Stash Artists Doors Are Open!

Would you call yourself an artist? Maybe you wouldn't, but I think you are - you're a stash artist, using your fabric and thread to make the world more beautiful, one quilt at a time. The Stash Artists membership is for Stash Artists (like you!) who want stash-friendly and scrap-friendly patterns, along with a community of quilty friends.

The membership doors are open now for new members, but only until the end of the day, Monday, June 17th. 

Join Stash Artists now!

Here's what is included in the Stash Artists membership:

• 6 new patterns per year, released every other month
• 6 virtual Sew Together Sessions, in alternate months to the pattern releases
• a Block of the Month pattern - we're starting a new, Christmas themed, one in August!
• the Reverberate baby quilt pattern
• an ever-growing library of video tutorials
• monthly devotions
• discounts on patterns, workshops, and QALs outside the membership

Patterns

The patterns and the Sew Together Sessions are the backbone of Stash Artists. All new members can download the Reverberate baby quilt pattern as soon as they login to the Stash Artists membership site.

Here's a look at some of the patterns that have previously been released to Stash Artists members, to give you an idea what to expect.

Scraps Take Flight

Grateful

Blooming Beautiful

As you can see, Stash Artists patterns are designed to allow you to shop your stash and your scraps, often with a single background to unify the scrappiness. If this kind of pattern makes you want to run straight to your sewing machine to get started, you'll love being a Stash Artists member 😊

Video Tutorials

There's a growing library of video tutorials inside the Stash Artists membership site, including:

• How to sew Drunkard's Path blocks
• How to do crumb piecing
• Colouring quilt blocks with crayons
• and more!

Devotions

Each month I also add a new devotion to the membership, just like the devotions I share here on the blog each week. Lately I've been sharing a series on the Proverbs 31 woman. When new members join, they have access to all the devotions previously shared, so you can easily go back and get caught up on the series.

If you want stash-friendly patterns, a community to sew with, monthly devotions, and more, I hope you'll join us inside the Stash Artists membership. 

Yes, I want to join Stash Artists!

Ruth - Part 2

Devotion for the week...

Today I'm sharing the second in a two-part look at Ruth that was first shared as part of the 2023 Women of Wisdom QAL. Ruth has a four-chapter book named after her in the Bible, so I’ll have to do a lot of summarizing, even though we’re not going to be following all of her story. If you do want to read the whole story for yourself, you can do that here. You can also read part one of this devotion here.

When we left her last week, Ruth was heading off to find a barley field where she could follow behind the harvesters and gather the bits of barley they left behind. God had made provision for the poor and the foreigner living among the Israelites, by commanding that the harvesters would always leave some behind to be gathered by those who had no other means of supporting themselves. Ruth, who was a poor foreigner, “found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz, the relative of her father-in-law, Elimelech” (Ruth 2:3).

As a foreign woman, Ruth probably stood out among those who were working the field, and she was noticed by Boaz, the owner of the field, when he came to see how the harvest was going. "Boaz asked his foreman, “Who is that young woman over there? Who does she belong to?” (v. 5). The foreman not only knew who Boaz meant, but he knew what Ruth had been doing all day. "She is the young woman from Moab who came back with Naomi. She asked me this morning if she could gather grain behind the harvesters. She has been hard at work ever since, except for a few minutes’ rest in the shelter.” (vv. 6-7) The overseer had noticed that Ruth was working hard, spending hours in the field with only a short break and, since he mentioned it to Boaz, I take it he was impressed by her work ethic. Notice, too, that the foreman said she was the young woman who arrived in town with Naomi. I imagine they were the talk of the town, especially this young Moabite woman who showed such devotion to her mother-in-law.

But Ruth wasn't trying to be noticed. She didn't leave Moab with Naomi to be noticed. She did what she thought was right. She wasn't gleaning in the field in an attempt to be noticed. She just did what needed to be done to get food for their table. She probably didn't think she was doing anything special, or doing anything that others wouldn't also be doing if they were in her place.

