Let's Get to Know...Sarah Craig!

 It's time for the second instalment of my Let's Get to Know...interview series 😊 This month we're getting to know Sarah Craig, who blogs at Confessions of a Fabric Addict (don't you love that blog name?) Sarah is the woman behind the Hands 2 Help Comfort Quilt Challenge (it'll be coming again soon!); she's a prolific quilter and she's always sharing wonderful scrap quilting inspiration. I love her puzzle style Tshirt quilts, too. Plus she's active in her church's quilt ministry. Whew! She's a force to be reckoned with, right?? 

Let's get to know Sarah!

Tell us about your first quilt.  Do you still have it?

Well, I'm going to assume this means "modern quilting era" first quilt, as I made some tied quilts many many years ago before I would have called myself a quilter.  So the answer is that I don't have it, but my granddaughter does!  The first quilt I made was a Rae Hawley pattern, lots of different blocks that you could arrange to suit yourself.  I even put a felt applique of Lilli's handprint in the corner to commemorate her age at the time (she was two).  And it has been well loved, but is still in use!

Do you come from a family of quilters or crafters?

My grandmother taught me how to sew at the tender age of eight, starting me off with a pair of structured shorts with a zipper, darts, pockets and a waistband.  She didn't believe in easy starts!  I spent every summer with her, and always made my school wardrobe for the next year during that time.  She was a first-class seamstress, making her own suits and some of my grandfather's too. She also excelled at embroidery and needlepoint.  She taught me both, but the love for them didn't really catch on with me.  She also knit and crocheted.  The one thing she didn't do was quilt, and I don't remember a single quilt in her house.  The one quilt I remember seeing was given to her by a tenant at her farm, and she gave it to me right away.  But from her I have a love of fabric and sewing, and also a love of family heritage.

Sarah's Harry Potter quilt, made for her granddaughter Lilli. All pictures in this post are courtesy of Sarah.

Do you have any sewing related collections (other than fabric and thread, lol)?

Of course!  I seem to be a magnet for both vintage sewing machines and vintage quilts.  Personally, except for my lovely Juki, I'd rather sew on a vintage machine than anything made these days - they are so well made and long-lived, plus they are so pretty!  I have a shelf unit in my studio devoted to some of my favorites, and it's always a favorite stop for people who visit.  I haven't come up with a great way to display my vintage quilts in my new house yet, but their day will come....

Some of Sarah's vintage machines 😍

What sewing notions could you not live without?

Well, as far as not living without it, thread!  No way to quilt without it.  But the ones I would rather not contemplate quilting without include my Bloc-Loc Ruler for half-square triangles, my 100" tape measure, and June Tailor T-Shirt Quilt Interfacing.  Oh, and a good, hot, heavy iron!

Would you rather cut the pieces for a quilt or stitch a binding?

Ever since I learned to machine-bind a quilt, I've loved doing it - and I've probably put binding on 300 or more quilts.  Practice really does make perfect, or practically so.  I can bind a lap quilt in about 30 minutes now, and as it's the very last part of making a quilt, I love the process!

Sarah's Long Time Gone quilt - just look at that texture from her amazing custom quilting!

What do you wish you had known when you started quilting?

That's a tough question - I kind of fell into quilting, learning as I went.  But looking back, I wish I had known years ago that scrap quilting was so much fun!  I also wish I had known way back then that it was easier to keep scraps in control as you go rather than letting them pile up into unmanageable mountains!!

How did your church's quilt ministry get started?  Has it changed much since that beginning?

That's a long story, but the short version is that our sewing class at church (not a quilting group) decided to make a quilt for a young woman in our church who was diagnosed with a virulent form of cervical cancer.  We enjoyed it so much we made some quilts for Quilts For Kids, and then our pastor started requesting quilts for people he was ministering to.  It kind of snowballed from there!  We started out working from my home once a month, and then after a few years moved into space at church where we can meet weekly and have our materials and tools set up all the time.  That was a welcome change and made for a lot more room in my house!

How do you identify people who need a quilt from the ministry?

Our church has a strong belief in mission work, and our members are constantly "on mission" in our community.  More than 75% of the quilts we give away go to people outside our church family - to people that our members are ministering to in their daily lives.  Any member can request a quilt for someone they know in need.  Generally the recipient is having medical issues, but it can also be emotional problems, grief, or personal tragedy.  We also look for groups that do good work, such as a local charity that provides suitcases and personal care items for foster children, and provide them with quilts or other items that they need.  For example, we received a huge donation of flannel fabric, and shortly thereafter, had a request from a local NICU nurse for receiving blankets for their unit.  It was our pleasure to be able to provide them!

Do you have any advice to anyone wanting to start something similar?

Keep it simple!  You don't have to do intricate patterns or super-fancy quilting.  No one who receives a quilt from you is going to judge it - they are going to see the love that went into the making of it, and feel the comfort that only a quilt can give.  Oh, and don't be too consumed with perfection!  It's highly over-rated.  

Sarah's Supernova quilt - it's a free pattern on her blog!

This one's not quilting related, though it could be if you listen or watch while you quilt.  Do you have a book, movie or show recommendation to share?

