I was getting ready to start this spiral, I was very aware of that, but I still started going in the wrong direction! Yes, this quilt did feel like a comedy of errors at times. Thankfully I realized it as soon as I started making the second pass of the spiral, so I stopped, ripped out the stitches, and started again in the right direction.

I used Aurifil 2600 to quilt the spiral. It's visible against the blue fabrics up close, but it's not distracting at all, and it's not noticeable from a distance. All you see from a distance is the lovely texture.

One of my favourite things about scrappy quilts is remembering where all the different fabrics came from or which projects they were previously used for. That floral binding the corner above? I made a skirt with that years ago. A bunch of the fabrics, both blues and low volumes, come from the years I was an Island Batik ambassador. They were so generous with their boxes of fabric that I may always have some in my stash! There are a couple of blues that I bought at a quilt shop in Canmore, Alberta, when Paul and I were on our 25th anniversary trip last summer. A scrap quilt is like a fabric collection of memories.

If you love scrappy quilts as much as I do, you'll love the Stash Artists membership. Doors will be opening for new members next week, so get on the waitlist to be sure you don't miss that. New members will get access to the Spin & Sparkle pattern as soon as they join, along with our current BOM, Kitchen Party.

I love designing and making these Stash Artists patterns and quilts! As I type this, background fabric for the next one is in the dryer, and I'm excited to start cutting into my stash of pink fabrics for it this week. And even though I haven't cut a single piece for that July quilt yet, I've been working on the design for the September quilt over the past few days, and I think I've settled on the colours for it. There's no chance I'll ever be bored, so long as I can make quilts!

Time For a Change

Today's post is a bit different. I've been thinking about this for months, and it's time to make a big change here at Devoted Quilter.

I've been struggling with writing the devotions for a long time. Not because of a change in my faith or anything like that, I just find I'm putting off the actual writing more and more. Or sometimes it's that I don't have anything I want to write about and I'm frantically searching for ideas. 

Any time I thought about stopping them, though, I felt anxious about it, without being able to put into words why I felt that way. One day I realized I worried that by not writing devotions, I'd be letting God down. As soon as I thought that, a line from the song Jireh, by Maverick City Music, went through my head: "I'll never be more loved than I am right now. Wasn't holding You up So there's nothing I can do to let You down." I actually laughed out loud! It felt like the sweetest reassurance from Him that it was okay to stop.

I've taken summer breaks the last few years, when I'd stop writing new devotions at the end of June and plan to start writing them again in September. This time I'm not setting an end date. I'm looking forward to reading my Bible each day without having the thought, 'How could I use this for a devotion?' in the back of my mind.

I don't feel like I'm finished writing for God, but I have no idea what that might look like in the future. To be honest, I'm kind of excited to see what He's planning. I've told Him the ball is in His court now, and asked Him to show me the way forward when the time is right.

Thank you for all the encouraging comments you've left on devotions over the years, and for emails you've sent telling me how they impacted you. That has always meant so much to me! Knowing God was using my words to speak to you amazed me every time.

Quilting content will continue as usual. The Devoted Quilter blog isn't going anywhere! In fact, I'll be back tomorrow with a new quilt finish to share 😊

Kitchen Party BOM - Blocks 3 and 4

I had every intention of not falling behind on my Stash Artists Kitchen Party BOM blocks this year...and yet here I am already playing catch up 😂

In March I went to Nova Scotia for almost a week for my Nanny's funeral, which meant I wasn't home sewing or doing the behind-the-scenes work that goes into a quilt pattern design business. I was also running the Roman Adventure QAL and Devotional Journey at the same time, which really increases the amount of computer work that needs to be done. Between those two things, I didn't get the March blocks made.

April just felt busy the whole month. I was still running the QAL, Nathan had a sports tournament, we went to pick Zach up from university, I wrote two quilt patterns, and fulfilled a huge wholesale pattern order (yay!). Phew! With all that, I didn't get the April blocks made, either.

I was determined not to keep falling behind, though, so on Wednesday, the last day of April, I pulled everything out, put blocks 1 and 2 back up on the design wall, and cut the fabrics for the March blocks (block 3). Then on Thursday I sewed all eight of them.

Block 3 is paper pieced, so of course I used freezer paper to make mine. I always hated ripping out the bits of paper after finishing a paper pieced block, so freezer paper is the only way to go for me! Did you know I have an on-demand Paper Piecing with Freezer Paper workshop? You can learn this game changing technique anytime that fits your schedule and then you'll never have to rip out the bits of paper again either. Seriously, it's like magic!

