Anniversary

Here's the 20th Anniversary card I made for the Pres. Our big day is tomorrow.

 I used some old postcards I found with policemen on them and signed it from the Ol' Ball and Chain.

 

The words are sewn using my Bernina sewing machine with the quilting foot, the feed dogs lowered and the darning setting on.

Inside is a chain I made, a padlock I found down at the shore as well as a bottle opener that looks reminiscent of a key, which I got from a blacksmith at a festival one time when the Pres was deployed during our last duty station.

I am so glad God has kept us together all these years. I wouldn't want to spend them with anyone else. It is humbling. We aren't great. And we haven't always even been that great at being married. But God has shown us favor. In this we rejoice!

"...you are precious and honored in my sight..and I love you." Isaiah 43:4

Valentine

Secrets

 Hello and happy fall from Harbor View! I have some soup simmering and just a little bit of time to knit or drop a line. I love this time of year. Something about the cold is invigorating. And there is still plenty of time to consider making things for friends and family members for Christmas. As long as I have a minute I'll show you a secret Christmas project. I know it doesn't look like much yet. If it did, I couldn't show it here. I am partial to greens, but even so, isn't this yarn pretty?

 

Here is last year's secret project: holiday-theme quilted place mats with matching napkins! Christmas ornaments, stars, geometric designs, holly and peppermint sticks mixed and matched to make cheerful place settings for everyone in the family, and even some friends who didn't expect a gift.
 

I tried to keep one side Christmasy and the other side vaguely wintry. That way they can be used all winter. I had seen a place mat sort of like this on a wall at the local quilt shop and thought I'd try it for Christmas. They had only one pocket for the napkin, but I put two. When you have two though, you end up using them for the silverware and there napkin has to go on the plate or on the side.  

They're shown on our glass-topped dining room table, made from an old door from a slave cabin in Orangeburg, SC. The Pres made the table when we moved to Virginia three years ago; Fidget's former teacher at Beaufort Montessori and her husband gave us several special old doors when we left, and this one was our favorite. The table was perfect for our new dining room. We'd never had a dining room- or a dining room table. I love the look of all the layers of paint partially sanded under the glass.

I love being able to make things for loved ones. We are pretty low budget around here. But that doesn't mean handmade gifts can't be as special, or even more special in some instances, as store bought items. Another thing I want to make is a painting of this little scene for Fidget for Christmas. I have such a great story idea in my head. I'd love to give Fidget the painting with its own story! I think that would be a most memorable gift.What are you making this season?

Silence

 Here is the quilt I have been working on lately. Titled "Silence", or "Father My Ears Had Heard of You", it is about 9" x 12".

 The twin storks are drawn on antique silk.

 They are pulling their bundle of white roses in two different directions. White roses symbolize the final silence, death, as well as purity and innocence.

 The background fabrics are cotton batiks and the bundle has an overlay of tulle.

I was tempted to do more detailing on this quilt but decided in keeping with silence and purity, to let the elements' simplicity shine. Above the storks the Bible verse Job 42:5 begins, and ends below: "Father my ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you." I feel the verse is appropriate because in the past month I have come to know God better. He is not the feel-good God we may think we want, He does not grant every wish like some kind of cosmic yes man, but His love is more powerful than I knew. He stops at nothing to transform us into the likeness of His Son. It pleases Him that we bring Him glory in ever-increasing measure, no matter what the cost.

Fun Quilt for Fidget

For the past week or two I've been thinking about making a tribute quilt about my miscarriage. Naturally since I am mulling over a quilt in my mind and getting fabric out, Fidget wanted to make a quilt too. Well, you can see whose got made, and whose is still being mulled over.

At the beginning of last year we made Fidget's first little quilt. It was apparent to me that it was way too early for her to sit and sew, but at least she was involved in the process and drew the main picture that we sashed around (of Pooh Bear's sister, Ipl) ; and she did some great giant-stitched embroidering on its surface. Since then she's taken a break from quilting. 

