Shining Through in Citified

Welcome to my stop on the Citified blog tour, celebrating Sherry's new signature line with Island Batik. If this is your first time here, then an extra welcome to you!

One of the fun things about being a quilt pattern designer is seeing the patterns I design made in different colours and that's what I've done with my Shining Through pattern. The original quilt has a navy background and yellow bars, so with this version I chose a light background and purples and blues for the bars. The Shining Through pattern is available in my Etsy shop.

Shining Through is a fun quilt to make. It stitches up quickly, there are only a few points to match up and the relatively large squares can really show off the fabrics. I designed it to use in a beginners quilting class, so it's perfect for beginners! See the quilts my beginning quilters made in this post.

Aren't these prints in the Citified line fabulous? I especially love that dark blue with the circles/bubbles.

We have a lot of snow right now, so my friend Jessica and I took the quilt top on a snowshoe trek through the woods last weekend. It was a wonderful way to spend part of a Sunday afternoon. It was a little windy at times, though!

A Shining Through quilt top makes a good flag!

I haven't decided yet how I want to quilt this one, so it's just sitting while I ponder the possibilities. My first one I quilted with straight lines with my walking foot, since that was what I taught the class to do. This time I'll definitely be doing free motion quilting, but the specifics are not coming together yet.

The Shining Through pattern is available as a PDF or a printed pattern (with free shipping!)

Check out all the other fun projects my follow blog hop quilters are making with the Citified line:

• March 8 – Sherry Shish of Powered By Quilting
• March 9 – Tammy Silvers of Tamarinis
• March 10 –  SKIP DAY
• March 11 – Kate Starcher of Katie Mae Quilts
• March 12 – Leanne Parsons of Devoted Quilter (that's me!)
• March 13 – Sally Williams of Paleofish Designs
• March 14 – Afton Warrick of Quilting Mod
• March 15 – Sarah Vanderburgh of Sew Joy Creations
• March 16 – Jen Strauser of Dizzy Quilter
• March 17 – Kathryn LeBlanc of Dragonfly’s Quilting Design Studio
• March 18 – Laura Piland of Slice of Pi Quilts
• March 19 – Anja Clyke of Anja Quilts
• March 20 – Sherry Shish of Powered By Quilting

Following Blindly

 Isn’t it amazing how you can almost always identify the decade a picture was taken by the hairstyle or fashion of the person in the picture? We humans do love to follow the trends, don’t we? That’s all well and good when we’re talking about the length of someone’s hair or the shape of their glasses, but not so much when we’re talking about sin.

The prophet Isaiah summed it up perfectly when he wrote, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own” (Isaiah 53:6). Sheep don’t pay attention to where they’re going, they just follow the sheep in front of them. Unfortunately, we are very much like sheep, just as Isaiah said. Even more unfortunately, the lead sheep we have all been following is Adam (and Eve – why does she not get more blame?) and they wandered far off the path they were supposed to be on. Then we, just like sheep, followed blindly after.

Thankfully, God knows all about sheep, both the actual sheep and the human ones. He knows that we need a shepherd to follow. Ezekiel wrote, “For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search and find my sheep. I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock” (Ezekiel 34:11-12). Then Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11).

We may be sheep, prone to going astray and following the wrong path, but Jesus is our shepherd. If we follow Him, we’ll be going the right way.

My 9th Blogging Anniversary (and a Sale)!

Nine years ago today I hit publish on my first blog post. It's funny how two things can be simultaneously true - it feels like just yesterday and I can hardly remember a time when I wasn't thinking about writing blog posts. I've learned so much since I published that first post! I've learned a ton of technology related skills, to start with, though I'm still grateful for my husband and brother with their superior tech knowledge so they can bail me out when I'm lost.

Starting this blog connected me to an online quilting community I didn't even know existed and I love, love, love this community! I love having quilty friends who understand the joys of finding gorgeous fabric, cutting it into small pieces and then sewing it up into something new. I also love the constant inspiration, though it does mean the list of quilts I dream of making is several miles long and grows more every day. I'll never reach the end of it, but I'm having fun trying.

Without this blog, I never would have started a quilt pattern business or started teaching workshops through Zoom. Both of them bring me so much joy and I'm so glad I get to play work at something I enjoy so much. It's hard to beat hearing quilters get excited about the new technique they're learning in a workshop or seeing pictures of a quilt someone made with one of my patterns. Please, please tag me if you share a picture of a quilt made with my pattern! It makes my day every single time!

An anniversary pattern sale has become my favourite way to celebrate (though the cupcakes I made for these pictures are pretty good, too!) 😊 From now through Monday, March 7th, save 20% off all PDF and print patterns, no coupon code needed. Free shipping still applies to print patterns, too. If you're a subscriber to The Bulletin, be sure to check your inbox for a code for an additional discount!

Shop the anniversary sale!

Thanks for being part of this online quilting community. Writing blog posts and quilt patterns wouldn't be nearly as much fun if I was hanging out here by myself!