Discounted

 Devotion for the Week...

There have been so many thought provoking and moving social media posts and graphics since Kamala Harris became the VP-elect of the US. One, which I can't find now, had thumbnail headshots of all the former VPs, with a full body picture of Harris on the right side. Three of the former VPs were circled in different colours and the caption at the bottom said "Until the red circle, she would have been a slave girl. Until the blue circle, she couldn't vote. Until the green circle, she would have attended a segregated school." For all of those years, she would have been discounted immediately, and not only from discussions of who could be vice president.

Discount, in this sense, means "regard (a possibility, fact, or person) as being unworthy of consideration because it lacks credibility," according to Oxford Languages. It's dismissing a person without giving any thought to their abilities or intelligence, because obviously there can't be any of either because they are ____. You can fill in the blank with any number of possibilities that people use as an excuse to dismiss others, whether it's their skin colour, their gender, their age or their education.

Discounting people is nothing new. I stumbled upon an example of it in the Bible this past week. In 1 Samuel 16 we read, "Now the Lord said to Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king" (v. 1). Samuel did as God commanded and had Jesse bring his sons to him, but when Samuel considered each of Jesse's boys, God said he was not the one He had chosen (vv. 6-10). Can you imagine Samuel's confusion as he looks at Jesse's sons standing in front of him, all of whom God has rejected...after God told him specifically that He had chosen one of Jesse's sons?

Then Samuel turns to Jesse. I picture Samuel with his brows drawn together and his head cocked to the side, his face the very picture of "I don't understand what's going on here, but..." as he said, "Are these all the sons you have?" (v. 11).

To which Jesse replied, "There is still the youngest...But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats" (v. 11). Samuel told him to send for David and when he arrived, God said, "This is the one; anoint him" (v. 12).

Was it his age that made Jesse discount David? Or was it not worth the bother to bring him home from where he was watching the sheep? We don't know, but for whatever reason, Jesse didn't even consider that David might have been the son God had chosen to be king.

Have you ever been discounted by someone? Maybe a teacher or a coach or even a parent didn't consider you worthy of some job or task. Or maybe someone you wanted to be friends with dismissed you without even getting to know you.

Of course, it's not only other people who discount us. Sometimes we discount ourselves, thinking, "I could never do that," whatever that might be. 

What we can learn from the story of David's anointing to be king is that God doesn't discount us. He knows what we are capable of, even when others don't think we're capable of anything. He knows who we can be, even when we're convinced we'll never be anything more than we are right now. When Jesse presented his first son, God told Samuel, "Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (v. 7). God doesn't worry about whether people think we're too young, or that a woman can't do the job or that a person of colour can't possibly be qualified. He knows that none of that outward stuff matters at all.

Background quilt is Blowing in the Wind

God sees our possibilities and counts us in for all the things we could do because of who He made us to be.

UFOvember - It's in the Bag!

How many UFOs do you have? I'm too scared to count, so we'll just say...A LOT 😄 Bobbie, of Geeky Bobbin, is hosting UFOvember to inspire us to take control of those unfinished objects and maybe even turn some of them into finished objects. Rather than counting my UFOs, I decided to tackle one of them and get it completely finished. I planned first to finish the two guitar quilts, but I really, really don't want to piece the battings for them, so I ordered batting instead and it didn't arrive in time for this challenge. I had another UFO on my list of 2020 goals, though, so I pulled that out to finish.

I started my Quilter's Planner Bag in the summer of 2018, when the pattern designed by Amy Barickman was in the Quilter's Planner magazine. To really personalize it, I decided to go crazy with free motion quilting on the front and back panels. I got the front one finished pretty quickly, but then the back got set aside so I could work on something with a deadline and then it just never got picked up again. I'd see it sitting in my cupboard now and then, but there was always something else to work on, until Bobbie's challenge gave me a deadline for finishing the bag. It's amazing how motivating a deadline can be!

The outside of the bag is my favourite Northcott blue solid and I quilted it with Aurifil 4140. Luckily I had a partial spool of it, so I didn't have to change colours since nowhere local to me carries Aurifil and I wouldn't have had time to order it once I decided this would be the UFO I'd finish. I used Hobb's Thermore batting. It's super thin, so it didn't add much to the bag, but it did give it some structure and added definition to the quilting.

The front of the bag is done with flow quilting, using some of my favourite motifs, shown above. I thought about doing the same for the back, but wanted to try something different, so I divided the panel into sections. Then I quilted each section with a different motif. 

I realized partway through quilting the third section that the front panel and the first two sections of the back were quilted on my Kenmore machine, before I bought the Janome 6700 I'm using now. That means I have two projects that were partly quilted on both machines - this one and my Multiplication quilt, which I was working on when I bought the Janome.

For the sides, the bottom and the strap, I put all the pieces side by side on a piece of the Thermore and quilted them with quick back and forth lines.

I used a grey and blue Moda Grunge fabric for the lining. The lining has interfacing on the back, to give the bag more structure. I didn't have any interfacing, except the dozens of orange peel shapes I cut out back when I made my Divided quilt. I had thought I'd use the interfacing method to make the orange peels, until I realized that the white interfacing would show at the edges. Since the fabrics for the orange peels were all dark, I really didn't want that. I didn't want to throw out the interfacing, either, so it has been sitting ever since, just waiting to be used. I've used a few pieces for other projects, but this was definitely the most I used all at once. Thanks to the combination of Thermore batting and the interfacing, the bag feels nice and sturdy.

It has pockets, too! There's a large pocket and a small one.