Block 4 (for April) is an applique block, which was perfect for working on while chatting with my mom on the phone and then listening to a podcast. Sam Hunter and Kitty Wilkin kept me company while I cut out and fused the shapes for the two blocks.

I'm calling them finished for now. I still haven't decided if I'm going to stitch around the applique shapes for blocks 1, 4, and eventually 11, before assembling the quilt top or if I'll stitch around them with the quilting. I still have a few months to decide 😊

This isn't anywhere close to the intended arrangement, but I love seeing the blocks all on the design wall together.

So now I'm all caught up...until the May blocks release on Monday 😆

Nothing

Devotion for the week...

Today I'm sharing one of the devotions from the Roman Adventure QAL and Devotional Journey. This truth might be one of my favourites 💖 

Nathan used to love building with Lego and every now and then he’d come to me with pieces that were stuck together so tightly he couldn’t get them apart. Since I have longer nails, I could usually get them apart and he’d quickly be on his way back to his project. There were times, though, when it was almost impossible to wedge a fingernail into that barely visible line between the pieces and pry them apart. I’d have to try from one angle, then another, and from this side, then the other, trying to find the one spot where I could get in between the two pieces just a tiny bit in order to separate them.

There are plenty of things in this life that we might worry could potentially separate us from God’s love, but Paul assures us it’s not possible. “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

We might worry that something we do, some sin we commit, could make God stop loving us, but Paul points out that not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. Any sin in our lives needs to be dealt with, obviously, but there’s no sin that would make God stop loving us.

We need to let this truth get down deep in our souls - nothing can separate us from His love. Nothing. He holds onto us more tightly than any two Lego pieces could ever be stuck, and there’s no angle or side from which something could get in between us.

My First Quilt with Joanne Kerton

It's the last Friday of the month, which means it's time for a My First Quilt interview 😊 Today Joanne Kerton shares the story of her first quilt.

A self-taught quilter who has been quilting for almost 25 years, Joanne enjoys learning about design through quilt-making.  Her designs are a little bit modern, a little bit traditional, appealing and accessible to quilters of all skill levels.  She firmly believes that quilting should be a joyful endeavor.

You can connect with Joanne at her blog, on Facebook, and on Instagram.

And now, here's Joanne (circa 2002) and her first quilt!

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

I started my first quilt in late 2000, prompted by my brother's engagement. I wanted to give a wedding gift, of course. I also wanted to learn to quilt. Money was too tight to do both. What if I used the gift budget for quiltmaking tools and supplies? I'd learn to quilt AND have a handmade wedding gift for my brother and new sister-in-law. It was a perfect plan. It was rather more time-consuming than I had expected, especially while pregnant and running around after a one-year-old. The quilt was finished and gifted in 2002, a year after the wedding, but it was appreciated and was the start of my quilting obsession.

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

The blocks were foundation paper-pieced from patterns in a book by Carol Doak that I found at my local library. I traced all the foundations onto tissue paper. I think my husband helped trace some as well. I pieced the quilt in fits and starts, setting up shop on the kitchen table, putting everything away for meals then hauling the machine out again for the next sewing session. I finished the top a few months before the wedding, relieved that I'd be done on time. I then tried machine quilting, was thoroughly frustrated by it, and decided to hand quilt the quilt, resigned to delivering the gift a little later than planned.

Who taught you to make the quilt?

My friend Carol dabbled in quilting but found quilting rulers confusing. She assured me paper piecing was the way to go because cutting didn't need to be terribly accurate. She directed me to books at the library, and I taught myself from there. I used books and trial and error to figure out the hand quilting. I'm grateful the owner of the local quilt shop kindly took the time to teach me how to bind the quilt, because the books weren't terribly clear about that part!

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

I still like the colours, but I would probably vary the scale of the prints more today. I also would probably choose a block background with some texture instead of a true solid.

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

I have had at least one quilt in progress since that first one, though in the early years the production rate was very slow, on the order of one finish every couple of years.  Quilting edged out other crafts very quickly.  To be fair, my toddler had a close encounter with a knitting needle that could have turned out very badly, so knitting needles disappeared for a while.  Without that incident, knitting might have edged out quilting, or competed for equal time.

Where is the quilt now?

I'm fairly certain my brother and sister-in-law still have it.  I saw it on the back of their living room couch during a visit a couple of years ago.

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

First, check the block placement!  I had a layout planned to alternate block patterns and colors.  Somewhere along the way I messed it up and didn't notice until after the whole thing was quilted.  Seeing the blocks in the "wrong" place still bothers me, more than 20 years later.  How on earth did it not bother me enough to notice before I started the quilting? 

