One Thing Remains. Slow Stitching with Fabri Flair!

Hello Everyone!  
I'm so glad you stopped by on this beautiful Spring morning in Southern New Mexico!  The birds are joyfully singing, the waterfall is cheerfully chortling, 

the breeze is blowing gently - for now :), 

my babies are snoozing next to me on our swing 

and the blooms are bathing us with their sweet scents!  

If I have to have a fibro flare, this is the place to have it!

Thank you all for your kind comments and well wishes.  
I'm doing about the same.

As we were leaving church, 
the worship team played this song. 

It's our song - 

God's and mine.

I sat right back down, 
praying and weeping.
God is going to be 
taking me on a journey.
All He asks is 
that I trust Him.
And I do.
So, here we go again!
I have a beautiful yard and home,
loving husband and children,
grandbabies (!), 
supportive friends
in person and online,
a part-time job, 
sewing, crafts,
and more importantly God.
I am so blessed!

Slow Stitching with Fabri Flair!

I'm making progress on my Fabri Flair Brio Sphere bowl!  The baby quilt interrupted our progress, but it was fun to work on it yesterday, especially as it all fits nicely into my portable basket!  
This is the bottom piece.  It's almost finished, except for about 1" of stitching.          

Here's the inside view:

In order to for the inner bowl pieces to fit,
 I will need to trim them 
by 1/16" on each side.

I missed 
Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday
link up.....
Full Disclosure....
My daughter and I were 
visiting and sewing....
I lost track of time!
Stop by for a visit!
You're sure to find some 
beautiful projects there!

I'm linking up to
Sharing Sundays at The Creative Side

Monday Making at Love, Laugh, Quilt

Main Crush Mondays At Cooking Up Quilts

Moving It Forward Monday at Em’s Scrapbag

Slowing Down. To Do Tuesday. Another Finished Flimsy.

Hello There!  
I hope you all are doing well and enjoying Spring weather!  Here in Southern New Mexico we are expecting our high temps to be in the lower 90's already!  Yikes!

Slowing Down.
Late last week, I noticed that I'm having a "fibro flare up" - fibromyalgia has decided to rear it's ugly head again.  With end of the semester obligations, the timing is terrible - but then again - there is never a perfect time!

Instead of barreling through, I've decided to take care of myself.  One way of self-care will be writing "mini posts" instead of my usual full posts.  I'm sure you all understand and perhaps can be blessed by this Scripture:
   Blessings to you all!

To Do Tuesday.
Last Week's List:

This week's To Do Tuesday List:

1) Catch up and keep up with my Quilty 365 Oh oh!

2) Continue crocheting my Granny Squares Cardigan!  Done!

3) Begin a baby quilt with the scraps from the Simple Scrappy Sampler! Done and finished!

4) Continue stitching my Fabri-Flair project!  Oh oh!

This week's To Do Tuesday List:

1) Catch up and keep up with my Quilty 365 - for reals already!

2) Comment on last week's linky parties.

Then, health permitting, 

3) Continue crocheting my Granny Squares Cardigan!  

4) Begin a baby quilt with the remaining layer cake squares from the Simple Scrappy Sampler! Can you believe there's still some left?  

5) Continue stitching my Fabri-Flair project!  

Let's be real....Probably just #1 and #2!  :)

Another Finished Flimsy.
After finishing up the Simple Scrappy Sampler, I wanted to also finish up using the leftover fabric, so I started  this baby quilt!  

 I added a white border,

then a pink border!

Aren't my friend's shoes so cute? :p

The backing is Kate Spain's Paradiso with parts of the remaining layer cake in the middle!

My sweet daughter

will be quilting 

this one for me

and adding the binding - 

which will probably be purple!

I'm linking up to

Moving It Forward Monday @

Em’s Scrapbag

Fiber Tuesday at

The Quilting Room with Mel

       To Do Tuesday @ Stitch All Things

Linky Tuesday @

Freemotion by the River

Midweek Makers @ Quilt Fabrication

Happy Easter. Slow Stitching.

Slow Stitching.
I had a wee bit of time to work on my Granny Square Cardigan!  Here's an outdoor shot near our small pond in the backyard.

 Here's the yarn I'm using and the pattern is here!

Hmmm....the more progress I make, the more I'm leaning toward leaving it as an afghan!  :)  "We'll see......", as my husband so famously says!  

Happy Easter.
Sunday was a fun-filled day rejoicing in our LORD and with our traditional family gathering!  Naturally we had our Senior Citizen/Kid's Easter Egg Hunt. 

It was so precious to watch my dad as he reached into his bag of goodies and re-hid his eggs for his great-grandchildren to find!  Soon the kiddos caught on and began following him, plucking up eggs!  Such a precious memory!

I hope you all had a blessed weekend as well!

http://ivenko.com/bears/happy-easter-he-has-risen.html

I'm linking up to

Sunday Slow Stitching at @ Kathy’s Quilts

Sharing Sundays at @ The Creative Side

Monday Making @ Love, Laugh, Quilt

Philippians 2:28 Part 1. Simple Scrappy Sampler Finished!

Hello There!
Welcome!  As I prepare for today's study on Philippians, my mind is definitely on Good Friday - a day when so many terrible things happened to our Jesus.  This morning on KLOVE radio they were talking about this very thing.  And you know what they said:  It's called Good Friday because we know what happened on Sunday!  Amen!

