4 Corners

Now that this quilt has made its way to its new home in Scotland, I can finally share it with you!

This is 4 Corners. It is a mini quilt, finishing at approximately 24" x 24".

I designed this mini quilt for a swap for Fiona, of Celtic Thistle Stitches, and it was one of my designs during the 30 Days of Quilt Designs 2017 IG challenge with Sandra (@mmmquilts) and Lisa (@sunlightinwinterquilts). I knew I wanted to design a mini that referenced Fiona's frequent traveling, especially because I love virtually traveling with her through her blog posts about the places she visits. Since she's traveling around Europe, it's likely I'll never see most of the places in person, so it's fun to get a glimpse of whatever Fiona finds most interesting.

With that in mind, the corners of the quilt represent the 4 corners of the world. They're all different colours to represent the different things to be found all over the world. The black lines represent the roads that lead to all of those places and the yellow circle in the middle represents home.

Of course, all of the negative space in the quilt practically begged for some flow quilting, and I was more than happy to oblige 😊 As always, I love how the quilting shows up on the back.

We actually visited one of the four corners of the world this summer, according to the Flat Earth Society! I think that's one corner I've visited that Fiona hasn't, lol.

Do you travel much? Or do you tend to stick closer to home and virtually enjoy the travels of others? I love that my quilt is hanging out in Scotland now, which is one country I've always wanted to visit 😊

Beyond Appearances

Devotion for the Week...

Our middle son, Zachary, who is 13, has had a growth spurt this summer. He went from being just slightly taller than I am to quite noticeably taller. I now have to look up to look him in the eye and he has developed the habit of standing beside me and leaning on my shoulder. We've been hearing a lot of people exclaiming, "Zach sure sprouted up!"

Some of the people saying it are family, but a lot of them have been people from church or teachers at the school or just people we see in the community. They see Zach now and then, so changes in his appearance are obvious, but they don't know him well enough to know about his interest in dangerous animals or that he enjoys cooking and baking. They don't know that he absolutely loves to read and often comes to us saying he needs a new book to read, which is tough when he has read everything appropriate for his age that we own and at our local library.

It's probably the same with many of us. We know the people around us well enough to see how they change in appearance, but we don't often go beyond appearances to really get to know them. Thinking about this lately has made me wonder if there's a problem there, at least as far as the church is concerned.

Jesus told his disciples "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:34,35).

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples.

If you stop to think about it, there's a lot of consider in that one little phrase. By this, meaning by the love we show to one another within the church, everyone, both inside and outside the church, will know that we are His disciples. Which means that the love we show to one another is proof that we are disciples of Jesus.

Which begs the question: Can I truly love someone if I know almost nothing about them? Unfortunately, I am guilty of knowing the names of the people who attend our church, but not knowing anything else about them, with the exception of a few friends.

I have nothing against the rest of the church, and I would help them if I knew they needed something, but that's not quite the same as loving them, is it? That could more accurately be described as neighbourly-indifference, and I don't think that's what Jesus meant when He said, "As I have loved you."

I think Jesus meant something a little deeper, something that goes beyond appearances and chit chat about the weather. And I think I need to work a little harder on it. What about you?

Quilter's Connection Magazine

Back when I made the call for blocks to make quilts for the seniors displaced by the fire, a woman named Heather contacted me about doing an interview about the project for Quilter's Connection magazine. I had never heard of the magazine before, but I enjoyed my interview with Heather and she assured me she'd send me a copy when the issue came out.

Well, it arrived a few days ago and it is such a beautiful magazine!

There are several beautiful projects in the magazine, including a quilt made with zippers (intriguing, right?) and profiles of a few Canadian quilters to watch. Quilter's Connection comes out four times a year and you can preview the current issue here.

This is not an affiliate post, I just wanted to share the magazine since I figured that if I had never heard of it before, you may not have either. The tag line says "For Canadian Quilters," but it's definitely worth checking out even if you're not Canadian 😉

Head on over to their website for more information, to buy an issue or to subscribe.