When Faith is Forbidden - A Book Review...

 You may not know this about me as I don't often post book reviews, but I am a voracious reader. Always have been. I'm usually reading 5 or 6 books at a time - a mix of fiction and non-fiction books. Generally the non-fiction books take me a little longer because I only read small chunks at a time so I can process what I've read. I probably average a couple hundred books each year.

Lately I have been on a binge reading stories about persecuted Christians and missionaries. I find such encouragement for my own walk with Christ by reading how these individuals persevered in their faith in the midst of great suffering and tragedy. Recently I finished both Hearts of Fire by The Voice of the Martyrs and Bruschko by Bruce Olson. The former contains the testimony of 8 persecuted women throughout the world within the last century. The latter is the story of a 19-year-old-American who traveled to the Motilone tribe in Columbia to share the gospel with them. I highly recommend both of these books!

When Faith is Forbidden: 40 Days on the Frontlines with Persecuted Christians is another book from The Voice of the Martyrs family. Honestly, I expected the format to be similar to Hearts of Fire, but it is actually more of a devotional than a non-fiction book. Each day contains a Scripture passage that relates to the personal story of a persecuted Christian somewhere in the world. The testimonies are short, usually around 3-4 pages long. Although I would have liked to learn more about every individual, the author, Todd Nettleton, does a good job of detailing each Christian's struggle and perseverance. Their stories are followed by a brief Reflection that details a lesson from the passage. He asks questions of the reader that are bound to make you examine your own walk with Christ more closely. I'll admit I felt both uncomfortable and convicted with some of my answers. He also provides a prayer and some journaling space to reflect on your answers. There's not a lot of space to write, so if you really intend to reflect and answer, you're probably going to need extra paper. Last of all, Nettleton includes personal entries from his journal during these visits. However, many times they added nothing to the story and could have easily been left out of the book.

As with most things in life, you'll get out of this book what you put into it. If you want to learn a little about the lives and struggles of other Christians, there are plenty of stories to satisfy your curiosity and you can read them quickly. But if you want to grow deeper in your walk and know better how to fulfill the Great Commission, this is a great guide to use as your daily devotional. When persecution comes your way, you'll have a better understanding of what others have gone through and how to bear up under it.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.
I was gifted a copy of this book from Moody Publishers in return for my honest review.

David often likes to help me read. He's actually very insistent on it!

David helping me read...

 

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

Revelation 2:10-11

Moda Block Heads 2...

So I seem unable to stop myself from starting new projects.  Despite having nigh near 100 UFO's, I couldn't resist joining in on Moda's new Quilt Along this year. (Actually they started in June, I'm just woefully behind in making the blocks!)  In the beginning, a new block was released every Wednesday on Moda's blog.  The block was anywhere from 6" to 12" to 24" or somewhere in between.  Lately they've been releasing 2 or 3 blocks a week.  I'm not sure why they're switching things up; it just means I'm falling further behind...

I've been really wanting a yellow and gray quilt and I collected fat quarters of both for this Quilt Along.  This is mostly a mix of Corey Yoder's Sundrop and Sweetwater's Harmony with a few other prints in there.

Here are the first 5 blocks I've completed.  They've released 20 now and I'm working to catch up.  Some of the blocks are fairly easy.  Others are much more complicated.

Stellar Star (12") - Block 1

Buckeye Beauty (6") - Block 2

Pennsylvania (6") - Block 3

Roman Cross (12") - Block 4

Impact (24") - Block 5

I need to get a picture of all the blocks together to show their different sizes better.  I really like the mix of blocks so far.  I messed up on the last block and made all the flying geese too small.  They were supposed to be 2" x 4" and I made them 1" x 2" the first time.  So now I have 16 extra flying geese.  I'm hoping I'll be able to use them in one of the future blocks.

While I'm working on these blocks, David continues to keep me company.  He's such a great sewing companion...

David sleeping on a partially quilted quilt

Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble. 

Proverbs 13:20 (NLT)

2016...

