Advance or Retreat!?

My household has taken a dramatic turn!

I've gone from just me and the boys -- easy living, really.  There's the running, but we mostly foraged for food and went to our corners of the house:  Sam with his drums, Will with his video games, and I in my sewing room!!  So from me and the boys to me and the boys and the husband (home on Sunday)and the college age daughter (home on Wednesday) all home at the same time!!

Yesterday morning I was struck the by the CROWD!!
In my little sewing room, first one boy then the other came in.  Then Emily, then Jeff....FIVE people in my sewing room. Asking me stuff.  Needing or wanting my attention. All talking at the same time.  Wanting to be fed!!

Calgon take me away!!!!

Advance or retreat?  Too late.  I already retreated BEFORE they came! LOL  I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday at a retreat center in Central KY far out in the country.  I live in the country! This was even further out in the country. And it was lovely!  The gals were such fun. Games, giveaways, stories, projects, food -- all the good stuff!

I mostly worked on one UFO -- my Thimbleberries Hometown Christmas -- and a new project, Spools, from Edyta Sitar's book, Friendship Strips and Scraps.

Autumn took some great photos of the different projects and quilts at the retreat and you can see them here.  I took photos while I was there, but hers were so much better than mine. So pop over and take a look!!

I came home from retreat on Saturday and picked Jeff up on Sunday.  Then Wednesday, we packed up Emily's dorm room at Asbury and headed south. 

It really is good to have the whole family under one roof again for the first time in over a year!

It will take a while to get back into our routine.  Jeff will return to his "real" job in a few weeks; he's an Agriculture Extension Agent for a local county through the University of KY Cooperative Extension Service.  He'll take some much needed R & R time at home, though. :-D  My sewing time may get curtailed a little! :-D

Emily is spending her summer home with the family, too.   In previous years she did summer missions work with a camp in Lafollette, TN, but this year the luxury of our family being together is one she's going to take advantage of.  Jeff says there is work enough here at home to keep her busy if she doesn't find a summer job locally.

So advance it is!
Into renovated routines.  Into postponed projects (UFO #9 - the Circuit Rider and another recently  "discovered" (that's what I get for cleaning out the closet! :-D)  UFO, Star Sprinkles from Adkinson Designs).

Into the haven of home!

I am so very, very, blessed!

Psalm 13: 5-6
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

Blessings!

No Place Like Home!

I had a wonderful week in Mississippi and points south of KY, including a daytrip to New Orleans.  Thanksgiving dinner with the Carter clan -- my friend Jennifer's extended family -- was a blessing of hospitality and fantastic food, including my personal favorite, chicken 'n' dumplin's made like my momma's!! I couldn't help but miss her -- she would have loved such a gathering of family and friends and food!

We stayed in a sweet little cabin just outside Hattiesburg, MS.  Jennifer and I managed to hit a sewing shop, a quilt shop (Kelly's Pins and Needles -- I remember the name because on the web, the listing included gunsmith service!! I didn't see any guns in the shop, though!! :-D), a Hancocks and a JoAnn's with only minor whines from the teenagers.  (It helped that the JoAnn's was close to a Guitar Center, and lunch was next on the agenda!! :-D)

Not that the teenagers needed shopping therapy....

They kept each other and us entertained.

I was very disciplined (for me!! LOL) in my fabric buying.  Kelly's shop had a nice red Thimbleberries that I got yardage of and the Simpler Time line from Holly Taylor that I got a charm pack and enough extra to make a lovely Schnibbles.  Not sure which one, yet...but something will speak to me, I'm sure! :-D

I also managed to get three Circuit Rider blocks done during quiet mornings at the cabin.  Looking out the large windows at the lake beyond provided the perfect peaceful setting for hand work.

Since getting home on Saturday, I've not managed to sew a stitch, although Step 2 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Roll, Roll Cotton Boll, was calling my name! :-)  I'll get to it sometime this week... perhaps later today.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the simple pleasure of being home -- of walking through my house and rummaging through my cabinets to find something to eat, and using the Reading Room at my leisure. :-D Of ACT prep for Sam and school work for both the boys.  Of walking in my sewing room and planning a shift in the furniture, organizing projects and getting back into the joy of accomplishing something!

The Psalmist writes, "How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You to dwell in Your courts.  We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple." (Psalm 65:8 NASB)

It is good to be home!

Blessings!

Past, Present and Future!

