#027 Jack-In-The-Pulpit

In October of 2008, a quilting friend and I were approached by another lady, a non-quilter, in our church fellowship group with the idea of making a quilt for our pastor's wife. The quilt would reflect upon our pastor in that it was in honor of his 40th(?) anniversary at the church, and that his name is John, which is in some circles (as with his father) nicknamed Jack. The block the lady had learned about and wanted, was the Jack-In-The-Pulpit block. The celebration she wanted it ready for was in February of 2009.

So the three of us headed out to a quilt store to choose the fabrics. All we knew, was that their house had some dark woods and blue (vaguely stated as being somewhat teal) walls & carpet and was not at all 'girly' in decor. Other than the block sample, we had no specific pattern so we brainstormed and came up with a rough idea of what might look good and the approximate size and truly guesstimated on how much fabric was needed. In addition, we were going to make a table runner - without knowing the size of their table. The lady fronted all the materials cost, but the labor would be strictly volunteer.

I felt very confident in doing the machine piecing but have never hand-quilted and am not proficient in my machine quilting. No problem. My other friend preferred hand-quilting to piecing and also was not proficient in machine quilting. So we had the perfect team of three, and all three of easily reached an agreement on the fabric choices. We knew the Holy Spirit was with us in that endeavor. When can three women really agree whole-heartedly on anything in a short amount of time, except maybe with chocolate.

I cut out some pieces for the size of blocks we wanted in the various fabrics and met with my friend to come to an agreement on which looked best. These are some layouts of the pieces and the placements we tried. We knew we wanted the multi-color fern in the center, and the blue fabric as the sides, and the tan as the background.

The up-in-the-air choices were the reds and the greens. We liked the red as the triangle. We didn't like the green anywhere and opted not to use it at all, not even as a border.

And we went simply with a straight line set of rows set off with the dark brown sashing, a skinny blue border and repeated the center block fabric in the outer border. We bound it using the dark brown fabric, except with the table runner.


For the table runner, we set the blocks on point and used large setting triangles in lieu of borders and then bound with the center square fabric. And I believe we used the same fern fabric as the backing on both pieces. We had another lady that I knew from the missionary quilts activities do a special label on one of her embroidery machines. It was an honor for us to do this for our pastor and they thanked by having Mrs. (Pastor) invite us to their home for lunch one day where we "re"presented the quilts to her. She was thrilled with them, and the colors were nearly perfect. Her table is bigger than mine which is in the image below, so it doesn't go over the edges, but makes a nice center type table runner on which to have a centerpiece and/or candles.

Well, it's Wednesday

The wrist update: 4 more weeks of PT and then a cortisone shot if it's still not pain-free...and still the possibility of 'surgery' in the future. (Arthroscopic)

I've been to four stores and cannot find whole (or halved) blanched almonds, may have to blanch them myself.

I enjoy country music - I was raised on it...but somehow White Christmas just isn't right sung with a country twang.

Marty has a 'mini-conference' at work that doesn't start until around 7:00 p.m. so he won't be home until late. The good news, I don't have to fix dinner ;)

In The Garden

And around here 'garden' is said very loosely. We don't 'garden' other than a pot of volunteer tomatoes and Marty's all-but-two-years fruitless grape vines (and it's over 15 yrs old), and some bulbs that have never been dug up since being planting over 10 yrs ago...they haven't multiplied much. Here's a sampling from those bulbs, a pretty white, and oh-so-fragrant, narcissus paper white. It's the first to bloom for this season. It always surprises me that these bloom in December. I guess I just expect them to be a spring flower. I picked the first one and placed it in a small bud vase on the sill above my sink. All the little buds have opened now, there's about seven of them. And don't tell my mom that I haven't planted the bag of mixed bulbs she sent home with me that she dug up from hers that DO multiply. I think they're supposed to be in the ground by the end of October. Two years ago she sent some home with me after my summer trip to the north land and they didn't get potted up until January...and they still produced some pretty flowers: some light yellow slightly ruffly tulips, some miniature daffodils, and yellow hyacinths. Most didn't come back the second year...the squirrels seemed to like the young bulbs!

Sunday Refreshment

Pastor John was back today. We have such great teachers at our church and Pastor John was gone a lot during the summer with commitments to other churches and conferences, was then back but intermittently gone including last Sunday. He's pastored our church for 45 years. He's exposited the entire New Testament verse by verse during that time. He's presently teaching on the Holy Spirit with a series entitled "The Modern Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit". He gave part 6 today! Our fellowship group's pastor has been teaching on the atonement, it was part 4. Can I say our pastors dig deep? And for that, our congregation and others are truly blessed.

On the first Sunday in December we always have The Master's College Chorale and Orchestra present the music worship. It's always superb. Some of their music can be heard here (hehe, I first typed: hear!)

And on the way to and from church we listened to a Casting Crowns Christmas CD which has I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day , a remake of the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and it's traditionally rendered tune. Here's the story behind the original poem. I totally love this new version and it brings tears to my eyes when I listen to it, and forget about trying to recite the poem. I'm not sure what generates my tears, but they just come; perhaps from the despair of wars, perhaps the despair of knowing the real war is a Spiritual one for the very hearts of man; perhaps knowing that the road to Heaven is narrow yet wide is the gate that leads to eternal damnation and separation from our loving Father.

