India

India is an amazing country. One in six humans on earth today lives in India. Literacy is about 35%.  That means that approximately 600 million people do not know how to read and write. In rural areas daily wages are about $2 per day—the price of a large coffee. Many families eat only one meal a day. Rice is the main food. Rice and curry. Curry is more a food group than a spice or combination. There are several levels of spicy food—hot—I can eat this, hotter—oh my - hotter still —I am sweating now. Up to this point it is “baby food” for the foreigners. Indians like their food hot, really hot. They serve yogurt to cut the fire except that it often has raw onions stirred in it.

I have been to India 9 times now and must have 10,000 pictures but, I spent most of the afternoon trying to find a picture of the completed school my husband Ken and I donated to Harvest India to provide an education for hundreds of orphaned and Dalit children in South East India. Ken and I were there together only once in the fall of 2008. It was his second trip and my fourth.

School building under construction

So, how did two middle-aged Canadian farm kids end up in India being used by God to minister to orphans, widows, former prostitutes, lepers, and student pastors to name a few? Well, Ken was quite unexpectedly invited to go to India with a pastor friend just days after he told God that he was glad he was too old to go on missions because that kind of scared him. Well God has a great sense of humor and Ken ended up handing out clothing and cooking utensils just 3 weeks after the tsunami of Dec 26, 2004 swept across the south east coast of India.

Handing out clothing and cooking utensils

God also has a great sense of timing. This children's home was near completion, built in faith in 2004. Some 200 children, orphaned by the tsunami, moved in a few weeks later. After Ken came home and shared some of the visions of Harvest India, together we decided that we could give the money to build a school for these children and others. Not that we had that kind of money, but we had taken over the family farm and believed that it would honour God to give a tithe, 10%, of the full value of the farm business. Gulp. So, we cashed in some quota and the school is now complete and some 500 children are now receiving an education from Grade 1 through junior college. Yeah God!

Children's home

There are countless stories that I could write about, and I am. One of the highlights of any ministry trip to India is participating in a village outreach meeting. Its party time and the whole village comes together to hear what the white people have to share. In all the times I have been there, the only white people I see are the ones I am with.  

Village outreach meeting

Tarps are laid out on the ground for the people to sit on. Women on one side. Men on the other. Children everywhere. Loud, very loud, speakers are set up and everyone in the whole village can hear whether they want to or not. These are farm workers who labour long hours everyday. Most of the farms in this area produce rice and sugar cane and hot red peppers and cotton. We share a message of love and hope as we try to encourage the people that they are loved by a God who cares about each one us.
You can read more about Harvest India here .
Blessings,
Chris

Biblical Blocks Quilt

(TBT a finished quilt from pre-blogging days.) 

This is one of my all time favourite quilt patterns right up there with any of the many patterns designed by Rosemary Makhan. I had first seen the pattern around 1994 and thought I would like to get it someday. My skill as a quilter was still in the beginner level and I started to dream of making this one day.

Biblical Blocks

We were at a convention in Calgary in the spring of 1996 and a bunch of us had gone to a huge craft warehouse where we found the last copy of the pattern for Biblical Blocks and I was (cringe) generous and let the other lady, who grabbed the book the same time as I did, have it, saying I could get another one at Reicharts in St Jacob's Ontario where I often shopped.

And I did find a copy there in Dec 2001 after it was reprinted. The very next day I discovered Jilly Beans a quilt shop in Oakville. As I was slowly walking down the narrow shop, gawking at all the  marvelous quilts hanging along the 14 foot walls, I suddenly and quite unexpectedly, gazed upon the very quilt that was pictured on the front cover of the book I had bought the previous day a mere 2 hour drive away. To say I was happy is an understatement. I looked around first, before reaching over and touched it. Is that allowed?

I discovered that they were already 4 months into the class, but my disappointment turned joy when I was told another class would be starting in the fall of 2002, I immediately signed up. It was only 9 1/2 months away and I consoled myself by signing up for a machine quilting course to prepare to quilt all the wonderful quilts I was going to make in the future.  I did not have any quilts near completion so did not get to practice much then. The course started out teaching how to get the tension right using monofilament thread. I still struggle with that.

The Biblical Blocks class met once a month and after 10 months I had it only half done. Sigh. There was too much time between classes to keep the momentum up and I was dealing with para-menopause, term papers and farm responsibilites since we had just taken over the family farm.

In the fall of 2003 I took the More Biblical Blocks course with Rosemary and learned how to draft a pattern from a picture. We met twice a month and drafted 4 blocks each time. I eagerly drove the hour home and made my four 12 inch blocks that very day. Then, I redrafted the patterns to 9" and completed the rest of the blocks for the Biblical Blocks. I was so excited about it that I bought fabric to make 3 more and they are all UFO's right now. I finally got up the courage to quilt the thing after buying a new Bernina and investing in lots of monofilament thread. I completed it Nov 2005 just hours before my niece and her husband moved to South Korea. Their wedding quilt took only 3 years to complete in time for their second anniversary.
Makes me want to pull out the other ones and see how  much work is left to complete them. But not today.
Dear Jane is patiently waiting for me to notice her.
Blessings,
Chris

Austen Family Album

Barbara Brackman  has done it again. She is offering another free Block of the Week called Austen Family Album beginning April 6. You can get details here .

One of the first blogs I started following was Barabara's Civil War BOW about 3 years ago. I used to get up early on Saturday mornings to read it before  my Q@F group came. I had fully intended to make that quilt and the next one Votes for Women. I collected all the patterns and gathered fabrics from  my stash, but somehow never got started on either one. I have a whole bin of Jane Austin fabrics from a class I had taken July 2006 that was called Shades of Pemberly.  It was not so easy making those awkward diamonds from the Jane Austin Coverlet. That is a UFO. I am tempted to pull it out again and try to figure out why I did not complete it. However, Dear Jane waits so patiently.

