Wordless Wednesday ~ Sisters

 Christmas gift to Amber Skye December 2012....Amber is 3 1/4 years old

I love how Daddy was showing her all the pieces and how to use them.

Amber's sister, Zoe just under 8 months old.   It suddenly dawned on us last week that she could be playing with this!   Grateful for baby toys that were big girl enough in design to make a tiny, precious physically limited little girl feel so grown up.  Grateful for big sister's special toys that bring delight to a curious growing baby sister.  Grateful for a heart full of memories and making more.

Stuck

Last fall, my sister and I spent a few days in New Hampshire.  It was a much needed escape from responsibilities, a chance for uninterrupted quilting, and take in a little shopping and a few short hikes.  While we were there, we decided to take on a challenge of memorizing the book of Colossians and reconvene a year later to recite the whole book.  I had found the challenge here ~ two verses a week with built in times of review.  Seemed very do-able.  Well, I do not want to admit defeat yet but I have a lot of ground to cover to catch up to my sister.  She is ahead of the game and should be all done mid-September as she had already committed a few portions to memory over the years.  I keep letting life get in the way.  Ok, I admit it.....I am TERRIBLY UNDISCIPLINED!!!!  I am a poor manager of time!!!  (That's putting it mildly)  I desire to come up with a schedule and stick to it ~ there is plenty of available time that I just waste.  I need to set aside just a few moments a day to memorize, exercise, and work on some special projects ~ transcribing my grandmother's journals for one.

So, I find myself STUCK in chapter two!!  I should be nearing the end of Chapter three by now or even further.  The middle of Chapter two hit me hard and so I was just stuck there ruminating.  Now, I'm just stuck.

 Colossians 2:6-7 ⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Overflowing with thankfulness

It just hit me like a ton of bricks.  I arrived at this section just before graduation season and it was just perfect for my desire for high school graduates in particular.  So many young people who have professed a faith in Christ leave home and their church family and completely turn their backs on everything they know is right to experience what they think they are missing.  This is my desire for them that they would be strengthened in their faith and not be so weak as to walk away from it.  

But that last bit, overflowing with thankfulness.  How had I missed that??  Forty some-odd years and yet I guess I've just skimmed over that part, missed it completely!  So, I have been stuck this summer on "overflowing with thankfulness."  Rooted, grounded, strengthened in the faith, continuing to live in him all these years, YES!  But overflowing with thankfulness??  I must confess, I don't think my life reflects that at all.  So, here I find a challenge within a challenge.  While I need to get on with the memorizing and try to catch up with my sister so we can finish what we set out to do, I need to overflow with thankfulness!!  

Today is Brought to You by The Letter S

Scenic Vistas

Serenity

Sewing

Sisters

A short get-away last week to North Conway, New Hampshire.  A little hiking, a little shopping, a lot of sewing ~ my sister put most of her quilt top together, I dabbled with a stressful block and then laid out last year's quilt to ponder over what to hand quilt the borders...still haven't decided.  A lot of reminiscing ~ 24 years of memories with my parents in this place and time of year.

Bear Claws

How disappointing, not the furry kind nor the kind you can eat!!!  I took my hubby to a quilt shop, hoping to find a summer wool felt pin-cushion project like this but she did not have one available.  Not wanting to leave empty handed, he found a pattern for a table runner using two blocks of bear claws and two smaller star blocks.  

The dark blue patterned strip on the bottom will be the binding.

He and my sister had fun choosing a Moda charm pack, Summer Breeze, since I'm a fan of blue and yellow.  I think it took a week of evenings to cut and piece it.  Now, it is pinned into a sandwich, waiting for the quilting part.  That's where I fall apart - do an overall pattern? stitch in the ditch?  colored thread or just a white quilting cotton thread??  Hopefully I'll decide soon so I can use it on the table while it is still seasonally appropriate!!

  I did manage to finish a spring themed wool felt pin-cushion.  This was one of two my sister, Goddess of Hand Sewing, gave me as a Christmas present quite a long time ago.

Turning A Corner

Last week I found myself driving through the woods on a hard-packed dirt road....up a mountain.  

Yes, I have to admit, we passed a sign like this only quite small and way up high on a tree.  Proceeding ahead with doubt, a car passed by from the other direction, and so my sister said we were fine and obviously the road wasn't closed!  We soon found ourselves climbing ever higher, encountering a few ruts and more cornering.  We finally reach the top, the road flattens out a bit and I am in a panic but my sister reassures me once again as a delivery van comes our way (how he passed us is a mystery....my eyes were shut as the road had considerably narrowed by now).  I'm trying to breathe, my mom (in her 80's) is doing her big sighs.  My sister is in the back seat.  She has no clue what lies ahead.  A sheer vertical drop!  Muddy and very rutted!  And a hairpin turn for good measure!!

I stop the car and announce that I am done and I was not driving anymore.  

Thankfully my sister climbed into the driver's seat and somehow (my eyes remained closed) managed to get us down the mountain.

A week before this hair raising experience we received a diagnosis regarding my granddaughter that has been a year in coming.  Thankfully God is in the driver's seat with my daughter and her husband as they face a sheer drop and hairpin turns.  I'll be close by, probably with my eyes shut, praying for strength and peace for them as they face decisions I do not want to face.

First Attempt

Sewing intimidates me!  I've always considered a sewing machine to be right up there with a standard transmission and organs - terrifying!!  Give me a piano and I'm in control but these things with motors and foot pedals and I'm paralyzed with fear.  Over the past few years, I have overcome my fear of the organ out of necessity, filling in for our ailing church organist.  Four years ago I was inspired by my sister to by some fat quarters and a quilt pattern.  That's as far as I got, the giddy groupings sitting in a bag gathering dust in a corner of my bedroom closet.  Last year for my birthday, my husband gave me a sewing machine thinking it would keep me busy while he was deployed....that too has been gathering a bit of dust sitting in a corner of the music room.  Well, he is coming home on leave next week!!!  Motivation!!!  

So, here is my first attempt in progress.  Giddy and random!!  I am not showing my sister (sewing goddess extraordinare) until I have the top sewn!!  There are still corner and setting triangles to be added but I am impressed to be this far!

Cardinals And A Sister Who Knows Me Better Than I Do

Hmmm, there seemed to be a bit of a Cardinal Theme this Christmas. A Santa from my husband to add to my collection (babymomma picked it out) and then a salt and pepper pair from my sister as well as Christmas Jammies! My sister and I had been shopping for Christmas Jammies for babymomma and her baby. I was having great difficulty deciding which pink set to go with for babymomma but instantly picked out this pair as ones I would choose for myself. My amazing sister had already purchased those for me a few days before our shopping excursion! She is indeed a treasured gift.