Quilt #015 Paper Pieced Feathered Star

Having grown up on a ranch in the Northwest, I'm still drawn to things that bring to mind ranch life and earth-tone colors. This is a bit along those lines though probably more Indian in nature. (Native American if you prefer to be politically correct.)

Here is a close-up of the border geese. On the ranch flocks of geese were often seen, and heard, on their migratory trips both in the fall and again in the spring.


This close up is of the center medallion of the Feathered Star. Paper piecing makes things look nice, especially when they're small as this is (quilt measures approximately 34" square non-bound and non-quilted) .

I found that I'm not a huge fan of paper-piecing although I'm not opposed to doing more of it. It just isn't high on the list of future projects. For me it was tedious.

This is how the entire pieced top looks. I really like the feathers in the fabrics, but am not ecstatic about the solid rust color I found for the setting triangles. I felt the color was just a tad off and isn't bad but I couldn't find exactly what I had in my mind's eye; maybe once it's quilted I'll be more in love with it.

It does bounce nicely off some of the geese though. Still haven't decided how I want to quilt it and would need to practice whatever quilting design that might be. I've thought of feathers in the setting triangles. I love the center, especially the dark brown print (it's not solid but reads as though it were) which sets it off nicely, and the scrappy geese, I like the colors I found for them and think they all worked well.

The pattern on the light background fabric almost gives the impression that that area is already quilted. It isn't. This will most likely be one of the 12 to finish in 2012.

The pattern was a tiny little packet of paper and directions folded and stuffed in a little plastic bag, called Little Bits - Feathered Star by Cindi Edgerton.

Fina-Lee Friday

Really? It's Friday again? Well, I'm just not ready for that! I really think God has sped up the passage of time because it seems everyday gets less and less accomplished...and don't think He couldn't make it appear that time was passing the same on all those scientific measuring devices...after all, He created the universe and all that is in it and beyond!

• New kitty this week. See post of a couple days ago. She had her first vet visit yesterday. She's such a good little kitty. She sure has funny little eyes, slightly crossed...as I hope no other Siamese traits appear. She's settling in nicely. Her favorite sleeping place: the half full paper grocery bag with fabric/thread trimmings - cozy and warm.
  
• Nick discovered he can make a 'pie crust tongue'. Yeah, that's what I said, "Huh?" No need to Google, you won't find it. But he can roll his tongue, and at the same time make the tongue's side muscles pull in to where it looks like a 'pie crust' of sorts. It looks kinda weird, like really weird, so I won't post of photo of it. Nor will I say what an unregenerate relative inferred it looked like. He certainly was created remarkably unique.
• I'm still inclined to post my traffic rants, but after 3 days of very dry, and very strong winds in our community and the surrounding areas, I can add a whole lot more to the list. Dry winds rank right up there with full moons when it comes to seemingly senseless things that drivers do...or don't do.
• I was watching an episode of Family Feud the other day. One of the questions was "Which of the 10 commandments have you broken this month?" The top answer was ... ready?... ONE! Really? only one, in an entire month? I really suspect the the 100 people polled likely couldn't name the 10 commandments and maybe they only know one or two. I think more folks need to be opening their Bibles a little more often!
• Hmmm, I think there are far too many projects on my desk: embroidery, quilting fabric-books-magazines, genealogy folders, recipe/menu folders...yep, need to do some de-cluttering.
• Wrist physical therapy has done about as much good as it's going to do. One more appointment and then the appointment with the doctor for assessment. I could 'live' with the way it is now, but sure I hope this isn't as good as it's going to get. Certain movement will still warrant a small yelp.
  
• Having golfed in my younger, healthier years, I think I can say I know how Tiger feels when that putt goes right to the edge of the cup....and stops...right - on - the - edge. You want a strong breeze or ground tremor to knock it over the lip. That one point in scoring can win or lose a game. Of course, his feelings take into account the fame and fortune of the game, or the loss thereof, where mine was just for self-satisfaction...I wasn't that great by any means but did enjoy it and the competition with my other lady friends.
  

Quilt #010 UFO Dragonfly

Started 8 April 2003. I just love this dragonfly yellow, green and lavender fabric. Our guest room is yellow. This quilt is for our guest room. The theme in the room grew to become dragonflies (or is it damsel flies?) with green and lavender accents. It started with a mosaic plant stand that had a dragonfly on it. Other items were added over time.

The top is finished. I had trouble finding just the right lavender shades and wasn't overjoyed with the lightest one I used once it was altogether. I had begun with a different one and it was definitely NOT right, but I just couldn't find what I wanted at the time. I think it's too pale a lavender and because of the placement in the blocks, looks too wide overall. I think it might have been better in the place of the medium lavender.

The butterfly fabric is for the backing, and the binding is a dark yellow that I placed under the border to preview. It will be quilted with the variegated thread shown...hmmm, I wonder if there's enough on one spool that size? I may need to locate more. Does my inexperience show? I purchased a dragonfly plastic template that fits perfectly in the blocks for the quilting motif and beyond that...I haven't given it thought yet.

The pattern for this was found in The Quilter Magazine, Sept. 2002 under the design name of Country Charms. I altered the pattern by adding the narrow (1" finished) yellow inner border.

I will be including this quilt in the 2012 UFO Challenge...it WILL get finished; I am determined.