No Appointment Needed

Devotion for the week...

I have an appointment this week to see a nurse practitioner about a few minor things. That may not sound noteworthy, but considering how difficult it is to get medical appointments in Newfoundland these days, it's worth celebrating. I made the appointment near the beginning of December, after trying for weeks, and was only able to get it because another teacher told Paul that she had just booked one, so he massaged me, saying, "Call now."

Contrast that with how easy it is to talk to God about the things on my mind. When Jesus died on the cross, "the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom" (Matthew 27:51), signifying that the way was open. There's nothing separating us from God anymore. No curtain, no ritual we have to follow, no gatekeeper to block the way. We have free access to meet with Him whenever we want.

Hebrews 10:19 says, "And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus." When I go to my appointment this week, I'll sit in the waiting room until they call my name and usher me back to the exam room. But when we go to the house of a close friend or family member, we just walk right in and call out, "Hello?!" That's entering boldly! That's what we can do when we want to talk to God. We don't stand outside, shuffling our feet and wondering if anyone is home. We just walk right in because we know not only is He 'home,' but He also wants to see us.

And 1 Thessalonians 5:15 says, "Never stop praying." Never stop. We don't have to wait our turn, or make an appointment for a 15 minute window 6 weeks from now. We can talk to God every minute of every day. In fact, that's exactly what He wants us to do!

We don't need an appointment and we can just walk right in to talk with Him, so what's on your mind that you can talk to Him about today?

Inner Beauty Quilt

I love scrappy and stash-friendly quilts, so I love designing quilts for my Stash Artists membership! Inner Beauty is our January pattern and I love, love, love this quilt. I briefly considered gifting it to someone, but nope! This one's mine 😄

I love how bright the teals, pinks, and purples are against the navy background. Plus I've always loved star quilts, so a double star quilt just makes me smile.

The Inner Beauty pattern was born when I specifically challenged myself to design something that would work for fat quarter bundles. Though I don't tend to buy them, I know there are a lot of quilters who have several bundles stored on a shelf waiting to be used. They're so pretty they count as decor, though, so it makes sense to keep them and admire them. On the other hand, it's even better to turn them into a quilt!

I don't have any fat quarter bundles myself, so I pulled fabrics from my stash. I knew as soon as I looked at the fabric pull that I was going to love the end result. As usual for me, there's a mix of batiks and prints. I stayed away from solids for this quilt because I find solids can sometimes feel flat when there's only one or two in the fabric pull. That doesn't apply to backgrounds, since the backgrounds aren't supposed to be the star of the show anyway. I did end up switching the clamshell fabric second from the top left when I decided I didn't want to have to deal with a directional fabric when making HSTs and flying geese.

Right around when I was assembling this quilt top, I gifted my Ombre Twirl quilt to a friend. While folding it and tying ribbon around it, I noticed the quilting and decided to repeat the meandering hearts and flowers on Inner Beauty. I used Aurifil 2785, which blends into the background perfectly and stands out on all the star fabrics. It's noticeable when you're up close, but not so noticeable from a distance.

The navy is so hard to photograph well for closeups.

The only fabric I had that was big enough for the back was the navy solid. Even though I don't usually like to match the back to the background of the front, I also don't like piecing backs, so the navy solid won. 

I always use the same thread in the top and bobbin, but I wanted something to make the back more interesting than it would be with the quilting blending in so much, so I decided to use Aurifil 2540 in the bobbin.

I love it! The purple seems to be glowing against the navy and it's exactly what I wanted to dress up the back.

When I'm designing a quilt with points right to the edge, I like to add a small, plain border. Binding is a little wider than ¼", so it tends to cover over the points if there's no buffer. A simple 1" border keeps those points looking pointy.

If you love scrappy, stash-friendly quilt patterns, too, join the Stash Artists waiting list so you'll be notified when the membership doors open again.

I think this quilt will be going in my regular rotation in the living room. Sitting under a quilt with a book is one of my favourite things and this Inner Beauty is begging to be seen and used.

Known Well

Devotion for the week...

When Aiden was an infant, we lived in Igloolik, Nunavut (a small community on a small island in the Canadian Arctic) and our TV satellite dish allowed us to access a whole bunch of radio stations. Paul discovered that we could listen to a Christian radio station he knew from visiting his grandparents in St. John's, Newfoundland as a kid, so he started listening to it now and then after work. I wasn't a believer at the time, and I thought the music was so weird. Why were they singing about God so much?

At 5:00 in the evening, the radio station played a half hour program called Adventures in Odyssey. It's a radio drama for kids, so we joked that we were listening to it for Aiden to hear, but he was less than a year old 😅 We quickly came to love the fictional residents of Odyssey. Before long, we were making sure to tune in every evening so we wouldn't miss an episode. Sometimes we didn't turn it off right away when the show was over, and so we found ourselves regularly listening to Focus on the Family, which came on at 6:00. Before long, we were also regularly listening to Chuck Swindoll's Insight for Living program, which came on at 7:00. 

While I give most of the credit to Chuck's teaching, my journey to faith in Jesus started with those Adventures in Odyssey episodes. God used stories to reach me, and He specifically used radio stories because He knows me. He knows I wouldn't have sat down to watch a TV show, especially right at suppertime, but I would get drawn in by a story played over the radio while I cooked. Those stories cracked open the door to my heart, opening me up to the possibility of faith.

The Bible tells us a story of another time God used His knowledge of individual people to draw a group to Jesus. After Jesus was born, "some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 'Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him'" (Matthew 2:1-2). The wise men were men of learning, men who studied the heavens. God knew they'd notice the appearance of a new star in the sky, and that they'd search for the meaning of its arrival. Some scholars believe that the wise men would have been familiar with Jewish prophesies, which explains how they figured out that the star told of the birth of a new Jewish king.

The star in the sky didn't draw everyone to Jesus. There wasn't a rush of people from all over coming to meet Him. We don't know why the wise men were chosen, but God put the star in the sky as a sign designed to make them set off to find Jesus, and they followed it to Him. God also sent an angel to the shepherds because he knew they wouldn't notice or understand a new star. They needed a simple, clear invitation. In both cases, God wanted certain people to meet Jesus, and He tailored the invitation specifically for them.

I find it comforting to know that God knows us so well, and that He uses that understanding of us to reach us individually. While I may not be able to see how He could reach someone, He knows them and knows how to approach them.

How did God bring you to Jesus? Did He use His knowledge of your personality, interests, or quirks to reach you?