Christ knocking and Christ and the Little Children

 These are my last two designs.

 

“Christ and the Little Children”

                                                                  “ Christ Knocking”

 My good friend, Peggy Aare of Wisconsin paper piecing, https://wisconsinquilting.wordpress.com/

designed the center panels and had them printed. I really appreciate her wonderful expertise and help. I added the paper piecing around the Christ figure knocking. She designed a paper pieced pattern, so I cut out the figure and appliquéd it onto the door background. 

The Christ and little children panel is just the center square. I added the squares all around. This one was a particularly difficult one, and I ended up making two back to back because the recipients were baptized within a couple of months of each other.

The first one is a copy of Francis Hook’s painting, and before I could proceed I needed permission. She and her children have passed away, but I found a grandson.

The second one is a painting by Del Parson, and when I contacted him, he informed me it was property of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they give permission for personal use  

Both are approximately queen sized.

Dearest Calvin,
Welcome newest darling grandson! You have joined an awesome family. Your siblings are going to love welcoming you to their new Little House in the Big Woods.
I'm so very glad you live close to me.

Imported post: Facebook Post: 2021-10-01T08:49:26

Today Doug Kailey sent me this photo. He thought I’d like it. Spot on. Quilting and birds. The textile artist, Karin Franzen is from Alaska, and has produced many beautiful quilts. Then FaceBook showed me this memory. I had to share. ABOUT CROWS by John Ciardi The old crow is getting slow; the young crow is not. Of what the young crow does not know, the old crow knows a lot. At knowing things, the old crow is still the young crow's master. What does the old crow not know? How to go faster. The young crow flies above, below, and rings around the slow old crow. What does the fast young crow not know? WHERE TO GO. cute poem quoted by Boyd K Packer several years ago in the Saturday Morning General Conference. I love Conference Weekend!!!!!!! I hope you are having an amazing weekend. ~a https://pin.it/4WPnxAG

---

Imported post: Facebook Post: 2021-10-01T08:28:09

My friend Kevin Boyle challenged me to share my favorite thing God created for us. His favorite thing is the family, and I have to agree with him. My favorite of God’s creations would also be the family. He expressed the value, protection, and power that comes from our families. I pictured my own children and the joy that comes from this sweet family that blessed our lives. But I don’t want to be a copy cat, so I will share something else that would be a favorite thing God created for us. As I read about the creation in the Bible, the Lord created this beautiful earth, and added water, and dry land, and trees, plants and animals, birds and fishes, flowers and grasses, and insects and butterflies. There is such a wonderful variety of each thing. He didn’t just plant a bunch of cloned trees, but think of all the varieties of trees that grow. From pines to willows and cottonwoods (three of my favorites) from the balboa to the ginkgo, aspen to giant sequoia. Some trees provide shade like a giant willow I grew up sitting under to watch the clouds. Some provide lumber, like the ones surrounding my beautiful farm in Oregon. Some provide fruit, like my three beloved pear trees, apricots (my favorite) peaches, apples and persimmon, the cherries growing next door. Some provide nuts like the walnut tree growing behind the pears, or cashews, coconut or hazelnut (to make Nutella), and some provide sweetener, like the maple trees. Some provide flowers, like my gorgeous crepe myrtle, lilacs (another favorite), or my magnolia. I love the spring as the crabapple trees burst with color. They provide shelter for sweet birds that delight my eyes and ears. I love my neighbor’s giant oak that spreads its limbs to provide not only beauty and shade, but supports a swing and a hammock. It also provided us with firewood and warmth when one of its magnificent limbs fell in a snow storm. I loved my 21 plum trees in my yard in Delta, and the beautiful honey locust with its tiny leaves that glittered in the sun. When one became diseased, we had to cut it down. It was like losing a family member. We had the wood made into lumber and one of her branches now is my mantle of our fireplace. We used to go boating in a lake in southern Utah. It was a magnificent lake, but there were no trees. I just can’t live without trees. I was always so happy to get back to the shade of my trees. My Delta neighbor, Sister Rowlette, pointed out that the humble elm was a wonderful pioneer tree. They grew quickly and tall and provided not only shade but warmth as they shed branches or needed thinning. We grew up with many tall elm trees, and an elm hedge. They are so versatile. I love living among so many beautiful trees. I could go on, but you get my point. I also love birds… and domestic cats, and cows and goats and horses, and rain, I could elaborate and wax poetic on all. Oh, and MUSIC. But instead, I’ll leave that for someone else. Thank you, Elder Kevin Boyle for this challenge. It has helped me reflect and record something I’ve been thinking about for years. -whats your favorite of God's creations??

Just downloading some of my photos of some of my quilts.

what have you started, but never finished, why?

I started a hook rug of a lion that matched the children's drapes. Because we were dirt poor, I used a gunny sack. The kind the cow feed came in. I washed it and drew the design on the back.

We moved to a tiny trailer shortly after that. Dave got a job in Hayden Colorado. So we shut the Delta CO house up and brought only a tiny television, a vacuum, sleeping bags, pots and pans and table service for four, clothing for five days, the Christmas gifts we'd just gotten in Boulder, including toys for the kids and a baking book for me, the dog and my hook rug.

It was January and we didn't have a washer. Dave worked in the coal yards, so his dirty clothing was washed in the bathtub with Tide and a toilet plunger, then dried in the dryer that came with the trailer. I was so thrilled to own a dryer, I didn't mind washing everything by hand, including cloth diapers.

The hooked rug came out after chores.

I was making good progress, when after a month living there, Dave came home to say we'd been transferred back to Delta. So we packed up our scant belongings and headed home. The hooked rug got put away and hasn't been touched since.

Saddness

I'm in mourning.
In all my self-absorbed quilting, I've not kept up on some of my most favorite bloggers.
I just learned that Carol Turznik from Mamacjt has passed away in May of this year, and I'm so very sad. She was my hero in so many ways.

I loved her colorful imagination so much, I created her own board on Pinterest. I started following her sometime in the last 10-15 years, I'm not certain when. Early in my internet searching days, as I was studying how to learn to quilt, I came across her blog and I was hooked.

I loved her choice of colors and fabrics. She had incredible style, imagination and talent. I loved seeing what she was up to next. She not only did many imaginative and brightly colored quilts, but pincushions and drawings. She regularly made beautiful envelopes for her lucky niece and granddaughter and sent books to them. I am stunned by the amount of envelopes she whipped out in a week, on top of all the quilting. She was involved in many swaps, where some lucky person received a beautiful creation, including doll quilts, mug rugs, pin cushions, etc. she also did many consignments. She created caricature portraits in fabric of at least 75 women.

She taught me a lot about fabric art that Ive applied to my quilting process. She would color on fabric with crayons and heat set with an iron. I used this in one of my quilts to make the letters stand out.

Soon after I had started following her, she had a "giveaway" and I won a pincushion she made one day. I loved it so much, I ordered another. So I have two of her and darling creations.

She always went the extra mile, so when I received her boxes with the pincushions, she included darling handmade hat pins she had created with clay over the head of the pin.

She had a way of making everyone feel like we were an intimate part of her circle of friends.

I'm not sure why God took her so early in her life. I'm certain He didn't allow her to bring her art supplies. She was such a force of energy for good, I'm sure her dear family feels unbelievably hollow without her.

I found some colorful buttons in Walmart the other day. I have no immediate use for them, but I purchased them in memory of her. They will sit on the shelf in my sewing room, next to her pincushions as my memorial to her.

Rest in Piece, my dear friend. I miss you lots.