Tonight is another Friday Night Sew In, hosted by the lovely Heidi at Handmade by Heidi!! I'm in the midst of packing for Thanksgiving travel, and cleaning house and picking up my eldest from college today, but I'm still going to make time to sew tonight! I've been in this sewing "frenzy" all week -- so tonight is the culminating event!! Accomplish something!!

And I've got a lovely array of projects to work on.  Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue!! :-D  LOL! No wedding quilts, thank goodness!   But a bit from the past, present and future, I think.

The something "old" and "borrowed" and "blue" is a LeMoyne Star quilt that a friend passed along to me to put together.  The blocks are made from original '30's fabrics, set in soft old unbleached muslin, a classic!  The blocks for the quilt top came to me nearly complete -- I'm in the process of assembling the last of the block pieces, making some 17 additional blocks to go with the 32 complete LeMoyne Stars and the 9 "criss-cross" blocks all with the vintage fabrics!

Knowing that I'm helping preserve the handwork of some dear lady from that earlier time is inspiring! Even the set-in pieces of the LeMoyne aren't nearly as aggravating as they usually would be! :-D

If I finish with this project (and I might, since I've been working on it the last couple of days), I'll move on to the present and work on my Circuit Rider quilt blocks.

I'm prepping a couple of fleur-de-lis blocks and I'll use a paper-cutting technique to make freezer paper templates for them, and  I'll wag out my little Bernina Deco for the Bible Block since I don't particularly enjoy hand embroidery.  (Weird, huh!?) :-)

The future project I want to work on  (if by some miracle I were to actually make it that far!! LOL) is Bonnie Hunter's (Quiltville!) latest mystery, "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll!"   My fabric is picked out, and I'm excited about using up some stash.  The first mystery installment comes out today.

 

I read Bonnie's blog last night, and she shared that she'd learned of a fellow blogger who had taken her own life.  Nothing that was shared online indicated something like that was likely.  It was sad, shocking news for Bonnie.  I was thinking about that today as I chose my projects for the Friday Night Sew In....



So much of what we share on-line is authentic, real, nitty-gritty stuff.  Other times, we share what is on the surface because the hurts are too desperate for words or the situation too poignant to articulate in such a public forum.  In such circumstances, there is One who knows the real us, the one we cannot always share with the world -- or even with quilters who are among the most compassionate and giving people on earth.



It is to Him that the angels and the living creatures of Heaven sing in Revelation 4:8:

"Holy, holy, holy

is the Lord God Almighty,

who was, and is, and is to come."

Past, Present, and Future.  There's an old gospel song by Ira Stamphill that says,

I don’t know about tomorrow,

It may bring me poverty;
But the One Who feeds the sparrow,
Is the One Who stands by me.

And the path that be my portion,

May be through the flame or flood,

But His presence goes before me,

And I’m covered with His blood.

Many things about tomorrow,

I don’t seem to understand;

But I know Who holds tomorrow,

And I know Who holds my hand.

I need to learn to trust the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come with all of me -- my past, my present and my future, my quilts and hurts and all that I can and do share online -- and all that I cannot.

As you read posts today, say a prayer for those who write and those who read.  Lift them up to the One Who holds tomorrow and the One Who holds our hands. Remember them as you sew tonight with quilters all over the world during the Friday Night Sew In!

Blessings!

Another one bites the dust...

The fifth one done!!
I'd planned to get "five in a row" quilt tops completed by the end of the first week of November.  I'm only a little behind that goal.  The three tops for a family who lost a mom to breast cancer will be delivered for quilting on Saturday.  The Sun Bonnett Sue is awaiting its owner's pick-up.

And late Sunday night (well, actually, early Monday morning! :-D)  I finished the t-shirt quilt!! YAAAAYYY! LOL

Finishing feels so good, doesn't it!?

I've got more in the works to be completed.  I'm super busy, so many things to do this week as I get ready to travel to Hattiesburg, MS for Thanksgiving (how cool is that! I and my 3 children are crashing my friend Jennifer's family reunion with about 150 people and some of the best southern cooks in the world!!).  I've got house cleaning, and homeschooling, and bookkeeping work to do. Yet, I'm also in some kind of sewing frenzy.  (I promise I'm not on any kind of stimulant except Pepsi and truvia-sweetened tea!!!!!)

Rack 'em, stack em' and pack 'em!  Head 'em in, and move 'em out!!

Another one bites the dust!!

