30 Days of Quilt Design Challenge - Finished

Rachel, at Stitched in Color, and Gotham Quilts have been hosting the 30 Days of Quilt Design Challenge on Instagram, with the idea being participants would spend 30 days working on quilt designs between the beginning of August and the end of October. I finished the challenge a couple of days ago, and my to-make list has grown much, much longer over the past couple of months! In fact, I've started making one design, ordered fabric for another and had a third accepted by a magazine! More on all of those in the days to come :)

I shared my favourites of my first 14 designs here, so now I'll share some of my favourite designs from the second half.

This one came about after Nathan was following video instructions to draw a robot made of squares while I was washing dishes. It sounded fun, so when the dishes were done, I sat at my computer and used basic shapes to create my own robot. I think he'd be a cute first-applique project for a child, or he'd make a cute baby quilt.

I really love this design. I'm not sure what I like best, those tiny little churn dashes or the asymmetrical layout. Regardless, this one is definitely in my plans for someday.

I'm calling this one Refract. I had fun creating this unusual layout with just two blocks.

This design was inspired by a QDAD prompt. I'm not quite sure it would be possible to assemble it exactly as I've drawn it, but I might just have to figure it out one of these days.

And just look at all the negative space in this one! I could have a lot of fun with flow quilting all over a quilt like this :)

The challenge was a lot of fun, and designing so often really helped the get the ideas flowing. It was also great to see the incredible designs others were sharing at #30DaysofQuiltDesignChallenge.

Now to get some of these designs made into quilts!

Mutually Encouraged

Devotion for the Week...

I have been quilting for almost 20 years. Most of that time I've been quilting by myself, with maybe one acquaintance who also quilted. Other times I've known a couple of people who wanted to learn, so I taught them and we sewed together for a while. Then I started my blog and suddenly I had an abundance of sewing friends all over the world. They were sharing amazing pictures of the things they were working on, which made me want to try new techniques, new colour combinations, new patterns and new fabrics. I was already passionate about quilting, but the more exposure I had to what other quilters were doing, the more my love of quilting grew.

It has been great to expand to Instagram and join in with events like the Friday Night Sew Along, or Saturday Night Craft a Long, or the 30 Day Quilt Design Challenge. It's so wonderful to be working on something at the same time other people are working on their own projects, even if we're only sharing our progress as pictures on our phones. The connection is still there as we comment on each other's work and cheer each other on.

When I read Romans 1 a few weeks ago, I was struck by this, "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith" (Romans 1:11,12). Paul was writing to the Christians in Rome, telling them that he hoped to soon be able to come visit them, in part so he could teach them something that would make their faith stronger, but also so they could mutually encourage each other.

Just like quilters! I wonder how often anyone has ever said the apostle Paul is just like a quilter? But it's true. Just as I love sewing with friends (online or in person), Paul liked to spend time with other Christians because he found the time together to be encouraging to his faith.

You may wonder how this is true, since Paul was the teacher and founder of churches. He already had such a firm grasp on faith and the importance of the gospel. How could the average person encourage him and increase his faith?

Well, a couple of times recently I have heard or read of quilting teachers saying that they love teaching workshops to guilds or other groups because there's so much love for quilting in those sessions. They said they love the energy of the quilters sharing their love for this craft. They love how the (mostly) women share their favourite colour combinations, or share little tips and tricks that make the work faster or easier. Even though they are the teachers for that session, their own love of quilting is built up because of the time spent with other quilters.

Those teachers know so much about quilting, and in some cases they know much more than the people they're teaching. But it's not always a matter of who has the most knowledge or experience. Enthusiasm is contagious, so the more enthusiastic a quilter is, the more enthusiastic others around them can become. And you don't have to be an experienced quilter to be combining colours in new and interesting ways, so your eye for colour can awaken a more experienced quilter to a combination they've never considered before.

The same is true in our spiritual lives. Enthusiasm is contagious, and sometimes it's the older, more experienced Christians who need to spend time with newer Christians to catch sight of that enthusiasm again. 

We all see the world differently too, which means that we all see our faith differently. Most people probably don't associate their faith with quilting, but my mind often puts the two together. I also see a lot of connections between the bible and looking after small children, probably because I've spent the past 14 years in the company of toddlers and preschoolers. You likely make other connections when you read certain passages of Scripture, based on your interests and experiences.

That's why being around other Christians is so important. The writer of the book of Hebrews wrote, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:24,25).

Of course, sometimes 'meeting together' happens in person and sometimes it happens online or through books. There are several devotions I enjoy reading, including (in)courage and Our Daily Bread. I also enjoy books by Charles Swindoll, Mark Buchanan, Ravi Zacharias, Philip Yancey and many others. All of them have experienced life differently than I have and so they have different insights to share.

And if you feel you don't have much to offer to encourage others? I don't think that's the case at all! I know that several of you have encouraged me through your comments left here on these devotions, sharing your own stories about how faith has helped you through tough times. We can encourage each other simply by sharing our stories of faith.

A Mini Mini for Renee

Renee of Quilts of a Feather and I agreed to swap mini mini quilts a few weeks ago. This is the gorgeous mini mini that Renee sent to me. I love the two toned binding, and of course the quilted paisley (one of Renee's trademark designs) is perfect.

We agreed to swap shortly after my Then...and Now linky party, for which Renee wrote a post about her fmq progress. In her post, she had pictures of her Lone Star quilt, which was the very first blog post of hers I ever read, shortly after I started my blog. We've been sharing our quilting journeys ever since :)

So, when I was trying to decide what to make for her mini mini, I thought of the Lone Star block, but there was no way I was going to attempt a whole block at such a tiny scale! Even half of a Lone Star seemed like too much, so I decided to try just 1/4 of a Lone Star, using Renee's favourite colours - grey and teal.

Normally the star pieces are arranged in layers, so the darkest of my teal fabrics would have both been on the outside edge of the star and the lightest both in the center, or the other way around. Either way, though, I found it looked kind of flat somehow. Once I turned one of the sections around so that they alternated I liked it much better.

Once that was pieced, it was time for my favourite part - the quilting! I chose to do teeny-tiny flow quilting in the background and a dot-to-dot design in the star.

Then I decided to make a Christmas ornament to send with her mini mini. It's an idea I've been wanting to try, so I grabbed some of the fabric left over from making my Porthole quilt block and some grey thread and went for it. And I love how it turned out!

I'm planning to make more of these as Christmas gifts, using white fabric and red thread, and I'll write up a tutorial as I go. Hopefully I'll have that ready to share early next month so you have time to make lots of ornaments before Christmas :)

For now, I'm going to spend the rest of the evening working on my Just the Basics quilt. One of these days I'll get the quilting finished!


I'll be linking up with Let's Bee Social, NTT, TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Finish it up Friday.