Hearts and Sparrows and a UFO or two

July is passing too quickly!

I'm hoping to put the Heart blocks together along with completing this month's UFO's for Judy's UFO Challenge. My #2's are the top of the Victory Quilt (for which I have all the blocks done!), and quilting for Somerset (a Jo Morton pattern).

I've decided to name the Heart quilt, "Sam's Darlin' Hearts." :-)  Mostly because all the blocks are sweet and because they make me cry like Charlene Darlin' on Andy Griffith! :-D

The latest addition to the collection of blocks in memory of Sam comes from Barb at Fun with Barb.

Somerset (I "tweaked" Jo's pattern
by putting the blocks on point)

Barb pieced the background of her block from scraps of her Mother's Garden quilt.  She designed the beautiful memory quilt, completed the top last year, and she is hand quilting it.  It's a stunning tribute to her mom, and you can read about it here: Good Mourning. 

Her card said, "...I have only scraps left over from my 'Mother's Garden' quilt and very much wanted to use it for you.  I have one of my sparrows flying in with a double dose of Friendship and Love."

Quilt-in-a-Day's Victory Quilt blocks

The sparrow....well, that's another beautiful story.  Barb wrote about it in  The Sparrow Story and you'll be blessed as I was to note it's symbolism. 

I had to look up the lyrics to the song by Simon and Garfunkel that Barb referenced (it'd been a long, long time since I'd heard it!).  The last verse says this....

Who will love a little Sparrow?

Will no one write her eulogy?

"I will," said the Earth,

"For all I've created returns unto me,

From dust were ye made and dust ye shall be."

The little sparrow is a perfect addition to the quilt!

I've started planning the setting for the blocks...

I'm gonna use Sam's favorite blue to frame the lighter blocks, and a creamy delicate floral to frame the darker ones.  I've not arranged them yet in their final layout (there are a couple of blocks still coming, I think!), but I love shifting them around, standing back and listening as they sing to me. 

They are an orchestra of color, and the sum total of them more amazing than any single block.  And each has a story or a card or an encouraging word to go with it.  I'm making a page to tell their story (see above, Sam's Quilts) and the story of the quilts that will be made in his memory.

Barb references Psalm 84 --
³ Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.  ⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

She couldn't know that one of my "life verses" is Psalm 84:11:  For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD will give grace and glory;  no good thing will He withhold  from those who walk uprightly. 

Coincidence? Maybe, but I prefer to think that even in these little details God is being Himself and watching out for His little sparrows!

I think God is all about the details...

See what He says (another passage with sparrows...):

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Matthew 10: 29-31

You are more precious than many sparrows!!!   Don't that'n just make you wanna cry!!??  :-)

Blessings!