I have to admit, my guilty pleasure while quilting is to listen to audiobooks - and my absolute favorite series of all time is the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  I read them before audio books was really a thing, had them on my Kindle when I was going to unending doctor's appointments ten years ago, and love listening to them now when I quilt (although I do listen to other books too!)  But Clare and Jamie feel like good friends, and I know they can always take me away to another time and place.  If I'm watching movies, anything from the Marvel Universe can entertain me, although I must say that Aquaman saying "Permission to come aboard!" always takes my breath away.... LOL!

Thanks, Sarah! I loved getting to know you better 😊

Be sure to go visit Sarah's blog and see more of her beautiful quilts. If you have the time, I'd recommend you consider getting involved in Hands 2 Help, too. It's a wonderful opportunity to share a quilty hug with someone in need.

Skimmed Over

 Devotion for the Week...

I've been working my way through the Old Testament, reading a little bit each morning while I have my breakfast. Recently I finished 2 Samuel and in the second last chapter there is a list of David's mightiest warriors. It's a long list of 'this guy, son of that guy; this guy, from here; that guy, from there.' You know the sort of list, right? Where a whole bunch of people (mostly men) are listed off with almost no information included besides their name and their father's name. There are similar lists scattered throughout the Bible. Sometimes they're genealogies, tracing someone's family line, other times they're census records. 

Whatever the reason for the list, they're always boring. I usually skim them, looking for the rare entry that includes a little snippet of actual information about the person. Bruce Wilkinson's book The Prayer of Jabez was written about one such snippet, a couple of lines that set Jabez apart in a long list of 'this guy, son of that guy,' which makes me think I'm not the only person longing for actual information about these people. Of course, if a life summary were included for each person those lists would go on and on and on and on.

After reading the list of David's mightiest warriors and thinking about my habit of skimming over the names, it occurred to me that if my name were included on a similar list I likely wouldn't warrant an extra snippet of information. My life has been an ordinary life, without the sort of extraordinary achievements that would get a special treatment when the person making the list needs to include dozens of names. Maybe you'd be listed there with me, 'this quilter, daughter of that woman; that quilter, daughter of so-and-so.' 

These thoughts kept coming back to me over the course of a few days. I branched out from thinking about the people whose names were listed to those whose names didn't even make the list. All those people who lived, but who aren't recorded in any way. They all lived lives full of thoughts, dreams, chores, loves and annoyances, like ours, yet we know nothing about them. 

But God knows everything about them - and us. Don't you love when a sentence starts 'But God'? It's a signal for a complete change from our limited knowledge or perspective to God's, which is unlimited. 

Psalm 139 is a beautiful declaration of God's knowledge of each of us. It starts out with:

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.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

    too great for me to understand! (vv. 1-6).

Though our names would likely be skimmed over by someone reading one of those tedious lists, God knows us fully. Every detail, every moment. His is not a casual knowledge, like of an acquaintance who has met us a few times. No, His is a depth of knowledge we don't even have about ourselves. See above where it says, "You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord." How often do we not know what we're going to say until the words pop out of our mouths? And yet God knows them before we speak.

God knows us. Isn't that an amazing thought? He cares so deeply about each of us that He knows our stories, our dreams and interests, our aches and pains, our joys and sorrows. Such things could never be included in a genealogy or census record, but God knows them anyway. 

Aren't you glad He doesn't skim over our lives, but rather immerses Himself in the details of who we are?

Ugh, Again??

 Devotion for the Week...

For years now I've been doing our menu planning and grocery shopping on Saturday afternoons. I keep a fairly long list of all the meals we like so I can quickly fill in the week, but lately I find that every time I look at the list I don't want anything that's written on it. Not that I don't like the meals anymore, just that I'm bored of them all. Even my favourites, like spaghetti, don't interest me. I used to make homemade pizza every week, because it's one of Paul's favourites and everyone liked it so that was one easy day to fill in. But then Zach decided he was tired of it, to the point where he won't eat it at all anymore - even though he'll happily eat any other pizza!

The funny thing is, once the menu is made up, I'm fine to actually make those meals and eat them during the week. It's only on Saturdays that I'm sitting there thinking, "Ugh, I don't want any of it again this week." 

Writing to the Galatians, Paul said, "So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up" (Galatians 6:9). That about sums up how I feel about menu planning...I'm tired of all the options, but when I don't give up on the task I reap the benefit of not needing to think about what is for supper every single day. Of course, Paul wasn't actually talking about me planning my meals for the week.

The verse has always made me think of people who have been serving God for a long time, doing the best they can to serve others and maybe not seeing much in the way of results. They're discouraged, but Paul is telling them not to give up. That living to please God will always bring good results if we don't give up when the results take longer than we might like.

Is there anything you're doing that is good, but you're just tired of it? Maybe you've been doing it for a while and don't see that it makes any difference so now it just makes you feel like 'ugh, again??'

Don't give up! We want our results to come right away, but Paul said that the harvest of blessing would come 'at the right time'. Unfortunately, we can't know when that time will be or why sometimes there is so much pain in the waiting. Nor can we know why it's faster to come for some people than it is for others. Only God understands His timing. Even when we don't understand, though, we can still trust Him.

Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." That means even the waiting times, the painful times and the ugh, again? times can be used for good. Not that they themselves are good, necessarily, but that God will use them to create good.

So whatever it is that makes you feel tired and like you want to quit, don't give up! Your harvest of blessings will come, in God's time, if you don't give up.