Don't let the difficulties of the present moments overshadow the reality of God's promises. God's promises still stand. And God's promises are stronger than our failures.

Saturday, April 25, 2015

After The Rain

It rained all afternoon here in south Louisiana where I'm doing some volunteer work at the UMCOR Sager Brown mission.  There was lightening and thunder and lots of wind.  But when it passed I took a little walk before I was ready to settle into an evening of stitching.  There are lots of flowers here and they always make me smile.....


I don't know what this purple flower is but mixed in with a few daisies it really shows off its' color.


And the color of this mum - it's as bright as the sun!


I think the daisies are my favorite....but then I spy a gardenia hiding down in the rain-soaked leaves.


Last night was the first night I've ever spent in this building alone I think, and probably it won't ever happen again.  My husband had gone home to deal with the hail damage I showed you in my last post.  Our little apartment is in an old dormitory that has 17 bedrooms besides our apartment.  There was an orphanage and school on this campus from 1867 until 1972 so thousands and thousands of children have lived here, played here, worked here and gone to school here.  In the quiet of the evening when I had no television on and I was stitching away on a small pattern I had just begun, I thought I heard the laughter of children.......and it was a comfort to me thinking of all those little ones who were safe and happy here during those years.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Who Can Stitch With This Going On?

Have you ever been in one of those moods where you just want to sit in your chair and stitch?  And then life interferes?  That's exactly where I am right now!

It hailed at my house Sunday evening.  I don't mean just regular hail...I mean giant sized hail.


It looked like this on my deck.




All those planter boxes were beautiful tomatoes with blooms, some gorgeous herbs that were ready to trim....they are gone.  See that chair?  Now it looks like this:


My deck box that holds the cushions for my outdoor furniture has big holes in it.


I am just so thankful that our daughter and grandchildren, who are living in our house while we're on a mission trip, were not at home and no one was hurt.

The insurance folks are coming, the roofers are giving estimates, my husband is cleaning up the devastation in the yard and is checking the camper & storage building & boat/dock to see what we have to do with those.  It's going to be a busy week at my house!

My prayers of thankfulness are going up for all that we have and all that was spared and for all those who had more damage than we did.  Mother Nature is definitely a force to be reckoned with!

Monday, April 13, 2015

Latte Anyone?

I confess that I'm not a coffee drinker...or a latte drinker....I don't even like coffee flavored desserts.  However, I do love chai tea and I do love this fabric so I couldn't let this hop pass me by!  :)  Besides, coffee is definitely a staple at my house since my husband doesn't speak in the mornings before he's had at least two cups!

In addition to my husband one of our daughters is a coffee lover.  And the colors in these fabrics - they are perfect for her house.  So with her in mind I found a little cross stitch piece (printed, not counted) to center the other fabrics around.


Isn't this just the most perfect sentiment?

Since I've known about this hop for quite a while now, I made and photographed this table runner several weeks ago on a beautiful still-winter day



....back when the only green thing in my yard was this:


But I found that the winter browns were a perfect setting for this gorgeous fabric line!


Lying among the brown leaves provided the perfect way to showcase this table runner!



After adding the brown border to my center cross stitch piece I fussy cut strips to frame it.  I then did some "whimsical" free motion quilting.



Coffee anyone?


Many thanks to Joan at Moostash Quilting for her guidance through this hop and to Madame Samm for her constant stream of creativity!

Please be sure and visit others on this hop - you won't be disappointed!

  April 14

          April 15
        
  April 16

  April 17

  April 20


  April 21


  April 22

  April 23

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Amazing Grace

I'm having trouble finding time to stitch right now so I'm picking up my needle five minutes here and five minutes there.  I finally got this piece finished and am looking for a basket/box that I can put it on....I'm not sure what I want that basket to hold but I know that's what I want!


I've not pressed it or trimmed it yet since I'm waiting for the basket to appear.  :)  But I do love the beautiful colors in this and found the perfect piece of fabric for borders.  The pattern is this one:


I bought this at a shop in Branson, MO several weeks ago when we were on spring break with some of our grandchildren.  I think I'll be stitching it more than once but I hope I don't have to do any UNstitching when I do it next - this time I don't know what happened but that upper right corner was way off when I finished it.  I had to take that whole line out and restitch.  I did change one color from the pattern.  It called for a purple for the letters and it just didn't speak to me.  :)

I love the sweet flowers on this; it just says spring I think.

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Tea Time!


One of the things I love the most about blog hops is  the fact that it pushes me to get things stitched, done and passed on to friends and family.  This beautiful pattern, designed by Cori at Creativity Amongst Chaos and Madame Samm of Sew We Stitch had me scratching my head trying to decide what I wanted to do.  I wanted to do it all.  :)  I wanted to embroider it, cross stitch it, applique it....and time was not going to cooperate.  So finally I decided to combine a little embroidery and a little machine applique and see what happened.


I got to this point and then thought, ok what will I do next?  My decision was kind of made for me when I got the news that my beloved sister-in-law has cancer.  I knew that this picture of two friends would be a reminder to her of how much I love her and value her in my life.  So....a chemo bag it is.


It needs to be roomy enough to hold a lap quilt/blanket so I made it kind of tall to hold a rolled up blanket, plus a lot of other stuff.  (This is the forsythia in my yard the day before a hail storm beat most of the blooms off!)


I added a matching zipper bag to hold little things like chapstick and mints.


I'm really just showing you this view because I wanted you to see that my Carolina Jasmine is about to bloom!  Can you see those little buds?


And my phlox has also put on a few little flowers....


This will be going in the mail tomorrow along with several magazines, a crossword book, several snacks and tissues.  It's almost everything she'll need to take with her for a day spent at the doctors or getting chemo.


And if you're so minded a prayer for Marilyn and her family would be most appreciated.

Many thanks to Cori, Madame Samm, and to Mary of Needled Mom for the idea, the design and the "mothering" it took to put all of this together!  Please be sure you visit other hoppers today - there will be some wonderful things to see!


April 6th
April 7th

Thursday, April 2, 2015

We're Still Hopping!

It's almost Easter and I didn't get nearly the Easter things finished I thought I would!  But this little bunny did get finished yesterday and turned out to be one of my favorite Easter decorations.


I tried him out first on a small desk in my living room - I though he would be cute next to my little bird candle.  But really, bunnies are shy so he wasn't comfortable in that busy place.


So next I sat him beside this sweet angel which was a gift to me after my mother died.  An angel and a bird - he loved it there!  Can you see the small butterfly button I added on the ricrac where they cross?


He's like a lot of bunnies though - he also enjoyed hiding in the greenery.  :)

Don't forget we're still hopping....blog hopping that is!


I'll be showing you what I created on Monday so be sure you come back - here's the schedule so you won't miss anyone.