Infinity Pillow - Text It! Blog Hop

Before I launch into today's post, I want to mention that my Blogging Anniversary Sale is still underway, through March 6th, so head on over to my Etsy shop to pick up a pattern (or several!) at 25% off 😊

With that out of the way, welcome to my stop on the Text It! blog hop, sharing the gorgeous and fun projects from Sherri Noel's new book, Text It! If this is your first time here, then an especially big welcome to you! I'd love to have you join in with my Medallion Magic QAL - we're cutting fabric right now, so you're not even behind. 

When I first looked through Sherri's book to see what project I wanted to make, I stopped dead at the picture of her Infinity Quilt. I may have even said out loud, "That one, obviously." I chose to make the Infinity pillow sham, which is included as a variation in the book.

I can't wait to share the quilt on our bed, but it's still not time yet...

The reason this was such an obvious project for me to make goes back to an evening when my husband called out to me from downstairs, where he sat at his computer. When I walked into the room, he said, "I found a tattoo I want to get." I was surprised, until I saw the picture on his screen, at which point I told him that if he was getting it, then I'd get it too. This particular tattoo was perfect for us because when we were dating and writing letters or little notes to each other, we'd always sign them with X's, O's and the infinity symbol. You should know that I had never once considered getting a tattoo until that moment, but a few days later, we had matching tattoos, which was how we celebrated our 15th anniversary.

While thinking about telling the story in this post, I was surprised to realize that we've had the tattoos for almost 5 years now. Where does the time go?? We'll be celebrating our 20th anniversary in August, but I don't think there will be any tattoos involved this time 😊

I debated for a while what colours to use for the infinity symbol. I thought about using the same fabrics that are in the quilt I just finished for our bed, of which you can see a sneak peek in the picture above, but I thought that might be a bit too matchy-matchy and boring. I thought about going crazy with scraps, but I thought that might detract from the quilt too much and I really wanted the two to work together. Then I thought of using all black scraps, with the pieces the letters are on made from the same fabric as the background so it would look as much like our tattoos as possible. As you can see, that's what I went with.

I used Island Batik's Rice fabric for the background, which is so gorgeous, but doesn't really photograph well. There are faint streaks of blue-greens along with tiny dots of colour all over the fabric, which give the fabric a beautiful texture. You can maybe see it a tiny bit better in this picture of the envelope back of the pillow sham.

I used a few pieces of each of the black Island Batik fabrics I have and added a mix of other blacks from my stash for the letters and the EPP pieces that make up the infinity symbol.

I've never done a binding on a pillow or cushion cover before, but I love the way it frames it. This is the first time, but it likely won't be the last.

I used a scrap piece of Warm and Natural batting and the quilting is done with Aurifil 2600. My cone of 2600 is so close to empty now that I used 2024 in the bobbin because I didn't know if I'd have enough for both the top thread and the bobbin. I definitely wouldn't have had enough, so I'm glad I thought to use something different in the bobbin right from the start and saved myself from the stress of losing a game of thread chicken.

I love the texture created by quilted swirl hooks, especially with the way the light comes into our room in the morning 😍 I might need to buy or make pretty pillowcases now so our regular pillows look as nice as this decorative one.

A big thank you to Sherri for having me as part of this blog hop! Text it! is beautiful and I highly recommend it if you like words on your quilts 😊 You can get a signed copy of the book directly from Sherri, or you can order a copy from Amazon.

Before I send you off to see the other quilts and pillows with something to say, I have a giveaway you can enter, with two prizes. One is a copy of Text It!, which unfortunately is only available to a winner who lives in the US. The other prize, 2 large spools of Aurifil thread, will be shipped anywhere in the world. To enter, leave me a comment telling me one special way you've celebrated an anniversary or birthday and be sure to let me know if you're in the US or not so I know if you're eligible for the book prize. For additional entries, follow me on Instagram  or Facebook and leave a separate comment for each. I'll randomly choose the two winners on March 17th and contact them via email, so be sure your email address is either linked to your comment or include it in the comment.

Edited to say - Congratulations to the giveaway winners, wlstarn (comment #7) for the copy of the book and Carol Andrews (comment #83) for the Aurifil thread.

Remember to shop my Blogging Anniversary Sale and thanks for visiting! Feel free to pin this and share 😊

Now here's the schedule of other bloggers participating in the hop. Be sure to check out their versions of Sherri's fun designs!

