Dear Jane

How I have missed spending quality time with you. Although I think of you often, I have ignored you. I have even gossiped about you and talked to others about you and some of your flaws and wrinkles. I have completed all of your 169 4 1/2 inch blocks and am very proud of how they look all stitched together in neat rows and columns. I wish I hadn't been so hasty to assemble you since I have found easier ways of putting all your pieces together. 
It was my idea to make your acquaintance and I introduced you to 6 of my friends. Some of them were just beginning to quilt and trusted me to be the teacher. I tried to stay 10 blocks ahead of everyone else. It was a steep learning curve. I also was doing my masters at the same time so have not completed the quilt yet. I bought the fabric and prepped all the kits for 7 of us and had to keep organized. We did not do the blocks in order but by technique. I had to figure out the software program with all the patterns. I have just discovered how to use some of it. 
I started out with a 1 inch binder for the patterns then a file box and then I put the blocks into two 2 inch binders and the triangles in 5 binders to keep organized. Eventually, I had a whole bookshelf to hold all the binders and and project box and foundation paper and freezer paper and threads and rulers. 
Sometimes I think I spend more time organizing than doing the sewing. Finally after I had competed 100 blocks I put up a design wall and pinned all the blocks to the wall until I finished them all. It was much easier to keep track of all your little ones. Often, I would sit here and gaze at your loveliness. I could point out every single error I made in the stitching, but I am told that is not a polite thing to do. I'm sorry.

My Dear Jane Quilt

I often sat here for hours thinking out  how I would teach others to do every block. I really want to make another. I have all the fabrics in a box waiting for September. There are several quilters who are eager to join me here at the Farm to begin their journey.
But, first, I need to complete you. You look so, so, unfinished with out your triangles and corner kites. Tell you what. How about we hang out for the next month and finish our journey together. Pinkie promise?
Blessings,
Chris 

Ben Biggs # 4

I finally got back to the Ben Bigg's BOM from Sentimental Stitches and Dear Jane. This is just laid out on the background fabric. I am doing the corner buds and leaves and decided to do them all in the same green stripe fabric and different colours for the buds.

Ben Biggs # 4

I am wondering why I had decided in the beginning to machine applique this amazing quilt. Then I remember that I have several large and complex quilts I am working on right now and thought this would be one way to actually get the blocks done each month. I had enough of the background fabric in my stash and have more than enough civil war reds and greens from my Dear Jane Quilt and CCCQ, so was ready to start immediately. The patterns are free each month. I am learning to do machine applique.
But in reality, I am itching to get started on Beyond the Cherry Tree which I finally purchased in Feb when it went on sale. I have been admiring it for a couple of years now and have been seeing some almost completed ones. And, today I ordered a fat quarter bundle of fabrics in pinks and reds and greens and cheddars and yellows to add to the purples and greens I already have. I just need to find that 1 green that will be the focus for all those vines and leaves and, oh yes, for the nearly 300 cherries and 200 grapes.
But first I need to spend some quality time here.

I did a blitz of completing blocks back in June and stitched only half a triangle and half a corner kite back in the fall. My best day was doing 5 complex blocks in one day at a retreat a year ago. I had done all the easy ones then all the applique ones first then moved on to the paper pieced ones. I am planning to teach this class again starting in Sept. It will be modern and very very bright.
Blessings,
Chris

Flowers

After 2 weeks in snow bound New Brunswick, I came home to Ontario and found these poking their heads out of the ground. Yes, spring has really arrived here at the Farm.

And these are the daffodils that I planted back in the fall just as the big freeze was happening. I had to find some dirt that wasn't frozen yet so I could dig it up to plant several hundred bulbs. This is right up against the south wall of my house under the quilt room windows.

So now I am looking forward to seeing more green things and mud. The sun was shining beautifully here all day and cast a great shadow I see.

Blessings,
Chris

CCCQ

I went away for 2 weeks and forgot to take my camera so was not able to take pictures of these blocks I completed until I got home.

CCCQ # 19

This one really is an orangey colour but I like it. It was quite straightforward until I realized that I had stitched down the center part then had to connect the leaves. It was a bit tricky but got it done.

CCCQ # 14

This one had me scratching my head for a bit until I realized that I had printed the pattern off at 120% and it would not fit onto my pre-cut 13 1/2 inch square. I had already stitched on the leaves and did not want to redo them. I like it also.