Isn't that an interesting phrase?  I "googled" it ("Google is the source of all wisdom," I say with tongue in cheek.).  Here's what I found at UCLA's Daily Bruin:

Strangely enough, “bite the dust” has been around since the King James Bible was published in 1611. According to the Bible, “They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the dust” (Psalms 72.9). While “lick the dust” is a variation of the phrase we know today, it still contains the similar meaning of falling to the ground in defeat.

One of the first uses of the phrase as we know it today was in Tobias Smollett’s translated version of “The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane,” published in 1748, as it appeared in a quote: “We made the two of them bite the dust, and the others prepare themselves to fight.”

But one of the more familiar associations is with Samuel Butler’s translation of Homer’s “The Iliad,” as Butler uses “bite the dust” to describe the death of Roman soldiers in battle. Probably the most recent uses of the phrase (not counting the Queen song) occur in old Western films to describe fallen cowboys.

So from the Bible to Queen, “bite the dust” has been making a reputation for itself for more than 300 years. With phrases that have histories like “bite the dust,” it is a wonder that they are still in use today.

Cool, huh?

But I prefer that first prophecy of the coming of Jesus in Genesis 3:14-15:

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."



Rosalinda Celentano as Satan in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
Mel did a great job of portraying how Jesus crushed the head of Satan!

The Lord bascially told the serpent (the devil, himself!), "Eat my dust!"  And with every enemy He defeats in our lives, He says, "Another one bites the dust!"

Freddy Mercury and Queen got nothing on Jesus! LOL

Now, back to my sewing frenzy!! (Oh! and I'll sweep and dust while the iron heats.)  I've got 9-patches, and sashing, and LeMoyne stars to work on!! And Circuit Rider blocks to prep to take with me on the ten-hour drive.  Maybe I'll have another finish to share before leaving for M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I ....

Blessings!

Crooked letter-crooked letter-I humpback-humpback-I. (Does it ever end!?!)

Anticipation!!

Anticipation!
Anticipay-yay-tion! Is making me late!
Is keeping me way-yay-yay-yay-yay-a-tin'!!!

(Thanks, Carly Simon! :-D)

OH! I'm getting excited!! I added another three Circuit Rider blocks to the wall today!! That makes 24 of the 42 blocks completed.  They are moving right along!!

Doing the prep work for several blocks -- cutting templates and fabric out, getting the overlays ready and so on for my needle-turn applique -- has really speeded up the process!!  And you know what that means...?

I'm THAT much closer to being able to start a couple of other projects calling my name -- The Roseville Album by Kim McLean and the Civil War Bride quilt!! (There are others, too, but I don't want to freak you out! LOL)

I can't wait!!!

There's more to anticipate, too!

I've decided to quilt along with Bonnie Hunt's latest mystery quilt at Quiltville -- "Roll Roll Cotton Boll."  Bonnie has done hers in shirtings and neutrals, pinks and poison greens and browns with an interesting red "constant"  fabric. 

I think I'm going to use browns, teals/turquoises and pinks with a "roony" red for my constant.  I've got a ton of old civil war repros in these colors and I'm going to dig in and use them.  I don't think I'll use them ALL, but a dent is a very good thing!!  The mystery is scheduled to begin on November 19th.

I can't wait!!

I'm doing the Moose on the Porch Layer Cake Quilt Along, too.  Actually got two of 'em going, mostly because the second layer cake was drawing dust in my sewing room (you know I'm allergic to dusting! -- not DUST, mind you, but dust-ING. :-D) .  The first two blocks are finished and in a couple of weeks, the pattern for the second block of the series will be posted here.   Fun!

 

And there's more!!
I feel like Oxyclean's Billy Mays (may he rest in peace)!!

Today in the mail, I got two precious unexpected gifts!

First, a honey bun and 2 1/2" charm pack of Charlevoix from Minnick and Simpson.  They blessed people who bid on items to benefit the Semper Fi Fund for injured marines.  How cool is that?!

And Mary sent me a fabulous gift pack with glow tape (I love that stuff! LOL), a wonderful notepad (my friends laugh about my obsession with containers and notepads! LOL), bobbin minders, and two fabulous charm packs of Kansas Troubles Butterfly Garden.  So I'm flipping through my Snibbles Times Two book to decide which quilt I'll make with those.  Fun, fun, fun!!!  (and thank you so much, Mary!!)

I can't wait!!! LOL

There's a wonderful scripture about anticipation in Romans 8.  Romans 8 is an awesome chapter in the Bible that starts out with the assurance that there is no condemnation in Christ -- in a guilt-ridden, blame-placing world, that alone is a great word.  The chapter ends with the assurance of God's love -- that neither height nor depth nor anything!! can separate us from the love of God.

