Bound with Love

Well, they will be soon.  These little ones are so fast to make!  Imagine 4 quilts in a week!  I'll get the binding stitched up by hand and send these on to the workworking elves so they can pair up a quilt with a cradle or bed.

One of my favorite passages is from Colossians 3, which encourages us to treat others with love because we are loved.  It goes like this :

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved,clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

I think about love binding all these virtues as I hand sew my binding on my quilts.  The binding covers those rough edges and loose threads.  It unifies the quilt top, batting, backing and quilting threads to make a quilt complete.  I need to remember how much I've been pardoned when I feel impatient with others so we can continue to enjoy the unity we've been given through Jesus.  It's harder to do this with our own family, isn't it?

Doll Quilts

The Peter Rabbit stripes were pieced from leftover border fabric.  I didn't do anything fancy since the fabric is so neat by itself.  I thought the daylight would be good lighting, but everything is sort of greenish.  There really are pinks in these fabrics too.

No blocks, just showing off this cool fabric

 These leftover blocks are also from that same Peter Rabbit quilt.  This was a grandbaby gift for our neighbors across the street from us.  I'm glad the camera angle and (lack of) lighting allows you to see the quilting stitches.  I like this texture.

Rail fences leftover from a Warm Wishes quilt

I had a weird piece of batting - 100% cotton and I'm guessing I had pre-washed it years ago.  It felt a little different, but still good quality.  No gaps or clumps.  I decided to try doubling up the batting to quilt this one.  I like the overall texture very much, but sometimes the hopping foot didn't want to go to those seam intersections since the quilt sandwich was thicker than usual.  Maybe the continuous curves wasn't a good selection for the quilting choice here.

These again are extra blocks from a baby quilt I made for a missionary family in Kazakhstan which our church was supporting.  This family is now back in the states and I keep up with them by visiting with them Facebook.

Finally, this little quilt came from a jelly roll of batiks I purchased a couple of years ago.  Since no one told me that you're allowed to use jelly rolls (usually a set of 40 strips, each 2.5 inches wide by the width of the fabric) without prewashing them, I made a huge mess of all those strips.  The strings all tangled together when I tried to retrieve them from the washing machine and again from the dryer.  I got disgusted and shoved them in the back of a plastic bin drawer.  With a little steam and patience, these came together to make a cute string quilt - no foundation.  I loved playing with the variegated threads and making up a different design for each strip.  This one is my favorite, even though it doesn't show off any piecing. 

You have my permission to NEVER pre-wash a jelly roll!

I doodled some designs today for another customer quilt and sent them to her via email.  It will be fun to get her ideas and get started on this one.  She's eager to have it finished quickly so she can start using it soon - before Christmas.

I wanted to stop by the Veteran's memorial park this afternoon after dropping off our teens for a retreat.  But ... the news crew was there filming.  I didn't want to go there for a cameo in the local news, nor to be interviewed about my opinions of the new park.  So, I'll stroll by there later this weekend when it's not in the limelight.  Until then, I am thankful for those who were willing to sacrifice their own freedom to ensure we can all enjoy ours. 

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars