The final postcard...

It's December 1st, and the very last month of our "Postcards From Heaven" BOM.

What a beautiful journey Allie and I have shared this year, taking turns each month to share a Scripture based stitchery with you, one that meant something personal to us and hopefully one that spoke into your heart as well.

This final free postcard pattern is from Allie and you can head over HERE to her blog to download it. She has embroidered all our Postcard blocks in redwork and will be piecing them into a quilt which I can't wait to see...

As I was stitching Allie's design I reflected on just how precious a gift it was when Jesus knocked on the door of my heart and asked to enter. It was just over 25 years ago and my life has never been the same. 

I have climbed mountain tops and trekked valleys...I have rejoiced and I have wept...I have seen prayers answered miraculously, and others answered in ways that broke my heart. Yet, I trust my Lord and all HIS WAYS, that they are the BEST ways for His purposes to be fulfilled. 

Never has He left me, nor forsaken me. Never have I doubted His love nor His perfect plan for my life.

Stitching this verse carried me back in time to a night that changed my life...

...a night when a life altering choice was mine alone to make...

...a night when I stood before the door and made a decision to answer that knock, to let the King of Glory come in and rule over my heart, mind and life forever.

Lift up your heads, O you gates!

And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!

And the King of Glory shall come in.

(Psalm 24:7)

My last postcard has been finished as a cushion...

...with an envelope back and fabric ties.

Last month's postcard was finished as pincushion and another month I made a wall hanging. Our postcards can become lovely gifts, and Christmas is the perfect time of the year for sharing God's word and promises in such a special hand-made display.

Have you considered making them for friends and family, or for neighbours and shut-ins??

All twelve of our Postcard patterns will remain free.

You will find the links for each of Allie and my blog posts here, as well as the links for downloading the patterns. 

Be blessed always, and if you hear Jesus knocking but haven't yet opened the door, maybe it's time dear friend...maybe it's time.

hugs

The pink and green idea...

I think it may have been about a year ago that I went through all my pink and green fabric scraps and cut 100, 5" squares to make a simple quilt. 

At the time my plan was to have it made within a few weeks, perhaps a month - after all it was just a case of sewing together the squares and adding two borders - but life stepped in and the little tub of pastel squares was stowed away under work projects and completely forgotten until last month when they were re-discovered.

As well as the one hundred 5" squares I had also put aside a piece of floral yardage and a half yard of green tonal fabric for borders and binding plus a few 5" wide lengths of extra prints 'just in case' I needed more squares. 

Such pretty colours and fabrics, I thought they deserved a little more care after waiting so long for their moment to shine so when I was choosing the thread colours for December's Stitchery Club designs they were inspired by these fabrics. 

I had the idea that perhaps I could scatter some embroidered blocks through the quilt when I eventually make it?

Now the only thread you won't find inspired from my pink and green quilt fabrics is the blue and that's because I needed a contrast colour that would allow the stitchery blocks to stand out from the quilt.

(the 'blue' decision was made after a jolly good chat, large coffee and generous slice of cake with my friend Heather one Friday)

Have a look at the blocks below.

See how the little pops of blue prevent the embroidery from getting lost in the fabric. If the stitcheries were all pinks and greens, even with that tiny touch of lemon at the centre of the flower, they would lose quite a bit of impact...

I do hope the picture in my mind for what may become a lovely lap quilt actually eventuates.

One of the six designs is long and not very high, making it perfect as a border for the bird block if I stitch it four times and add small fabric squares in each corner...

...which would then make the centre of the quilt a 'medallion' and I quite like that idea.

This project will not be a quick one but hopefully it won't languish on the shelf for another year either. 

As I play around I'll take some photos and you can watch my progress and perhaps you can cheer me on from the sidelines? 

2021 UPDATE: Pattern set is now available HERE

Tomorrow Allie will be sharing the final block in our combined 2016 BOM, "Postcards From Heaven". Hasn't this been a wonderful year of free Scriptural stitcheries?

You will love the December postcard!

Here's a sneak peek at my version of Allie's design...

In my next blog post I'll show you the finished block and also the project I made using the completed Postcard stitchery.

These would be lovely as a holiday project and then stitched into a wall hanging  or quilt. 

And what about as a gift? You could trace them all on fabric, purchase threads, pack them in pretty paper and gift them to a friend who loves to embroider. Sounds simple, but they are often the most appreciated gifts to receive...

be blessed,

Block 11 "Postcards from Heaven" free pattern...

I'm sharing our next Postcard block a day early because my sweet husband is returning to work tomorrow after a wonderful month at home with me, so after I drop him off at the car yard in the morning I'll be heading across to Blossom's for a nice relaxed visit, which includes some good old fashioned mother and daughter chit-chat time with the added bonus of sweet Cully May to distract our conversation with chubby cuddles and heart melting smiles. You understand, right?

The verse for November's stitchery is precious.

He has sealed us as HIS VERY OWN.

Oh, gosh, I love that!

The world would like to steal me away, satan would love to steal me away...but I am sealed as Christ's own.

Despite years of walking the wrong path, saying the wrong things, choosing the wrong ideals, acting the wrong way...when I stopped and acknowledged my faults, when I let HIM turn me inside out and wash me with the cleansing life-sustaining blood of His own sacrifice, I was SEALED as His very own.