MONDAY MARCH 4 – BEE HAPPY

PAMELA JANE MORGAN – MYSWEETLITTLESTITCHES.COM                            

SHARON LILABELLE LANE – LILABELLELANECREATIONS.COM

TUESDAY MARCH 5 – INFINITY Quilt

LAURA PILAND – SLICEOFPIQUILTS.COM

LEANNE PARSONS – DEVOTEDQUILTER.COM

KATIE MUTER STARCHER – KATIEMAEQUILTS.COM

WEDNESDAY MARCH 6 – PILLOW TALK

KATE COLLERAN – SEAMSLIKEADREAM.COM

CHERYL DAINES BROWN – QUILTERCHIC.COM

DORIE HRUSKA – FOREVER-QUILTING.COM

THURSDAY MARCH 7 – FREEDOM Quilt

JEN SHAFFER – PATTERNSBYJEN.BLOGSPOT.COM

TARA MILLER – QUILTDISTRICT.COM

FRIDAY MARCH 8 – LOVING YOU Wall Hanging

ELLEN AULT – .HANDMADE3D.ME

SHERRI NOEL – REBECCAMAEDESIGNS.COM

MONDAY MARCH 11 – COUNTING SHEEP Baby Quilt

DEANNE EISENMAN – SNUGGLESQUILTS.COM

RAEWYN BARGE – STITCHINGFARMGIRL.BLOGSPOT.COM

SUSAN PELLAND – SUEPELLANDDESIGNS.COM

TUESDAY MARCH 12 – HOME PILLOW

JOANNE HARRIS – QUILTSBYJOANNE.BLOGSPOT.CA

PATTY DUDEK – ELMSTREETQUILTS.COM

ANDY KNOWLTON – ABRIGHTCORNER.COM

SANDRA STARLEY – UTAHQUILTAPPRAISER.BLOGSPOT.COM

CINDY PIETERS – STITCHINATHOME.COM

WEDNESDAY MARCH 13 – LIFE IS SHORT Wall hanging

BECCA FENSTERMAKER – PRETTYPINEY.COM

KATIE BOCK – SEWINGWITHKATIE.BLOGSPOT.COM

ALLA BLANCA – RAINBOWSBUNNIESCUPCAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

THURSDAY MARCH 14 – HUSTLE PILLOW

TERRI BANDEN BOSCH –MEANDERINGSALONGLIZARDCREEK.BLOGSPOT.COM

WILLOW OLSON – BEARPAWDESIGNBLOG.WORDPRESS.COM

ERIN SAMPSON – auribuzz.wordpress.com/

FRIDAY MARCH 15 – SEWING MACHINE MAT

LAUREN WRIGHT – MOLLYANDMAMA.COM.AU

SANDRA HEALY – SANDRAHEALYDESIGNS.COM

CHERYL KRISEL LYNCH – cheryllynchquilts.blogspot.com/

SATURDAY MARCH 16 – WRAP UP

SHERRI NOEL – REBECCAMAEDESIGNS.COM

Would I Be Willing to Do This?

Devotion for the Week...

Our boys are usually the ones responsible for bringing in the wood we use in our wood burning furnace during the winter. Since the weather in the winter isn't always great for outdoor work, I have one standard I use for deciding when to send them out to bring in the wood - would I be willing to work outside in this weather? When it's really windy, the answer is probably no because the wind chill would make it too unpleasant. If it's fairly cold, but there's no wind, the answer is yes, I would, so out they go. To be honest, usually when I'm sending them out, I'm also wishing I could join them since I really enjoy bringing in wood! Alas, indoor work usually gets in the way.

'Would I be willing to do this?' is not a bad standard for when you're tempted to ask someone else to do anything. If you're not willing to do it, why are you willing to make them do it?

It would seem God thinks 'would I be willing to do this?' is a good standard, too. Consider this story Jesus told: "When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table, he gave them this advice: 'When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? The host will come and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be embarrassed, and you will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table! Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place for you!’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted'” (Luke 14:10).

Jesus often needed to correct His disciples for their inclination to worry about being honoured, which is exactly what He was doing with this story as He saw everyone trying to get the best seats at the dinner party. People aren't much different now, are they? We all want to be 'properly' honoured or given what feels to us like the right amount of attention and prestige. Just think about how easily we can be convinced that we need the 'prestige' version of a credit card or other service. We like to think of ourselves as important and worth the honour.

Jesus tells us that we're going about it all wrong. We should be humbling ourselves, not in a fake way that is really just a ploy to get people to correct us and so give us the honour we already know is due us, but we should honestly "Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves" (Philippians 2:3).

What does this have to do with the question, 'would I be willing to do this'? Well, Jesus is telling His followers to humble themselves, which most would consider a difficult way to live. Would He be willing to do it Himself or is He asking us to do something He wouldn't be willing to do? We find our answer just a couple of verses later in Philippians 2: "Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross" (vv. 6-8).

As in so many other things, Jesus is our model when it comes to humbling ourselves. Think of all the honour that is due Him as the Son of God. Then think of how He came into our world, born in a stable rather than the grand palace He deserved. Think of His life as the son of common people, trained as a carpenter like His earthly father and then ministering to the masses with "no place even to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). He never sought special treatment or special honours.

Jesus' whole life is an amazing example of humility, capped by the ultimate example when He allowed Himself to be crucified so that He could save us. We have ample proof that He was willing to humble Himself just as He teaches us to do. Now it's up to us to follow His example.

Blogging Anniversary Sale

I can't believe it's my 6 year blogging anniversary! Where does the time go?? Since I don't think anyone was following me way back then, here are the posts from my first month of blogging, complete with my beginner free motion quilting progress. Note that the hexagon quilt in one of the posts is basted, but not yet quilted, lol. Maybe I should try to get that finished.

It has been an amazing 6 years, thanks to your comments and friendship 😊 Thank you for reading my thoughts and for being so enthusiastic about the (many) things I've made over years. Your support and encouragement have meant so much to me! And, of course, the inspiration from reading your blog posts and seeing your pictures on IG is one of the reasons my to-make list is several miles long.

To celebrate, I'm having a Blogging Anniversary Sale, with all of my patterns 25% off from now through March 6th with the coupon code 6YEARS.

Shop the sale now!

Here's to the next 6 years! I hope we get to keep making things and sharing them together 😊