The Prayer Project

Prayer:  a time of conversation with God.  Involves both listening and speaking.  Its subject may be worship, petition, intercession, repentance, or musings.  

My desire:  to be in continual communion with the Lord as I go about the day.

This desire has also been my struggle ever since I have come into this season of having a lot of solitude to my days.  There has been the issue of my motivations--how well my day goes with prayer being a measure of my worth.  That tanked very quickly.  Then there is the frustration of structure.  I have tried both a structured prayer list and being spontaneous to no avail.  Between the two, though, I know I need a measure of structure--a rhythm of prayer to the day.  The biggest struggle is the lack of words.  Sometimes prayer flows so effortlessly but, more often than not, I just don't have the words to pray.  It makes sense that since my talkativeness tends comes in bursts with much silence in between, that it would also be the case for me in prayer.  Expressing myself in words can be challenge in general, so it shouldn't surprise me that it is the same with prayer.

Recently I learned about a daily devotional geared towards urban professionals:  843 Acres  I like the way it is thoughtful, short, and to the point; and I found myself drawn to some of the prayers at the end.  They reminded me of the Common Book of Prayer we were introduced to during our time at a local liturgical church, and some of the wonderful prayers it contains.  

Those times when I find prayer the easiest are often prompted by something I have seen or read that echoes in my heart.  The devotional inspired the idea of compiling prayers from readings and Scripture to use as jumping off points during my times of prayer during the day.    
So I have a new adventure before me:  The Prayer Project.  

And the journey continues....

East Meets West 2

Flowers and butterflies were the theme of East Meets West 2.  The pink backing and binding gave this quilt a feeling of sweetness.

East Meets West 1

Last year, for a few weeks, we had a couple of ladies from the Philippines who were in the States visiting family come to our quilt group.  Quilting was a new endeavor to them, but they dove right in.  Before they left, we had almost enough blocks to make two quilts, so we filled in with a few blocks and I worked on quilting the tops.  Here is East Meets West 1:

This pattern is again the Disappearing Nine Patch with a very scrappy theme.  

For me, every quilt is either an opportunity to try something new or to practice a design. On this quilt I wanted to try doing a flower shape with that started with a swirl. 

In the sashing and outer border I did a combination of swirls and meandering.  

We finished up with a cheerful yellow backing and bound it with a fun multi-coloring fabric. I love a happy quilt. :-)

 

She came, she saw....

....she decided not to conquer.

Sometimes you just have to give a thing a try to discover that it really isn't something you want to do.  During the month of May, I took a shawl design class at my local yarn store. Most shawls consist of lace patterns which are usually written in chart form.  Charts are great.  I find them easy to read and use, but creating one was much harder than it would seem.  After several days of wrestling over how one gets a pattern into chart form, and then creating a simple pattern, I came away from the exercise fully convinced that my creative ability does not naturally flow in that direction.  It is like learning another language, and I am sure over time I could gain some skill in it, but I would rather direct that energy into my quilting--especially since I am starting to get requests for my work, but that will be a subject for another time if anything comes of it.  

So, I want to express my appreciation to all those wonderful knitting designers who make the lovely patterns I can enjoy knitting.  Thank you!

Nostalgia

A couple of weeks ago my iron died, so a shopping I went.  And this is what I found:

The Black and Decker Classic--simple, straight forward, no fancy gadgets or features, and hopefully sturdy.  The only thing is that it makes me feel like I should get my hair bobbed, and don a gingham apron and high heels when I iron.  

Not In My Queue

A sweater for an introvert:

Created by Andrea Crew

Homework

I am taking a class--something I rarely do.  Most classes in my interests of quilting and knitting are about making a certain pattern or project, and I would rather spend the cost of the class on fabric or yarn.  This class, however, is about how to create a knitting pattern, with the object being a shawl, my favorite thing to knit.  Now, having 250+ shawl patterns already queued on Ravelry, it isn't like I am lacking in project ideas, and I don't really have an interest at this point of pursuing pattern design as a business venture.  I have, however, reached a point in my knitting where I would like to be able to modify a pattern I mostly like, or change an element to make it more unique to me.  So, for the first time in a very long time, I have homework to do.

Technically, I have homework with a personal Bible study I am doing, but I don't see it the same way.  There isn't really a deadline, and if there is a question I don't want to spend time on, I just skip it.  My class homework comes with a different level of expectation. First of all, this is a group project.  By group, I mean the shop owner, myself, and one other woman--about all the "group" I can handle. ;-)  We have a specific assignment and a deadline.  Granted, the deadline isn't hard and fast, but if we are going to make the most of these four weeks, then we need to keep up as best we can.  

Here are the beginnings:

Free download from Laylock

We are making the shawl pattern on the far right--the heart-shaped shawl.

First we need to do some swatching, or make a sample, to try out a lace pattern and get the hang of how the shaping works.  The stitches will show up best in a light colored yarn, so I will be using this cream colored yarn I had in my stash.

I picked out a lace pattern from a perpetual calendar on knitting stitches I had, printed out a list of knitting chart symbols, and put some graph paper in a notebook.  The yarn is ready, and now I need to draw out a chart of the pattern, and cast on.  We are off and running!