There are so many good things to be said about social media.  So much inspiration and information out there!  There are also some negatives to it as well.  Sometimes too much inspiration and information.  Is anyone else guilty of losing time on Pinterest or Instagram?  I have so much quilting eye candy pinned on there and especially love all the free motion quilting examples.  At times it makes me feel both inspired to create more and guilty that I'm not as productive as others.  I love seeing all the new fabric coming out, but then that makes me want to go out and buy it.  And I already have a room full of beautiful fabric.  When I see a quilt someone has made, I start thinking how great that quilt would look in my bedroom or my living room or (fill in the blank) and start planning the fabrics I would make it with.  I completely forget the multitude of quilts I'm already working on or have planned.  That's one of the reasons I created my quilt binder - to remind me of the projects I have yet to finish/start.  It's helped to focus my attention - somewhat. 

However, I did see one quilt online at the beginning of the year that caught my attention and I couldn't resist it.  Nicole of Sister's Choice Quilts made the Triangle Gatherings quilt.  This was a year long quilt-along by Lisa Bongean in 2017.  I didn't pay much attention to it until I saw Nicole's quilt.  She added stars around each of her blocks.  Since then, I've seen several other Triangle Gathering's quilts, each of them set differently, and I've loved them all!  Fortunately I saved off all of the patterns early, because they're no longer available.  Apparently, Lisa from Primitive Gatherings is going to release them in a book in the future.  I had been hoarding these very old woven charm packs of Chocolat by 3 Sisters and Renewal by Brannock & Patek  There are 98 blocks, so I also ended up adding in a charm pack of Wool & Needle Flannels V by Primitive Gatherings.  For my background, I'm using a Manilla Grunge.

For some crazy reason, I decided on a finished block size of 3 inches.  I used Primitive Gatherings Triangle Paper to make all of my HST's.  They finish at 3/4" so they're pretty small.  My new rotating cutting mat came in very handy for cutting apart all the papers.

Because I had some extra charms, I've decided to make a total of 112 blocks.  I don't have a layout in mind yet.  I'm thinking I might add some hand embroidery or perhaps mix in some larger blocks.  I'll have to think on it, but I have plenty of time.  I thought it would be easier to make all of my HST's first and then put my blocks together, so that's what I did.  Here's all 2,016 of my HST's...

It really seems like it should make a bigger pile!  Next step is block assembly.

As usual, David was there helping me.  He made sure I took periodic breaks whether I wanted to or not!  He also gives a 'thumbs' up to the new cutting mat.

“When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions. Wait for hope to appear.” 

Lamentations 3:28-29 (MSG)

Half Square Triangle Love Fest...

Last year, I feel like I had a love affair with half square triangles (HSTs).  I must have sewed thousands of them together.  And I literally mean thousands!  Fortunately, my quilt bee had done an HST swap several years ago, so I wasn't starting from scratch. 

I was able to get most of my pinwheel blocks for a king-size Scrappy Pinwheel quilt from that swap.  I used my stash for the rest of it. 

Initially I planned to add borders to the outside.  I even bought fabric to do so, but in the end, I decided I loved it without them so I just made more pinwheel blocks to make it big enough to fit our bed.  It's now 96" x 108".

I have the batting, but still need to get the backing for this one.  I also made a coordinating lap-sized quilt to go over the back of the chair in the bedroom.  It's only 51" x 63" but it was almost as much work piecing all those little rows together.  It was worth it though!

And I took advantage of the brief warm spell last week to baste this little one and a couple of others for quilting.  FYI - as I type this, it's snowing outside!

David is up to his old tricks again.  He was particularly helpful as I tried to get this binding sewn down the other day.  It only took me twice as long with his assistance!

“Those who love money will never have enough. How absurd to think that wealth brings true happiness!” 

Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NLT)

My 'little' sewing helper...

