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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 😊

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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 😊

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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!

Discipline

Devotion for the week...

Can I share a confession? I find the prophets really hard to read. There's so much doom and destruction, and reading that for chapter after chapter after chapter gets mind-numbing. I think I find the lists in Numbers easier to get through! 

I usually read the Bible straight through (slowly!), a little bit each morning, but sometime last year I was struggling to read Ezekiel, bogged down in the destruction being prophesied, and I finally gave myself permission to leave it and skip ahead. The next morning I flipped to Matthew and breathed a sigh of relief as I started reading. Well, last week I reached the end of Revelation, so I flipped back to the bookmark I had left in Ezekiel and started tackling that again.

Saturday morning I finished off Ezekiel chapter 30 and a couple of verses caught my attention: "When I put my sword in the hand of Babylon’s king and he brings it against the land of Egypt, Egypt will know that I am the Lord. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, dispersing them throughout the earth. Then they will know that I am the Lord" (Ezekiel 30:25-26).

What stopped me in my tracks was that God said Egypt would know that He is the Lord when everything goes wrong for them, when they are subject to complete destruction.

We tend to think God is working in our situations when things are getting better, when we see good things happening, and when our prayers are being answered the way we want. Here, though, God is saying He will be working in this situation when nothing is going the way the Egyptians want.

Now, to be fair, this is because the Egyptians are coming under His judgement, so it makes sense that His hand is extended in punishment rather than blessing. What we often don't consider when something is going wrong in our own lives, is that the situation could be God disciplining us, too.

"Have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said,

'My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline,

    and don’t give up when he corrects you.

For the Lord disciplines those he loves,

    and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.'

As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?...But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way." (Hebrews 12:5-7, 10-11).

God doesn't only deal in sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes His hand may be extended towards us in discipline and we won't like it at all. That's not to say that every bad thing that happens to us is discipline from God! When things are going wrong, though, it might be worth considering if there's something in our lives God could be disciplining us for. We'll learn the lesson contained in the discipline a lot faster if we recognize it as His hand working to bring us closer to that peaceful harvest of right living.

Note, I'll be away all this week for my grandmother's funeral, so there will be no devotion next week. I would appreciate your prayers for our family.

The Men Who Brought Her to Jesus

Devotion for the week...

Last week we looked at the story of the woman caught in adultery, found in John, chapter 8. Today I want us to consider the men who dragged her to Jesus in an attempt to trick Him into saying something they could use against Him. This two-part series was originally part of the Moments with Jesus QAL and Devotional Journey. 

We don’t know much about these men, except that they were "the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees" (John 8:30), meaning they held positions of authority in the community, and they were threatened by Jesus' popularity with the people.

From their actions with this unnamed woman, we can deduce a few other things. Since they couldn’t know how Jesus would answer them, they had to have been okay with the possibility that taking her to Him for judgement would mean her death. They didn’t mind shaming her in front of the crowd, either. It’s obvious they had no consideration for her whatsoever, probably because they saw her as 'sinful' which meant she was beneath them.

But then Jesus wrote…something… on the ground, and stood up and told them they could go right ahead and stone her, but "let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!" (John 8:7).

Can you picture the men shuffling their feet, maybe looking sideways at each other, wondering who would move first? Did any of them dare to pretend they had never sinned? And then "they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman" (John 8:9). I’m guessing the oldest left first because they were better able to see the truth about themselves, or maybe because they didn’t feel the need to pretend they were without sin like the younger ones may have.

When they dragged the woman in front of Jesus, these men were so sure of themselves, so confident they were in the right, and only she was in need of judgement. Whatever Jesus wrote in the dirt, though, it was enough to challenge their view of themselves and their right to judge her. Jesus was gentle even as He corrected them. He could have pointed to each one individually and listed off their sins for everyone to hear, but He didn’t. Instead He wrote something that made them realize the truth on their own.

