Called By The Lord Your God

Last year at the end of March 2018 my sweet hubby and I had the privilege of flying to 29Palms, CA for the Constitution Ceremony of Pillar Church of 29Palms that our church had planted the previous year when three families were sent to the desert to plant said church.

My original intention was to create quilts to give to each of the families when they were sent off, but alas I had too many other obligations to meet that self-imposed deadline. After sending the families off, I immediately set a new goal of having all three quilts finished by the time the church was constituted, which was scheduled for May 2018.

But then God did a miraculous work. The church plant was growing so quickly they were ready to constitute much sooner than they had expected and they moved the ceremony to March and I panicked a bit, I hadn't started any of the quilts let alone picked out any of the fabric. Late-February I started digging through my stash picking out fabric. I finally started cutting out pieces February 27th.

strips cut and organized, ready to piece

Quilt tops pieced and ready to sandwich for quilting

pinned and ready to quilt

Amazingly I had all three quilts finished and ready to pack by March 21, just a day or two before it was time to leave. Normally I'm finishing up those last stitches on the binding while we travel to our destination. But this time, by the grace of God I was finished and I could breathe a sigh of relief.

These three quilts were almost the only thing in my luggage. I wasn't about to send them through in a checked bag and risk the possibility of losing my luggage. 

We flew into Las Vegas and our friends came to pick us up for the drive to 29 Palms.  Seeing the Grand Canyon from the air was pretty awe inspiring...now I just need to visit it from the ground someday. I can only imagine how amazing it is up close and personal.

Grand Canyon as seen from the plane.

We greatly enjoyed catching up with friends and hearing about the amazing work God was using them to do right there in the desert. What a blessing to be even a small part of their work and what an honor to be invited to be there for the Constitution Service of this new church. 

My sweet hubby was given the honor of installing both pastors.

Beautiful

Constitution ready for the founding members to sign during the service.

After dinner one evening we finally had the opportunity to present all three families with their personal quilt made and prayed over with them in mind.

The crazy thing is I always worry that the recipients of the quilts I make won't like them. But gauging from the huge smiles and ohhhs and ahhhs we heard, I think it can safely be said that they were loved and appreciated. 

This label was on each quilt with each families name

Before we headed back to Virginia we took a trip to Joshua Tree National Park for a short hike. 

My sweet hubby

 And much too quickly it was time to head back to Las Vegas for our flight home. We were on the road before sunrise which gave me the opportunity for some interesting silhouette shots as the sun came up.

Coal Train at Sunrise

Joshua Trees at Sunrise

Quilting Stats (each quilt is approximately the same):

Quilt Name: "Called By The Lord Your God"

Approx. Finished size: 48" x 66"

Quilt Pattern: LogCabin Christian Cross by QuiltFOX Design

Batting: Heirloom Premium Batting 80/20 Blend

Quilting Thread: 50wt. Aurifil

Quilting: Free Motion Quilted using Artistic Quilter SD18

Thank you for stopping by and sharing in my quilting journey!

Happy Quilting and God Bless,
Marcia

Lunden's Memory Quilt {A Finish}

When a friend contacted me asking if I could make a memory quilt for her dear friend whose child had recently passed away from of course I accepted such an honor. 

I was thrilled to find the perfect border fabrics on the shop shelves, it was as if it were meant to be.

If you've been reading my blog for very long you already know that I'm using the Too Cool T-shirt Quilt method for the cutting and piecing of these quilts. 

 Normally I don't add any stabilizer to the blocks when I do t-shirt quilts, but in this collection of clothing items were a few pieces that really needed to be stabilized. One was a satin that was just raveled too much with it, another was a seersucker fabric that seemed to stretch when you looked at it, and last was a thin eyelet fabric that was especially thin and needed a little more weight to stand up to being quilted and loved. 

For the blocks I choose to keep the little hat and the bib whole using pieces from other items as the background piece for these applique blocks. Then there were several pockets, bows, embroidery designs, and special tags that I fussy cut to create adorable and meaningful blocks.

When it came to quilting the clothing blocks I choose to use a combination of butterflies and flowers intermixed among continuous swirls, it all seemed sweet and perfect for a little girl's memory quilt.

 Love the swirls and paisley's for the border design.

 On every label I offer space for the giver to add a special note to the recipient.
One can never fail with Scripture.

 Such a sweet quilt.

Quilting Stats:

Quilt Name: "In Loving Memory of Lunden"

 Finished size: 56-1/2" x 60-1/2""

Quilt Pattern: Too Cool T-Shirt Quilts

Batting: Heirloom Premium Batting 80/20 Blend

Quilting Thread: 50wt. Aurifil - White #2024, Blossom Pink #2530

Quilting: Free Motion Quilted using Artistic Quilter SD18

Thank you for stopping by and sharing in my quilting journey!

Happy Quilting and God Bless,
Marcia

A Memory Quilt for Mason

 

I've hesitated over the years to write about this special quilt I had the honor of creating. It comes from a very sad time for our family and especially for Mason's mom and dad. When Mason was just 2 months old SIDs took him from us and we mourned deeply.  We take comfort in knowing that Mason is safe in the presence of the Lord Christ Jesus.  A few years after his passing I approached my Sister-in-law and asked her if I could make a memory quilt from Mason's clothing for them. I was truly humbled that she entrusted these precious clothing items and blankets into my hands.
 

On our next visit I received the items and took them home with me to create a precious quilt.
It didn't take me long to realize that I didn't want to cut these items up into smaller pieces to create a sampler type of quilt that I had originally planned. The clothes were so tiny they needed to remain as they were.  The one request my Sister-in-law made when she gave me the items was to incorporate the puppy dog quilt, which was a gift from a dear friend, in the center of this larger quilt. 

 Step one was to carefully prepare the puppy dog quilt so it could be used as the center block.  Since I had chosen to use the blankets as the background fabric for the clothing items it was a matter of deciding how best to lay everything out, which took a bit of experimentation.  I didn't want to cut into anything before knowing what sizes I really needed, I didn't want to regret a single cut I was going to make into these precious items, so I started by folding the blankets into approximate block sizes that would work with each clothing item and laid them out around the center quilt block.

 The only fabric I added to the quilt top was a strip of yellow as the background for Mason's name to be appliqued onto it. With the yellow name stripe in place and a little more rearranging I was ready to start cutting the blankets into the perfect sizes and adding stabilizer to back of each one.

The clothing and name were first backed with Heat n Bond, ironed into place, then appliqued in place with a close zig-zag stitch.

 

 To create Mason's name I used fabric from one of his blankets.

 

 To keep the clothing and blankets the star of the quilt I choose to do a simple meander around the clothing.

 For the binding I chose to use the same yellow fabric I had used as the background behind Mason's name. 

 Finished are ready for an emotional delivery.

The day of delivery was truly a bittersweet day. Surrounded by family and friends the quilt was presented, tears were shed once again as we remembered sweet little Mason's life with us and how much he is truly missed.  I pray that this quilt offers comfort and hope to my dear sister-in-law and her husband.

Quilt Stats:

Quilt Name: "Mason's Memory Quilt"

Batting: Heirloom Premium Cotton 80/20 Blend

Quilting Thread: 50wt. Aurifil

Quilting: Free Motion Quilted using my Husqvarna Sapphire 875Q domestic sewing machine

 

 

Thank you for stopping by and sharing in my quilting journey!

Happy Quilting and God Bless,
Marcia