And let me tell you, 

I don't want to be any one else's but HIS.

Download the FREE stitchery pattern here in my shop.

Most of my Postcards this year have been bound as mini-quilts and posted away, though I did border the September design as a wall hanging (free pattern here).

This month I decided to display the stitchery as a pin cushion because I love having the promises of God everywhere around our home, no matter what task is at hand...

There's lace across two corners and I've hand quilted inside the seam of the block and border, as well as 1/4" outside the seam. The edges have been bound like a quilt...

Later this week I'll show you a similar pincushion with a tutorial to make a bound pincushion of your own.

Allie's done a redwork version of my block and as always I 'love' it.

She has also chosen to use the KJV text so if you'd like to stitch that instead of my conversational postcard wording she will have a file to download from her blog tomorrow with the words to trace.

I apologise for not having those road trip photos up on the blog by now. There's almost 400 of them to go through and I only want about 20 for a blog post so once I've spent a day with Blossom and gotten my house back in order (do y'all find your home tends to get a bit 'out of order' when your beloved is home for weeks on end?) I shall brew a big pot of coffee and treat myself to a nice vanilla slice while I make my choices. 

I've also got to prepare the pattern and photos for Friday's free pattern, too.

Yes, it's almost time for the next Gentle Domesticity BOM block! 

Here's a little peek...

Have a lovely week, won't you?!

hugs

Block 10 "Postcards from Heaven"...

Healing can come in many ways, not just the physical sense as we initially assume.

Emotional healing, spiritual healing, relationship healing - these have all occurred in my life at one time or another since accepting Jesus as my Lord, King, Redeemer, Healer and Saviour in 1991.

I can indeed personally attest to the Lord healing my body and my life many times over.

Occasionally the healing was relatively painless, but mostly, just as with the body when it is injured, there was initial pain and discomfort. Yet still, the healing came in time.

This month's Postcard from Heaven block was designed by Allie and is my favourite of all twelve we're sharing this year. The promise of Exodus 15:26 goes far beyond the surface to the very depths of our human condition...it reminds us Who He Is, and What He Can Do in every area of our life.

I still have broken parts of me which need to mend, and I do not doubt that they will because He Who Made Me promises it will be so. 

Healing will not come on my agenda, but on His, and that's okay because His healing is perfect and His timing is 'just right'.

Of course some healing does requires a quicker move of God's hand, such as the nail on my wedding ring finger which I sliced off last night as I chopped onions with a newly sharpened blade. Fortunately He created my body to heal broken skin on it's own so in time the pain will subside, the nail bed will heal and a new nail will grow over the wound. Ah, if only all healing were that obvious.

The healing which we need from the inside, emotional wounds that are hidden deep, buried out of sight and inaccessible to the stranger, are often the hardest to heal and the longest pain we suffer.

My own life is a scattered rubbish heap of painful emotional mistakes, rejections, injuries and losses, yet one by one He removes or restores and I slowly become whole. 

He heals.

He wants to heal.

Sometimes we just need to let Him.

When I figured this out and accepted that some healing will be painful I was no longer looking back, but looking forward at what a healed life could become. 

Like me, you just need to TRUST Him, and believe me you can.

Allie's October postcard verse is quite fitting for her own life this month.

Her precious mum, a woman I've grown to love during the seven or eight years of 'across the ocean expanse' friendship with her daughter, undergoes open heart surgery on Tuesday.

I know Allie's holding fast to Jesus and all our prayers for her mum's operation are like incense before the throne of God, so please join us in praying for healing.

Allie's postcard uses the KJV text and is stitched beautifully as a redwork piece.

Visit her Allie Oops Designs blog HERE to download her free October 'Postcards from Heaven' BOM pattern and see more of her block. 

If you'd like the modern wording I have used you can download the text only here.

May you have a blessed and healing Sabbath,

Block 9 Postcards from Heaven & bonus project!

It's my turn to share a postcard design this month and I chose Jeremiah 29:11 as my inspiration.

This is a very special verse for me, one that has carried me through the darkest of times and allowed me to trust in the Lord's ways above my own.

I love adding beads or buttons to my postcards and September's design is no different. Inside the basket of tulips and at the beginning and end of the wording you'll see tiny pearl beads.

Allie's version of this month's stitchery has the original KJV text (mine is written as a postcard/letter from our Father to His child) and is stitched beautifully as redwork. You can download Allie's alternate wording to trace here on her blog.
If her blog post isn't up yet, just check back in a few hours. 

The links to download all 9 of the free blocks shared so far can be found here on the BOM webpage.

BONUS PROJECT!

My first eight postcards were made using the same fabrics, but this time I've used different fabrics and thread to create my postcard.

You see I'll be posting the previous designs as real postcards, though they will be safely wrapped inside envelopes, but this month I decided to feature my design framed inside a mini quilt, one that will hang in my office.

As I was making it I thought perhaps you'd like to make one too?

You can use this pattern for any of the postcards Allie or I have shared this year!

DOWNLOAD

Both the postcard pattern and the bonus mini-quilt pattern are available as free downloads HERE 

in my shop from today.

May you be blessed as you stitch!

GENTLE DOMESTICITY BOM

Due to a clash of dates with something I'm involved with on the 5th, I'll be sharing Block 9 of my Gentle Domesticity BOM here on the blog tomorrow.

Want a peek?

hugs