I don’t want to compare myself to these men at all, and you probably don’t either. I don’t want to even entertain the possibility that I’m like them, but maybe we, too, need a reminder that we aren’t as sinless as we’d like to think we are. 

Thankfully, God is gentle with us, too. He might use something someone says, a song we hear, or a verse that stands out as we read our Bibles, to call us out and remind us that we’re not without sin. That reminder should serve to remind us, too, that we shouldn’t be so quick to judge, and especially to broadcast, the sins of other people.

12 Years of Devoted Quilter

On this day in 2013, I hit publish on my first blog post. I had no idea if anyone would ever read it, or how I would connect with other quilt bloggers out there, but I published that post anyway. I figured I could figure out the connecting with others part once the blog was actually started 😄 

Thankfully there were linky parties and blog hops to help make those connections, so it was surprisingly easy to find other people who share my obsession with quilting. In fact, by my second month of blogging, I had already connected with the TGIFF linky party (of which I'm now one of three managers). I still use the thread catcher I shared the first time I linked to TGIFF. I keep it in my hand stitching bag, so it appears in pictures now and then, too. Here it is in the background of a picture I took of a hexie flower I made Tuesday morning as we were driving out of town.

I read my very first post again while writing this post, and I was entertained to see the two projects I shared as examples of my WIPs. Neither of them are finished 😂 The blocks I shared then are still just blocks today. I ran out of some of the fabrics in the kit, so I couldn't finish the blocks that are missing, and just set the whole thing aside. I should use the finished blocks for something so they can be set free from the box.

The hexagon flowers I shared in the post were pieced into a quilt top in 2014, which was basted for hand quilting in 2017. I think I quilted around one flower and then gave up! As I've been doing the big stitch hand quilting on my Hexie Rainbow quilt, I've been thinking about doing big stitch quilting on that old hexie flower quilt, too, so there's hope it may actually get finished someday. Obviously I've always been in need of a good WIPS-B-GONE challenge!

I'm planning to make a chocolate cake today to celebrate my anniversary. Since I can't send chocolate cake through the screen to share it with you, I'm having my annual Anniversary Pattern Sale so you can join the celebration, too. Saving money and dreaming about the next quilt (and the one after that, and the one after that...) is just as good as having cake!

From now through Thursday, March 6th, save 25% on all patterns in my shop (printed or PDF), no coupon code needed. The sale price is already applied.

Whether you've been here since last week or since 2013, I'm so glad we're able to connect over our love of fabric and thread! The friendships are my favourite part of this online quilting community (and the reason I get serious FOMO every year when people are sharing pictures of their QuiltCon meetups)! Let's keep making the world more beautiful, one quilt at a time 😊

My First Quilt with Lori Nawyn

It's time for this month's My First Quilt interview! I love reading these stories of how people got started making quilts, don't you? Today Lori Nawyn is sharing how and why she made her first quilt. Lori is a nationally licensed artist who creates art for manufacturers to use on products ranging from stationery to puzzles, textiles and cross stitch and embroidery kits, and home and garden decor. She has a tiny brick and mortar store where she sells her art and her own line of greeting cards and hand painted barn stars.

You can connect with Lori at her website, on Facebook, and on her Instagram accounts for her art, her shop, and her fabric.

And now, here's (one of) Lori's first quilt(s)! Isn't it cute?

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

2023. I've been designing fabric for national manufacturers for a little over three years. I've always dreamed of making quilts with my own fabric, but didn't think I had the skill...and I thought I was too old to learn! With a lot of encouragement from my local quilt guilds (that I joined just with the hope of watching others quilt), I decided to give it a try. I designed a fabric collection--Good Tidings of Skate Joy--that I uploaded to Spoonflower. When I got the fabric in the mail, I didn't know where to even begin. So I put the fabric aside for several weeks.

