Friday Finish!

Prayer Quilt for Tommy and Tami

This quilt was finished and mailed a few weeks ago.
I've been wanting to share it here, but it was a little too painful.

This quilt was made through our church's prayer quilt ministry (which gets LOTS of support from quilters throughout the world!  God is so cool like that!) 

We received this gorgeous 25-patch quilt top by mail!!  (If you made this top, please wave your hand and take a little bow!--this is an awesome quilt top!! Thank you! Thank You! Thank You! for taking part in this ministry!)

I added borders and did the binding.  Sarah quilted it.  As a group we prayed over it.

Close-up of Prayer Quilt--has a snuggly flannel back.

The quilt was mailed to a precious friend of my husband to encourage and comfort him as he battles cancer.  My heart sings whenever I spend time helping with the Quilt Ministry, but it's still hard when the quilt is destined for someone dear to you.

I am Rejoicing in the Lord today! 
Thank You for blessing my life with the Quilt Ministry, Lord! 
Thank you for all the precious fellowship that occurs as we create these special quilts! 
Thank You for Your Love and Your Sweet Son Jesus!

I am richly blessed.

May your day be blessed as You Rejoice in the Lord!
pam



Linked to Confessions of a Fabric Addict. and
Crazy Mom Quilts

Friday Fun!

Scrappy String Quilt
I  love the little hands holding the quilt!
And if you look closely, you'll notice our sock collection
which is quite handy because you never really know when
when your feet will get cold and you might want a sock!

Hooray!!  I have a finish!  A finished top, at least (celebrate every victory, I say!)  Remember my post about playing first?  Well, guess what?  When you sew a little every day, you actually get things done!  Funny how those things go together!!

This quilt is made entirely from my stash.  I found a box with the scrappy string blocks with the purple centers and decided to play with sashings and cornerstones.  The outer purple border was chosen because I had enough of it (I know you were hoping to hear of my genius and creativity, but no...sometimes a fabric makes the cut simply based on yardage on hand!)

I am actually thinking of having this machine quilted by a friend with a longarm!  GASP!  This is a major step towards creative happiness for me.  You see I've always felt that I had to complete all of my quilts for them to be mine.  I love finishing my own quilts, but this is so freeing to dump my rigid rules and allow myself the freedom to choose to send my top for quilting. 

Wednesday Night Quilt Ministry
Sarah C. is standing near the center--in the white shirt

I am so blessed to get to sew and fellowship with dear friends every week!!  I took these pictures at our weekly quilt ministry gathering.  Sarah calls it our Sweat Shop!  There is so much going on in this room every week.  I think of it as organized chaos. 

Another view of our  precious group. 
God is so good to us!

Sewing with friends has blessed my life beyond measure.  I am so thankful that I get to be a part of this quilt ministry. 

***********

Last night I saw a Christmas sewing project that made my heart skip a beat.  It's actually a mystery type thing, I think.  I'm new to this way of playing.  Anyway, I got all jazzed up (I finished that top, so of course I should start another project to keep the solar system equilibrium in order!) and cut nearly all the pieces and will be ready to sew when they post the first step. 

This is even more fun because I pulled all the fabric right out of my stash.  I'm not against buying fabric (oh no, not me!), but I get a special thrill from using what I already have. 

So tell us what fun thing you are doing today!!

may your day be blessed beyond measure!
pam


This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
              Psalm 118:24
Linked to Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday!
Also linked to Crazy Mom Quilts!

Updates!

Time flies when you are having fun (or running full tilt boogie like your hair is on fire!)

The days just move too fast for my liking. 


Farm Happenings

Bob the Bottle Calf
I've been afraid to say this out loud, but I think it's safe to proclaim that Bob the Bottle calf's navel abscess is healed!!  ALL the Glory goes to God!  He blessed me with a great vet with lots of ideas, who also respected my thoughts and observations.  God gave me patience and endurance to doctor Bob's wound twice daily for about 3 1/2 months.  God also put my previous training as a nurse to good use. 

Annabelle and Bob
(Bob is sad with this new "milkless" arrangement!)

In the end it was most definitely God who strengthened Bob and gave me courage to let the abscess heal over and encapsulate (this flies totally in the face of all that past training!).  I still check Bob's belly periodically and have to sing a little verse of praise every time I realize that the infection has resolved!!

Shortly after the infection healed, I had to make an executive decision and wean Bob away from Bambi (my Jersey milk cow).  I really wanted to let her nurse longer, but Bob was starting to scare me.  That probably sounds strange....I'll try to explain.  Because of so much handling by me, on some level Bob thinks of me as her mother.  This leads to a myriad of problems since Bob rapidly outgrew me in size and strength.  As long as Bob nursed I needed to lead her in and out of Bambi's paddock (unless we didn't want any milk that day).  Bob grew really pushy with me....literally.  She would no longer walk at my side, instead she shadowed right behind me and tried to bump me along with her head.  She would even come running up in the pasture and start head bumping me to get my attention.  Trust me, she had it.  It gave me the creeps and I started being fearful for myself and my kids, too. 

"Don't worry, Bob, you'll get through this."

The good news is that just a few weeks after giving up her favorite drink and not being handled very much, Bob has settled down and is much calmer when I need to be around her.  She still loves a good chin scratch and she moo's when she sees me, but she's no longer acting like an overgrown toddler. 


Chickens
We've had a rough couple weeks with chickens.  We lost 2 laying hens.  It seems that a fox made off with the first and a hawk tried to take the other. 

Chicks at about 3 weeks.
Sort of an ugly stage with half of feathers grown in.

