Ribbon Star

It all started a few weeks ago,

when this picture showed up in my IG feed.

I thought, 

"Oh that is gorgeous! I need some!"

(Y'all know how I love Art Gallery fabrics...)

Then I remembered

that I am not the sort of person 

who purchases impulsively,

so I did not rush to Etsy 

and buy some.

But I thought about that fabric

almost every day

for over a week,

and when I decided it was no longer an impulse purchase

and looked for it,

I found a shop that was having a 25% off sale,

and I didn't want to lose money on it,

so I stuck 4 yards in my cart,

because wouldn't it make a fantastic backing?!

And then,

thinking I might need a bit more 

for pattern matching such a large print,

I added another 1/2 yard.

While I was waiting for my fabric to arrive,

I saw this picture

and after oohing and ahhing over the gorgeous baby

in the matching sweater

I thought,

"Oh. 

that would look really nice in some of that fusion fabric...."

But I argued with myself,

"no ~ you bought that to be a quilt back..."

But then I remembered that 

I bought an extra 1/2 yard!

(I'll worry about the pattern matching business later)

and started scheming,

and drew up a pattern.

When my fabric arrived

and I set about finding my fabrics to go with it,

I realized that my typical stash building with fat quarters

was not going to work for this quilt.

And it seemed foolish to buy more fabric,

when I already have quite a lot,

just to make this one quilt

that I really  have no use for.

So I decided that I would save all of the fabric 

for a backing

and not make that sweet star quilt.

And I was going to follow through on that plan.

Really I was.

Except that,

I had already decided how I was going to quilt it.

And when you already know how you are going to quilt something,
and you smack are in the middle of
Operation Up My Quilting Game,

it sort of seems like you should make it,

don't you think??

So.

On Tuesday,

a little before lunch time,

I ran to Fort Smith real quick

and found a Grunge fabric that matched almost perfectly

and got to work.

By late afternoon,

I had a quilt top.

And by late Friday morning,

she was ready to go in the wash.

I'm so tickled with how Ribbon Star turned out;

it's just as I pictured.

I still need to perfect my feather technique

(tips appreciated!)

but they are plenty passable.

And my swirls,

though not perfect,

look pretty great.

After I quilted the first ribbon section,

I giddily told Tyler,

"I am actually getting good at this!"

Which feels really nice.

I'm not sure yet

 if I'm going to list this one in my shop

or save it to donate somewhere else.

But I sure am glad I 

dropped everything

and made it.

Linking up with MMM's DREAMi
and Amanda Jean.

what's up Wednesday

Since I was (am) still low on strength and energy,

we didn't finish 

everything on our list

over the weekend,

but we did finish what we needed to 

in Brandon's room.

Bed switch-a-roos were made on Sunday

and now all 5 of the younguns

are sleeping in the new house.

We should be able to join them in about 2 weeks.

~

On Moday

I got to spend about 15 minutes 

playing with my friend's new longarm.

Someday,

I will own one.

~

Yesterday,

I pieced this little beauty.

I'm not sure yet what I'll do with it.

I'll either put it in the shop

or donate it.

color is more accurate in this picture

I'm hoping to do some more quilting today.

(without seam ripping...)

My machine is getting crankier again.

I'm thankful I was able to finish Sojourner

without too much trouble!

Sadly,

it'll need to go back in the shop

before I can attempt to quilt my next 'important' quilt.

sigh.

~

Josiah has been playing the cajon

with the youth praise team.

The only instruction he's recieved

has been from Brandon,

who is not a percussionist.

Our music minister has found a man, 

who is a percussionist,

who is willing to give Josiah lessons.

He starts Sunday.

~

I read a few books on my Kindle 

while I was sick.

My favorite of them was The Short Drop

by Matthew Fitzsimmons.

Pretty much all of my kindle books

were either free 

or purchased for a dollar,

but now I've read them all

(all of the fiction, that is - I have a few non-fiction still,

but who wants to read about Keto and simplifying your life

when you can barely hold your head up?)

so I'm going to have to either buy a few,

or figure out how to borrow them.

Know of any good, cheap e-books??

say this; not that

I'm in an admittedly irritable mood.

Probably something to do with being sick for days.

(I'm no longer miserable,

but I don't yet have energy to actually do much of anything,

and I assure you -

there are all sorts of things that need doing...)

But what I'm fixing to talk about 

has bothered me for almost 2 years now,

so it can't be blamed on my irritability.

The reason I'm actually addressing it 

is 

quite possibly 

because

of the aforementioned mood.

~

Once of my Instagram friends 

shared a personal story of a long time dream

finally realized.

Most responses were a variation of 

"congratulations"

and 

my favorite, "I am so happy for you!"

But there was also at least one

"I'm so jealous"

which is what sent me here.

~

Can I just tell you,

as someone who has sacrificed greatly

and worked very hard to achieve a goal,

that is an absolutely awful response!!

Be happy with me,

don't be jealous of me!

It's not congratulatory.

It's not a compliment.

And it's not kind.

Stop saying it.

here lately

Despite all of my precautions,

I've been flat laid out by the vile virus

that's been making its rounds.

Since I finally have enough strength to type

(not hold my head up and type,

mind you,

just type...)

I figured I'd pop in here for a few minutes.

~

Based on my cooking thermometer,

the kitchen was 50 degrees this morning.

That's with heaters in the kitchen, dining room and LEM

going full blast all night long.

The living room

(another heater - full blast all night)

was only slightly warmer.

I am so ready to be out of this house!!

~

I'm also absolutely overwhelmed

with all of the work we still have to do

for that to happen.

I told Tyler that when we moved

 - and by moved, I mean our bed; not everything -

we are taking at least 2 weeks off.