I've mentioned before how much of a 'helper' my cat David is when I'm sewing.  I do most of my hand stitching/applique at night while watching TV.  Even though he's more than twice as big as a normal cat, he's convinced he's a lap kitty so he's determined to lie in my lap at night.  I'm trying very hard to train him to sit beside me so I can sew, but thus far, he's extremely resistant!  Here's a series of pictures from a battle the other night...

Just for reference in the pictures, I'll explain that I put a pillow on my lap and then my sewing box to give me the height and stability I need when I'm hand appliqueing.  It's what works best for me (and my neck!)

Here David has crawled directly on top of the sewing box on my lap.  I had to pull my stitching out from underneath him and off to the side.

It's difficult to see, but he's now curled up on top of the sewing box.  I keep the blanket beside me in the chair and I try to coax/ease/push him onto it.  He's 23 lbs though and if he doesn't want to move, he won't.

He's now standing on top of the box begging to be petted and scratched.

Well, he's finally off the box, but only because he's decided he wants to smurgle my lap. (Yes, it's a real word.  Look it up!)  Still no stitching getting done....

Eventually he did settle down for a nap and I made some progress on my sewing.  I'm hand appliqueing the last ship in my Ladies of the Sea quilt.  This is another long time UFO that I hope to make some really good progress on this year.

If you get the impression from this post that we're ruled by our pets, well, you're probably right.  We have 3 cats and a dog and most days they do seem to run things.  But considering how much joy they bring to our lives, I'd say it's a pretty fair trade.

So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. 

Matthew 6:33 (NLT)

All a flutter...

It's a fact that I have a impressive daunting number of UFO's to complete.  Every year I hope to whittle that number down, but since I do my own quilting, it seems to grow instead of shrink!  As of today, I have 42 quilt tops needing to be quilted.  So I try to talk myself out of starting new projects and only working on the ones I have.  Unless of course it's a prayer quilt.  I've always felt free to stop working on any other projects if I feel like I need to make one of these.  Recently I really felt the call to make one for a friend's daughter.  I'm sure everyone reading this has gone through their own health issues or know someone close to them going through them.  Unfortunately it's an all too common part of life.  But when it happens to someone young, it's just that much harder.

I had been saving this bundle of Flutterby fabrics by Tula Pink for a very long time and this seemed like the perfect quilt in which to use them.  (FYI - the top fabric is Natural Effects by Michelle D'Amore.)

Melissa Corry of Happy Quilting designed a quilt using the new Moda Cake Mix Recipes and I thought it would be a fun pattern for this fabric.  She used Cake Mix #5.  The layout looks SO much more complicated than it is.  It's actually just a mix of 4-patches and HST's.

Quilt layout from Melissa Corry of Happy Quilting

LOTS of 4-patches and HST's.  It still went together pretty quickly.  And because everything was sewn using the Cake Mix paper, it went together perfectly!

I must have left my brain at home when I went to purchase the backing fabric though, because I didn't buy quite enough.  I had some leftover blocks from the quilt so I added them to the back to make it big enough.  It will serve double purpose as the label once it's quilted.

I made the binding out of the only remaining fabric I had enough of.  (As soon as I finish a quilt top I always like to make the backing and binding at the same time.  That way, even if I don't quilt it for a long time, I don't have to go searching for the fabric when I finally get around to it.)

All I need now is some white batting and a warm enough day so I can baste it.  (I spray baste all my quilts.)  I plan to quilt it and get it to it's new home as soon as possible.

I actually had a lot of help making this quilt.  From the same someone who has continuously helped me 'write' this post!  This is my sewing buddy David.  He does NOT like to be ignored and keeps walking across my laptop while I'm trying to type.  He also likes to lie in front of the needle on my sewing machine and routinely climbs on top of it to keep me company.

David on top of my sewing machine

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world. 

John 16:33 (NLT)

KittyFest 2015...

I thought about titling this post something more descriptive but held back because 1) I didn't want to gross you out, and 2) I didn't think anyone would read it.

