Time to Work

 Devotion for the Week...

Even though I've been reading the Bible for years, I am still amazed when a particular sentence (that I've probably read dozens of times before) leaps out at me and just grabs my attention. It happened again this week with a portion of a verse in 1 Thessalonians. The full verse reads, "Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone" (1 Thessalonians 5:14).

In this verse Paul is giving four tasks to believers - warn, encourage, take care and be patient. It was the first task that stopped me that morning as I was reading. Warn those who are lazy. My first thought was, "God really wants to emphasize that we're supposed to be working!"

Nowhere in the Bible does God encourage laziness or the shirking of our portion of the work that needs to be done. He encourages balance and rest, absolutely, but the overarching message is that if it's not a time of rest, then we should be getting our work done. Here are just a few verses as examples:

"But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber" (Proverbs 6:9-11).

"A hard worker has plenty of food, but a person who chases fantasies has no sense" (Proverbs 12:11).

"How joyful are those who fear the Lord—all who follow his ways! You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How joyful and prosperous you will be!" (Psalm 128:2).

"A lazy person is as bad as someone who destroys things" (Proverbs 18:9).

"Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others" (1 Thessalonians 4:11, 12).

Why is Paul telling believers to warn those who are lazy? Warn them about what, exactly? Maybe he was thinking of what he would write to the Thessalonians in a later letter: "Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat'" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). It doesn't get much simpler than that! I remember quoting that particular verse to my boys when they were young and complaining about some chore they were given. It's a great reminder that we all have a role to play in the work that needs to be done and that we can't expect everyone else to do the work while we just reap the rewards.

Background quilt is Intersections

God values the work we do, no matter what that work may be. Our contributions to the running of our homes, our places of employment, our communities and causes we believe in, all of that work is needed so we might as well get to it.

And, of course, that way we all get to eat, too 😊

Bloom Block- It's a Garden Party Row Along

Welcome to my stop on the It's a Garden Party Row Along! I'm excited to share my Bloom block with you today 😊 Before I do, I have to say a big thank you to Marian Pena, of Seams to be Sew, for all the work she put into organizing this row along.

After I decided to sign up to participate in the row along, I realized I had no idea what kind of block I wanted to do. I've been doing that a lot lately, signing up for things and then figuring out my block or whatever after. I knew I didn't want to design a garden scene or a collection of flowers. Not because I don't like those kinds of rows or blocks (so many of them are beautiful!), but because it didn't appeal to me as a design project. What kept coming to mind was the art of Georgia O'Keefe, except I didn't have any real idea what her art looks like, just the notion that it involved extreme close-ups of flowers. After googling her art, I didn't see any way to translate her style into a quilt, but I still loved the idea of an extreme close-up of a flower.

I also had to take into account the various sizes of rows or blocks that were required for the row along. I knew a block would be better than a row, for what I was thinking, so I decided to make a 30" block. Then I decided to put the flower in the corner, rather than the center, and that's how Bloom was designed 😊

Northcott Fabrics generously sponsors the row along, providing each of the designers with up to 1 yard of fabric. I chose this gorgeous, marbled blue to use for the background of my block.

Then I picked out a selection of orange Island Batik fabrics to use for the flower petals. I love oranges/yellows with blue (as evidenced in my Burst mini quilt). I opted for raw-edge machine applique, using a glue stick to hold the pieces in place. It's my favourite applique technique. I love that it's quick and simple, plus it looks great and doesn't add any extra stiffness to the quilt.

When I had the petals glued in place, Zachary looked at it and asked if I was making a turkey! I can see why he would have thought that! I guess I should ask him if it looks more like a flower with the solid yellow (from Northcott, too, I think) there for the flower center.

You can choose to stitch around the shapes with a matching thread, or go with a contrasting thread to create a totally different look. This time I chose to use matching thread, Aurifil 50 wt in 2390 for the flower petals and 1135 for the flower center. Zig zag stitching around applique shapes is so quick and it makes the pieces look so much more polished. It's also very forgiving - if you move a smidge to one side or the other, it still looks good.