Second, no one else will see or care about your mistakes.  Do your best, but don't obsess about perfection.   I think we are all our own worst critics.  Those blocks in the "wrong places"?  Paul and Shona don't care!  At least they've never said so...

Anything else you want to share about your first quilt?

It was really, really hard to give it away!  It was always meant as a gift, but I was so proud of that first effort that I very nearly kept it for myself. 

Thank you for sharing your first quilt with us, Joanne! I think we can all relate to wanting to keep an intended gift quilt for ourselves 😆

You've Got This! and TGIFF

Welcome to the Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday party 🎉 I have a small finish to share this week.

A friend is battling breast cancer. Thankfully it was caught early at a routine mammogram (consider this your reminder to schedule those routine medical checks!), so her prognosis is good. Still, 2025 has been "a ride," as she put it. I decided to make her a mini quilt I'm describing as a fist bump in quilt form for when she needs it.

I was on a roll making this little mini, so much so that I was almost finished the quilting before I realized I hadn't paused to take a single picture. Oops! 

Orange is her favourite colour, so I coloured the text with orange crayon. I have a tutorial here for how to do that. It's a quick and easy way to add text to a quilt.

Then came the fun part - quilting it! I started by outlining each letter with Aurifil 1133 (Bright Orange).

Then I used Aurifil 1133, 2390 (Cinnamon Toast), and 2135 (Yellow) to add some freehand flowers. They're all perfectly imperfect, just like real flowers. I didn't really plan out their placement, I just started adding them and stopped when it felt like there were enough. Then I finished off the quilting with a dense stipple in Aurifil 2024 (White).

I usually use a solid for the back, but went with this fabric from Island Batik for its oranges, instead. I also added a couple of folded triangles at the top in case she wants to hang it.

When putting on the binding, I must have been distracted. I usually put it on the back first, then fold it over to the front and stitch it down by machine. You can see my full machine binding tutorial here. This time, I put it on the front first, then had to fold it to the back. Last time I did that (a couple of years ago), I hand stitched the binding to the back. I really didn't want to do that this time, though, so I clipped the binding in place all around the quilt and stitched at the edge of the binding from the front, hoping to catch it on the back. It worked, except where it missed a little bit at the bottom. Since it's just a mini quilt, I declared that to be good enough!

I can't do anything about the medical side of things for my friend, but hopefully this quilted fist bump reminds her that she's strong. 

That's my finish this week. What have you finished lately? Link it up below, then be sure to visit some of the other links and celebrate their finishes, too!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Strong Enough?

Devotion for the week...

Have you ever watched an adult arm wrestle a preschooler? When the adult inevitably loses, it's obvious to everyone except the preschooler that the adult lost on purpose. The preschooler, though, thinks they were strong enough to overpower the adult and gets so excited about their win! This past week, as we approached Easter, that image was all I could see when I thought about Jesus going to the cross.

Jesus wasn't surprised by the cross. He wasn't ambushed and dragged there unwillingly. He wasn't fighting to get free or resisting in any way. His death on that cross was planned ahead of time and He was simply following the plan. He even told Pilate, "You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above" (John 19:11).

Satan, though, didn't know about the plan. He didn't understand the power of God, so he thought he was overpowering Jesus. Can you imagine how excited he was when Jesus died on the cross? How he must have celebrated God's defeat? He actually thought he had outmaneuvered the omniscient God! 

But then came the moment of truth. As Peter explained in his sermon to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, "God released [Jesus] from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip" (Acts 2: 24). Death wasn't strong enough to hold Jesus! 

Satan thought he had defeated Jesus on that cross, but in reality, Jesus had let him win. Then, while Satan was likely still celebrating, God revealed His true strength as He raised Jesus back to life, claiming the ultimate victory.

Pinwheel Irish Chain Pattern Release

Today's pattern release has been a long time coming! I'm excited to say that the Pinwheel Irish Chain pattern is now (finally!) in my shop.

I made my first Pinwheel Irish Chain quilt in 2019 as an Island Batik ambassador challenge. I made the top and donated it to Victoria's Quilts Canada, a group that makes comfort quilt for people receiving cancer treatments, and who only accept quilt tops rather than finished quilts.

Every few months since then, I receive an email asking where to buy the Pinwheel Irish Chain pattern, but there wasn't one. There also wasn't a finished quilt for me to put on the cover of a pattern. I put it on my mental to-do list, but with no deadline it just kept getting pushed further and further down the list.

