A Mystery!

I love mysteries.  When Emily was a girl, and we were starting our homeschooling journey, I accumulated the whole first 56 original Nancy Drew books for her and for me to read.  It was the first indication that we might have more in common that blood after all!! LOL

In spite of her abhorrance for the concept of "legacy quilter" (I still have hope she will change her mind! She's only 20 -- and someday she'll want quilts for her babies!! :-D), we like many of the same books and movies.

Mystery quilts, however....that I have to share with people who understand! LOL  Four of us from Mountain Laurel Quilters -- Paula, Debbie, Lynn and I -- worked on Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt Roll, Roll Cotton Boll.  And we had so much fun doing it that we talked our club into doing a mystery, too.   Since Bonnie's mysteries are on-line and available for all to peek at, we decided to use something else to mystify our club members, and I am fortunate enough to be the Magical Mystery Tour Guide!  (It was too good an opportunity to quote the Beatles.  You should never pass up a chance to quote the Beatles! LOL)

This past Saturday, we started with the first unit of the quilt.  More and more of the mystery will be revealed until we put the quilt together in October.

I'm using Jo Morton fabrics in deep reds, greens, purples, blacks, and medium blues and browns, with a great mixture of her neutrals and shirtings for backgrounds.  Our first unit is a simple four-patch of squares and half-square triangles.



The units we'll do in March will use the purples, greens and blacks. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I know the outcome of this mystery.  :-D

One mystery that has me stumped, though, is what I'm gonna do with the Brown Bag Quilt Contest fabric!

I've had my fabric several months, now...and I don't have a clue what I will do.  I found a nice print in my stash that will bring the different fabrics together nicely, and some neutrals to mix in, but beyond that I haven't a single clue!

I'm looking for inspiration among all the scrappy books and patterns that I have....I haven't found anything that speaks to me yet, but I gotta get crackin' since the quilt must be completed -- pieced/appliqued, quilted and bound!!! -- by April 1st.

Some mysteries end well -- like Nancy Drew! -- some don't.  I'm hoping the Brown Bag quilt is one of the former, not the latter! LOL

The Apostle Paul mentioned mysteries quite often in his letters.  I love what he wrote in Colossians:

"My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love...., in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 2:2-3 NIV)

In the movie City Slickers, there's this great scene between Billy Crystal and Jack Palance about the meaning of life. (Warning:  film clip contains what some would consider an offensive word.)



What I love about this clip is that I know the mystery....I know what the "one thing" is! It is, as Paul said in the passage from Colossians, CHRIST!   And the word that Jack uses is the very one that Paul uses in Philippians 3: 8 when he says he counts everything he's lost as but "dung" (KJV) that he may gain Christ.

There are many things I love -- my family, friends, homeschooling, church, music, quilting!!!! -- but none of them is equal to the "hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge" that is found in Jesus.

Oh, that all mysteries were so easily solved!!  I bet Nancy Drew would have figured this one out!  Maybe she'll help me with the Brown Bag Quilt!

Blessings,

A Brand New Year! :-)

I am the eternal optimist, I think.  I must be an optimist if I even consider making a list of New Year's Resolutions!! When Jeff asked me what mine were, I told him they were the same as last year!! Clearly, I didn't succeed in 2010 (or 2009, or 2008, or....).  But I try, try, and try again. :-D  (Of course, the definition of INSANITY is to do the same thing and expect different results! --- yeah, that'd be me!  LOL)

Every year I say I'll lose weight and exercise.  I'll have a devotional time daily. I'll be a better steward of the blessings -- financial and otherwise! -- that I'm given.  Jeff says I need to be more specific.  So -- numbers and deadlines and such will be added to my usual list to see if that helps me fare any better in keeping my resolutions.

Another one I make every year is to FINISH! something -- so UFO's here I come.  This year, I'll have Judy's UFO Challenge to help.  She's having us make a list of projects, numbered 1 to 12, and each month she'll draw a number and we have to work on that project.   Theoretically, at the end of 2011, we'll have completed 12 UFO's.  I have MANY more than that (I do an "inventory" at the first of each year...sigh), but getting this many done will be phenomenal!