However, seeing all the quilts others were making with my fabric--and really wanting to learn how to quilt--I finally summoned the courage to create three 9x9 wall hangings which I used my embroidery skills to stitch the blocks to squares of felt; I also made a few small ornaments. I then used the fourth 9x9 block to try my hand at binding. It didn't turn out too bad! I had fun and decided to make a porch quilt to match the decor I'd made for our fireplace. I created a simple panel that I made loads of mistakes on--like adding batting that was much too thick, and really messing up the binding. After unpicking everything three times and ultimately getting the batting somewhat right, I finally finished it!

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

On the porch quilt, I was really winging it and just used my machine--straight stitch and buttonhole stitch. 

Who taught you to make the quilt?

I mainly taught myself by trial and error. I watched almost a dozen YouTube videos to learn how to do the binding.

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

Yes, because I really loved designing this fabric collection.

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

I didn't fall in love with it right away! After so many mistakes on just a small porch quilt, I didn't think quilting was something I'd be very good at--I'm too much of a perfectionist and  really hard on myself! But a lady in one of my guilds helped me take a lighthearted look at myself and my creative aspirations. She said, "If you can't see the mistakes from the back of a galloping horse, they don't matter!" That made me laugh! I decided I was going to jump into quilting and just make what I loved without worrying what anyone else thought.

Where is the quilt now?

Hanging behind the cash register in my fabric and gift shop, Huckleberry Moose.

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

Yes! Just have fun and enjoy the process. Make mistakes and learn from them; they are part of the wonderful journey of learning how to quilt!

Anything else you want to share about your first quilt?

All my art, and thus my fabric, has a story. The girl depicted in the quilt is based on my childhood experiences watching my mother ice skate on a pond in rural Utah. Being on the ice, pirouetting like a ballerina, brought her such joy! Those memories bring me great joy and I wanted to capture them. I added the geese as whimsical characters who I envisioned would also love the wonder of winter.

Thank you for sharing your first quilts with us, Lori! I love that you used fabric you designed yourself!

The Woman Caught in Adultery

Devotion for the week...

This is the first of a two-part look at the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery and brought before Jesus. These two devotions were part of the Moments with Jesus QAL and Devotional Journey. If you're interested in having 40 daily devotions delivered to your inbox to help you focus on God's word in the days leading up to Easter, check out the Roman Adventure QAL and Devotional Journey.

The Pharisees had a habit of trying to trap Jesus, by whatever means necessary. On one occasion Jesus was at the Temple, sitting and teaching a crowd of people, when “the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd” (John 8:3).

How terrified this woman must have been! It would be bad enough in our day to have authority figures drag a woman in front of a crowd and announce, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery” (v. 4) - just pause for a moment and put yourself in that place and imagine the shame and embarrassment you would feel at such a public display.  This woman, though, had to deal with not only the shame and embarrassment, but she would also have been afraid for her life because, as the Pharisees pointed out to Jesus, “The law of Moses says to stone her” (v. 5).

Side note, why was it only the woman brought before the crowd? If she was caught in the act of adultery, then surely she had a partner who was equally guilty, and the punishment for both the man and the woman was the same. So why was she the only one publicly shamed? I’ve heard of scholars who wonder if the Pharisees hadn’t arranged it all beforehand with her partner, which, if true, just adds to the misery of the moment for her.

Jesus knew the Pharisees were trying to trap Him, and instead of answering right away, He “stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger” (v. 6) while they kept on demanding He answer them. The Bible doesn’t tell us what He wrote, but there’s plenty of speculation. My favourite possibility is that He wrote sins the men had committed, which seems plausible considering He then stood and told them, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” (v. 7).

How the poor woman must have trembled when she heard that! 

She wasn’t dragged away to be executed, though. Instead, “when the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman” (v. 9). How long did it take for the men accusing her to slip away? Did she watch them walk away from her, or were her eyes glued to the ground, or maybe on Jesus?