Then I realized it would be a perfect Stash Artists pattern. That meant it had a deadline, so I made another quilt (finished this time), wrote the pattern, and released it to Stash Artists members last March. Now, a year later, it's available to quilters outside the membership. (By the way, if you love scrappy and stash-friendly patterns like this, Stash Artists doors will be opening for new members next month. You can get on the waitlist here to be notified when doors open.)

This quilt is like a collection of my favourite things - blues, pinwheels, an Irish Chain, and it's scrappy! I made the throw size for the cover quilt, and the pattern also includes instructions for baby and queen sizes.

What colour scraps would you use for the Irish Chain in your Pinwheel Irish Chain quilt? While the blues will always have my heart, I keep thinking it would look great in Christmas reds and greens, too. Whatever colour you'd choose, you can get the pattern now in my Etsy shop!

Judas

Devotion for the week...

I was looking for a different post when I stumbled across this series I wrote leading up to Easter 2019. As we approach Easter again this year, it seems like a good time to share it again. Here's the last of the series, with links to the previous two.

_______________________________________________

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.

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.

He Sees Us

Devotion for the week...

I hope you enjoy this devotion that was originally published in April 2015 😊

_______________________________

I love to read. Lately I haven't been reading as many books because I'm spending so much time quilting or reading quilting blogs, but I still love a good book. Right now I'm reading The Strangled Queen, an historical fiction written by French author Maurice Druon. The book is number 2 in a series of 7, and is set in France in the 1300s. The series chronicles the end of the Capetian kings, about whom I know absolutely nothing.

When I was reading a couple of weeks ago, this lined jumped out at me: "He had governed men from so high a position and for so long that he had lost the knack of looking at them." The he mentioned in the quote was in charge of the treasury and daily made decisions that affected the lives of everyone in the kingdom, but he had stopped really seeing the people. He had stopped thinking about how his decisions affected them and he had stopped caring about individual people.

I sat for a few minutes, reading the line over and over, before finally getting up and typing it into my laptop for use in a devotion. The contrast was just too great to ignore. There is, after all, no position higher than God. There is no government that is responsible for more people and no politician who has governed longer.

But God hasn't lost the knack of looking at us. He sees every detail of our lives and cares about our well-being. Consider these verses:

"What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows" (Matthew 10:29-31).

"O Lord, you have examined my heart

    and know everything about me.

You know when I sit down or stand up.

    You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.

You see me when I travel

    and when I rest at home.

    You know everything I do.

You know what I am going to say

    even before I say it, Lord.

You go before me and follow me.

    You place your hand of blessing on my head" (Psalm 139:1-5).

He sees us. Really sees us. He cares about us so much that He is always aware of where we are, what we are doing, what we are thinking and what we are feeling. No one could possibly see us more clearly than God sees us, and nothing could ever change the fact that He cares enough to really look at us.

Muddied Water

Devotion for the week...

I said a couple of weeks ago that I find the prophets hard to read. Even though that's true, there is obviously value in reading those books, which is proven by the fact that this is another devotion coming from what I've been reading in Ezekiel lately!

Ezekiel 34: 17-22 says: 

"And as for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says to his people: I will judge between one animal of the flock and another, separating the sheep from the goats. Isn’t it enough for you to keep the best of the pastures for yourselves? Must you also trample down the rest? Isn’t it enough for you to drink clear water for yourselves? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Why must my flock eat what you have trampled down and drink water you have fouled?

'"Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will surely judge between the fat sheep and the scrawny sheep. For you fat sheep pushed and butted and crowded my sick and hungry flock until you scattered them to distant lands. So I will rescue my flock, and they will no longer be abused. I will judge between one animal of the flock and another."

If you've ever wondered how God feels about society's 'me first' focus, these verses should clear that up pretty quickly. This message wasn't aimed at the religious leaders (that was covered in previous verses); instead, it's aimed at everyday people like you and me. God wanted them (and us) to know in no uncertain terms that their habit of taking the best for themselves and ruining what they left behind was not right.

When I read 'Isn’t it enough for you to drink clear water for yourselves? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?' all I could think about what the plastic pollution in our oceans. I don't have a clear understanding of how that affects communities in other countries, but I know it's nothing good.

Most of us would fit into the category of the 'fat sheep' of this world. We have a roof over our heads,  enough food to fill our bellies, more clothes than we reasonably need, and more besides. While we're not actively going out and trampling the harvest in other parts of the world, are our choices negatively affecting other people? 

My First Quilt with Rianne Doller

I'm not entirely sure where March went 😆 Here we are at the last Friday of the month, though, which means it's time for a My First Quilt interview! This month we get to learn about Rianne Doller's first quilt.

