Candy Corn Quilt

I hope that you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend.  How nice that it stretched into the long President's weekend.

Not so nice for us here though.  We had an uninvited guest - the stomach flu.  So all of our planned treats for Friday evening were set aside for another time.

My poor honey got it first, on Friday night no less, and so while he slept most of Saturday, Max, (my younger son) and I had a Lord of the Rings movie marathon and I worked on some quilts.

 This Candy Corn quilt was one that I had started about three Halloweens ago.  The pattern came as an insert in a quilting magazine and their idea was to have the quilt be a two sided table runner- one side with the candy corn motif, and the other with a slight modification to make Christmas trees.  Both were adorable.  But I knew me, so I didn't attempt to do two sides.  For one thing, I am still a novice at machine quilting and have never had the courage to try a wavy, roving pattern.  So far, I have stuck to straight lines.  There would be no way to line the trees and candy corn up.  I also thought it would be cute to make the Christmas trees in a single row, in a wall hanger instead.

I went right to work on the candy corn pattern and did finish the top for that Halloween.

Bot then another Halloween came and went, and it sat unfinished.  (In my defense, I did get married at the beginning the month, and was slightly preoccupied with all the wedding preparations)

Before Halloween 2013, I layered the top with batting and a backing and began machine quilting it.  I went around the candy corn pieces, and stitched-in-the-ditch around each of the center blocks.  For the border, I decided to do a diamond pattern.  It was moving along nicely, but when I didn't have the chance to finish it and have it out for Halloween, it was put aside to make time for the Thanksgiving and Christmas crafts that were soon to follow.

Until this weekend!  It was the first quilt I tackled during our marathon. I completed the diamond pattern and put the binding on.  (Then I moved on to two more quilts - you'll see them later this week.)

This Halloween I look forward to finding the perfect spot to hang it up.  With or without Max photo-bombing it.

"Gather Hearts" Stitching

Yay! Another project crossed off the UFO list and added to the Project Gallery!

I started this stitching about two years ago when I saw it in the March 2012 issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework.  I liked the bright green and pink combination and the use of memory thread, which I've never tried before.

I met Phil shortly afterwards.  We like to watch movies at night and stitching is the perfect craft to do in front of the TV.  My step-daughter used to watch me working on it and wanted to learn how to stitch too.  When I showed her some of my other UFO's she asked why I didn't just finish one before starting something new.  I think I chortled.  (If you're a crafty lady, you probably just did too).

When I finished the actual stitching, I kinda chickened out of doing the memory thread for awhile.  It was actually much easier than I thought.  You simply shape the thread the way you want, pull through the fabric where it starts and ends, and then couch along the thread, using a similar color.

I wanted to frame it in the hot pink color and was lucky enough to find a frame on sale at Michael's.

Since this was the piece that caught Brooke's eye and made her want to stitch, it's going to go in her room.

And I'm working on that whole idea of finishing a project before starting a new one.

Yeah, right. ;)

Happy Crafting!

A Martha Moment

Before I tell my Martha story, I want to congratulate Ann Barton for winning the Valentine's Day Ribbon Wreath. I hope you enjoy it, Ann!

On Monday, I had a Martha moment.  Not Martha Stewart, although I've had those moments too, but Martha from the Bible.  Do you remember her story? Martha, her sister Mary, and their brother Lazarus were all particularly good friends of Jesus.  When they found out that he was visiting for dinner, Martha set off into a flurry of preparations.  When Jesus arrived, she continued to rush about taking care of the guests, while Mary sat at Jesus' feet and listened to him teach.  Martha became increasingly frustrated and finally said, "Lord, tell Mary to come help me!" Jesus' gentle reply was, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, one thing is needful.  Mary has chosen the good portion which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41)

So here's my Martha moment:

My day started off by my younger son slipping on the ice and banging his elbow pretty hard.  He couldn't feel his arm or wiggle his fingers so off to the MASH (a local Urgent care) we went.   After x-rays on both arms (to compare) the doctor said that she thought Max had broken his elbow and we made an appointment to go to the orthopedist.  I gave him a dose of ibuprofen and took him to school with his arm in a sling, since there really wasn't anything else we could do then.  (As it turns out, the orthopedist said that it's not broken, just banged up pretty hard - but growth plates don't show up in x-rays very well, so it's better to be cautious)

Then I headed to the church for my one day of office hours.  When I finally had the chance to sit down at my desk and get to work, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed. My job as the Coordinator of Educational Ministries had started out at 20 hours a week, but a year and a half ago, we dropped it back to 10 hours,  for several reasons.  What I was feeling on Monday was that the decrease in hours wasn't allowing me to do the job the way it should be done - putting the time into it that it deserves.  In the two or three hours I had left in my office day I had to plan for a bake sale, plan a lesson for Sunday (after the bake sale) and prepare for our mini-Vacation Bible School (we do that the week of February break) which is focused on the story of Esther this year.  Pile onto all of that that I was concerned for Max's arm.

As my computer booted up, I turned on Pandora on my iPad and selected the "Newsboys" station that I had created there.  The first song that came up was the live version of "Blessed Be Your Name" which happened to be the song that I asked my Youth Group to sing at the wedding when I married Phil. (If you don't know the Newsboys, go look them up - they are awesome!)  Before the song was over, I was feeling much better and pretty soon I was gathering ideas about our lesson for Sunday.

Our theme for this year's curriculum is "Why Me, Lord? Why not Me?", the inspiration coming from a poster that lists people in the Bible and why  they might not have been "right" for their job.  For example, Moses stuttered, Jeremiah was too young, Martha worried about everything, and Lazarus was dead.

Our story for Sunday is about Martha, and as I fleshed out my lesson, it hit me.

I was Martha.

I had been rushing around worrying about how I was going to get everything done, missing what has most important.

We've all done it when we've had earthly visitors.  If you were like me, you had some people over to watch the big game on Sunday (That was my Martha Stewart moment for the week - making sure I had equal amounts of food colored orange and green  for the teams). I spent so much time getting the food out and talking with guests, that I didn't really watch the game, although that may have made this particular Super Bowl a bit less painful.

One of the activities  I plan on doing with the kids on Sunday is filling a bottle with popcorn kernels, representing all of the things that we do that keep us busy.  Then we're going to try to shove something big in the bottle (like a ball) representing God.  The ball won't fit when the bottle is already filled up, but if we put the ball in the bottle first and then fill it up with the other stuff, we are making sure that God is first and that he touches everything that we do.

I hope the message gets to the kids.

I hope that I really get it too, that I can remind myself that it doesn't really matter how much we bake on Saturday morning and sell on Sunday afternoon - what matters is that the kids learn how to provide for others and the joy that accompanies that.

It doesn't matter how many kids come to our VBS about Queen Esther, but that the kids who do come learn - about God's love and protection, about a girl who saved her people from annihilation, about Purim, ancient festival still celebrated by Jews today.

While Jesus wasn't really scolding Martha for her efforts in hospitality (which was a BIG DEAL in those days) he was pointing out that sometimes it is better to sit with our loved ones, and soak them in.

To remember what really matters.