WIP Wednesday - Swap Quilt and Binding

The fmq on my Scrappy Log Cabin quilt is finished!!! Yipee! It only took me 16 months, but who's counting?

Last night I dumped out my bag of 2 1/2" strips and joined a bunch of them to make a scrappy binding. I joined way more than I needed, but I guess that means my next scrappy binding will be really quick to make.

 Don't you just love a scrappy binding roll?

Are you part of the Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt swap? There are some 600 participants! I've finally decided what I want to make, and immediately cut my fabrics so I couldn't change my mind again. I'm going with a block from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, volume 9. Gundrun Erla designed this one and I love the simplicity, the negative space and the pops of colour. My mini will be 2 blocks by 2 blocks. I sure hope my partner likes it.

I'll be linking up with WIP Wednesday, Let's Bee Social, NTT Thursday and I Quilt.

Taking Time

Devotion for the Week...

Now that our roads are not covered in ice, I've started running again. I love being out there, running, and I really love the feeling when the run is over and I go through the rest of the day feeling strong because I ran. It's hard to find time to run, though. I try to run three times a week, one of which is usually on the weekend. The other two runs are a little harder to schedule and for a long time I just didn't exercise at all because I couldn't see when I could fit it in. With encouragement from Paul, who is also running, I've started just taking the time, heading out as soon as the kids I babysit are gone home. Supper is often later than we had been used to, but no one seems to mind.

I take time for quilting too. I'll squeeze in a few minutes basting hexies, or set up my machine while Nathan's getting ready for bed so I can sew for the evening. If I can't actually be stitching something, I will at least look through a quilting magazine or read some blogs to see what others are making.

There will always be things we want to do and things we have to do. Often the things we have to do take up way more of our time than we have available for the things we want to do, but there are ways to juggle tasks around to take time for the things we consider important. A little rearranging of meal times and I have time for a run. Having some projects that are easy to work on in little bits of time makes it easier to do a little sewing even on busy days.

I've been reading through the Gospels lately and I find it interesting that Jesus had to take time for something too. "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God" (John 6:12). Jesus was a busy man. He had His disciples to teach and wherever He went He attracted crowds who sought His teaching and His healing power. He needed to spend time in prayer, but His days were too busy, so He spent the night praying.

I'm sure this was a sacrifice physically. We know that, as a man, Jesus got tired just as we do. In fact, He once slept in the back of a boat while a storm raged around them (Mark 4:35-41) which suggests He must have been exhausted. His willingness to spend an entire night in prayer tells us how much He valued that time with His Father.

There are other records of Him taking time to pray.

Mark 1:35 - "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."

Luke 5:16 - "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."

Matthew 14:23 - "After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray."

I am challenged as I think about Jesus taking time away from His sleeping hours to pray. I don't spend as much time praying as I would like, mostly because I find it hard to have the time. Yet I am able to take time from other things to run, to quilt, even to read blogs. What does that say about my priorities? I am wondering now what adjustments can be made to give me time to spend in prayer.

What about you? Do you pray as much as you would like? Do you have to make an effort to take the time to do so?

Spin Placemats

I finally have a finish to share! It had started to feel like a long time since I finished anything, and then I realized that's because it has been a long time...this is my first finish this quarter. Yikes!

I made these placemats a couple of years ago. It was my first time designing anything and, even though they're fairly simple, I was so excited when I sewed the first one together and found I had all the quilt math right. I know, it's easy to make me happy.

I wanted to make another version of them and actually write the pattern this time, so I made a set of four like this.

There is one big difference, which is the size of the large pinwheel. In the original set, it was a 12" pinwheel. This time I used a fat quarter bundle from Connecting Threads and a fat quarter isn't large enough to make four 12" pinwheels. So, it's 8" with a border. I quite like the new look.

I played around with the fmq on these. First, I did straight lines in the grey parts of the large pinwheels...

and this freeform pinwheel in the small ones.

I also stitched in the ditch around everything and stippled in the black border. I love how the quilting looks on the back.

Then I tried something new. I've always machine stitched my bindings to the front and then hand stitched them to the back, but I've been seeing a lot of pretty machine bindings online lately and decided to give it a go.

I started off by making a mistake right at the start. Machine bindings should be sewn onto the back first so the last side stitched (which ends up looking the neatest) is the front. Yep, I stitched mine to the front first. I could have ripped it out and started again, but I didn't. Too lazy.

Once I was finished the first side, I pinned the binding to the back all the way around. I found this worked nicely and kept things from shifting out of place. Now I see the appeal of the binding clips! On something this size I didn't find I stabbed myself very often as I stitched the binding, but I think it would be a different story with a large quilt.

Then I stitched slooooowly! That helped a lot.

It's certainly not perfect, especially around some of the corners, but all in all, I'm pleased with the machine binding. I'll be doing it again, especially for projects I want to finish quickly.

I'm still working on the pattern, but if you're interested in testing it for me, please let me know. You can leave me a comment or email me at piecefullydevoted at gmail dot com.

I'll be linking up with My Quilt Infatuation,  I Quilt, TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Finish it up Friday and YOU Made it and Love It.