True North Bee Blocks for September

I've joined my first monthly block bee and I'm very excited about it! It's the True North Bee and it's made up entirely of Canadian quilters. The blocks have to be free patterns or tutorials so members don't have to buy any patterns. While we can request the colours we want, we can't ask for specific fabrics, again so no one has to buy anything to participate in the bee. The only exception that was made was for something like Kona white, which (the rules state) most people would already have.

The queen for September is Rhonda, @quiltnutcreations on IG, and she asked for these maple leaf blocks in fall colours - moss/olive greens, rusty oranges/red and mustard/goldy yellows - with Kona white for the background. Unfortunately, I'm one of those rare people who don't have Kona white. I do have some Kona solids, but no white, and my local shops all carry the Northcott solids, so I'm not able to easily get it. Fortunately, I do have plenty of the Northcott white, which is a white white, like the Kona white, so I'm hoping that works well enough. It doesn't show up as white in the pictures because it was a dark, gloomy day when I took the pictures, but it really is white.

I chose this Island Batik green with rust/orange throughout for one of the leaves. I really love this fabric, with its leafy print and the variation in the greens and oranges.

This mustardy orange is from Northcott. It is a great mottled print, which certainly reminds me of fall leaves.

My blocks are in the mail now and I'm really looking forward to seeing Rhonda's quilt come together. The blocks I've seen from the other bee members have all been beautiful, too.

My month will be November and I'm working on a fun, scrappy block. I'll have a tutorial for it near the end of October, so keep an eye out for that 😊

Have you ever been a part of a monthly block bee? Did you finish the quilt made from the blocks made by your fellow members?

Steeped

Devotion for the Week...

I love tea. While I will occasionally drink an herbal tea, my preference is for a good, strong black tea with a splash of milk. Since I like it strong, I tend to boil the kettle, pour the water into the mug with the teabag and then go do something else for a few minutes while I wait for it to be ready. More than once, though, I've gotten distracted while the tea was steeping and forgot about it until it was cold, so now I usually set a timer so that doesn't happen.

Unfortunately, my body is really sensitive to caffeine and drinking even just one tea a day on a regular basis will make me have heart palpitations, which aren't fun. A few years ago, I switched to drinking decaf most of the time, but it was hard to find a good decaf tea. Most of them were weak and disappointing no matter how long I let it steep. When Mom told me they had found a brand of decaf that actually tasted like proper tea I immediately made that my new favourite tea 😊

I don't have a clue what the difference is between the weak, disappointing brands of decaf tea and the good, strong one that I enjoy every day. I do know that there was nothing I could do to make the weak ones taste like regular tea. Even using two teabags at once didn't produce a good cup of tea. Starting with a good teabag makes all the difference.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul told them to "be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power" (Ephesians 6:10). This verse is written as part of Paul's exhortation to the believers to stand firm against the attacks of the enemy, telling them to "put on the full armor of God" (v. 11), which includes the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit" (vv. 14-16) Read the full passage here.

It's important to note that the full armor is from God. We don't need to create, find, buy or otherwise acquire our own armor. God has created the armor and He gives it to us freely. We simply have to put it on.

Isn't it wonderful to know we don't have to stand strong on our own? It's like the difference between the weak, disappointing tea and the good, strong one, only even more pronounced. On my own I am not strong at all, but in God's strength I can do anything. Philippians 4:13 says it plainly: "For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength." I want that kind of strength in my life!

So how do we be strong in the Lord? Well, to put on the belt of truth, we must be familiar with the truth, which is found in our Bibles. To put on the breastplate of righteousness, we must have trusted Jesus as our Savior because only He is righteous and it is His righteousness we put on, not our own. Do you see where I'm going with this? To be strong, to put on the armor He provides, we need to know God. It's not that we need to know of God, but that we need to know Him personally as our Savior and friend.