So, as we soberly remember today, let's keep His victory in mind as well!  :)

Philippians 2:28.
Scripture  
Observation
Paul is eager to bless the Philippians with Epaphorditus' presence - proof that he has regained his health!  In doing so, he knows they will be glad and he will have less anxiety.
Application

I found Paul's words in verse 28 interesting....almost compelling.  I had to look back at the previous verses.....Paul didn't say he wants to send back Epaphroditus, but he is eager to send him back to relieve the Philippians of their anxiety.  He will greatly miss his brother, his co-worker and fellow soldier in the LORD. 

 Sending him back is a sacrifice for Paul.

A sacrifice he is making 

while 

undergoing 

his 

own 

trials.  

At least that's how I'm seeing it.  

So, how do I, do we, respond in trials?

Last Sunday our pastor discussed Jesus' suffering and our suffering. (You can listen to it here by downloading the app. Iphone or Android)  In our small group, we reviewed it and were challenged to complete this sentence:

When the going gets tough, the tough ________.

I would change it to this fill-in-the-blank:

When the going get tough,

the faith-filled, but hurting get

___________________________.

How would you complete it?

Prayer
LORD, thank you for the many sacrifices that You, Your Son and all that have come before me made that I might know You.  I know that there are many rejoicing and happy people out there today - and I am one of them!  You have blessed me with love, security, creativity and joy.  

But, I am deeply aware of those who are hurting, confused, lonely and in despair today.  Please comfort them and strengthen them!  Help them to come to know You and trust Your ways.

I love you, Abba Father.  
Amen.


Simple Scrappy Sampler Finished!

The Simple Scrappy Sampler Flimsy is finished!  Yea!  I dropped it off with Stephanie, my long arm quilter, and her eyes lit up like it was Christmas!  This is another "Chemo Quilt" - a project started while I was in chemo.  I'm loving the bright colors, the variety of blocks, the sashing and, yes, those pesky, playful cornerstones!  

Please feel free to share your tips on cornerstones!  In order to improve my skills, I'm going to keep putting them in my quilts!  Your advice would be so appreciated!  

My daughter pointed out how pretty a quilt looks from behind with the sun shining through!  Look!

I used a Happy Tones layer cake and charm pack as my main fabric. The white background for the blocks was a a combination of a white on white floral purchased long ago.  I used Muslin Mates White on White Vine for the comenstating strips purchased at Berninia Sewing and Design.  The sashing was Moda Bella Solid in Lavendar - I think.  :)

Thank you all for 

your encouraging comments 

as I shared this project!  

I'm linking up to

Needleand Thread Thursday @

 My Quilt Infatuation

Let's Bee Social @

SewFresh Quilts

Heart Encouragement Thursday @ Chrystal Storms

Faith on Fire @

FuelFor A Wildfire Faith

Philippians 2:27 Part 5 A Look Back in Amazement. Simple Scrappy Sampler & A Simple Bday Gift!

Hi there!  Tada!  Here is the final part in our series on Philippians 2:27!  In Part 1 we talked about God's mercy and Paul's use of the word "but" again.  Part 2 discussed the phrase "sorrow upon sorrow".  We continued our discussion of this phase of our lives in Part 3 adding that God uses these times in to grow and strengthen our faith.  I guess in Part 4, I shared how God built our faith in the "sorrow upon sorrow" 

Philippians 2:27 Part 5
Scripture

Prayer

My dear LORD and Savior!  How blessed I am by the faith You have grown in my heart.  I'm grateful for Your healing touch - be it here on Earth or in Heaven.  

I'm also grateful that Paul used the phrase "sorrow upon sorrow".  It reminds me that as we journey through these valleys, You are there.  We are never alone and our tears are never wasted - not a one.  

Thank You that we can trust that our pain is never without purpose.  Help us to have grace, faith and courage during those times!  Amen.  

Simple Scrappy Sampler With Sashing!
I just love my local quilt shop!  Via my friends' gentle guidance, they turned what could have been a "ok" quilt into an explosion of Spring and celebration!  I was going to go with with sashing, but I'm loving this purple!  My daughter suggested cornerstones as well.  Though they weren't exactly fun to sew, the final result was well worth the effort!  

Soon the whole top will be finished and off to Stephanie!  I'm so grateful that Jennie from Clover and Violet offered this BOM!  

A Simple Birthday Gift

This week is my daughter's birthday week!  She will recieve a few small presents all week - and here is one of them!

"A hairy something or another," You ask?  Actually, yes!  It's a dishcloth/scrubbie!  I used an Avalon yarn by Cascade purchased at my local yarn shop, Quillen Fiber Arts!   (They have an online store!)  I added in some of Red Heart's Scrubby Yarn in "Duckie".  It was a nice combination!  

I made some a while back as a tester for my daughter.  I figure with four kiddos and a hubby, she would give them a good workout.  She loves the combination and asked for more!

Request completed!

Some regular dishcloths made from the same Avalon yarn are coming her way as well.  

A Look Back in Amazement.

I've begun printing out my blog and I still cannot read those posts....it's so painful.  I did skim the first couple of posts and was amazed at the faith God infused my life with!  Here they are just in case you're interested.  Admittedly, they were tough for me to even skim through - and that's ok! I just need more time.  It's amazing how far God has brought me - and will continue to bring me - and you, my dear reader!  You, too, are invited to join hands with Him.

Post 1: How It All Began

Post 2:  How It All Began Part 2

Post 3: Going Public!

I'm linking up to

Hookin’ On Hump Day at

Petals to Picot

And

Moogly

Fiber Tuesday at

The Quilting Room with Mel

and

Oui Crochet Community

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Writer Wednesday @ Becoming Press