I thought this would be another great opportunity for Fidget to try a quilt. It turned out I was wrong, as she has no ability to sit still (hence her name). Her feet don't reach the foot pedal, which is probably a good thing for now, and just sitting in my lap to guide the fabric through doesn't work either for someone so fidgety.

 She did pick out the fabrics from my scraps though. And I was pleased with her adding appliques to the surface to personalize it. This little blond girl is from the fabric we used for the backing. Fidget cut out some pink fabric to make the girl's dress longer.

This little girl is from a different fabric. What I like best about the quilt is that some of the fabrics Fidget picked are from projects very special to us. The green flowered fabric I used to make us matching sun dresses when she was still a baby. The light blue with pink flowers is part of her Humpty Dumpty (aka Hummy)'s outfit, and the tan background with roses and bees was first used to make a jacket for Pooh Bear.

I don't know if she will have any good memories of making this quilt. She did play around me when she wasn't helping. Maybe she will remember that. If nothing else, it was therapy for me as I took a break from thinking about a much more serious quilt.

Poppies

Here are a couple shots of the poppies quilt I mentioned recently. The center drawing is of a tiny embryo which doesn't show up in the pictures. I particularly enjoyed the free-form quilting in this quilt, looking like ghosts of poppies and their little buds. The here-but-not-here quilting reminded me of the little baby I had carried for such a short time. For me he was here but not here, in our minds but in reality already a resident in Heaven. I mentioned before that in Victorian times and before, poppies were seen as symbolic of fertility, eternal life, and rest.

The Coffin Quilts

Coffin Quilt #1 with hand dyed batik fabrics, black silk stuffed coffin sewn closed, and embryo beading on top. This is the first quilt I made after miscarrying Fidget's twin, Josiah Elijah, on 12/10/03. The name Elijah was chosen because like the prophet in the Bible, our baby was not born to die a man, but went straight to heaven and we did not see him go.The parts of the verse I stitched from 2 Kings 2:11 says ...Suddenly chariots of fire and horses of fire appeared and he went up to heaven in a whirlwind. There is no better thing for a grieving parent than to know your baby is in heaven waiting. Because I was still pregnant with Fidget, I found these quilts were the only way I grieved after that day until months after she was born when it hit me. Anyone who has lost a loved one knows there is no guarantee that grief will ever be gone. It strikes suddenly just as new as that first day. This December tenth was hard in that we experienced miscarriage again. But our confidence is in God, the Father of all comfort. He is holding our precious babies and we will see them one day. In the Bible God promises that no one who hopes in him will be disappointed.

Second coffin quilt with empty, closed black silk coffin. Psalm 139:14 quote, I praise you because you are to be feared; all you do is strange and wonderful. I know it with all my heart. This was important for me, to address the awesome supremacy of God in my time of grieving. His ways are higher than ours, and even when some of it doesn't look good, we have to trust his plan. It's the only plan. And he is always good.

Quilt #3 with open coffin of metallic silk. Verse: Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. John 12:24. My thought was this boy's life had come and gone so quickly, but that in that time his life had been an encouragement and I had the comfort of knowing his life had purpose. Besides that I knew he had a glorious home in heaven and would be waiting for me. He is waiting still.

Yes, Yes, and Yes

I was reading Psalm 16 this morning, where the psalmist says, "The boundary lines for me have fallen in pleasant places." and in 2 Corinthians 1 it says that all things are Yes in Christ. Even when I don't get my way, or when no matter which way I turn there doesn't seem to be a good choice, it is a relief to know that God's choices, the boundary lines, fall where he wants them. And that in them there is a Yes. Even when it doesn't feel like it. Even when we don't see it. Christ is redeeming all of it.


Here is my little Rose Tree Cottage quilt. When we moved into that house, it was just a house. But somewhere along the lines, while we were doing a lot of physical work on it (the Pres more than me), God changed my heart about the house, and it became a thing of beauty. Looking back on it reminds me this is just a small picture of what God can do with anything. He can change any heart. From weeping to rejoicing, all in His time.