Spring 2020 Projects

As we move into summer, here are a few projects I completed after the Christmas rush:

For my elephant-loving daughter-in-love, there was a small elephant quilt wall hanging.

For Valentine's Day, fabric envelopes with greetings and sweets.

And masks-- I am still making them, and giving them to family, friends, and a grass-roots organization serving Northern New Mexico.  My current count of masks completed is 385.

For Grandson #2's 3rd birthday I made a felt activity book.  Here are the page spreads:

The cover...

The solar system, with buttonable planets

The Millenium Falcom and a rocket ship puzzle.

Star Wars finger puppets

Counting activities-- different shaped buttons under the flaps.

Matching activity, and a weather page

A marble maze for the back cover.

A market bag with "Paris" on the fabric

And last, but not least, a quilt for Granddaughter #3 for her birthday in a couple weeks.  Shh- don;t tell her!

And in the wings: a baby quilt for a church shower almost complete, a lap quilt pinned and ready to quilt, more masks, and Cousins Camp on the way!

What I'm reading

Christ, our passover, has been sacrificed for us. Here we rest, protected by the paschal blood, and feeding on the paschal lamb, with its unleavened bread and bitter herbs, from day to day. Let us keep the feast. Wherever we are, let us keep it. For we carry our passover with us, always ready, always fresh. With girded loins and staff in hand, as wayfarers, we move along, through the rough or the smooth of the wilderness, our face towards the land of promise.

~H. Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness, p.134

Faith

By a natural figure of speech, faith is often magnified into something great; whereas it is really nothing but our consent to be saved by another: its supposed magnitude is derived from the greatness of the object which it grasps, the excellence of the righteousness which it accepts.  Its preciousness is not its own, but the preciousness of Him to whom it links us.
~H. Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness, p.109

Quote for the day

If the cross be the mere exhibition of self-sacrifice and patient meekness, then the hope of the world is gone.
~Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness, p.99

What I'm Reading

In his book on the armor of God from Ephesians 6, Iain Duguid begins by discussing the great need we have for fighting the darkness around us in more than our own strength: we are so weak and the darkness is so great.  I loved this way of summing up the problem:

Of course, adding to the imbalance in this wrestling match is the fact that although our opponents are not flesh and blood, we are.  We are not principalities and powers or cosmic rulers but ordinary, flawed, fallen, flesh-and-blood mortals.  You might think we have no business engaging in this combat; in the language of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, it is hobbits against orcs, an unequal contest.  Yet this is exactly the battle in which we are engaged. Serving in the Lord's army is not an option reserved for those particularly devoted to God.  The choice is not whether you will be a Christian soldier or a Christian civilian but whether you will be a prepared soldier or an unprepared one.  And an unprepared soldier of flesh and blood will not be able to stand against the scale of the spiritual forces ranged against him or her.
~Iain M. Duguid, The Whole Armor of God: How Christ's Victory Strengthens Us for Spiritual Warfare, p.12

What I'm reading

It is the conscious absence of all good things that leads us to the fountain of all goodness. That fountain is open to all who thus come; it is closed against all who come on any other footing. It is the want of light and life that draws us to the one source of both; and both of these are the free gift of God.
~H. Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness, pp.77-78

Projects and 2019 UFOs

I ended my sewing year by finishing a few projects, and leaving several quilt tops pieced but un-sandwiched and un-quilted.  Here's the run-down for those of you who enjoy such things:

I made a plethora of button tree ornaments for my grandchildren and nieces.

Each tree has the receiver's initials and the year machine-embroidered on the ribbon.

I also completed 11 sets of  quilted coasters for church friends, neighbors, and family.

The only large quilt (extra-long twin) completed at the end of the year was this one for Ada's birthday, and  it is being given to her on Sunday, Jan 12, when she amazingly turns 8 years old.  Last fall she told me her baby quilt was too small for her bed now, and was falling apart.  She really hoped she could get a new one.  And her favorite shape is the triangle, so could I please make her a triangle quilt.  All you have to do is ask, Ada Bell!

Then for the UFOs.  UFOs in quilting parlance are Un-Finished Objects.  I have several projects in the works and in various stages, but I did complete three tops this year which I hope to quilt in the near future:

I am already dreaming about and working on the new projects for 2020.  How about you, Gentle Reader?