Eventually, it was only Jesus and the woman standing there in the middle of the crowd who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching. He said to her, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” (v. 10). I picture a small smile on His face as He looks at her, a little reassurance for her terrified spirit. When she said no, He continued, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more” (v. 11).

Can you imagine the relief that must have flooded her at His words? How it must have felt to know that she was free to walk away, and that she wasn’t about to die after all?

Do you realize He doesn’t condemn us either? We may not have been dragged before a crowd and our sins declared publicly to everyone (hopefully not, anyway!), but we’re just as guilty as this poor woman was. Thankfully, “there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). We are free to walk away from the sins of our past, just as this woman was that day, because He is the only one who is without sin, and He chose to forgive us rather than condemn us.

Ticker Tape Heart Rainbow

Welcome to this week's TGIFF party! Before we get to the finish I'm sharing, did you know that registration is open for the Roman Adventure QAL and Devotional Journey? It's a 40 day QAL with daily devotions as we prepare for Easter. Get all the details here!

Here at Devoted Quilter headquarters, it's not only the quilting projects that sometimes wait a long time to be finished. Some blog posts have to wait for months, too 😅 Case in point, I started this post back in June, shortly after hosting the Ticker Tape Heart block challenge. I even had the pictures of the quilt taken (which is usually my sticking point), but apparently I got distracted and then I didn't come back to finish writing the post until this week. Oh well, after a few months of waiting, I'm happy to share my Ticker Tape Heart Rainbow baby quilt with you.

Since the pictures were taken in June, they have green grass and bare beach rocks rather than the abundance of snow on the ground around here right now.

It was a lot of fun to share this applique technique through the three day Ticker Tape Heart challenge. If you missed it back in the spring, don't worry! You can still sign up for the challenge right here and the daily emails will be sent to your inbox along with the free pattern.

I made 9 Ticker Tape Heart blocks leading up to the challenge so I could make a rainbow of hearts. With some 2 1/2" sashing and a 4" border, they make a great baby quilt.

Since I have my scraps sorted by colour, it was easy to work on one block at a time without needing to rummage through all my scraps. Whichever colour block I was working on, I just dumped that box of scraps onto the table to root through them and see what I wanted to use for the block. I found a lot of fabrics I hadn't seen in a long time, especially in the fullest boxes, since I hadn't dug down to the bottom of them in a while.

If you'd like to get your scraps sorted in the way that makes the most sense for the kinds of quilts you like to make, check out my free PDF guide, Escape Scrap Overwhelm.

The blue heart was the first one I made, and I cut those scraps larger than I did for any of the other blocks. So even though I have the most blue scraps, there are the fewest ticker tape pieces on the blue heart. There are also no repeats on the blue block, and I'm pretty sure that's the only block with no repeats.

For the Ticker Tape Heart block, you can stitch around the appliques when the block is still just a block, or you can sew the whole top together and baste it first, then stitch around the appliques and do the quilting all in one step. I chose to stitch around the appliques with the quilting, which gives the blocks great texture. This could be done with a walking foot, but I always choose to use my free motion foot because I prefer not to have to turn the quilt a bazillion times to go around all the small squares and rectangles.

I chose a rainbow of Aurifil thread for the hearts, plus Dove Grey (2600) for quilting the background. 

Hearts quilted into the background seemed like a given, don't you think? Can a heart baby quilt have too many hearts?

With this bright blue backing, all these thread colours show up nicely. This is why I love solid fabrics for quilt backs!

I debated making a scrappy binding, but then decided to go with this stripe print. It's not quite a rainbow, but it is pretty colourful and I think it gives a nice frame to the quilt.

If you'd like to make your own Ticker Tape Heart quilt, sign up for the challenge here for the free pattern and the videos full of tips for making your blocks.

Now it's your turn! What have you finished recently? Or not so recently, but you finally got around to sharing it? Link it up below, and don't forget to visit some of the other links and celebrate their finishes, too.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter