Lyn Briggs Designs

When I lost spoke about the Scrappy Christmas Quilt, I had just prepared the quilt for quilting with plans to machine quilt in the ditch of the seams.

Machine quilting isn’t always kind to my neck and shoulders, and I’ve learnt the hard way, that it’s better to limit myself to a maximum of one hour per sitting rather than try to get the whole quilt quilted at once. It’s a system that works well for me and the added bonus is, the job doesn’t become overwhelming when it’s broken up into smaller chunks. That’s the approach I took for this quilt and over the course of two weeks the quilting was finished.

However, there was a slight change of plan and instead of machine quilting in the ditch of the seams of the centre square of each block, I tied them instead with red Perle 8 thread. (All the rest of the seams were quilted as planned.) I floated the idea of adding buttons but because the quilt is going to be on my couch, I didn’t feel that was a practical choice. Tying seemed a good alternative.

For the binding, I had enough of one of my favourite Christmas fabrics left – a fun red stripe.

Now, the finished quilt:

I’m so pleased that I didn’t return that bag of Christmas fabrics to my stash and am very happy with my Christmas quilt. Forgot to mention that the finished quilt measures 46″ x 54″.

Twelve Months of Christmas …

At start of the year, I made a plan to make some Christmassy things be it gifts or decorations all year long so that when Christmas approached, I wouldn’t be rushing around trying to make stuff. I called my plan Twelve Months of Christmas, and I ambitiously thought I could make one item a month. Well, April is almost here and the first project, Scrappy Christmas Quilt has just been finished. But, forever the optimist, I’m not giving up on my plan and am still hopeful that there will be a nice little bundle of Christmas goodies in my cupboard waiting to shine in the festive season in 2026.

What’s next? I’m mulling over a few options, and all will be revealed soon.

Choose Life…

On the front page of my journal, I have written the following quote by Bobbie Houston from one of the Hillsong Colour Conferences I attended years ago.

It’s time to rise up, push those lovely shoulders back, lift that beautiful chin and become the lovely daughter of God that you already are.

The words remind me that God has already given me everything I need to be the woman He made me to be. I just need to step into it by faith believing what God says about me: I’m forgiven, redeemed, set free, loved, a child of God, and so much more. And the way I live my life should reflect what I believe.

Ephesians 4:22-24 says: “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

The verse says that I need to ‘put off’ my old self and ‘put on’ the new self that was created to be like God. How do I do that?

The answer is in the rest of the chapter, where we are encouraged to speak words that build people up and not tear them down; to get rid of negative feelings of bitterness, anger, envy and be kind,  compassionate and forgiving instead, to follow Christ’s example to walk in love, always remembering what He has done for us and forever giving Him praise.

Basically, I choose the life I want to live.

Jesus said: “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

That’s the life I choose. Thank You Lord.

Until next time

Lyn