Smack dab in the middle of the chapter is this little gem:

"For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God's sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship].  (v. 19, Amplified)

The image is almost like childbirth, isn't it?  The whole creation is aching, longing, praying for the blessing to come (as it did for Mrs. Goodneedle!) with all the anticipation and wonder it brings.

When we show who we are -- people who've been transformed (v. 29 of the same chapter! :-D) in the image of Christ demonstrating the love of God (they will know we are Christians by our love, after all!) -- it is the most exhilerating and challenging promise of all that could be in a person's life -- and all creation is waiting for that revelation, in "eager expectation!"

So what are you birthing in your sewing room these days?  In your relationships?
In your life?

Don't stop now! There's so much more to do!!! :-)

I can't wait!!!

Blessings!

Five in a Row

Five in a row is the number of quilt tops I hope to complete in the next couple of weeks!!

One quilt is a Sunbonnet Sue for a lady whose grandmother made the blocks. I've sashed it with '30's orange and bleached muslin and added a '30's orange print border. The rows are assembled; I have only to sew the rows together and add the borders and it will be a finish! (Photo at the bottom)

Five in a Row (FIAR) is also a curriculum that I used to homeschool my children when they were younger. FIAR uses picture books to teach children all kinds of things....From the classic children's book, The Story About Ping, for example, you can launch discussion and exploration about the Yangtse River and Japan and ducks and cormorants and boats, and do experiments to figure out why ducks don't get wet when they swim....It's just the coolest way to learn EVER :-) -- and my children loved it.

I'm working on three quilt tops for a FIAR family that lost their mom to breast cancer. The gals on the FIAR message board wanted to do something special for the family, so they sent quilt blocks to a friend who lives near me. As Providence would have it, I met Christy through a yard sale (selling books that my children had outgrown!), and she asked me if I knew anyone who quilted. LOL "Come into my house," said the spider to the fly! :-D

Christy brought me the blocks and I've started auditioning fabrics for sashing and borders. I'm going to keep the assembly simple -- because the blocks are what is phenomenal about these quilts. For both the little girls who lost their mom, the blocks represent the different picture books they studied with their mom doing FIAR.

 

So there's Ping (his block background has little Japanese characters in it!), and Madeline, and The Very Last First Time -- a story about an Inuit child who goes under the ice in the arctic for the first time! -- and The Salamander Room, and so many other classic and beautiful children's books.

There are also blocks for the dear lady's husband a quilt. Within it are expressions of love and commitment and encouragement.

One of the two little girls is adopted -- a beautiful picture of the love of this family.

Adoption is one of God's best illustrations of His love for us. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus about God choosing us! Choosing us!!!

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will -- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." (Ephesians 1:4-6)

1 Peter 2: 9 goes into even more detail: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light."

The center of one of the quilts says, "Emma, Momma's Little Princess." We are "royal," Peter tells us! We are God's princes and princesses!! The center of the other quilt says, "Eden, Momma's Chosen Girl." We, too, are chosen by God. The dad's quilt calls him "Beloved." We are the beloved of Father God, Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. Glorious grace, indeed!

The fifth quilt is a t-shirt quilt for a local girl who graduated high school last spring. And I'm still working on the Circuit Rider, enjoying making progress on it so I can freely move on to other projects. So much to do.

So much easier to do it knowing I am chosen, royal, beloved.

Blessings!





Circuit Ridings and Winner Tidings

OK, it's a little creepy, but I've sworn a blood oath (it is the month of Halloween, after all! LOL) NOT to begin another project (excepting our club's annual Mystery Night, of course!) until I finish the Circuit Rider quilt top.

Well, maybe not a blood oath (because, really, it IS creepy) -- but I need to stay focused and finish the CR.  I was perfectly sanguine about my promise to finish until I counted my complete Circuit Rider blocks today.  I've completed 21 blocks.  Exactly HALF the quilt.  Sigh!  But I'm doing them with a great bunch of gals, and our goal is to complete them by the end of the calendar year.  And I'm making progress!!

All but the last four or five are prepped -- overlays traced, templates made, fabric cut.  All I have to do is stitch them!  So I'm thinking the last 21 will be completed more quickly than the first 21. 

Particularly since I want to begin Roseville and break into those wild Kaffe/etc. fabrics, just as quickly as I can! LOL

I've got a few favorite blocks:

I like the Roses...There are five of these in the quilt.  I have two finished, and the other three have the flowers completed off the block.

