Showing posts with label In Your Words. Show all posts
Showing posts with label In Your Words. Show all posts

Thursday, January 10, 2013

what's in a word . . .

Or in my case, a set of words.  I knew, as soon as I saw the call out for this particular hop, that I wanted to participate.   I love words!  Words are incredibly important to me.  But then I struggled for weeks trying to figure out what word/words I should use.

Duh.

It finally struck me.  The name of my blog.  Hello!  Count it *all* JOY!!!
For me, this became an exercise not in coming up with a quilty project, but an explanation of why those words are so important to me.  And they're important not just because of those four words ... but because of the thirty-two words that follow, too . . .
Count it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.
 --James 1:2-4
This passage of scripture out of James has been my life verse ... but I selected it long before I understood the full implications of it.  At first I got all hung up on the joy part . . . 
Without paying attention to the "count it all" part.  
That's tough.  And it took me a while to realize that I didn't have to count the hard stuff as joyful stuff -- I didn't have to laugh and be merry in times of sorrow -- it meant that I was to count it a joy when that hard stuff caused me to lean on the Lord.  When it caused me to seek His strength, peace and comfort.  Because that's how He perfects me ... that's how He strengthens my faith.  And that's why I can Count it *all* JOY!!!

So, there you have it!!  Be sure to check out all the 'word' participants today . . . 
Jane's Fabrics (Jane R.)
Jane's Quilting (Jane C.)
Nuts 4 Redwork (Heide W.)
Bits and Pieces (Martha R.)
Life in Every Breath (Jennifer B.)
Quilting Lines (Patricia L.)
Meadowbrook  (Kristen K.)
Count It All Joy!  (Denise P.)**you are here!
Sophie Junction (Sophie W.)

And a big thank you to both Linda, from Buzzing and Bumbling -- our head cheerleader for this hop -- and Mdm Samm.  They've both done a *marvelous* job with this hop and it's been SUCH fun!!

:)

happy birthday . . .

. . . to Eleanor Pearl!

I can hardly believe that Ellie's one . . . where did the year go?
We're celebrating her birthday with a special tea party on Saturday -- I can't wait!  Jocelyn had seen a pattern for a baby doll ... she wanted to make Ellie's first baby doll ... so she bought the pattern and the materials and on Monday she set about making Ellie her dear little dolly . . . 
Isn't she darling?  I helped stitch the face -- we chose a variegated blue/green/brown for the eyes, because Ellie's eye color changes with the hour.  My recent redwork lesson on satin stitches was a great asset -- the eyes and the nose were both stitched that way!  It's a really cute pattern -- I see more of these in our family's future!

This morning I'll be joining with the choir at Flint River Baptist Church to sing tribute to Brother Carl Tate -- he was one of the most wonderful Christian men I've ever met.  He passed away on Monday -- he was ninety-four.
He was a visitor to the camp on multiple occasions (and is pictured here singing at the pavilion for our Jamboree in 2011) - in fact, his wife, Evelyn, was the clerk for the Madison Baptist Association and was commissioned at the camp.  It will be an honor to sing for him -- especially this song -- his song -- I Sing Because.   While he will truly be missed here on earth, I know his voice is a joyful addition to the heavenly choruses!

Speaking of choruses of Hallelujah, Monday night brought lots of happy shouts of joy from this household . . .
Roll Tide!!  It wasn't nearly the game I'd expected it to be, but I can't say I'm disappointed!  

And finally -- please do come back tomorrow ... it'll be my day for the In Your Words hop -- and I'm totally loving my project!!

:)

Sunday, January 06, 2013

the longest post ever . . .

And I'm not even *joking*!  You'll see.  I finally realized that what happens when I go more than a day without posting, all the things I want to share build up bigger and bigger until all of a sudden, it's a post-a-palooza!  [snicker]

It's been a great week.  I didn't completely cut out blog reading, but I did cut back, and I also broke the comments down on my giveaway post and answered them in manageable bites.  That giveaway is still open, by the way ... so feel free to jump over there and get in while the getting's good!

I put into play some of the items on my *list* of goals for 2013.  Back in 2011, I wrote a series of posts on Time Management -- four, actually -- here, here, here, and here.  I decided to put into practice (again) what I'd preached!   To take liberties ... blogger, heal thyself.  To that end,  A Holy Experience had a darling document for planning out your day.  It had all the components on it that were important to me ... domestic stuff, daily chores, have-to-do (or as she notates it, "The Day's Dire"), food/water, etc.  It's very nicely laid out.  You can get you own HERE.
Put that along with my 2013 planner (a very cheap and scaled down version from last year's), and my days are a little more organized and focused, and things are getting done!

