Encouragement for today.

This showed up on facebook today. 

 

God's timing is always perfect. 

I have been obsessing about what to focus on doing 

in August after the houseguests have all gone home and 

we have the house to ourselves for a couple of weeks. 

So, 

at the Hearing God smallgroup I lead on 

Tues nights this summer, 

I asked the question

and God gave me the simple answer,

"Worship Me".

I can do that. 

And everything else will fall into place. 

Blessings,

Chris

Thoughts in the Night

I was lying on my bed late last night not able to sleep right away. Something about an adrenaline rush after discovering and removing a bat from the living room just after I had turned out the lights everywhere but the living room. There was a large lid within reach and I caught the bat mid air first swing, much to my own surprise, and it ended up outside. We had just had all new aluminum soffit and facia put on our 1840s farm house this past week and only locked in one poor squirrel that did not have the sense to run away while there was still a hole available. Well it made quite a scent when we discovered it a few days later. My sister from China is coming tomorrow for a month long visit and I needed to get the blue guest room ready. It, along with the brown room, are above the kitchen with a separate stairway and a shared bathroom. It is in that attic that the squirrels were visiting regularly. But I digress. 

I was lying on my bed late last night not able to sleep right away. So, I started writing a blog post in my head. At that hour, I come up with most amazing things to write about that I promptly forget by the time I wake up. Some writers keep notebooks by their bed to write down those late night thoughts and stories. I have often done my best writing at 35,000 feet in an airplane because I cannot sleep there either and I usually have a pen and notebook in hand. I will be in an airplane in a few weeks when we fly out to Saskatchewan to meet the newest member of our family. It will be the first flight in almost a year since I went to Africa on a mission trip last summer. But I digress.

I was lying on my bed late last night not able to sleep right away. I had an idea for a blog post about why I blog. Last month I had this crazy idea to write up 31 blog posts about 31 never yet mentioned quilting ufos and so I started no less than 31 blog posts about 31 never yet mentioned quilting ufos. I rummaged through my massive cupboard and located most of them, took photos and started writing about each in order from when they were started. I keep a notebook with every quilt start and finish. I still have more starts than finishes. I just started writing what was going on in my life when I started each quilt. I discovered some very interesting things about my life journey. I have been writing my second book on and off for a couple of years now. I have many pages of notes and journals and research papers in a box, neatly labeled on a shelf waiting for me to take the time to bring it all together in a cohesive format so someone could read it and be blessed. I have many boxes labeled and sitting on shelves. Many shelves. In different rooms. I am doing a big de-clutter here this summer. But I digress. 

I was lying on my bed late last night not able to sleep right away. I was thinking about all the things on my calendar for the next two months and decided that I need to take a blogging break until the end of summer. This means not reading blogs. At all. Did I just write that? Ouch. I did not get my 90 Day One Big Thing done because I spent too much time stitching and blogging. I have not played computer games for more than three months and I am okay with that. Now I need to spend less time aimlessly reading everything posted on facebook. But I digress. 

I was lying on my bed late last night not able to sleep right away. I was thinking about the summer small group I will once again be leading called "Hearing God". It begins a week from tomorrow and will go every Tues night until the end of August. It is going to be good. No. It's going to be GREAT! 

I was lying on my bed late last night not able to sleep right away. I was thinking about my trip to India in November. I have been questioning why I am going since I am rather frail these days with the arthritis and back issues. But God is amazing! I am not going alone. God is going with me. God is my strength. I am going as God's ambassador. That is good enough for me.  

I was lying on my bed late last night not able to sleep right away. My Sweet Farmer and I both have been blessed with a stomach flu and I did not know if I needed to run down stairs to the bathroom again. 

Have an amazing summer, 
Chris

July 2018 One Monthly Goal

My Sweet Farmer and I took a road trip to Iowa this past week to the American Guernsey Annual Convention. We got to meet new friends and visit with old friends. I even met a quilter who reads my blog! Now how cool is that? And speaking of cool, the air conditioning was way too cool for this Canadian girl but outside it was 100 degrees. That's Fahrenheit not Celsius. Otherwise, we would have be boiling, literally.  The highlight has to be dinner on a riverboat on the Mighty Mississippi River. 

