Scrap,Quilt, Preach

Solstice stars

2012-02-09T19:26:00.000-08:00

For those of you who like stars, you may want to check out the Solstice Stars Quilt along at Fresh Lemons Modern Quilts. I decided to join up to make something totally different and not a UFO project. I also thought it was a good way to use up some stash and play with some different colors for me.
I chose to use white, orange, yellow, lime green and shades of turquoise/aqua for these blocks. So far I am really liking how they are looking. It will be a great quilt.
Anyways I spent three hours yesterday night working on the last two blocks and getting them done and posted on Flickr. What do they look like you ask?

# 3


#4

I spy with my little eye

2012-02-08T17:28:00.000-08:00

a cherry tree blooming. Yeah. Can you imagine? I was out at lunch time, stopped at a light and turned my head and saw this pop of pink against a house. And wouldn't you know it I saw a cherry tree beside a house blooming. What a wonderful sign of spring and hope. At least to me.
Its getting pretty close to the time of year that we do the flower count here on the coast and I find that I can't wait for that explosion of color.
The other thing that I found while driving home this time, was a bit of humor. Let me give you the wider picture. All day, from 0715 until 1500 I saw a rush on folks who had experienced death or serious illness in their family and needed to get home. After dealing with so much sadness I needed some humor to close the day. Thank God for working in wild ways to give it to me. So I am driving home, behind this stinky older station wagon, who happens to have a little sticker on their car. It says: I used up all my sick days so I called in dead.

Okay a bit morbid but it suited my day. It also reminded me a something I found in Pintrest that said: Old people at weddings always poke at me and say, "Your next." So I started saying the same thing to them at funerals.
While I never would do this to someone, as a clergy person I have had the first bit happen to me so often. But the latter is so tempting to think about doing, if you had enough nerve to do that to someone.
Have a lovely day with hopeful signs, color and humor.

This Weeks Projects

2012-02-05T20:09:00.000-08:00

In the work room this week I have a few things that I have been up to and I wish to complete. With any luck and managing my time I should be able to get them done and in a state to send off to Arlene the long arm quilter.

Clothing covers

I need about six more of these dust covers for some of the clothing in my closet. You know those items that you don't wear all the time but want to keep wear ready. I found at Sew for Home website last week this dust cover pattern. I find if I cut carefully I can use up some of my 1/2 meter cuts of cotton up. I have a stack of floral fabrics that are really pretty but just are not working with my quilting fabric preferences so this is a good way to use them up. The photo above is a test cover made from a piece of remnant that I had under my sewing table.

Snowballs

These snowballs are again a way to use up some fabrics that I had bundled. I need to figure out if I need to get some different fabric for the border or if I have enough to make more of a scrappy border to go around.
I also need to decide what UFO project I want to put on my list for February. Now that I got my bee block done for Feb for joy- do. good stitches I have some time to plan what I want to do for mine that comes up in April. Guess I have some time to play!
So guess what I started? The Tokyo Subway quilt by Elizabeth at Oh Fransson. So far I have one block done and the second laid out and ready to stitch together. I am hoping that if I can do one a night I should have it together in by the end of the month. I also have to leave time to work on some UFO's too. Not sure which one should be taking priority but I am hoping something in the work room will speak to me.

paint

2012-02-05T09:09:00.001-08:00

paint, a photo by basykes on Flickr.

Miles of trim and doors before I sleep

I spent some time of Friday taping off the laundry room and much of Saturday finishing off the trim work and doors. It was a bit fiddly but this room is now done! Yeah.

Now I have another 16 doors left to do through out the whole house along with one more bedroom and a bathroom. It might take me longer than I wish to complete these projects just doing it piecemeal but with all the other things that are on the to do list I don't want to have a whole bunch of half finished projects nor do I want to spend all my down time painting either.

Fresh Lemons Flickr Bar

2012-02-01T16:17:00.001-08:00

Fresh Lemons Flickr Bar, a photo by Fresh Lemons : Faith on Flickr.

WIP Wednesday

2012-02-01T15:59:00.000-08:00

It’s been a productive five days in the workroom. I finished off two quilt tops, have the backing ready and they are waiting to go to Arlene the long arm quilter. I recently read a blog discussion asking if sending off your quilts for someone else to do was wrong or considered cheating. Nah. I find more pleasure in piecing and design than I do in the actual quilting. I do however quilt smaller pieces that I want heavily detailed. That is fun.

La Scala is the name of this top, made from Robert Kaufman fat quarter bundle from my LQS, The Cloth Castle. The pattern is called Hopskotch by the Quilt Patch out of Saskatchewan. It went together wonderfully and is easy to make.