I'm also participating in the Siesta 2013 Scripture memorization.  My dear friend Melissa, from The High Altitude Tea Duchess, put out a call to anyone interested in joining her in the challenge.  I've watched it for the past two years (over at the Living Proof Ministries blog) but never participated.  I decided to join Melissa (and from what I've been able to gauge, at least 5,000 others) and memorize some Scripture this year!  Two a month -- nothing huge -- and you choose your own passages.
To that end, I got a cute little spiral book to record my Scriptures.  Sometimes fun little things like this help keep me on track!

Another of my goals (I think I mentioned in my New Year's Day post that the list was quite extensive) was to read through the Bible in chronological order.  And in order to really make it mean something, I wanted to not just read, but to jot down any thoughts, questions or revelations I had about the day's reading.
Read the Bible in One Year has an assortment of reading plans in different translations.  I copied it to a pdf and sent it to my Kindle, so I can easily keep up with where I'm supposed to be each day.

I've also had plenty of time for crafty, quilty things.  Joc and I played with her Silhouette -- it cuts fabric!  
She cut out some letters for me and then she cut out the means to make this darling little onesie for Ellie.
This will be her 'smash cake' outfit!  Isn't it darling?!?

She also used her fancy machine to make the paper flowers for this wreath . . .
When it's finished, there will be a little pendant banner that reads, "Time for Tea" in the middle.  She'll hang this on her front door on the day of Ellie's party. Sweet, non??!  Such a crafty girl!

Joc also let me borrow her mod podge.
I had an ugly, plain old clipboard to keep my daily list and I wanted something pretty . . . 
A (really, really, REALLY) pretty piece of fabric and some mod podge later, voila!

Of course, there's been time for grandbabies, too . . .
Oh how I adore my sweet little grandbabies!  Yes, that's my son piled up in there between Sawyer and June.  What a crowd!

And then there's *always* time for fabric, right?  I've made a very bold statement on this, the first stash report of the year, that's for sure.  One of our LQS's had a major sale on New Year's Day.  Who could resist?
This was all BOGO fabric.  So two yards for the price of one ... ten yards, right off the bat.
This was all heavily discounted fabric.  One yard each, coming up!
And I couldn't pass up this darling Christmas panel and coordinating yard from Timeless Treasures!  Two more yards.
And then, for good measure, a handful of purple fat quarters and some new tools!

Used/donated this week: 0.25 yards
Used/donated year-to-date: 0.25 yards
Purchased/added this week: 16.75 yards
Purchased/added year-to-date: 16.75 yards
Net used/donated for 2013: -16.5 yards

Oh well.  :)

I really enjoyed the NewFO Challenge in 2012, held by Barbara over at Cat Patches and I'm so glad she's decided to continue the challenge in 2013! December wasn't the busiest of months, but I did have two NewFOs ... first there was my doll swap quilt, the Christmas Shoo Fly . . .
And then there was Ellie's stocking . . .
I shared that stocking in Patricia's Christmas Stocking Hang Out linky party, over at Quilting Lines, and was rewarded with this darling little Daddy Longstockings pattern for participating:
Aren't these cute?  I especially like the one with holly traveling down the front!

And I've had time to start a few new things, too.  One is an all stitching project and the second is a combination of applique and stitching . . . 
And I'm only showing you pieces because I hope to have them *both* finished for the In Your Words blog hop, which starts MONDAY!  As in TOMORROW!
My day is Friday, January 11, so these two pieces are both my Slow Sunday Stitching and my design wall, too!  

Speaking of design walls (and hence Patchwork Times), I was a complete *bust* at the UFO challenge.  But this year, instead of tackling an entire project each month, Judy's tossing out a monthly challenge called "Get it Done," or in good ol' Alabamian terms, Get 'er done.  The idea is to set a goal of four quilting-related things you want to accomplish for each month.  That's so much more manageable for me!  

For January, my Get 'er Done list is:  (1) finish my two "words" projects, (2) complete a 6" crazy quilt block (for the CQJP Challenge), (3) my January doll quilt swap, and (4) get June's quilt top finished.  Whew! This is *so* do-able!

I think I see that letting an entire five days pass between posts isn't the best of ideas.  LOL!  I end up being wordy-wordsmith and taking three hours to write a post and get in everything I want to share, in!  I won't let it go quite so long next time.  In the meantime, enjoy your Sunday (and Monday and Tuesday) and your stitching, whatever it may entail!


:)