So you and Judy will help me with accountability! The rules are fairly flexible, so I've decided to finish a group of quilt tops (most very close to completion!), and to completely finish (quilting and binding!) another group that I'll list next time.  The quilt top projects are:

1. Stars Around the Garden (a Bits and Pieces Block of the Month)
2. Victory Quilt (Quilt in a Day)
3. Hometown Christmas (Thimbleberries)
4. Wilfred and Cloves  (from Australian Patchwork and Quilting)
5. Daisy Days (Thimbleberries)
6. American Heritage (Thimbleberries)
7. Geese in the Garden (Kim Diehl design)
8. Land of the Free (applique from Piece o' Cake)
9. Circuit Rider (only a dozen more blocks to have them all done!)
10. Moon and Stars Whimsey (from the book Relax and Quilt)
11. Biblical Blocks (from the book of the same name by Rosemary Makhan)
12. Dolly Madison Stars (a two-fabric quilt from BH&G Two-Color Quilts)

I'd like to severely limit my new starts this year.  Maybe Kim McLean's Roseville Album, if I can find the time!!!! (It'll work out! There's that optimism, again!  LOL)

I'll also continue to work on some ongoing projects: The Farmer's Wife Sampler and possibly Dear Hannah or A Mother's Gift and the Layer Cake Quilt Along.

And I'll at least get the Roll, Roll Cotton Boll Mystery Quilt top completed!! :-)

The apostle Paul wrote, "It is written: 'I believed; therefore I have spoken.' With that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence...Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." (2 Corinthians 4:13-14, 16-17)

He must have been an optimist, too!  "It is written," he said -- and so is my list! :-D  "I believed" -- and I do, too! LOL "Therefore I have spoken!"  ME, TOO!  Of course,  he was referring to the promises of God and the expectation that, even though we suffer and have troubles, they are nothing compared with the glory that is to come.  Isn't that a great statement of hope!! I think I like old Paul! :-)

So I will not "lose heart!"  2011 is a brand new year, full of promise and the expectation of eternal glory.

Let's get to it!!

Blessings,

Big Girl Panties

I first read the phrase over at Teresa's blog (Fabric Therapy -- click here).  Then, lo and behold, Shelly had a picture of it on a quilt at her site (Red Quilts -- click here) -- so I'm thinking Somebody might be trying  to tell me something.

Shelley took this photo at the Augusta, Maine quilt show. Check out the other scrumptious quilts she photographed at http://redquilts.blogspot.com/!

I suspect it has something to do with so many quilting irons in the fire. My friend, Paula, of Paula's Quilting Pantry, sent me a list of her unfinished projects.  She only has SIX projects that she started in previous years.  I think I might have quadruple or quintuple that number (or more, but I don't know the "...uple" word for it). Hmmmmm.....

Case in Point:  Sunbonnet Sue.  I'm not much of a Suzie fan. She's too cute-sy, cute-sy for my taste.  BUT! I have some blocks that I won in a drawing from my quilt club friends in....2006!!! The blocks are signed and dated, can you believe it!?!?!  Like I need more quilting guilt....

The blocks really are lovely, though, and I have a design in my head for all those Suzies complete with framing, sashing and pinwheel cornerstones and a lovely fall (because Suzie's theme was fall and I won her at our Thanksgiving meeting) border print to spruce up her setting.  It should be a fine quilt, even to a Sunny Suzie hater like myself.

She's not my only long-overdue project.  I've got a "To Do" list a mile long.  My husband is deployed, so most of my evenings are available to work.  It's time to "put the big girl panties on."  I'm not going to live forever and I don't want my kids left with the unenviable burden of disposing untold millions of unfinished projects.  Not to mention them selling Suzie and her cut-out pieces at a yard sale for a quarter. Can you feel the collective quilting world gasp at THAT prospect!?  Can you feel Suzie's silent disapproval beneath those countenance-covering bonnets?! Very disturbing!  I'm taking her completion very seriously from now on!

The apostle Paul understood about limited time and accomplishing something.  He wrote from prison to the church at Philippi, "...one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  All of us who are mature should take such a view of things..." (Philippians 3: 13b-15a)

He knew all about big girl panties.  He had only a while before his execution for the cause of Christ.  He made the most of his time.  He put some major effort in.  He pressed on.  We should all be so wise.  (I'm not just talking about quilting!!)

Excuse me while I go change my underwear!

Blessings!

Mary Lou