Jane Austin Fabrics

It will only be one block each week. How hard can that be? I have lots of unbleached muslin in the cupboard somewhere . . .  hhmmm
Blessings,
Chris

Go Real Fast Quilt Progress

I  have been looking at the Morrell Quilt and reading through the instructions quickly to get an idea of what is involved. Turns out that the blocks are 10 inches - all 60 of them. And the center square must therefore be 20 inches. The first row second block is a very simple windmill and the eighth block is a simple 9 patch. Looks like a good place to begin. That is, if I were to be starting it anytime soon.

However, I am bulldozing right along with the GO Real Fast  Quilt.

I have a group that meets here most Saturdays and I have to clear the work space before they come. This is good and bad. It is good because I work better in a clear space. It is bad because I have to put everything away. For now, I have just quickly pinned the blocks and border up to get an idea of where I am going. I was auditioning the backing fabric for the connecting strips after I finish machine quilting in sections. I decided that it is too busy a print. So, I will see if I have enough of the red that I used for the swags.
 

I have decided to make cheddar coloured roses to put between the swags since there is so much red already.

2 leaves or 3?
I am thinking 2 leaves and it will be easier to quilt around. Maybe.






In the meantime it is spring break and I have little girl grand babies coming over again for a few days. And the temperature has finally come above freezing. The sap will be running soon. I love maple syrup but do not miss making it in our kitchen.
Blessings
Chris

Morrell Quilt

 

This arrived in today's mail.  Going to  be very busy.

Blessings,
Chris

39 Days and GO

My Sweet husband told me I was not allowed to stay off facebook so I thought I would give up healthy food and housework instead. Not that I do much housework these days. I have a girl that comes in 2-3 times a month. So far today I have been on fb at least 8-10 times. We have a fb wall for our farm and since my husband does not do things of computer I have been posting pictures and production records of some of our cows who had portrait pictures taken at out 2013 National Canadian Guernsey Show. Then, I have to keep checking back to see how many page views have come in and any comments made. Like someone from British Columbia wishes they could get cows like ours over there. They could but it  might cost several thousand for trucking since it is only 3400 km.   link
Now, I am  not even going to think about giving up my blog, at least not for more than 3-4 hours. I am having way too much fun writing, and checking for comments. About the no-reply blogger thing . . . I am  still not able to figure it out. Sorry. Also, my younger sister that laughed at me on fb and offered the "double dog dare you" has no intentions of staying of fb. I know. I chatted with her this morning.

Now, having said all that, the GO Real Fast Quilt is back on.
There are going to be 15 scallops altogether - 5 on each of 3 borders. The top border will be flowers and leaves from all the left over cut outs. I marked the 10 inch wide border strips by pressing them in quarters. Then calculated how far apart each one needs to be in order to lay balanced between the four 16 inch blocks. However, I had to factor in the seam allowance and connecting strips since I am machine quilting in sections. I measured 1 inch between each scallop which are 12 inches long.
I hope I am close.
After pressing them in place, I stitched down each one using a matching red thread with a small buttonhole stitch on the top of the swag and a blind stitch on the bottom side. This side will be covered over by the green scallops.

Since I have no instructions for this procedure, I am winging it. Looks like a slice of watermelon.
The crescent and the scallop were the first pieces I ran through the GO cutter since they were the largest pieces. After that, I ran the left-over fabric through for the leaves and the flowers. It was at this point that I got frustrated trying to cut out just lots of leaves that I got the idea to have a custom die made for just leaves. The leaves on my custom die are placed in such a way that I can lay  
fabric on it and cut a narrow strip or a full strip depending on what
I have. Does this make sense?

I actually used these left-over pieces as I was measuring my draft pattern. There is enough space between the leaves to lay a straight piece of pre-fused fabric and not waste so  much. The Rose dies have several sizes of leaves and flowers and circles nestled so close together that you cannot cut out just one size without wasting fabric and getting cut marks on the mat and wearing it out even though you are not actually cutting any shapes.

So, I am able to lay the mat on just the part that I am cutting and let one side  of the mat hang over the other side of the die. Good thing I have the large cutter to do this.
I am quite please with myself at this point.
Now if I could only get the raw edge applique stitching right I will be really happy.






Now back to check facebook to see if anyone wants to chat or buy a cow.
Blessings,
Chris

40 Days

So I have been suddenly and unexpectedly dared and double dared to take a 40 day (yes that is forty days) fast from facebook. Now I think I could do that because I do do things impulsively, but how do I know if my sister who issued the double dare will honour her part and stay off facebook? But then did she actually take up the challenge herself of just challenge me? HHmm? Facebook is how I keep in touch with family members who live in various parts of the world. And I just joined the Jane Stickle group and the Just Takes 2 group and the Applique group and the Di Ford mystery quilt group and the Di Ford Primarily Quilts group. . . .
Maybe it is time to take a break . . . like for 40 days but not forever . . .
But then, I might get some stitching done and maybe some homework. I just got the assignments for my next 2 courses. Prayers That Heal the Heart and Equipping Saints to Counsel. Lots of lectures to listen to and outline as well as exams and book reports.
Now if I just gave up playing computer games for 40 days, I might get both courses done and a quilt or 2. 
How many people actually give up something for Lent each year and how does it work for you? I have never really done that before . . . but then . . . I am known to be impulsive and I know how to go the distance . . . especially if someone has dared to tell me I cannot do that.
Blessings,
Chris