Christmas Sweaters

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV 

I had picked up the snowman/nature stripe fabric in this quilt at my local quilt shop, together with the pine fabric that coordinated with the pine in the snowman fabric. At home, I pulled out what remained of the white on red Christmas tree fabric that had been used in the Ribbons and Stars Christmas quilt, as a third coordinate for a 3-yard quilt. I was determined to make my niece a snuggle quilt, with fleece/minky backing, for her birthday in October so that she could enjoy it throughout the Christmas season, rather than waiting until Christmas to receive it. 
Having two directional prints, I felt I needed a pattern that had 2 focus fabrics, with large enough pieces to display the features of each. So I decided on Delight, from the book, The Magic of 3-Yard Quilts. I failed to really take into consideration, however, that the size of the squares did not really line up with the size of the stripes in the snowman fabric, with the result that many snowmen ended up decapitated. Nor did I account for the fact that the snowman fabric is used in the border, so there are both snowmen and deer/moose lying on their sides in the top and bottom borders. I managed to avoid that issue with the red Christmas tree fabric, however, due to the fact that I was cutting from remnants of a previous project, and managed to have pieces that were going in the correct direction for all 4 borders. 
But the direction of the border fabric wasn't the worst problem. The fact was that my fabric choices really didn't work well with this pattern. When I put the first couple of blocks together, I was so disappointed. I didn't like how it had turned out at all. The lightest fabric was supposed to be where I put the darkest fabric - the green on black pine - and it would have created sort of a shadow effect. But my lightest fabric - the snowman stripe, wouldn't have worked in that position. The shadow effect was totally lost, and I was left with an ugly mishmash of fabric pieces that didn't really pull together at all. And I had already cut the fabric for this quilt. I had a decision to make: try to see if I could make the cut pieces work in a different pattern (not likely), buy new fabric and start all over again (time and money), or just continue with this one and hope that it turned out better than I thought. 
I opted for the third option. And it grew on me. I ended up actually liking the quilt. With both the snowman and the Christmas tree fabric in rows, they reminded me of Christmas sweaters - and not ugly Christmas sweaters - I have some very nice Christmas sweaters - hence the name.

I quilted it with the Snow Winds pantograph.

Granted, if I had to do it over again, I likely would have used a different pattern. Or different fabric, or both. But I still like it, and Julie was very happy with it. She started snuggling with it right away. 
Life can often be like that quilt - not turning out the way we had hoped or planned, leaving us frustrated, disappointed and not knowing what to do about it. But we have a God who cares about us and has a plan for our lives, as the verse at the beginning of this post says. We may not always understand the direction He is leading in, and things don't always appear to be going the way we had hoped. But He is still in control, and while we may not understand the trials and disappointments we experience in this life, He has promised, 
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 NKJV
One of my favourite authors, Ellen G. White, has this to say in her book, The Ministry of Healing:

"In the future life the mysteries that here have annoyed and disappointed us will be made plain. We shall see that our seemingly unanswered prayers and disappointed hopes have been among our greatest blessings." (page 474)

So stay faithful to the God who has a plan for your life and will work things out for the best, even though appearances may be to the contrary. Look up and look forward to that time when all will be explained. 

Variegated Moss Stitch Throw - Tortoise Project Update

This throw was the first project I added to my Tortoise Project list. And now it's finished. 

Because I think that this throw is actually prettier than this picture shows, I took a close up as well. 

Just a quick review, I chose to use the wave variation of the pattern, which you can find here. As far as I can tell, I started this afghan in the summer of 2021. I used 13 different variegated yarns. My goal had been to crochet 15 repeats of the 13 rows to make a throw approximately 60 inches square. But I started to run out of yarn. And some of the yarns were no longer available. I did purchase one similar yarn to replace one that ran out, but buying a whole skein of yarn for one or two rows seemed like rather a waste of money. And storage space, because I would then have to store the leftovers somewhere. So, I started replacing some yarns with similar yarns that were already being used in the throw. And I even finished one row with a solid yarn when I only had a few inches of row to complete when the yarn ran out. And I stopped at 14 repeats, because the throw was already about 60" square, and I was just going to keep running out of yarn if I continued. 
The moss stitch is quite dense, so the throw is quite heavy. I could probably use it as a weighted blanket. 😄 It actually weighs around 4 pounds. 
Tortoise Project #2 is the Shannon Afghan. 

I haven't worked on it at all since the last update, so I'm stagnant at 24 squares completed. That's still quite an accomplishment because I started the year with only 6 squares completed. And this is a complicated pattern. 
Tortoise Project #3 was The Poet Shawl, which is completed. 

I'll be honest and say that, if I had to do it over again, I would not have used black and cream as the main colours. The black edging looks rather sloppy against the cream pockets. But it's done. 
Tortoise Project #4 was the latch hook project, also finished. 

I still have to decide where to hang it. 
So, that's 3 of my original 4 projects that are completed. And I have made significant progress on the remaining project. 
My goal was to work on no more than 4 projects at a time (not including quilting), so I added another project as I completed one.
Tortoise Project #5 is the needlepoint wallhanging. 

No progress there to report. I haven't touched this project in months. 
Tortoise Project #6 is the quilt block with no name, Brackman 3806.5.

I started this block in 2021. I had been doing a quilt along meant to teach people how to use the software, BlockBase+, but it only had 8 blocks. So I decided to add more blocks, choosing to use some of the most complicated blocks I could find in Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns (also in Blockbase+). But the encyclopedia has over 1,000 blocks in it. So to help find them, I asked in a quilt group on Facebook for recommendations on the most challenging 12" quilt blocks from this book/software. And I only got one recommendation: 3806.5. Yup, definitely challenging. Those smaller star sections are less than 2" square. And I had to figure out how to actually make the block. The inidividual pieces are much too small to fit under a sewing machine foot without disappearing. Foundation paper piecing wouldn't work. Straight hand stitching was not my forte, and I couldn't see being able to keep the seams together with my awkward hand sewing. I finally settled on English paper piecing, and I completed 2 of these smaller stars back in 2021. Then didn't touch this project again until this year. 
While my tortoise projects started out being yarn projects, I decided to include this quilt block because it is handwork. 
Honestly, I hadn't been working on any of my tortoise projects in months, but just recently figured I'd better get back to them. As you can see, I've made some serious progress on the quilt block, and, of course, finished the moss stitch afghan. I just have to find the motivation to work on the needlepoint and the shannon afghan as well. 
Now that the moss stitch afghan is finished, it was time to add another project to the queue. I'm trying to stick with UFOs, projects that I've actually started and not ones that I have the materials for, but haven't started. Unless a project becomes a priority, in which case, it may jump the queue. 
Tortoise Project #7 is A Blanket of Roses Afghan. 

I started this project back in 2015, and decided to call it Crystal Roses. I have four octagons out of 24 completed, and one square out of 15. I've got a long ways to go. I started an octagon last evening. For most of my projects, I have tried to set a goal for how much to complete in one sitting. But because these are done in the round, I'm not sure where to set the goal. Perhaps all of the coloured flower and leaves in the centre, then the white section and then the coloured border as 3 separate goals. 
And speaking of goals, here's a great Bible verse worth sharing: 

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13,14 NKJV 

Now I have to figure out what to do with this. 

I think I originally drilled the holes in it when making my temperature change afghan (which I still want to add corners to). And then used it for Sophie's Universe, and finally for the Moss Stitch afghan. But I don't have any multi-yarn projects in my current or future queue. It might just have to hold a quilting project...