The It's a Garden Party Row Along will be continuing through October 8th, with blocks and rows being shared on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. With the different sizes of rows and blocks being shared, you'll be able to create a garden quilt that is unique to you. There are also prizes to be won! You can enter my giveaway by scrolling down a bit farther 😊

First, though, here's the full schedule for the row along:

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Blue Heron Quilting
Carolyn Butterfield
Made By Marney
Pumpkin Patch BC
The Devoted Quilter

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Bobbin In Quilts Blog
Kissed Quilts
Patchwork Breeze
Songbird Designs/Brenda's Blog
Stitchin’ at Home

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Daughters of Dorinda
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Just Let Me Quilt
Lovingly Lissa
The Quilt Rambler

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Fabric Bash/Carpe Blogum
For the Love of Geese
Kathleen McMusing
Ms P Designs USA
QuilterChic

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design
Patti’s Patchwork
Quilt Schmilt
Scrapdash
Your Sewing Friend

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Charisma’s Corner
Clever Chameleon
Dragonfly's Quilting Design Studio
Kathy's Kwilts and More
Mountain Meadow Designs

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Cynthia’s Creating Ark
Miss Loreen's Schoolhouse
Moose Stash Quilting
Tuning My Heart Quilts
Cheryl LaPlante

Thursday, October 01, 2020

Barbara Dieges
Linda B Creative
Orange Blossom Quilt Design Studio
Sunflower Stitcheries and Quilting
Ursa Minor

Tuesday, October 06, 2020

Bumbleberry Stitches
Charlie's Daughter
Seams To Be Sew
The Quilting Room with Mel
Words & Stitches

Thursday, October 08, 2020

Duck Creek Mountain Quilting
Lynn's Beauty
Quilt Art
Renee's Quilting Addiction
Sew Incredibly Crazy

And now for the giveaway! Everyone likes prizes, right? Use the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win a $20 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop 😊 This giveaway will close on September 15th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Electric Quilt is also offering 20% off all products except for EQ Academy during the row along. Use the coupon code GARDENPARTY20 to save. I do all my quilt designing using EQ8, so I can highly recommend the program, if you're interested in designing your own quilts.

Don't forget to download your free Bloom block pattern. I'd also love it if you pinned this image, to help other quilters find the pattern, too. Thanks and happy garden quilting!

There's Always Someone

 Devotion for the Week...

My devotion writing summer break is over and I'm back today with my first new devotion in a while 😊 I may have had to remind myself multiple times this past week not to forget to actually type this up, lol.

I've been reading the Old Testament the past few months. I have to admit that I really struggle while reading the books in which the Israelites are taking possession of the Promised Land, because it means they're waging war against the people who were already living there. I have a hard time reconciling a God of love, mercy and grace with the God who tells Joshua that they are to completely destroy the towns, killing all of the inhabitants and burning the entire town, preserving only some things for the treasury of the Lord's house, as they did with Jericho in Joshua 6. I have no answers for why that happened or why God gave the orders He did.

Regardless of my issues with the story, God did give the orders. No one was to take any plunder from the city of Jericho. There would be opportunity later to fill their coffers and take things they wanted, but Jericho was not the place for it. But, of course, someone didn't obey the orders. It was a man named Achan, who decided that it would be okay for him to keep a few things he found in the city. When Achan's sin was discovered, he said, "It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. Among the plunder I saw a beautiful robe from Babylon, 200 silver coins, and a bar of gold weighing more than a pound. I wanted them so much that I took them. They are hidden in the ground beneath my tent, with the silver buried deeper than the rest." (Joshua 7:20, 21).

There's always someone who feels they are exempt from the rules, isn't there? It doesn't seem to matter if it's a big rule or a small one, someone always feels like it doesn't really apply to them.

I am generally a rule follower, but I have to admit that there have been times I have just ignored a rule that didn't suit me. Have you ever done that? Whether it's because the rule is inconvenient or it just doesn't seem to make sense, some rules are hard (or impossible!) to follow. 

These days there are even more rules to follow, about masks and physical distance and travel and which way to walk through the stores. It's hard to keep up with them all, especially when things change as new information becomes available. It's inevitable there will be rules we disagree with or ones that we feel are silly. 

Sometimes, whether or not we obey a rule might not matter much. Like when the store is practically empty, there's no one in the aisle and I decide to dart halfway up to get the chocolate chips I need, rather than going all the way up the next aisle and back down the one I actually want to be in. Other times, the rules matter a lot - rules against stealing and murder and discrimination, for example.

Achan's sin might seem like a small thing. He just wanted some money and a nice robe, after all. But it wasn't what he kept that mattered. It wasn't even that he disobeyed Joshua, who had given the orders to the people. Rather it was that he disobeyed God, who had given the orders to Joshua to pass along to the people. Ignoring rules is not a great habit to be in, but it's an especially bad idea if the rules we're ignoring come directly from God.

Some of the rules God has given us can seem nearly impossible to follow. Rules like loving each other, forgiving each other and praying for our enemies. It can be tempting to think that we're exempt from forgiving that person who really hurt us, but we're not. Or we might like to think that we don't have to love that person who is constantly rude, but we're not exempt from that one either.

Background quilt is Level Up

Come to think of it, we're not exempt from any of God's rules. "Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3). If we love Him, we will keep His commandments.