God's Quilt of life

I was thinking about my string quilt and how Chris had dared me to use whatever I pulled out of the basket, despite whether I wanted to or not.  Life is like that.  Wouldn't it be great if we could go through our days and everything match up and fit together perfectly?  That is not how life works however.
We have some days that are all bright and cheerful, the yellows and pinks of life, where everything is sunny.  Then we have some blues and purples thrown in, the bruises of life.  Next we have the greens and browns, the dirt and grass that represent new life, whether it be a baby or or someone giving their life over to God or even the flowers and trees that we enjoy in life.  God also gives us oranges and reds, which can be the fire that consumes our passions.  Whether our passions are our family, hobby, or serving God.  It does not have to be either - or, as long as God comes first we can still have our other fires simmering in the pot.

 We also have the greys and blacks.  Days that are dismal and we are sad.
Don't forget your white fabric, it is the most important color of all!  Isaiah 1:18  "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Romans 6:23 " For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

God takes all of the colors  of our life and sews them together to make a quilt to keep us warm and protect us.  You can not be the quilt God wants you to be without accepting all the colors he has for your life.  Not every piece of fabric is the same, that is what makes us unique and strong, sewing all of those fabrics together.

Psalms 1:3  "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

Let God quilt your life together the way he sees fit and and accept whatever color he wants to add, you'll be surprised when you look back and see the quilt he has made with your life!

Missy

FYI - my life is nothing but one big crazy quilt!   LOL

Finished String Quilt

I finally finished my strings quilt!  I really wanted a dark pink binding but with all of my fabric still packed, I was limited to what I could find among the fabric that was in plastic tubs.
Pippi kept an eye on me while I quilted, she was not happy because I kept having to move her off the quilt.

I love all of the different fabrics in this quilt.  Most of the strings came from a friend at retreat, thank you Mary Lou!
I love the sewing machine fabric in this block!

And the happy faces in this one!  With this quilt, my husband dared me to use what ever piece of fabric I puled out of the basket.  He said I was too much of a control freak to do it, with the exception of looking at the size of the strings, I did it!  I have blues, browns, blacks, pinks, reds, Christmas, spring, baby etc. all combined together!

The pinks and blues make me think of Tabitha(blues) and Valerie(pinks) because they are leftovers from their quilts. I also have leftovers from my niece's, nephew's and mom's quilts! I decided to do a free motion scallops on the quilt and really loved how it turned out!

It showed up great on the back with the minky blanket I used!  I decided not to use batting, just because I still have two more tops that need quilting and I don't know when I will be able to get more batting, it is at least a 30 minute drive to the closest Wal-Mart or quilt shop and 1 1/2 hours to the closest Joann's or Hobby Lobby.

I made lots of mistakes, I made this quilt after seeing someone else make one, but did not really follow any directions.  First off, I should have trimmed my strings before sewing them on, the strings that were not trimmed had places I had to resew.  For example the blue girly stuff fabric.  There were a few places like that.  I think I will take some pink embroidery floss and make x's over those spots (like a crazy quilt) to hide those spots.

Another mistake I made, was not knowing the muslin would stretch.  I just trimmed off each edge following the line of muslin without measuring which made all of the blocks different sizes.  I 'm thinking next time I will pick a square ruler one inch smaller then the cut muslin and cut to that size?

Custard

I was also careless with my binding because I was rushing and had to go back and fix several spots today.

But the cats love it and so do I!  This is only the second quilt I've made for myself!  (both throws!)

Pippi

I sewed the strings with my red eye/redhead 66 hand crank sewing machine and quilted it on my Singer 16 treadle!

Have you ever made a string quilt or any quilt with complete abandon?

Missy

FMQing the Strings!

I got half of the Strings quilt quilted today.  As you can see, Oreo was a big help!

I decided to leave out the batting and it is still pretty heavy!

I finally got him out of the way, he and Custard were enjoying my latest acquisition.  I bought a changing table for $10 and am going to paint it when I decide what color theme I will go with in my new sewing room.  The top will be a bed for the fur babies, I will set it in front of a window and use the bottom two shelves for storage.

He just really liked my quilt though!  I could not find my EZ glider to cover the feed dogs on my Singer 16 treadle, so I placed a business card over it.  It is working great!

I know some people say you do not need to cover the feed dogs, but I prefer it.  I quilted all day and finished half the quilt.  I decided to do small scallops starting in one corner.  I'm not sure how well you can see it in the picture.  So far this is the easiest FMQ design I have done, or maybe I'm just getting more used to FMQ?

I hope to finish it tomorrow and then put the pink binding on it Friday.

Custard tried to pull my thread off while I was sewing today and Pippi did succeed in pulling the belt off of the treadle!  Good thing it is easy to put it back on, she needs to be careful or she could get hurt!