Why is it that every time a cat gets sick, they always pick carpet instead of something easy to clean up?  The past few days have seemed like one never ending festival of kitty vomit.  The entire apartment I'm living in right now has laminate floors with the occasional scattered rug and yet I've done no less than 10 loads of laundry washing those rugs.  Our cat Jack was in last week getting radiation treatment for her hyperthyroidism.  Moses, our Siamese, went through the exact same treatment 2 months ago and had absolutely no side effects.  Jack came home on Thursday and by Friday was extremely sick.  The poor thing wouldn't eat or drink, all she did was sleep and throw up.  I had to give her fluids under her skin just to keep her hydrated.  And of course, she's radioactive for the next two weeks so I had to be extra careful cleaning up after her as well.

And just to join in on the fun, two of our other cats got sick as well.  I think David may have eaten a bug or something that didn't agree with him.  I can count on one hand the number of times in 6 years that he's gotten sick, but he had to choose this weekend to add to that number.

Sam has been grooming herself incessantly lately, so I wasn't overly surprised when she presented me with a hairball.

I'm very pleased to report though that they've all gone 24 hours without an incident.  Jack has finally turned the corner and is on the mend.  She's regained her appetite and is drinking water on her own.  Now that she can handle it, I've been offering her food and treats at every opportunity.  She needs to put on a good bit of weight to get back to normal.  She's nothing but skin and bones right now.

All my cats are indoor only, but my parents take care of about 30 feral cats.  Due to a generous grant, they've been able to get most of them fixed and hopefully will be able to catch and fix the youngest ones in the near future.  It's quite a sight though to see so many cats come running for breakfast in the morning - all sizes and colors.  About 8 of them have taken to sleeping under my dad's truck during the heat of the day.  They're everywhere you look.

I think this one looks like a rag doll...

They clip their left ear when they fix them so you can tell right away who's been fixed and who hasn't.  This little fellow has obviously already been snipped.

My parents have been feeding these cats for years, but their numbers were growing and it was just getting to be too much.  They've paid to have some of them fixed themselves, but it quickly gets way too expensive.  This local grant has been such a blessing to them and to the cats.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. 

Revelation 21:4 (NLT)

I'm Swooning...

After 14 years in the same house, my husband and I recently decided to start over and build a new house.  So the last couple of months have been non-stop busy with packing, trying to get the house ready to show and a temporary move.  We officially listed the house last week and are so grateful that it's already sold.  We had 3 showings and 3 offers over this past weekend.

All of this has left me with little time to sew recently.  My mom and I had been working on a Swoon quilt to use as a raffle for my niece's school.  I'll confess I only sewed one block and helped with a few others.  My mom did the bulk of the work.  Now that the top is done, I'll be quilting it.  FYI - The fabric in this quilt is Miss Kate by Bonnie & Camille.

Our 4 cats are not handling the move very well.  Of course, they've lived in the same house since they were all kittens so this is a huge transition for them.  I think the vet down here (whom I'm becoming very familiar with) is going to hate to see us go.  I'm sure I've already paid for his summer vacation and am working on his winter one!  In fact, yet another of our cats has just been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and has to have radiation treatment.  That's 2 cats within 2 months.  You'd think the condition is contagious, but it's not.  Jack goes in for treatment on Monday and she'll continue to be radioactive for another couple of weeks after that.

Jack

Sam has developed acne yet again and her kidney values have gone up.  However, I think she's adjusting the best of all them.  While the others hide when people come over, she's always out and ready to interact with them.

Sam

Moses is and always has been completely neurotic.  She hides under the covers all day and only comes out at night.  However, she loves to explore my dad's garage and is slowly cleaning out the cobwebs from every nook and cranny.

Moses

David was a terrified wreck for the first couple of weeks and hid under the bed most of the time.  He's now growing more comfortable with everyone and his surroundings.

David

Our new house won't be finished until November, so they've got enough time to really settle in before I move them again.  Hopefully they'll handle this 2nd (and last) move better than the first!

So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up.

Galatians 6:9 (NLT)