La Scala

Cowboys and Indians – I had this theme fabric lying around for a while now and thought I better tackle the stack and make it a bit smaller. Again another quick and easy quilt great for a present if you need a quick one. I must say as I was working on it I did have some misgivings just because the print was not very politically correct. Hopefully who ever gets it won’t be offended and will just focus more on the colors rather than the Native American saying HOW. (oops sorry no photo as I am short on time to get this post done)

Animals at the Zoo – this has been on my UFO list since last fall when I bought a bag of scraps from my LQS, The Cloth Castle. Since these critters were on a pretty wide field of off white I thought some fussy cutting and improve blocks would be perfect. I struggled a bit to know what would be a good background, but I am glad I choose this green. You may not be able to see it in the photo but there is a green dot in the background behind the animal, so it works well. Also to be a bit different I found a meter of green minky fabric in the bargain bin at Fabricland and will use that for backing. It will be cuddly soft and so CUTE.

In progress: lets just say a lot.

Walk thru the woods blocks ( only two more left)

Snowball baby quilt

Light and dark hst

Bee Blocks: Joy – Jolene’s blocks – done

Binding: nautical quilt

Ferris wheel

silence ...

2012-01-31T17:50:00.001-08:00

silence ..., a photo by "Enigma" on Flickr.

shhhh - listen.

As I mentioned in a previous post I did my spiritual retreat at a hotel set in a mall, West Edmonton mall to be exact.

I took two books to reflect on along with my bible and iPod which I used to listen to a podcast of daily prayers.

I spoke earlier about silence and how often I find myself craving it or noting how I fill it with noise because I am anxious or lonely. Chapter two in Barbara Brown Taylor's book, When God is Silent, addresses silence. She reminds us that communication has a higher value than contemplation. That one line resonated with me. Especially the example that she used, with all of us carrying cell phones (I myself carry two or three depending on whether I am on duty), jumping up to answer them as the banner unfurls over our head saying we are necessary. I would add to this with the ringing phone says we are important. (As a side note I often when I am meeting with folks ignore my phone if I have forgotten to turn off the ringer, and must say it’s fascinating to watch people’s discomfort with that ringing phone.)

We have been having issues at work with the students carrying cell phones into classes or into operational areas where cell phones are not allowed and getting distracted by texts and other messages coming to them. As the Coxan often questions, what is so important that you need to text your sweetie multiple times during the hour? And he is right. Are minute by minute updates of what we are eating, wearing or where we are going, are they really meaningful and important?

It’s not until we are relieved of that burden that we experience silence. Take the young person who was confined to barracks as part of punishment a few weeks ago. They had done something they shouldn’t have at work, and for seven days they lived on base, not at home, went to work and then returned to a small room which has about as much appeal as a nun’s cell. Think Whoopie Goldberg’s reaction in her first Sister Act when she is taken to her room in the convent and you get the idea. Those who are so designated to stay in such a setting are technologically bereft which leaves them the struggle of a silent room, their own company and the chore of polishing kit for inspection. Part of the punishment is the opportunity to think on their actions and how to correct them. I wonder how many don’t get that opportunity because they are so affected by the silence and their fear of it that they cannot process the behavior they performed.

Have you ever considered that God is more present in silence than in words? That our best words cannot do more than aspire to point at God who is beyond them? Within every congregation I have ministered with and to, I am acutely aware of the need for silence in our worship life. Yes it is easy to cruise full steam through song and prayer and other liturgical pieces, but silence is the opportunity to digest, to gnaw on the Word of God even if it is unspoken and more a feeling.

UFO's are coming

2012-01-30T18:56:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed I have been doing some housekeeping on the blog. I removed some buttons of past projects and added some new ones that are reflective of my goals for this year. One such button is the UFO button from Cut to Pieces. In the past when I was a part of a guild we had little challenges to either exchange UFO”S or incentives to get them done, so this is the same thing except the community is on line.

Its good timing for me to be considering UFO lists too as I started looking into THE CLOSET in the hall where the UFO’s are stored and realized that I really need to do something about this growing problem. Most of my UFO’s are projects I began between 2000 and 2006. At that time, I moved, joined the Canadian Forces, got married, in general had a life upheaval and when I returned back to these projects, I really wasn’t inspired by them. Some of them were for certain occasions now long passed, others were for me and got pushed aside by projects for others, and still others I decided I hated something about it be it pattern, color, or overall look.

When January came this year I decided that I should pull some of these out and see what I could accomplish during the month of Jan. Of course like normal, I tried to be an over achiever…. (need to work on that.) So here is what I got up to:

Walk in the Woods - An old one from the late 1990’s by McKenna Ryan’s Walk. I just love this work but it takes a lot of time which I was very bad about investing when I first got it. Since then I have made numerous of these blocks as one offs for others but haven’t completed the whole version for me. So I completed 6 blocks, including stitching. I figure if I give myself one night a week to focus on this I can get it done in three weeks.

Two blocks from Walk thru the woods. The rest are behind this.Need to fix the fisherman's rod.

Animals in the Zoo - a more recent UFO started when I picked up a bag of scraps at my LQS. Not sure how they used these fabrics, but I thought a random baby quilt with a bit of fussy cutting would work great. I also recently picked up at lovely piece of minky end in green that will make a nice backing. I have a young woman at work who is pregnant with her first in mind for this quilt.