As a quilter, Rianne shares her love for storytelling, art, community, and nature in the works she creates. For the nature and community aspect, she finished two master degrees. For all the other things, she started a social enterprise called Kick Ass Quilts. With tutorials, stories, and community projects, she spreads the magic of eco-conscious quilting!

You can connect with Rianne at her website, on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Patreon.

And now, here is Rianne and her first quilt! It's so scrappy and fun 😍

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

I think it was around 2015 when I was doing my first master's thesis. Although I love the whole researching thing, it was a challenging time for me because I had to do many social things that scared me. Quilting helped me to relax and also offered a way to escape. I could create something that made my brain happy. And I could forget about my thesis doing the mindfulness quilting work because my first quilt had MANY small pieces. 

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

I made templates by hand from cardboard. I drew all the pieces and pieced them together by patchwork. 

The quilt was quilted by myself by hand. 

This quilt was also my first step into experimenting with quilting with all kinds of fabrics. Because people kept telling me you couldn't quilt with x or Y and, being the headstrong student I was, I wanted to prove them otherwise :P. So I asked for textiles on FB and I raided my mom's quilting scraps and this quilt was born!

Furthermore, in this quilt, I learned basic scrap quilt principles and colour theory. Especially the concept that every quilt becomes a whole if there is a red thread in the fabrics chosen. Which, coincidentally, in this quilt was a specific red fabric!

Who taught you to make the quilt?

I taught myself based on the quilting basics my mom taught me. I always love figuring out my own quilting designs with graph paper. 

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

Yes, I still love scrap quilts. However, if I would make this quilt again, it would probably be a bit more calm. 

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

Yes! Quilting works very well for my brain. Since I properly started, it has been my way of making sense of the world around me. And to express my care for people and the world with the quilts I make. It makes me happy that these days I have much more social confidence and I can spread the magic of quilting with others! With tutorials, networking, community projects and more!

Where is the quilt now?

In my home. I still use it in self-care, healing sessions and empowerment for myself. 

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

Yes, your seams should be at least half a centimeter big!

Anything else you want to share about your first quilt?

I really made this quilt with full confidence in myself and zero restrictions. This helped me a lot to discover my own creativity and to find creative freedom in the art of quilting. This helped me a lot to become the quilt artist and confident person I am today!

So I encourage everyone to go for it if you have a crazy quilting idea! It'll probably work out, and they make the most fun personal crazy interesting quilts!

Thanks, Rianne for sharing the story of your first quilt with us!

It's Not Fair!

Devotion for the week...

It has been a busy week, so writing a devotion for today ended up on the back burner. Good thing I have a treasure trove of previously loved devotions to pull from when I need to! Here's one from March 2015. Thankfully I'm no longer working in childcare, but the illustrations from those years still hold true 😊

________________

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, then you probably know I spend my days in the company of the four kids I babysit, while my own kids are in school. I have been around little ones for almost 13 years straight, and I have noticed that they really like for things to be fair, especially when it comes to food.

Don't give one child two pieces of a broken cookie and the other child a full cookie unless you're willing to hear, "Why does he get two cookies?" Be sure the pieces of cake you cut look pretty much the same, or there will be complaints about someone getting a bigger piece. And for goodness sake, make sure when you give out a handful of crackers that everyone either has the same number, or they have so many they're not going to bother counting!

They like things to be fair when it comes to taking turns with the best toys too. Everyone needs to have the same number of turns, and for the same amount of time. While I have never actually set a timer to be sure each child gets 5 minutes with the coveted toy, I know mothers who do in order to keep the peace and save their own sanity.

While we as adults know that fair doesn't always mean exactly the same, we like for things to be fair too. We want people to be paid a fair wage, for companies to be fair and honest in their advertising, for sports teams to follow the rules. We want to be given the same opportunities as others, regardless of our race, religion or gender. When these things don't happen, we too are quick to say, "That's not fair!"

Sometimes 'not fair' works in our favour, and then we're not quite so quick to protest the unfairness of the situation. That is certainly the case when it comes to our salvation. Jesus was perfect, completely without sin, and it was He who paid the price for our sins. He had never done anything wrong, and yet He was brutally beaten and murdered.

The Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death," (Romans 6:23). It also says, "The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one!" (Psalm 14:2-3). Everyone is turned away from God, everyone is corrupt, and no one does good. That is the natural inclination of every human heart, and for that we all deserve death. That would be the fair outcome of our lives.

But that isn't what we get.

Jesus came for us. He came to rescue us and free us from that death sentence. How? "For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because Jesus was perfect, He alone was qualified to be the sacrifice that would pay for our sin. He took the sin of the entire world on Himself and paid the penalty of death for it. That's the most unfair transaction ever!