Do your pets help you sew?

Missy

Ecclesiastes 3:7  "A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;"

Jacob's Ladder block

I am participating in a virtual sewing bee called Sew Sweet Bee.  This is my first one and the host is Donna from Donna's Lavender Nest, you really should check out her blog.  She has the sweetest quilts.  She wanted a Jacob's Ladder block, each person is making a 12 1/2 block.  I think it is neat how it really does look like a ladder!

 I made mine on my Singer Redhead/Redeye 66 hand crank sewing machine.  She is great at precision piecing,  I bet mine is the only one not made on an electric!  LOL

I am super nervous about making a block for someone else's quilt.  I kept unpicking and resewing this one block because I was not happy with it.  I laid all of the blocks out to make sure I sewed it correctly and then Cupcake jumped on it and messed it up.  I showed my husband my finished block and he says "you sewed it wrong", sure enough, I sure did!  It was an easy fix though.  Do you see it?

I also finished sewing the top of my strings block.  Tomorrow I need to even up the sides, baste it and quilt it.  I'm thinking of using a pink binding, what do you think?
My tip of the day, when you make string blocks, make sure you trim it up to certain size because the muslin stretches so don't follow the sides, all of your blocks will be different sizes.

I feel like I have gotten a lot done this week with my quilting.  BUT, I really need to catch up on my housework now!  What a mess!

Have a blessed weekend!

Missy

Genesis 28:12  "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."

Strings!

Cupcake

My strings blocks has been an off and on project since early this summer.  I have enough blocks made for a lap quilt!  I have a hand crank set up in the living room by Chris's desk and last week I worked on my blocks while Chris was home.  (I work on quilting the sailboat quilt during the day)  (Please ignore the ugly floor in my rental!)
I had my blocks laid out on the blanket that I am going to use for my backing and I decided to just roll it up instead of picking up all of my blocks again.

 This makes a great portable design wall!  I just love this blanket with the penguins my husband bought me.

I have three rows already sewn together and the blocks just happen to come out to the same size as the blanket!  I started making the blocks a long time before I got the blanket.

Oreo

Since I am using a fuzzy, thin blanket for the back and muslin for my foundation piecing, should I use a batting?  I don't care about the quilting showing through, this is just a utilitarian quilt.  It is kind of small, should I add borders to the front and back to make it bigger?  I would definitely have to add batting if I did that, although I probably have some fleece I could add to the back if I wanted to.  What would you do?

The kittens love my basket that I use for my strings.

When I first got Oreo as a kitten, he would pee in my strings basket, until I found this one with the lid!

Cupcake likes to dig and throw the strings out until she gets comfortable

Custard was just being dainty when she crawled in.

I have had several people lately asking me questions or leaving comments on my blog.  I try to answer everyone, but if you are a no reply blogger I can't!  Please be sure to leave me your email if you want a reply.  If you are not sure if you are a no-reply, then leave a comment on your blog to find out.  Mine has a tendency to revert, so if you notice I'm a no-reply, please let me know!

Have a great day ya'll!
Missy

Barn Blocks

I am finally almost caught up on my barn blocks!  I now have seven done!  This week I am going to fix my mistake on the one block and I need to add the borders on both of the other two blocks.  I'm running out of room to make my blocks!  But that is a good problem!  I'll just have to start overlapping them as I hang them up!

The kittens like to help me quilt!  This week I've been using my Redhead 66 hand crank to make my blocks.

I think this is my favorite block with the maple leaf block.

I have a penguin in the window!  I love penguins and had to make sure there were penguins in this quilt somewhere!  Here are the directions for this block.  She also has a video tutorial for this one!

The pinwheels block was very easy to make!  I liked the way it turned out also.  Here are the directions for that one also.

This one has a cat in the window, you know I have to have some barn cats, I found this one cat in a scrap basket at the quilt retreat, and he is the same color as Tiger as you can tell by the paw!

Look at this great "moo" material I found at a thrift store for $2!  Please excuse the big fat cat in the picture!  Tiger wanted my attention!  LOL!

I did not get a close up of the one with yellow in it, I did not really like the way that block turned out, although I did like the bees in the window of this one!  It's the one at the top.  The door looks kind of like a beehive also.  Pippi was helping model in this picture.  Here are the directions for the sunflower block!

Lori Holt is making a second barn quilt that the blocks finish to the same size, but they have a silo on the side, so I think I will make the rest of my blocks with the silo to change up the quilt some.  The first block will come out this Wednesday.

I've also been working on my string blocks.  I'm just going to keep making them and after I make a quilt for myself, all of the left over blocks I'll give to my prayer quilt ministry at church.  I am cutting the muslin squares at nine inches.  So far I have 22 made!

What are you working on this week?
Missy
P.S. I found the perfect verse for my barns!
Luke 12:24  "Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?"