On the same day, a raccoon got through some electric fencing, reached into the coop where we are raising our meat birds.  The coon killed one and badly wounded another.  The wounded chick lived in our garage for a while.  She's been relocated back with the other chicks.  We still have to keep her in a separate pen because some of the other birds pick on her.  (the pecking order is everywhere!)  I'm amazed at how God instilled us and all of His creatures with a will to live.  I was sure this little chick wouldn't survive for an hour after I found her, but here she is a week later....alive and growing stronger each day.

Quilty Stuff

Quilting time is shriveling up like a raisin with the summer garden and mowing and such upon us.  I'm ok with that though.  I tend to feel better when I go with the flow of the seasons and the specific work of each.... instead of demanding that life stay the same and allow me to do what I want to do all the time (trust me, I've tried the latter method, too....it wasn't pretty!)

I am still doing a bit of hand piecing on the fly.  This new pattern and stamp set by Cindy Blackberg is fun.  The  pieces are larger than the ones that I usually work with, so it goes together faster. 

Quilt Top for ministry.
Made from donated blocks.
2013

I did finish sewing a quilt top together at during our Wednesday Quilt Ministry gatherings.  This was made from donated blocks.  I sashed the blocks and added borders.  Sarah quilted it and the quilt has already been given away.  :) 

I'm trying to finish a quilt to send to an orphanage in Ethiopia through Sarah's Hands to Help project. 


Health and Well-Being

Wheat
I'm still doing the wheat-free thing. (Amazon affiliate link)  For the most part anyway.  Oddly enough, I really don't miss the wheat foods.  It's hard to figure out what to prepare for meals in their place, but I don't miss eating them.  My daytime energy level remains at a good constant level.  This is such a blessing! 

many blessings,
pam


May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.  Psalm 20:1


Linked to Homestead Barn Hop

This and That

Hey, Hey!  I have a finish to report!  Well, sort of.  It's finished as far as I need to take it.  This is a top for the Quilt Ministry.  The center section was donated by a quilter.  It came as a large quilt top.  My job was to take some of it apart and create 2 quilts from it.  This is the second of the 2.  I just finished adding the borders and will deliver to Sarah tomorrow for quilting. 

*******************
I plucked a random sample from each of my sheep as we changed their jackets.  Yes, my sheep wear little jackets.  It's always sort of odd to explain to visitors why my sheep wear coats.  The first question that I usually hear is, "Are they cold?" 

Nope.  They aren't cold, but they are messy.  I spin their fleece and make yarn with it.  It's yet another of my odd crafty interests.  I bought my 3 little Shetland sheep last year.  This is the yarn / knitting equivalent of  growing cotton in my garden and then weaving my own quilting fabric with it.  (no, I don't....not yet, anyway!)

Fiber crafts are a slippery (fun) slope! 

******************
Project 40 is rolling along.  I have enlisted a Project 40 friend to help sew up the strips!  Hooray for Karen A!!  Karen just put these 2 lap blankets together with strips from assorted "Strippers".

***************

Time to share another off-beat tidbit about myself. 
I hate processed food.  I've been learning to cook with whole foods for a number of years and have been gradually weaning my family off of packages, mixes, and cans that have ingredients that we can't pronounce. 

A couple weeks ago, I found an e-cookbook that I love!  It's full of favorite recipes that I haven't used in a long time.  Katie Kimball has refurbished these old comfort foods and given us new (old) recipes.  She cooks them the way our grandmothers (or at least great grandmothers) would have made them.  Maybe we should call this Vintage Cooking!

Check out this great e-book!

In less than 2 weeks, I've already used 4 recipes from this book!!  Definitely a record for me.
My family loved them all and I didn't have to feel guilty about dumping a bunch of artificial chemical mixes in any of them!

Here is what we've enjoyed so far:
Cheeseburger Helper (you know, like the box with the gloved helping hand on it!)
Black Bean and Chicken Impossible Pie
Chicken and Biscuits Casserole
Beef and Potato Hash (I think it had a fancier name, but I can't think of it).

I'm getting ready to order more of Katie's books. 


Disclaimer:  Yes, I signed on as an affiliate after trying these great recipes.  I figured I was going to tell you about them anyway, so I might as well make a wee little bit of money for each cookbook that you buy!  The FCC (or some other highly interesting entity) requires me to disclose this.  :)  I'm sure they don't have anything better to worry about.

That's all for now.
blessings,

pam

Linked to  Sarah's Whoop Whoop! and Finish it up Friday.

When Passion Meets Purpose

Last evening I received an email from Sarah requesting guy quilts for the Quilt Ministry.  I had been making some scrappy "guy" blocks (that's code for dull colors) for the ministry and realized I had enough to put a top together.

Sarah included a couple Bible verses that she had been thinking of.  This one really hit home for me:

Luke 12:48:  Much will be required of everyone who has been given much. And even more will be expected of the one who has been entrusted with more.

I have been given so much.  This was a chance for me to give back.

I threw the blocks on my design floor and started treadling my heart out.  I only mention the treadle, because I was so into sewing this up that I forgot to switch to electric (and have some hip pain to prove it!)

I wasn't able to sew all the blocks into rows before bed....It was hard to leave because I knew the layout was in great peril due to its location amidst the traffic flow.  Thankfully, it survived the kids (even when they started a game of jumping over it).

Our sewing group met tonight and I was able to finish sewing the rows together just before Sarah left.  She's going to quilt it on her longarm.  Phew!  It feels good to finish a top faster than my usual turtle pace.

God is good.  This ministry gives my passion a purpose!

May the work of my hands and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to You, O Lord.

blessings,
pam