I did some hand stitching on an Antique Wedding Sampler block that I had prepped several months ago.

I guess I sewed the red buds on in the wrong place so will have to rethink how this Dear Daughter block will be done. I appliqued some of the leaves and stems.

Its the first of the month and that means all the monthly challenges are up. My OMG will be to keep up with the 4 new Dear Daughter blocks posted today.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge  colour for July is red . . . of course red. That is the colour on our flag. I have 4 red Bright Jane blocks that were ready last year. They are hard ones. I guess that is why they did not get done. No promises this time.

I have no idea how much stitching will get done this month since it is house guest season at the farm. The little girls will all be here 2 different weeks. One week for Vacation Bible School and another for Fair Camp at the local fair grounds that are just up the road from The Farm. The boys will continue to come 4 days a week until the end of the month. And, my little sister will be here from China. We will be flying out to Saskatchewan next month to meet the newest member of our family - Gus. I will once again be leading a weekly small group for our church for the summer called "Hearing God". The byline is  In a time when many voices are screaming for your attention, learn to hear the still, quiet voice of God.

So, a busy, fun, family filled month.

Blessings,
Chris 

End of June 2018

Well I did not get my OMG goal this month. 

I got only 7 Bright Jane blocks made. 

I was hoping for 8. 

My Sweet Farmer and I are taking a week off and going to,

 of all places, 

a Guernsey cow convention in Iowa. 

Among other things.

we will be dining aboard a river boat on 

the Mighty Mississippi River.

Bags are packed, passports, cash, oil changed,

 Dear Daughter stitching, etc. 

No little children until next Monday. That's a whole week. 

Then we have family visiting here every day until Aug. 

See you next month. 

Blessings,
Chris

Another Bright Jane Block

This Bright Jane block is done by English paper piecing, sort of.

Not too shabby, but 

 I will have to revisit the how-to instructions before doing another.  

There has to be an easier way to get that center done.

I hand pieced this star block for my first Dear Jane quilt
made in Civil War Reproduction fabrics. 

It looks a lot better now than it did 

when I first made it about 8 years ago.  

The boys decided they wanted to put blocks up on the wall this week. 

The bigger one wanted to put the step stool on the table so he could reach higher. 

I said it was not safe to do that. 

The little one repeats everything

so he is learning that some things are not safe. 

Not sure they noticed that half the blocks are on backwards. 

I have been sewing up buffs for our church summer camp. 

Lime green ones and purple ones. 

Now I remember why I stopped trying to sew t-shirts. 

Blessings,

Chris

btw . . . with the root canal all is good and only took the double whammy pain killer once.  

Slow Stitching

Some slow EPP progress on a Dear Jane 2 block.

The boys helped take the Dear Daughter blocks off the wall. 

The little one was trying to put them in a pile

and the bigger one was taking off several and dropping on the pile. 

Linking with slow-sunday-stitching.

Blessings

Chris

Mid June Update

I did get lots of reading done this week. Well, not textbooks. I accidentally bought a kindle book when I was investigating a series of 16 novels that I had read 40 years ago written by Canadian author Mazo de la Roche between 1927 and 1960. The  Whiteoaks of Jalna is a fictitious story spanning 100 years and 4 generations of a family that came to Canada in 1850 and build a magnificent brick mansion on 1000 acres of land near Lake Ontario in the Oakville area. As a result, I got no stitching done but I did get a root canal yesterday. Yes. I invested  yet another $700 to keep one more tooth. And I have to go back to my own dentist to get the filling put in so more $$$. Also, I have had that sinus/throat/cough thing. Not fun when you are in the dentist chair for 2 1/2 hours and your face is frozen. I learned that if you take extra strength Tylenol and Advil at the same time, you get a more effective painkiller. Just saying. 

The RSC  colour for June is Aqua/teal/turquoise 

and I got a few done and started. 

 I bought a new mini iron.

 I plan to do this star by EPP. 

Wish me luck getting those 8 center points together. . 

Blessings,

Chris

linking to 

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