Sea Glass and July Sugar Block Club

Rocky beaches are probably my favourite type of beach. My Grampy taught me early on about the joys of hunting for pretty rocks and shells. Then I'd make Dad let me bring them home when we left my grandparents'. Mom and Dad's driveway still has beach rocks strewn among the gravel. And Mom still makes Dad bring home more.

We went to a rocky beach today. This particular beach usually yields only a couple pieces of sea glass per visit, but today the place was full of it!

This is what I collected. All three boys also picked up a few pieces to add to their own collections.

Last night I started stitching my July block for the Sugar Block Club and finished it up this morning. I'm happy to report I managed to have all the pieces turned the right way with this one!

The middle is an on-point Ohio star. The corners are paper pieced and super quick. Only two seams!





 I used Bonnie Hunter's Triangle Buddy method to make bonus HST units when making the flying geese units for the Ohio Star. It's pretty simple.

First, draw a sewing line from corner to corner. This is the line for the flying geese unit.






To cut your template (or triangle buddy) , figure out the finished size for your HST, cut a square that size and cut it in half diagonally. As you can see, I used a very fancy recycled index card for my template.




Draw a line at the edge of your template. This is the line for your bonus HST unit. These two lines may not be 1/2" apart, so your seam allowances may be less than the standard 1/4", but not by much.

Sew on both lines.

Cut between the lines, centering the cut as well as you can.

 Et Voila!









 
Four beautiful flying geese units and eight bonus HST units! Now, I admit there isn't much you can do with 8 HST pieces, but if I sewed as much as Bonnie Hunter does I could probably make enough for a whole quilt pretty quickly. Instead, I'm just going to set them aside and wait until my next opportunity to add another set.

When I finished the block I couldn't resist laying out all eight blocks together. I love how they look together. It's hard to believe there are only four more blocks to go!

 I'm linking up with Kristy's Paper Piecing Party and TGIFF.

August Sugar Block Club (sort of...)

I am starting to get caught up again with my BOM sewing. I started with Amy Gibson's August block. At least, I tried to. Here is Amy's block.

 Sticking with my blues and cream/tan colour scheme, I used one blue batik and two cream backgrounds.

Do you see my mistake? Somehow I didn't notice that I had all four corner pieces turned the wrong way, a mistake that completely changes the look of the block. Gone is the plus shape, and in its place I have a square.

Fortunately, I like the new look, so I'm leaving it as is. I am probably going to make another version sometime, following the pattern properly, of course!




For this pattern, all 20 HST units were made slightly bigger than needed, then trimmed to size. I will admit I found the trimming to be incredibly tedious, but it sure does produce accurate results. I've never seen so many perfect points in one of my blocks. Tedious, but worth it.

I have all the pieces cut for the July block as well, so hopefully I'll get that stitched up soon. I love how these blocks are looking so far.

I am linking up today with Lee at Freshly Pieced and at Quilt Story.

Recognizable

Back in 2010 I taught a quilting class. Many of the 12 ladies in the class had never threaded a machine before, others had made many quilts and just wanted a night out with friends. All of them made the same quilt, Midnight Garden, designed by Sharon Sebrow.

I made my sample version following the printed colour scheme because I love bright colours on black.

Some of the ladies followed my lead, while others took an entirely different garden path. One chose a white background, another orange, another royal blue and another chose a deep purple.

They were all beautiful. They were recognizable as a Midnight Garden quilt, but they also reflected the personalities and preferences of the unique women who made them.

In many ways, our lives should be like those different quilts. We should be recognizable as Christians, while at the same time embracing and celebrating our individuality.

Jesus said, "Let your lights shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16) Using that as our pattern tells us two things.

First of all, we should be shining lights in our world, doing good deeds as a simple matter of everyday living. A good deed shouldn't be out of the ordinary for us. Doing good, showing kindness and caring, should be the norm. It should be how we are known in our communities.

Second, those good deeds are not to be done to draw attention to ourselves. It isn't "Do good deeds so everyone will think you're a good person," or "Do good deeds so people will like you," or even "Do good deeds so you can get into heaven." Nope. Our good deeds are supposed to point people to God, causing them to praise Him.


What are these good deeds we are supposed to be doing? Jesus didn't specify in this passage what they should be. There are generalities given in the Bible, but not specifics. We are told to love one another (John 15:17), to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Mark 12:30) and to consider others above ourselves (Philippians 2:3). Within those guidelines, there are as many possibilities as there are people on this earth.

I machine stitched around my Midnight Garden flowers. Some of the ladies hand stitched around theirs with a blanket stitch and one lady hand stitched x's all around each flower. They are still the same flower. Though my background is black and Rose's is purple, they are both Midnight Garden quilts.

Your good deeds will likely be different from mine, but as long as we are both doing things that bring praise to God we will be recognizable as belonging to Him.