The most amazing and wonderful thing is, the more we know God, the more we have that relationship steeped into our lives, the stronger we will be.

How do you steep God into your life?

Pinwheel Garden in Make Modern

It's new issue day for Make Modern magazine and I have a quilt in the new issue! Get your copy of issue 30 here. Use the code "BIRTHDAY30" to get the issue for $6 AUD by September 15.

Meet Pinwheel Garden, a fun, scrap-busting, quilt 😊

I had so much fun raiding my scrap bag for this quilt. No, it didn't really make a dent in the scrap bag, but does anything ever make a dent in the scrap bag?? I love scrappy quilts because they have bits and pieces from so many other projects and I love remembering the other things I've made. They're also great because I hate throwing even small pieces away, like these teeny little squares at the center of the pinwheels.

I used Northcott solids for the background and the blue pinwheels. In fact, I knew I'd be using the blue for the pinwheels and the backing of this quilt and at least one other I had planned (my Blue Sparkler) so I bought the full bolt. It was my first time buying a full bolt and I have to say it's wonderfully convenient to have it stashed away when I want to use it for a backing.

I quilted Pinwheel Garden with an all over swirly flower using Aurifil 4140 (I can't find an Amazon link for a single spool of 4140, but this collection that includes it would be lovely to have.) After I started quilting I realized I didn't have enough of the 4140 to finish the whole quilt. Oh, and did I mention I was on a deadline and there was no way thread ordered from anywhere would reach me in time? No next day delivery happening in this neck of the woods. I tried using a different colour in the bobbin to extend the amount of thread I had, but even that wasn't going to be enough. I was seriously kicking myself for choosing that colour at this point!

This was right at the beginning of the summer and we were planning a short trip to another part of the province. As I was quilting one day I realized that we would be (sort of) passing the one shop here in Newfoundland that I know of that carries Aurifil. Sort of because it would mean a detour of about 30 minutes added onto a drive that was already close to 6 hours, but that definitely seemed worth it to me. It's just a small shop, though, so what were the chances she'd have the colour I wanted in stock? Well, I quickly sent her a message and a little while later she responded to say that yes, she did have that colour! So, on our way home we took that detour to get to Blazin' Stitches where Krista saved my quilt 😊

The flowers were quick and so relaxing to quilt because they didn't have to be perfect to look good. It was also easy to quilt them bigger or smaller, depending on the space I had to fill. Considering I have a habit of quilting myself into corners when doing all-over designs, that's a very helpful trait for a design to have.

I eliminated elements of the block for the outer blocks, creating something like a faux border. This is the third quilt I've designed where the blocks create a different look in the border and I really like the effect. Love Birds was the first one I designed, then Mix It Up! Both of them use changes in colour to create the look of a border (both use black, actually). I think there will be more like these in the future. It's a fun look!

September is Make Modern's birthday month and they're celebrating 5 years! Five years already?! That's crazy! As part of the celebration, they're having a competition where you make any project from any issue of the magazine and you have the chance to win some great prizes. There have been quite a few Devoted Quilter patterns in the magazine since my first publication back in 2015 (just sayin' 😉).

Also as part of the celebration, for the month of September, every new All-Access subscriber will get a free Make Modern enamel pin mailed to them. The All-Access subscription is exactly what it sounds like - it gives you access to all 29 of Make Modern's previous issues along with a 12 month subscription going forward.

If you're not interested in the All-Access subscription, and just want this issue, click here to get a copy.

I love working with the team at Make Modern and I'm honoured that they have chosen to include my designs in their magazine so many times. I actually just submitted everything for another design for the next issue, which was my most recent bit of secret sewing, lol. I'll be sharing that in a couple of months.

Do you have scraps just begging to be used to make some pretty little flowers? Pick up issue 30 and get started 😊 Don't forget to use the code "BIRTHDAY30" to get the issue for $6 AUD by September 15.


I'll be linking up with NTT, TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Beauties Pageant.