CCCQ # 17

I was happy to finally complete this one. Now I understand why Carole (find here blog here  ) suggested we swap a different block. I will be happy to never do this one again. But then, it does look pretty good, sort of.

Now to get on to # 20.
Blessings,
Chris

Gift in the Mail

This arrived in the mail from Wanda before I left for New Brunswick.  Find here at this link.
It  is beautifully appliqued and she sent nice note. Thanks Wanda.
I still have to mail hers out even though I completed it several weeks ago. Oops. I think I am scared to write in the center with a permanent black pen. What if I make a mistake? Then I would have to do it over even though it is a simple block.

Blessings,
Chris

40 Bags in 40 Days

I have 2 friends on facebook who took the 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge for Lent.  Here is the link .
I have been following their progress and thinking of a hundred reasons why I can't do the same. One friend is a full time high school teacher. The other is a full time mom of 2 preschoolers. I am retired. How difficult should it be for me to find time each day to de-clutter and de-crapify one area in my house? Other than I have a bad hip and standing on my feet for 2 minutes in a row is a challenge.

We  live in a very big house. It is an 1840's farm house and has many rooms, including 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 back kitchen, 1living room, 1 quilt room and 1 laundry room. It also had 2 hallways and 3 sets of stairs. One stairway leads to the basement. I shutter to think about these 2 rooms. There is 1000 square feet of dirt floor and when it rains, well, lets just say we do not need a sump pump. If we put in track lights we could have a hydroponic garden down there. One stairway leads to the 1880's addition which has 2 guest rooms and a bathroom, ever ready for guests and a place to display quilts. The third stairway leads to the main upstairs.

So, this challenge is not about cleaning but about de-cluttering and getting rid of stuff that has accumulated over the years. Ouch! I have been in the house for nearly 43 years and the house has been in the family for over 100 years.

Day 1 will be Monday April 7, 2014.  game-plan
Oh, wait. The accountant is coming to do the farm taxes that day.

Blessings,
Chris

Denine

My first born child was a girl – Denine. She was born with a rare condition called Cornelia de Lang Syndrome. Basically, half of her brain did not develop because of a stroke blocking blood vessels to her brain during the 8^th week of gestation when all her organs were forming. She was profoundly handicapped. She never learned to talk or walk or play or feed herself. She was totally dependent for everything. At 5 years, 8 months and 7 days, she died. As long as I live, I will never forget that day. Why?  Because that was the first time I heard God speak to me. Clearly. Distinctly. 

It was almost midnight Sunday April 1, 1979. She had been admitted to the hospital that morning because of difficulty breathing. That night, as I lay on my bed, I had my first vision from God. I was sitting on the maple rocking chair in the hospital holding Denine on my lap. Her body was very twisted and crippled so she did not fit very well in my arms. Suddenly, she sat up, turned and looked me in the face and said, “Mommy!” Then she died. And, I sensed the voice of God speak to my heart saying, “Your child is going to die. What are you going to do about that?”

My thoughts quickly went back a few years when Denine had been in hospital with double pneumonia. I recall crying out to God not to take her from me. She had been healed from the pneumonia and came home the next day. 

This time, I responded, “If that is Your will, then I accept it.” Immediately, I felt a joy bubbling up deep inside me and I fell asleep praising God. One hour later, the hospital called to say she had died. In the morning I had my second vision. My precious crippled child was WALKING away from me UP TO THE ARMS OF JESUS. She was wearing a pink dress. That was 35 years ago.

I had given my heart to Jesus several years earlier when God had used a twelve year old babysitter to show God’s love for me. I had come to the realization that God knew what was going on in my life. God had chosen me to be the mother of a special child. God had a plan for my life. My heart was changed and so was I. The depression I that I had been living in was replaced by peace and joy.

Recently, I was challenged to ask God to show me more into that earlier vision. Gulp.
So, I did.
God’s response to me was, “Denine is whole and alive and walking and dancing.”               

“Does she remember me?” I asked.
“Of course she remembers. After all, you are her mother and a mother never forgets. Neither does the child.”

Not long after Denine died, I had gone to visit my husband’s Aunt Grace (who died a few months ago at the ripe old age of 101). She shared a letter she had been given when her 9 month old baby had died 35years earlier. She carefully removed the letter from her wallet and let me read it. I realize now, that God used that letter written to a grieving mother 70 years ago to speak to my heart and to give me hope that one day I would see my daughter again. My child is in heaven, safe in the arms of Jesus, waiting for me. 

Blessings,

Chris