Animals in the Zoo

Blogger Blockapalooza – I completed all the blocks last year during the blockapalooza. Not sure why I haven’t completed it other than I want to do something different with the layout. There are a few options in Flckr that appeal to me that I need to use as inspiration. Thus far no progress.

Blockapalooza

Ice Quilt – based of Oh Frannsons block, I decided to make my own during the Christmas break of 2010/11. I got quite a few accomplished but decided that I wanted to use up the bin of scraps. It’s a big pile of scraps. Have to make a decision about whether to make more or stop and make a top.

Ice Quilt blocks

Lenten Stole – I make stoles for my professional work life. Last year I made one for dad and another just the same for me. He got his all nice and lovely for his birthday or was it Christmas. But mine is still hanging, staring at me daring me to finish it. Just need to put on the binding and some bling.

Lent Stole

Three Kings – I started this in 2009 when the Dh was posted out and I needed to fill in long evenings. It lovely and rich in color and about halfway done.Sorry no photo for this one yet.

And is there more you ask?

YUP.

But that is enough for now or else we will both be overwhelmed.

WEM Retreat

2012-01-26T17:46:00.000-08:00

I know some may be surprised at why I went to a hotel/mall for a retreat rather than a convent or other church run facility but if you know me well its not so strange. First, I do like to multi task and use my time well so somewhere that I can accomplish a few things at once is fantastic. I was able to complete five objectives in this one trip.

The setting I chose is not so unusual when you consider it further. One, you can be alone in a crowd of people as easily as you can be in a solitary setting. Two, the relevance of the church is regularly in competition with the marketplace/ mall. Why not get a sense of the competition, see its values in opposition to mine and the church. More importantly why not explore where God’s call comes in to play in that mix of personal desire, faith and consumerism.

I had a glimmer of plan worked out on how I would go about this exploration. I began each day with prayer and a simple breakfast. I just love the Prayer as you Go website, http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/. It has a lovely combination of prayer, reflective questions, and music. Also its no more than 15 minutes long so one doesn’t fall asleep mid way (LOL). Following that I did a bit of exercise – yoga or Pilates in my room to get my energy up. Then I read.

The books on my list were Marcus Borg’s “Speaking Christian” and Barbara Brown Taylors’ “When God is Silent.” Normally I have a few more that I try to get thru but I wanted to savour what I was reading and have the opportunity to reflect deeply. Okay sometimes the deep reflection was overcome with deep snoring, but that’s fine too.

I can see now that my unintentional theme was about language – its use, over use and the need for silence. Since the middle of November I have found myself to be preferring silence, and listening deeply to those around me. Yes at times I have some things to say that I want to be heard, but often I check myself to see if what I want to share is just useless babble or has some depth to it. Got to tell you, I find that a lot of our conversation is pretty trivial and superficial. This is saddening as most folks just want to be known. So often we get lost in a jumble of activities and words, missing the opportunity to connect deeply in a way of healing in another person’s life. This is a message that I hear over and over from young sailors new to the Canadian Forces who find themselves in a new setting, far from home, unknown to those around them. I think in that connection of being known is the voice of God, the manna from heaven, our daily bread. And how often do we not recognize it, preferring stale bread, false substitutes and empty words?

I was profoundly struck by Barbara Brown Taylor's paraphrase of Amos 8: 11- 12 while I was at the mall.

“Their prophets shall die and not be replaced. Their leaders shall speak words of promise but no power and their merchants shall fill the air with their babble. Their temples shall be full of the sound of their own voices. When they pray they shall hear nothing but wind. I shall make an orphan of their mother tongue, says the Lord God. I shall let them choke on the dead husks of their own words until they beg me for fresh bread from heaven.“

From When God is Silent.

There in the middle of the mall, surrounded by Coach Handbags, hand painted lingerie, wonderful shoes, one can indeed see the spiritual famine in the land of plenty. Listening to the babble of the marketplace you comprehend the shift in language, while experiencing how broken our language is and how much we lost. As aside at work, the Combat Systems Engineer instructors, have a massive white board in their office which they filled up with thousands of words which students, the average age is 20 years, have misspelled or misinterpreted in their use when writing quizzes or papers. The brokenness of our language is pervasive throughout the whole of society and not just limited to the church.

My question in this revelation is, how can it be healed? What is my role in speaking a language of faith with depth and awareness of the direction of the Holy God?

WIP Wednesday

2012-01-25T16:42:00.000-08:00

Its WIP Wednesday once more. I don't have a lot to show for it, sadly as I was away for five days to Edmonton. Work is still on going on my brown hopskotch quilt that I started a few weeks ago. All I need to do is lay out the blocks, get them in a pleasing order and sew them together.

Swanky Hour Glass

I also got the binding done on the swanky quilt. I just love how it turned out. Its soft yet vibrant and the simple pattern shows it off the wonderful quilting that Arlene did. Perfect for a crib. I really like this flower pattern that she used. It mimics one of the flowers on the fabric quite nicely.

quilt pattern on Swanky

Hopefully next week I will have a bit more to share.