TGIFF - The 'Not Quite a Finish" Edition!

Welcome to Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday! If this is your first time visiting me at Devoted Quilter, welcome!

Unfortunately, I don't have a finish to share (whoops!). When I signed up to host TGIFF this week, back in November, I thought for sure I would finish one of a few different projects I have on the go so that I could share it. But all those other projects have been put on hold for the moment as I rush, rush, rush to try and finish a wedding quilt.

This wedding came rather sooner than I was expecting. The couple have been engaged since sometime last summer, but I was expecting a spring or summer wedding, so I planned to start the quilt after Christmas, thinking that would be plenty of time. Then, just before Christmas, I was told the date had been set - February 7th! I still couldn't start the quilt until after Christmas, because I was working on the boys' ornaments, so I considered abandoning the whole idea. I really wanted to give them a quilt, though. It's what quilters do!

So, two weeks ago (with three weeks to go before the wedding), I finally settled on a pattern, picked out my fabric and started. At that point I figured I'd be doing well if I had the top finished to show the bride and groom, then I'd bring it home to finish it. I was way off - in less than a week I had the top finished!

I've been feverishly working on the quilting since then and I count each stage that I finish as a little victory, since it's one less thing that will need to be done after the wedding.

Stage one: the stitch-in-the-ditch work around the white print squares that form the 'chains'. To be honest, I find stitching in the ditch to be really boring, but sometimes it has to be done. I do it fmq-style rather than using my walking foot, so I don't have to turn the quilt. I noticed with this quilt that I'm finally getting better at it. There were fewer wobbles out of the 'ditch' and when I did wobble I recovered faster. Good to see I'm making progress.

 Stage 2: FMQ in the white print squares.

I'm sure this design has a name, since I see it quite often, but I'm not sure what it is. It reminds me of the cathedral windows quilt block and I quite enjoy stitching it. Last Sunday I was fighting a cold (still am, actually) and I really didn't have the energy to do much but sit. Thankfully, quilting is a sit-down sort of activity, so I spent pretty much the entire afternoon stitching these blocks and by supper I had them almost finished.

I made myself a little map to follow since I don't stitch these lines one square at a time. I could do an entire nine-patch without stopping if I followed my map. Actually, I tried to start at the corner where two nine-patches meet, so I could stitch one and then move right on to the next. It worked really well, except that when I finished and checked it all out on the back I discovered I had somehow missed three lines in one section and two in another. Oops! Once they were done I could check off stage 2, with almost two weeks still left until the wedding.

Stage 3: flower motif in the large green sections. I planned the quilt so it would come together quickly, so the blocks are 12". That means those open green sections are a huge 18" at their widest points! Originally I thought I would fill them with feathers, probably in a wreath design, but I really can't make feathers look nice at the size. I can't make them go around in a circle either. Don't know why, but they look awful! Lots more drawing practice needed, I guess.

I found this design in Judi Madsen's Quilting in Wide Open Spaces, and decided it would be perfect.

Of course, Judi stitched hers in a much smaller area, so I was a little nervous about the first one.

Mine is much, much wonkier than Judi's, especially if you look closely, but if you stand back I think it looks ok. 1 down, 16 more to go.

Here you see my fancy marking tools that I've been using to give myself reference points for each petal. I love the partial flowers on the edges - they stitch up so quickly.

In fact, I enjoyed those partial flowers so much I took a break from doing the full flowers and stitched all 12 of the partial ones - stage 3a finished!

So, that's where I am now. Stage 3 is still underway (I now have 6 of the 17 full flowers finished), and there is still a week to go before the wedding. My parents are going to be visiting for most of that week, though, so I'm not sure how much quilting I will do. But, I'm soooo close to finishing that I may take a little time each day and try to get it done. It would be amazing to actually have it done in time for the wedding!

So, that's my 'not quite a finish'. Let's see what you have to share this week! Be sure to visit a few other links and congratulate them on their finishes. We all love comments and compliments!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

Being Noticed

Devotion for the Week...

I've always enjoyed the story of Ruth in the Bible. In the beginning of the story, her husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law have all died and her mother-in-law, Naomi, decides to return to her homeland. Naomi encourages Ruth to return to her own family in hopes of finding another husband, but Ruth chooses to stay with Naomi. When they arrive in Bethlehem, Ruth and Naomi have nothing. They have no man to provide for them, and very little resources to provide for themselves. So what does Ruth do? Many of us would be tempted to feel sorry for ourselves at this point, or to sit around waiting for someone else to fix the problem. Not Ruth. Rather than worrying or regretting that she chose to come with Naomi, Ruth gets right to work.

