Central Iowa Quilt SEW-ciety Guild in Marshalltown

We had our first official meeting last night under our new name and it was exciting. There were 41 ladies including me and one gentleman there . WOW! They are all soo excited and have so many wonderful ideas. I don't think Marshalltown really knows what hit it yet.
We have 52 names on our email list and last night there were 3 ladies that hadn't been there before, I have also talked to several (about 5) that are really interested but had conflicts with last nights time.
The really great thing in all of this is that I have made some new quilty friends and all of these ladies are very inspiring to me.
I have to get back to sewing :), I have 3 projects going, so I hope you have a great day.

Quilt tops to date

Good Mornin blog readers,
It looks like it is going to be a sunny day here in M-town.
I counted up my completed pieced tops today and have 4 completed tops.

Here is True Blue with borders on. I started this one last spring.

It is ready to be quilted now.

This next one is called American Beauty.

I started this one in January 2010. It went together pretty fast.

This next one is from crazy mom's blog site. She did it in orange.


And finally my denim throw. This pattern came from an old Country woman magazine.


Now if I get these completed I will have 8 completed quilts towards my 40 completed quilts.

I have one WIP up on my design wall at this time and several packed away. to work on at retreats.
Thats my update on my 40 quilts progress.
Thanks for stopping by.

April 6th Quilt meeting.

What a fantastic turn out we had last night at quilt group. 30 ladies came as well as our speakers from the Altoona Quilt Guild. The AQG ladies shared a lot of information on how to get our Marshalltown Guild up and running.
What a thrill it is to be at the beginning of a new group starting, And with so much talent now and to come.
This is definately not a one-man (woman) job though and I am praying that many will step forward to help really get this group established.
So my friends in blog-land, Pray for us. I appreciate all your prayers.
I better get to sewing/quilting, we are only going to show finished projects and most of mine are only half done. :) That is good incentive to get going.
Thanks for stopping by.

Now I am working with Amazon.

Today I signed on with Amazon.com. YAY!!! Now when I want to recommend a book or tool I can post an image and you can order if from Amazon right off my page. That is sooo awesome.

So here is a book that I highly recommend by Harriet Hargrave. It is an excellant resource to keep in your library because you will find yourself referring back to it often.
And now you can order it right off this website. I order a lot of books off of Amazon.com so I think this will make it easy for you and me too. I will make something off of everything you purchase from my blog site. YAY!!!

Thanks for stopping by.

First day of Spring.

Today is the first day of spring and we have a layer of snow covering the ground here in Marshalltown. We got about an inch of snow last night. The sun is shining and warm on our front door though and the bulbs I planted last fall are peeking up through the snow. I can't wait until they bloom. I love spring. :)

Yesterday I worked on my denim throw. I have 6 big blocks done and 6 more to finish. Each big block has 4 smaller blocks in it. I posted a picture in a previous post of some finished blocks. I should get the top finished today. That is the plan. I'll post pictures of the completed top later.

I hope you have a wonderful first day of spring. Thanks for stopping by.

Women of Faith?

Yesterday I attended a Women of Faith conference. It was my first time and I went hoping to get inspiration to deepen my relationship with the Lord. I walked away feeling like I had gone to a self-help seminar.

Maybe because I didn't pay, I was a volunteer, I wasn't able to get a lot out of it. Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe there was a moving of the Holy Spirit and I truly missed it.

I hesitate to say something negative because maybe someone else went and came to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Maybe someone there was motivated to read their bible more and spend more quality time in prayer with the Lord. Maybe someone left there yesterday and went home with the desire to serve the Lord , to step out of their comfort zone and reach out to a lost world.

Mostly I left feeling that maybe sometimes we lose respect for the Holiness of God. We forget that He is so holy that He can't and won't look upon sin. Where does that leave me? or you?
I can't speak for you but I can say that i have sinned many times, sometimes daily. Sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly often times willingly. When I think on the Holiness of God I realize that there is nothing good in me to allow me into the presence of a Holy God who can't even look upon sin. A God who HATES sin. Is there any hope for one like me?

I can't be good enough. The very things I don't want to do, I do them and the very things I do want to do, I don't do them.
I try, I really do, but the rags I have clothed myself in are dirty. The things I have allowed into my heart are unclean, impure and wretched.

Again I ask, Is there any hope for me?
I need a saviour, a redeemer. Someone who will redeem my soul. Someone who will go before me into the presence of a Holy God, who will strip off these dirty garments and cover my nakedness with clothes fit for a king.

Who will save me?
Here is a verse out of the Bible, a very familiar verse, that says it all.

John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

Here is another verse:
John 3:36
He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him

So this is the redeemer that God sent, His Son. What is His name? Jesus Christ.

Isn't it funny that since we can't do it ourselves God did it for us?

I know many don't like Gods way. There are many who want to keep trying to be good enough, to do good things. Many who just want to say "There is no such person as God" and try to deny His existence. And yet this very planet, Earth, shouts the existence of an awesome creator. If it weren't so then why do people try to continue creating? It is in our nature to create, this is the very nature of God.

A God who loves us so much that He made a way for us to be saved from our sins. He sent His Son to save us, to redeem us. And Jesus, like His Father, came.
He took our sin onto Himself so that we could stand before a Holy God, but the most important part that we cannot and should not ever forget is that Jesus put sin to death with Himself and then He, Jesus Christ, raised Himself up from death because death couldn't hold Him. Our sin caused Him GREAT PAIN and yet He bore it to the cross and conquered sin so that we can have eternal life with Him. WOW!!!

God is able to use things we can't see to change things we can see. God is able to take the things we can see to change the things we can't see.

This is what I was looking for. A reminder of who God is. I think we all need that. Sometimes, most times, we get so caught up in who we are that we forget to think on who God really is

What would happen if today we decided to give back to the Lord 10% of our time? 10% of a 24 hour period. Think about it, I know I am.

The First Meeting.

What a great meeting! Six ladies came to the first quilt/crafter meeting armed with a lot of excitement and great ideas. It went so well that we planned another meeting in 2 weeks so that these ladies can invite more people in order to really get a guild started. Isn't it great?
We are going to have a quilt guild here in Marshalltown. YAY!!!
The next meeting is set for Marsh 15 at the Public library here in M-town. 6pm-7pm

That's all for now. I will keep you posted.
Thanks for stopping by.