Thanks, Bobbie, for the push to get this UFO moved into the finished category 😊 It's so much easier to use now than it was when it was stuck in a cupboard in pieces!

There's plenty of other inspiration coming all month long. Check out what these quilters are doing about their UFO situations:

November 1 - Bobbie Gentili - http://geekybobbin.com

November 2 - Becca Fenstermaker - https://prettypiney.com/blog

November 3 - Joanne Kerton - https://canuckquilter.com

November 4 - Sue Griffiths - https://www.duckcreekmountainquilting.com

November 5 - Ashli Montgomery - http://www.meandcoach.com

November 6 - Anne Boundy - https://saidwithlove.com.au

November 7 - Sarah Ruiz - http://sarahruiz.com

November 8 - Teresa Weaver - https://yoursewingfriend.com/blogs/sewing-friend-news

November 9 - Karen Brown - https://www.justgetitdonequilts.com/blog

November 10 - Bobbi Bridgeman - https://snowydaysquilting.com

November 11 - Raylee Bielenberg - http://www.sunflowerstitcheries.com

November 12 - Althea Gyde - https://www.blueheronquilting.shop/blog

November 13 - Kenzy Hogan - http://sewingcorals.blogspot.com

November 14 - Leanne Parsons - https://www.devotedquilter.com

November 15 - Jessica Caldwell - https://www.desertbloomquilting.com

November 16 - Laureen Smith - http://www.tourmalinethymequilts.com

November 17 - Karen Kehl - https://betterdonequilts.com/blog

November 18 - Stacey H - http://twoterriersstudio.net

November 19 - Cinzia White - https://cinziawhite.com

November 20 - Laura Piland - https://www.sliceofpiquilts.com

November 21 - Rachel M - http://thebarefootcrafter.com

November 22 - Kathryn LeBlanc - http://www.dragonflysquiltshop.com

November 23 - Judit Hajdu - http://www.quiltfox-design.com

November 24 - Lyra McCabe - https://quiltingmccabe.wordpress.com/

November 25 - Jill Therriault - https://stitchinginheels.blogspot.com

November 26 - Cristina De Miranda - http://shipsandviolins.com

November 27 - Kate Starcher - http://katiemaequilts.com/blog

November 28 - Valerie Prideaux - https://www.cozyfunkycool.com/

November 29 - Kim Mastromartino - https://www.schooloflinedesign.com

November 30 - Natalia Knowlton - http://NerdyQuiltersBlog.blogspot.com

DIY Pressing Board Tutorial

I taught my Paper Piecing with Freezer Paper workshop on Saturday with the Common Thread quilt guild in Ottawa, Ontario. It's so much fun to teach online from my living room! I've wanted to teach for years, but traveling isn't a great option for me because it takes so long to get anywhere from Newfoundland, plus I work a day job that makes it hard to travel often. But teaching from home is totally doable!

The morning of the workshop, I decided to make myself a pressing board to use so I wouldn't have to keep swinging the camera from the ironing board to my cutting mat. I could put the pressing board on top of the cutting mat when I needed it, then take it away when it was time to cut. I'm happy to say it worked really well 😊 

I'm even happier to say, I remembered to take pictures as I made my pressing board so I could share a tutorial!

To make a pressing board, you'll need:

• a board of some sort. I used an old cupboard door that was already cut into a 15 ½" square. It's about 1" thick, but you could certainly use something a bit thinner. The board can be whatever size you want, just make sure it's big enough for you to comfortably press your pieces on.
• a staple gun with staples. Make sure your staples are not longer than your board is thick. You don't want the ends of the staples to poke through the front of the pressing board.
• 100% cotton fabric for the top layer of the pressing board. This is what you will see, so choose something you will love looking at! Since I was planning to use mine for online teaching, I chose a solid grey so the pressing surface won't be distracting. 
• two layers of 100% cotton batting
• scissors for cutting the fabric and batting to size

Start by laying your fabric out wrong side up and placing your board centered on top of the fabric. Cut all around, leaving at least 2" on all sides. As you can see, I just rough cut this with the scissors. It doesn't need to look pretty.

Cut the two layers of batting a little bigger than the board all around, but smaller than the fabric. You want to be sure the batting will wrap around to the back of the board. I was using batting scraps and one was a little smaller than the other, though still big enough to just wrap around to the back, so I put that one on top. That way it will be inside the larger piece when they're wrapped around. 

One at a time, wrap the corners of the batting to the back and staple it down. You want to pull it nice and tight so the top of the pressing board will be smooth.

Next, wrap one side around and staple in the center, then near each end. Repeat with the opposite side, pulling the batting nice and tight again.

Repeat with the remaining two sides.

Now it's time to wrap the fabric around. I folded the raw edge under as I worked so the fabric wouldn't fray over time. Wrap and staple two opposite sides.

On the third side, staple the center first.

To do the corners, I folded in the excess fabric towards the middle, then wrapped up the side and stapled. I was trying to get it as neat looking as possible. If you look closely, you can see that my staples weren't quite sunk all the way into my board (maybe the board was too dense?). After the workshop was over, I had my husband hammer them down all the way.

Repeat with the other corner on the third side, then do the fourth side the same way. And that's all there is to it 😊 Enjoy your new pressing board!

I'm looking forward to using mine again when I teach the freezer paper workshop next at the end of the month with Watergirl Quilt Co 😊 There are still a couple of spots left for that workshop, if you're interested. You can register here.

Be sure to pin this image so you can find it later!