The fact of the matter is, we are all being noticed by someone. It’s human nature to watch the people around us, to see how they go about their daily lives. Seven or eight years ago, I started babysitting a little boy from a family I hadn't met before I started babysitting him. One day I went to the grocery store and the cashier told me the boy's grandmother had asked her if she knew me, because the grandmother didn't and wondered what sort of person I was. I had never before thought about my grocery shopping being something that people would observe, but it is. Because we live in a small town, this cashier has been seeing me for years, popping into the store with my own boys or some of the other kids I've looked after, chatting with her, keeping the kids from demolishing the store displays and that sort of thing. She could assure this grandmother that the kids in my care are happy with me and that, in her words, "you have no worries with Leanne." That report brightened my day, but I wasn't doing anything while in the store to try to be noticed as a competent caregiver. I was just doing my usual thing.

All of which begs one simple question: for what are we noticed? Jesus told His followers, "You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father." (Matthew 5:14-16). 

Whenever I have heard or read this verse I have heard 'good deeds' and imagined it meaning those things we do specifically to be nice to others, but the word translated as 'deeds', ergon, actually means "anything done or to be done; a deed, work, action."

Maybe Jesus wasn't only referring to special kindnesses, but to all the good things we do in the run of our daily lives. All the things that get noticed by others and make them see us in a positive light will bring glory to God. All the things that get noticed in a negative way will not.

As we go about our daily lives, just doing what needs to be done, how do people see us? I'm not suggesting we should put on an act when we're out in public, trying to fool people into thinking we're something we're not (remember Sapphira?). But rather, do our actions and our attitude line up with what we say we believe? Are we exhibiting the fruit of the spirit? "The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). Like Ruth, are we noticed for those things?

And if we aren't being noticed for these things, is that a problem?

Ruth - Part 1

Devotion for the week...

Today I'm sharing the first in a two-part look at Ruth that was first shared as part of the 2023 Women of Wisdom QAL. Ruth has a four-chapter book named after her in the Bible, so I’ll have to do a lot of summarizing, even though we’re not going to be following all of her story. If you do want to read the whole story for yourself, you can do that here. 

At the beginning of the book of Ruth, we’re told that a man named Elimelech moved his wife, Naomi, and their two sons from Bethlehem to Moab because of a famine. In Moab, Elimelech died and his two sons married local women named Ruth and Orpah. Then the sons died as well, leaving Naomi, Ruth and Orpah alone. Naomi got word that the famine in Bethlehem had ended, so she decided to go back home, but she urged Ruth and Orpah to return to their own families so they could find new husbands. Orpah did as Naomi suggested, but Ruth refused to leave her mother-in-law and so "they arrived in Bethlehem in late spring, at the beginning of the barley harvest" (Ruth 1:22).

With all that Ruth and Naomi had been through, it would have been understandable if they just sat and licked their wounds for a while at this point, which is what it seems like Naomi actually does. Upon their arrival, she told the women of Bethlehem, "Don’t call me Naomi…Instead, call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me home empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has caused me to suffer and the Almighty has sent such tragedy upon me?" (v. 20-21). Mara means 'bitter' and Naomi sounds more than a little bitter here! 

Two women alone, without husbands, fathers or sons, were at a severe disadvantage back then, with few resources and few options for making a living. But Ruth didn’t let that stop her, nor did she let herself wallow in her grief or succumb to bitterness like Naomi. Instead, she got to work.

God had commanded the Israelites, "When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 19:9-10). Since the barley harvest was just beginning, Ruth "said to Naomi, 'Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it'" (Ruth 2: 2). Naomi agreed, so Ruth got ready and went to find a field to work in.

I’m going to stop there with the story for today, because it’s Ruth’s ability to move on that impresses me most. She and Naomi had both lost everything except each other, but Ruth didn’t join Naomi, wallowing in bitterness. Instead, she took stock of their situation and their options and got started on what she could do to make their lives better. Starting with their most pressing need, she made a plan to get them some food, so they wouldn’t have to rely on charity. This complete change in her life circumstances forced her to find a new way to provide for herself and her mother-in-law, and she rose to the occasion beautifully.

When life changes drastically, it can be hard to find our way forward. If everything is different, what comes next? If we find ourselves in new and unexpected circumstances, we can let Ruth be our inspiration and just get started by finding a way to take care of one need. Getting started is often the hardest part, but once we’re started, that forward motion will carry us through to the next thing.

Read part two of this series on Ruth here.