30 Quilt Designs Challenge

The 30 Quilt Designs Challenge is coming to an end and it has been a lot of fun to keep myself designing regularly and to see what everyone else has come up with. Thanks to Sandra (Musings of a Menopausal Melon) and Lisa (Sunlight in Winter Quilts) for hosting and to Melody (The Red Hen Shop) for sponsoring. If you want to check out all the designs, you can see them all here. There are some great designs there!

I still have one design to go, but I think I'll manage to get it in before the March 15th deadline. You can see some of my designs from early in the challenge here and today I'm sharing some of the later ones.

I wanted to play with an Irish Chain-like design and Asymmetrical Stars is the result. I love the dark background and the asymmetrical setting.

You'll have to use your imagination a little for this design 😊 I wanted those big stripes dividing the quilt, but I couldn't figure out how to make EQ7 let me draw it. I ended up drawing the bottom row as a block, but then the program wouldn't let me put blocks in those squares. So, just pretend all of those blank squares have stars too, okay?

I'm calling this one Scraps Squared and it is definitely on the to-make list. Actually, I've been making single-colour 4 patches as leaders and enders for quite a while so I have more than I need to make this quilt. I just need to get some black and I could start assembling blocks as leaders and enders.

Edited to say the Scraps Squared pattern is available in my Etsy shop! Click to get it as a PDF or a printed pattern.

And this one may well be my favourite design of the whole challenge. I've wanted to make a medallion for a long time, but I don't like most of the medallion designs I see. I find they tend to look too crazy and cluttered. I designed this one with lots of negative space included to give each of the different borders room to breathe. This is on the to-make list as well 😊

Edited to say the Medallion Magic pattern is also available in my Etsy shop as a PDF or a printed pattern.

I've already pulled fabric for one design from the challenge and I have another one about half pieced (and I looooove it!). There will be more information about them soon 😊 Secret sewing is hard, but if you want little sneak peeks you can follow me on Instagram - I'm @devotedquilter and I share lots of peeks at what I'm working on.

Well, thanks to these two design challenges, I now have more quilts I want to make than I'll ever have time for, but I'm sure having fun trying to make them all!

Not What I Would Say

Devotion for the Week...

Confession time...I am a lot more open about talking about God here on the blog than I am in real life. I'm not sure why. I think it has something to do with feeling like if people aren't interested in reading a devotion they can just skip it, where that's not so easy to do in a conversation. I don't want to make people feel uncomfortable, or like they have to listen to 'religious' talk if they don't want to.

I am not a bold person in general. I hate anything that even hints of conflict and will try very hard to avoid it, even when it would be better to speak up. Sometimes I feel like talking about what I believe might create a conflict and so I just stay quiet.

And then I read something like this: "Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus" (Acts 4:29,30). 

A little context is needed here...Peter and John had been arrested by the religious leaders for teaching about Jesus. While in front of these angry and powerful men, Peter again proclaimed the truth about Jesus. The leaders didn't know what to do next. They felt they couldn't harm Peter and John because the people loved them, but they needed to stop them from teaching about Jesus. Finally, "after further threats they let them go" (v. 21).

Released, Peter and John told the other believers what had happened to them and then they all prayed together. And that's when they prayed "Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus" (vv.29, 30).  

Consider their threats, they prayed. Makes sense, right? 'Lord, you heard what these men just threatened us with, didn't you?' Yeah, I can see me saying something like that.

"Consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness." What? That's definitely not what I would say! My conflict-fearing heart would be cowering in the corner, trying to figure out a way to never draw the attention of those leaders again. But not Peter and John and the others.

Consider their threats, but then give us boldness to continue speaking about Jesus anyway.

It's like they were saying, 'Lord, you heard the threats. You know how scared we are. So give us an extra measure of boldness so that these threats won't be enough to make us stop.'

And did you notice that they not only asked for boldness to speak for Him, but they also asked for God to perform signs and wonders through the name of Jesus? They weren't looking to quietly share about Jesus to a few people here and there. They were looking for miracles and healings that would draw attention to their work and their teaching. It was practically guaranteed that those signs and wonders they were asking for would be noticed by the religious leaders, who would arrest them again, or worse. But those signs and wonders would also be seen by the general public as proof that what they were teaching was truth, thereby helping the people to believe in Jesus as their Savior. It was all part of them speaking boldly, drawing attention to their life-changing message.

Maybe my problem is that I've never asked for boldness. I've tried relying on my own power when it comes to talking about God, but obviously that isn't going to be enough. Maybe it's time I try being like Peter and John and asking God to make me bold.

What about you? Do you speak freely about God or do you find yourself like me, staying quiet for fear of offending someone or making them uncomfortable? Will you join me in asking for boldness?

Connections - A Free Block Tutorial

Devoted Quilter is 4 today! 

I'm amazed that I've been blogging for a full 4 years now 😊 I wanted to do something to mark the day, so I thought about doing a giveaway, but that really only benefits one person (the winner) and I wanted something that would be for everyone. That's when I thought of doing a free block tutorial, because we all love new quilt blocks, right?

I'm calling this block Connections. Partly because of the secondary pattern created when blocks are put together, but also because I wanted to create a block to celebrate the connections I've made with all of you through this blog, reading your blogs and through Instagram. This online quilting community it awesome!

Thank you for all of your support and encouragement these past four years. Your comments, especially, always make my day.

Without further ado -

Connections - a 12" block

Here is what the block looks like when tiled together, flipping every other block. Don't you love those connections that form between the blocks?

Let's get started!

 

Materials

For one block:

Background - 8 rectangles 2 1/2" x 4 1/2"

Dark Aqua - 4 rectangles 2 1/2" x 4 1/2"

Light Aqua - 4 rectangles 2 1/2" x 4 1/2"
                   - 4 squares 2 1/2" x 2 1/2"

Pink - 1 square 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" **

White - 1 square 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" **

** Note - the method we'll use to make the center hourglass block makes two at a time, so if you're making a quilt with this block you need 1 square of each colour for every 2 blocks you plan to make.

Make the Connecting Units

Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the back of all of the light aqua 2 1/2" squares.

Pin the 2 1/2" square to one end of the dark aqua 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangle as shown.

Stitch on the drawn line, then trim 1/4" away from the seam.

It was at this point I realized my new phone takes better pictures than our DSLR, so I switched

Press open.

Stitch a background 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangle to the connector strip as shown. Make 4 connector units.

Note, to make a quilt where the blocks connect, you need to make half of your blocks with these connector units flipped. In this picture, the left connector unit is made as shown above and the one on the right is flipped. Make 4 matching connector units for each block.

Make the Side Units

Stitch the remaining background 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangles to the light aqua 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangles as shown. Make 4 side units.

Make the Center Hourglass

Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the back of the white 5 1/4" square.

Pin the white and pink 5 1/4" squares together and stitch 1/4" away from the line on both sides. Cut apart on the drawn line to make two HSTs.

Press open. On the back of one of the HSTs, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner, crossing the seam. Pin the two HSTs together, alternating colours and nesting the seams.

Stitch 1/4" away from the drawn line on both sides. Cut apart on the drawn line.

Press open and trim the hourglass block to 4 1/2" x 4 1/2".

Assemble the Block

Arrange the units in 3 rows of 3 as shown, paying careful attention to the orientation of the units.

Stitch the units into rows and then join the rows to complete the block and you're done!

As always, if you make this block, I'd love to see it! Tag me on Instagram (@devotedquilter) or Facebook (@devotedquilterdesigns) or send me an email (devotedquilter at gmail dot com).

 Here's to many more years of quilting together!