God had commanded the Isrealites, "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner" (Leviticus 19:9, 10). Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning, so Ruth headed out immediately and started gleaning, picking up any bits of barley left behind by the harvesters. By doing so, she hoped to get enough grain to feed herself and her mother-in-law.

As a foreign woman, Ruth probably stood out among those who were working the field, and she was noticed by Boaz, the owner of the field, when he came to see how the harvest was going. "Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, 'Who does that young woman belong to?'"(Ruth 2:5). The overseer not only knew who Boaz meant, but he knew what Ruth had been doing all day. "She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.” (vv. 6,7) The overseer had noticed that Ruth was working hard, spending hours in the field with only a short break and, since he mentioned it to Boaz, I take it he was impressed by her work ethic.

But Ruth wasn't trying to be noticed. She didn't leave Moab with Naomi to be noticed. She did what she thought was right. She wasn't gleaning in the field in an attempt to be noticed. She just did what needed to be done to get food for their table. She probably didn't think she was doing anything special, or doing anything that others wouldn't also be doing if they were in her place.

The fact of the matter is, we are all being noticed by someone. It is human nature to watch the people around us, to see how they go about their daily lives. A couple of years ago I started babysitting a little boy from a family I hadn't met before I started babysitting him. One day I went to the grocery store and the cashier told me the boy's grandmother had asked her if she knew me, because the grandmother didn't know me and wondered what sort of person I was. I had never before thought about my grocery shopping as being something that people would observe, but it is. Because we live in a small town, this cashier has been seeing me for years, popping into the store with my own boys or some of the other kids I've looked after, chatting with her, keeping the kids from demolishing the store displays and that sort of thing. She could assure this grandmother that the kids in my care are happy with me and that, in her words, "you have no worries with Leanne." That report brightened my day, but I wasn't doing anything while in the store to try to be noticed as a competent caregiver. I was just doing my usual thing.

All of which begs one simple question: for what are you noticed? Jesus told His followers, "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:14-16). 

Whenever I have heard or read this verse I have heard 'good deeds' and imagined it meaning those things we do specifically to be nice to others, but the word translated as 'deeds', ergon, actually means "anything done or to be done; a deed, work, action."

Maybe Jesus wasn't only referring to special kindnesses, but to all the good things we do in the run of our daily lives. All the things that get noticed by others and make them see us in a positive light will bring glory to God. All the things that get noticed in a negative way will not.

So, as we go about our daily lives, just doing what needs to be done, how do people see us? I'm not suggesting we should put on an act when we're out in public, trying to fool people into thinking we're something we're not. But rather, do our actions and our attitude line up with what we say we believe? Are we exhibiting the fruit of the spirit? "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Galatians 5:22,23). Are we noticed for those things?

And if we aren't being noticed for these things, is that a problem?

Wedding Quilt Top Finished!!

In what has to be a record for me, I have the Irish Chain wedding quilt top finished!

Rather than adding a plain border, I extended the pattern into the border by 1/3 of a block on all sides. I like how it changes the look of the quilt.

Here is a close-up of one nine-patch block. I love the multicoloured print from Northcott. It looks like feathers swirling around!

In the interest of moving right along, I have the quilt basted together and I started quilting it last night, but my machine was giving me fits. The thread kept breaking and I couldn't figure out why. I'm using the Connecting Threads 100% polyester cone thread, but I've used that enough now that I was pretty sure it wasn't an issue with the thread itself.

I changed the needle, cleaned the lint out of my machine (which it desperately needed!), even wound a new bobbin, but nothing worked. Then I took some scrap fabric and batting, adjusted the tension and tried that (even though I've always done fmq at the same tension).

It worked perfectly.

Because if you're going to be troubleshooting, it might as well be pretty!

 So I put the scraps aside and tried the quilt again. As I was getting the quilt into position, I heard it bump the cone of thread, which I had set up directly behind my machine, and I had a little lightbulb moment...The part of the quilt that was behind the machine was pressed up against the thread, which then couldn't feed off the cone properly, which created too much tension and snapped the thread! All the other projects I've done with this thread have been smaller (as was the scrap I used for troubleshooting), so I haven't run into this problem before. I moved the thread cone to the side of my machine and I had no more problems.

So, whether it was the tension or the quilt pressed against the thread, hopefully when I start quilting again tonight things will go more smoothly and I can get more done than I did last night!