Dresden placemats

I've finally finished my mother-in-law's Christmas gift! Only 4 months late, lol, but better late than never, right?

Last fall, when I was working on my Hexie Rainbow quilt, my MIL pointed to a lemony-yellow hexie and told me that she'd love to have placemats made with that shade of yellow. A little later, she pointed out a lime green hexie and said that green would be perfect with the lemon yellow for a set of placemats. I can recognize a hint that broad, so I asked what colour she'd want with them 😊 She picked navy and maybe white, if the design needed another colour.

Then I debated what design to use until the middle of December, so I knew this particular gift would be late, though I didn't expect it to be this late. In the end, I came up with this dresden design because I wanted to make more dresdens after making my Dresden Log Cabin back in November.

My MIL is definitely right - those three colours look fabulous together! All three are Northcott solids and I used Warm and Natural batting along with Aurifil thread.

I started by quilting the center of the dresden with Aurifil 2785 and then I outlined the dresden twice, once right at the edge and once ¼" away. The swirl hooks in the background were a lot of fun to quilt, but it was hard to squeeze them in some of the small spaces. That's where my love of tiny quilting came in handy, lol.

FYI, the placemat is flat, the brick wall behind it isn't

I wasn't sure what to quilt in the dresden itself at this point, so I quilted the borders next. Simple back and forth lines in the green and wishbones in the yellow add wonderful texture. Both are done with Aurifil 1231 (spring green) which had the remarkable ability to look yellow on the green fabric and green on the yellow fabric 😊

Then, thanks to a Pinterest search, I found this quick and simple, but oh-so-pretty design for in the dresden, which is also done with 1231.

I love a solid for quilt backings! I backed the placemats with the navy, even though it looks lighter in this picture. Isn't all of that quilted texture amazing??

I love the Aurifil 1231 on the navy 😊

I love my labels from Finer Ribbon, but I don't like how they flap on smaller projects. I decided to try stitching them into the corners of the placemats and I'm so pleased with how they look. In fact, I may start attaching them to all of my quilts this way, not just the small ones.

We'll be seeing my MIL this weekend when we're out of town for Zach's basketball games, so I'll get to deliver the placemats to her. I hope she likes them as much as I do!

Our Primary Message

Devotion for the Week...

When Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after the resurrection, He reassured them that everything that had happened to Him was according to the Father's plan as revealed in Scripture. "Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45). What a relief that must have been for them! Not only was Jesus there with them, but everything was exactly as it was supposed to be. You can almost feel the collective relief.

Then Jesus continued with this: "It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ (v. 47).

This should be our primary message: There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.

We can make teaching others about God complicated, full of rules and regulations, or we can simply teach them that there is forgiveness of sins available to anyone and everyone who repents.

It may not be the easiest conversation starter, especially if we don't know the other person well, but if we allow God to lead us, there will be moments when we're able to share this simple and profound truth with people who need to hear it. And, of course, everyone needs to hear it.

Slim Fit Raglan

I made a new shirt!

 I'm very excited about this Slim Fit Raglan pattern by Patterns for Pirates 😊 It went together so easily, even for this sewing-with-knits beginner and I love how it feels.

I chose to do this one all in one fabric, but I have enough to make another one with the body in this fabric and the sleeves in a print. The pattern includes three sleeve lengths and I'll probably use the 3/4 length for the next one. I bought the fabric from L'Oiseaux Fabrics and it feels like a much higher quality fabric than what you find used for store bought shirts. I used Aurifil 2785 for all of the stitching.

I used my twin needle to hem the sleeves and the bottom hem and this time I remembered to sew with the right side facing up so the twin needle detail actual shows on the outside of the shirt.

I have an old serger, but it makes me a little nervous because sergers cut off the extra seam allowance as you sew, which makes me feel like I can't rip out any mistakes as easily. For that reason, I sewed this on my Janome and it went perfectly. I didn't even have to rip any seams!

This was my first time attaching a neckband, which went okay. It's not perfect, but the ripples are all fairly small and they're at the back so it looks good from the front 😊

There's something very satisfying about wearing a shirt I made myself. I think it's safe to say I've been bitten by the garment sewing bug! In fact, I may or may not have paused the writing of this post twice while distracted by garment pattern and knit fabric shopping...