The "horse feathers" block isn't all that visually appealing -- but as a part of the whole, I'm satisfied with it.  It was challenging.  I now know why antique princess feather blocks were larger in scale than mine! LOL 

My absolute favorite of them all (so far) is this vine.  It's simple lines and gentle curves appeal to me.  It doesn't hurt that it's in classic red and green!! 

I never dreamed I'd be so in love with applique.  I only started in December of last year! So it's been a great year for learning skills, trial and error, improving stitches and techniques. 

So rather than give up, either because of impatience to get to other projects or because I'm still not all that good at needle-turn, I think I'll press on and finish, just as planned.  It's work, but it will be worth it!

Scripture tells us, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Galatians 6:9).  How often do we let frustration or what we perceive as "slow progress" keep up from (as my mother used to call it) "sticking it out."  No more whining for me! LOL   I'm gonna get-r-done! :-)

And now, winners!!

Each entry was assigned a number, and I went over to Random.org to have the winners randomly selected and assigned the prizes in the order they appear in the Giveaway post.

Good tidings to

• Mary at Gwendie's Quilts for winning the Abundance charm pack!
• MJ for winning the Kaye England fat quarters from the Bread and Butter line!
• Brittainy at Indie Mommy for winning approx. 3 yards of Thimbleberries strips! 

I've contacted each of the winners and look forward to receiving their addresses and sending their packages out!

Thanks to EVERYONE who commented and followed and added Cheaper than Therapy Quilting to your blogroll.  Some of you got a response from me -- but it just got overwhelming after a while! LOL  I appreciate sooo much you stopping by and leaving your thoughts and comments. 

Y'all come back, y'hear!? :-)

Blessings,

More Diversions!

I've been thinking alot about that Diversion sign....
I think the reason that I have so many unfinished projects is that I get, well...diverted.

I looked up the word to be sure that is what is happening to me! LOL

Definition #1 is "to turn in opposite directions."  True, true. But not where I am this morning. :-D   Definition #2 is the very one:

To give pleasure to especially by distracting the attention from what burdens or distresses. syn see AMUSE

Amuse...yes, that suits me better today! LOL

I have to laugh because I keep getting diverted by joy and excitement...the next project!!! :-)

There's the Circuit Rider.  I'm plugging along on it, feeling good.  Gotta finish it so I can do....

Roseville ... Kathie over at Inspired by Antique Quilts is doing hers in reproduction fabrics. And she's also working on a Baltimore Album quilt, one of my dream projects!

Crispy at Crispy Quilts just got a great deal on Philip Jacobs fabrics, and those would be yummy for Roseville, too...

And Janet at  Mrs. Sew 'n Sew just started her Civil War Bride quilt, which I have the pattern for.  Isn't it gorgeous! I wanna start it!!!

I also got my Brown Bag Quilt contest fabrics in the mail from JaiCi...

Immediately I started pulling fabrics to go with those and looking at designs...maybe Monkey Business from Scrap Basket Surprises...

And I have some "commission" quilts I need to assemble...

Here are blocks made by my guild/club members at Mountain Laurel Quilters!  Aren't they wonderful? We donate a quilt to our local Optimist Club each year which they raffle for their Youth programming. I'm auditioning sashing and borders....

And here are blocks for 3 quilts to give to a homeschooling family who lost the mom to breast cancer. 

Diverted, indeed!!!

But it truly is therapy for me! So I'm diving in.  Just need to establish priorities.

1.  Mountain Laurel Blocks...They're for a quilt that needs to be done in time for our Quilt Show (see details here:  Mountain Laurel Quilters).  I'm only doing the assembly; the quilting will be done by Paula at Paula's Quilting Pantry.

2.  Homeschool family quilts -- We'd like to get them to the family by Christmas

3.  Ongoing Circuit Rider -- 'cause I gotta get it done before I'll allow myself to start the others on my list! :-D

and then there's Numbers 4 through 178 (a conservative estimate): All the others on lists of planned, wanna-dos, somedays, and whenevers!

There's an apropos line from the movie The Great Debators, directed by and starring Denzel Washington (I love him :-D); the preacher dad tells his son, "We do what we have to do in order to do what we want to do."  Good advice (if only I could apply it to the dust and dishes! LOL)!

In Scripture, the "must do" is tied to a promise.  Deuteronomy 5:32-33 says this, "So be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left.  Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess."

Yeah...The Lord asks that we not be diverted (definition #1!) from Him.

I'll be needing those "prolonged days" if I am to finish everything on my quilt lists!! 

Blessings!