We are closer to moving today

though

than we've ever been.

So there's that.

(I stole that line from my sister in law :-)

~

Let's see.

We did all camp out in the new house 

on Christmas Eve

and woke up nice and toasty

and had a warm and peaceful morning.

Well, whole day, really.

not that I like mess or anything - but this makes me happy because there is room for mess, without Momma freaking out.

Brandon's closet is finished

I love it so so much!

so all his room needs 

in order for him to move in

is baseboards in the closet

and we need to nail, fill, caulk and paint

the baseboards that are already in place around his room.

Something to cover the window might be nice too.

And a doorknob.

Of course there's plenty more that needs doing,

but that can come later.

~

The kitchen cabinets are painted!!

(picture to come when I feel up to walking out there

 and snapping one)

We opted to pay (big) money to have them

professionally painted.

I wasn't overly excited about the idea,

but the thought of all that prep work

(and how long it would take!)

persuaded me.

I'm not thrilled with my color (SW Watery) choice

(or rather - how it looks on the cabinets.

I'm still bamboozled about this,

because I am good with the dot of paint on the can)

but I am choosing to be happy with them.

I'm sure I'll like it better 

when we've added knobs and pulls

a black walnut counter top

and a backsplash.

~

Tyler helped me get the boards ready

(seriously - the prep work on all of these projects!!)

and while he was gone on a business trip last week,

I finished staining them,

sealed 'em,

and then

Lily and I built the closet shelving in the master closet.

(she was the only non-sick kid)

the shelves look really narrow, for some reason, but they're 11 3/4". 

I left an embarrassing number of nails

for Tyler to cut off.

Actually,

there were so many,

it passed embarrassing

and went to downright ridiculous. 

I told him I am losing all of my badges

in the home stretch 😖

I still need to buy the rods and rod hangers

but those aren't needed for the baseboards to go in.

Baseboards, you may know,

 mean one giant step closer to carpet.

And carpet means 

we can move the bed in!

Sojourner, a finished quilt

This was a fun one,

and I am so so pleased with how it turned out!!

Back in April,

Billie told me she'd like to order a quilt.

That started off a flurry of messages,

and sending links back and forth

so I could get a feel for what she liked.

We ended up choosing Kathleen's Gypsy Wife quilt

as inspiration.

I thought at the time

that it was not an actual Gypsy Wife,

because her fabric choices 

made it look so different from all of the others I'd seen

but Hydee assures me it does follow the pattern.

Not knowing that, though, 

I drew up my own pattern /map.

I told Tyler and Brandon during a brain storming session

that I wanted a name that was similar to Gypsy Wife

but more appropriate for this quilt

and for Billie and Andy,

and when somebody tossed out 'sojourner',

I knew we'd found it.

You see,

Andy and Billie are currently living in Bosnia

teaching English,

using the Bible.

Not only are they currently literally sojourning,

they live their entire lives

with a Kingdom focus,

as if this earth is not their home,

so the name was doubly perfect.

I ordered lots of fabric

and even ordered a couple of jelly rolls for greater variety

(there are at least 156 different fabrics in this quilt!)

and started piecing on May 23rd,

not long after finishing up my niece's epic quilt.

I finished the 64 x 80 inch top in mid July

and then sewed the backing.

We went with a wool batting and lawn backing

to produce an exceptionally luscious quilt

and I basted the layers together with Lily's help

in late July.

I didn't actually start on the quilting until mid September

because I quilted Sparkle first,

so I could give it to my sister sooner

and also so I could just get in more quilting practice.

Using a quilt of Kathleen's as inspiration

was rather intimidating!

I'd already told Billie that my quilting

wasn't going to look anywhere near as good as Kathleen's,

but still, I didn't want her dissappointed,

ya know?!

I watched videos

and practiced practiced practiced

a whole bunch of new to me quilting motifs.

And then,

to make sure I was ready,

I made a whole practice quilt.

All of that paid off,

and I am ridiculously proud 

of the quilting on this one!

I feel like I have grown so much as a quilter this year,

even though I was sooo busy with building 

that I only made a few quilts.

I know that Angela Walters says

that seam ripping doesn't make you a better quilter,

so you should never un-do your quilting,

but I unpicked quite a few 

less than excellent lines of quilting anyways.

It might not make me a better quilter,

but it makes the quilt better,

so it makes me a happier quilter.

And that's better ~ right?

Because I love adding scripture to quilts,

I quilted in 2 verses;

"How beautiful are the feet of them that bring good news"

and

Psalm 146:9

"The Lord watches over the sojourners."

How perfect is that?!

I love the image of God himself

watching over my friends.

My photographer friend, Lisa,

 was going to take pictures of this beauty for me

but I wasn't done with it at the appointed time : /

I finished sewing on the binding

about 26 hours

 before they were going to be picking up the quilt.

(and still had to make the label!)

Even though it wasn't done done,

all washed and crinkly,

the sun was out,

so I threw it down in a spot of sun 

got a few pics with my phone,

then grabbed the boys

and told them to grab something to stand on

and we quickly ran out in the 15 degree weather

and snapped a few more pictures.

I made the label after everyone was in bed,

sewed it on yesterday,

tossed it in the wash

and pulled it out of the dryer

about 10 minutes before Billie messaged me

that they were on their way.

Cutting it a bit close, eh?!

Sojourner was a joy to make

and I am so happy to get to make a quilt

for such precious people,

and to start the year off

giving a couple of machines

to Rahab's Rope!

Andy and Billie - we love ya!

Thanks for being such wonderful examples of love and generosity.

Thanks for partnering with me.

Oh, and Billie - you know how you said India

is becoming more closed to missionaries?

That's where our machines are going.

💗

linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts