Psalms Quilt finish

In 2007, I came across a quilt designed by Carol Honderich that combined a Bible study with quilt blocks.  The website is no longer active, but googling brings up references on Pinterest and Instagram. I am not on either of these sites so cannot verify this.  

Carol designed a quilt block for each lesson in Nancy Leigh DeMoss's Bible study called,  "A 30 day Walk with God through the Psalms".  I purchased the quilt patterns and each week some thoughts were posted with some tips.  I printed these out and put everything in a binder.  There was an option for a pieced block or an applique block for each lesson.  I decided to do the pieced blocks by hand as Linda Franz  had visited my quilt guild and had inspired me to try hand piecing.  It was an amazing experience to do the study and then hand piece the blocks while thinking about the lessons. 

The blocks sat in my binder for many years over our move to the new house and I could not decide how to set it.  I had some ideas here, but I really wanted to label the references somehow but hand embroidering them would probably never get them finished ☺.  A friend of mine, Deb Dees makes labels for our comfort quilts on her embroidery machine and one day the light bulb went on and I got her to embroider the references onto black cotton.  We chose gold thread and that turned out great.  I appliqued a tree of life, as per my idea in 2008! and finally got the top sewn together in February.  It took awhile to decide how to quilt it.  I finally quilted the sashings in the ditch and then did something in each individual block.  I am very happy to have finished this long time UFO! (Click on the individual photos for a larger view.)

The finished quilt

Tree of life applique with close stipple quilting in the background

some of the individual blocks

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I did run across the street to my friend Chris' place for lots of ideas on how to quilt the individual blocks.  She is a long arm quilter and it was great to brainstorm some tough blocks. 
 

I found a leftover of another backing and had to piece it to make it fit, but the design worked out quite nicely. 

FINISHED!!!

I finished the last block for my Psalms quilt! Hurrah! Feels good to have the blocks completed. Now to figure out a layout. That may be awhile since we're moving at the end of March, so life will be a bit upside down til we get settled. But, the blocks will sit safely in my binder til I can get at them again. That willl give me some time to think about the setting. This block is called Peace and Plenty and is based on Psalm 122.

Two more Psalms blocks

I'm on the homeward stretch with the Psalms blocks!! I finished two more blocks. This one is King David's Crown based on Psalm 138. I chose purple for royalty :-).



And this block is based on Psalm 8 and called "Starry Path".

I'm 1/4 of the way on my very last block...can't believe I'm so close to actually getting the blocks finished. Now to decide how I'm going to set the blocks. I'd really like to put the references on the front of the quilt somehow, and would love to do embroidery on black, but that would be a lot of work. Printing on the computer would be another option. Will have to ponder some ideas. To see other Psalms blocks on this blog, click on the 'label' at the bottom of this post.

Basket Psalms block

I finally finished another Psalms block! This one was a lot of fiddle fussy handpiecing so I kept putting it off :-). I have three more blocks to do for this quilt and they are easier ones. I hope to finish them over Christmas. The basket is called Berry Basket and was chosen to represent the line of Psalm 145: "The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time." The front of the block:


I had a hard time figuring out which way to press the seams. Pressing them toward the dark would produce too many bulky intersections, so finally I just kind of tossed the iron at the block and closed my eyes and pressed LOL. I will have to trim the dark seams and all the points so they can't be seen through the light background.

One more Psalms block

It's slow going, but I did get another Psalms block finished. I'm so close to being finished, but life keeps getting in the way. This block is based on Psalm 116 and is called Cups and Saucers. I'm not really sure where the cups and saucers are supposed to be. The yellow areas look more like baskets to me, but with some imagination, they could be cups and saucers :-). In any case, I do like the block!

Another Psalm block..thanks to the Olympics!

I finally finished hand piecing this block for my Psalms quilt. It's been prepped for ages, but finally sat down to watch the Olympics a little bit this week and got some hand sewing in. This is Psalm 66, Fireside Visitor.

Some different layout ideas

Here are two other layouts I'm considering for my Psalms blocks. The first picture shows setting the blocks on point:

It would also be interesting to set them this way with no sashing in between. This would work perfectly with 6 more blocks. I would rearrange the blocks to balance the colours and values. This could provide large triangles to do some nice hand quilting or some piecing with black and the colours that are in the quilt? Or some appliqué??? The sky's the limit eh? :-). I do really like this setting...a tree of life perhaps for the center?

25 Psalm blocks finished

I have 25 blocks finished in the Psalms Bible Study and quilt block project. I put them up on the wall in the order that we are doing them. As you can see at the bottom, I'm working a little bit out of order right now :-). I am on the home stretch! I'm half way my next block and then have only four more to finish. Then the big decision comes for setting the blocks. I'm thinking of sashing them with black, but haven't decided yet if I'll put them on point or straight. I would like to identify the Psalm for each block...I could add some plain fabric and write the Psalm reference for each one, or possibly embroider them...but that would be a big job. I'll let the project percolate for a bit til an idea hits me like a thunderbolt LOL.

Some more Psalms blocks finished

I finished a few more Psalms blocks recently. This is Psalm 130 "
As Watchmen wait for morning":

Psalm 34 "Broken Heart":

Psalm 92 "Cedars of Lebanon":

On a roll..another Psalm block

Finished another Psalm block last night..this one is called River of Delight for Psalm 36...."you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light". I love the blue batik fabric which certainly looks like water in the river.

Finally completed another Psalms block

I finally got another Psalms block completed! I'm several blocks behind, but have two more prepped and am working away at them. This block is called "Prairie Flower" and is based on Psalm 103...."as for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field..."

Two more Psalms blocks

I finished a couple Psalms blocks recently and have two more to finish to get caught up! This is Psalm 32's block, Hiding Place. When I finished it, it looked really pale and I realized that on the original block, the triangles around the design were done with a darker colour. But, to fix that would mean taking the whole block apart! A friend suggested just putting darker triangles around it. That was a much quicker solution. Here is the first version:

Here is the fixed up version:

This block is Psalm 51, Snowflake:

Psalm 139 block

Finished Psalm 139's block called God's Eye. I had it completely finished, pressed it, trimmed it to 6 1/2", put it on the design wall to take a picture when I thought...."Hmmmm, there's something not right here..." Amazing how you can get that far without seeing a mistake!

Someone posted a note on the list that they liked it that way as well...that it looks like someone extending their arms up to heaven! That's the great thing about quilting....you make a mistake, give it some great interpretation and you have a new design :-). I did take it apart and fixed it so it is now finished! This week was a catch up week so next week we go on to the next one.

Psalm blocks

Last week's Psalm block is based on Psalm 85 and called "Cornucopia". There were lots of inset seams on this one which work up great with hand piecing.


This week's Psalm block is "Hard Times" based on Psalm 142. It was great to have a block with only 12 pieces :-).


Here are the first 17 blocks (we're at about the half way mark!):

Three more Psalms blocks

Every three weeks we have a catch up week for our Psalms online study and quilt block project. I sure needed the catch up week as I got behind due to Christmas sewing. This block has 52 pieces! It's called Hill and Crag based on Psalm 121. It took quite awhile to finish this one.

Then it was full steam ahead...only 16 pieces on this one :-). This one is based on Psalm 42 and called Day and Night:

This one is on Psalm 25 and called Paths to Peace:

The blocks are all hand pieced.

Update on Psalms and DJ blocks

I got a couple more Psalms blocks finished in the last few weeks. This one is Psalm 71 (based on vs. 14-16) and entitled Three Cheers:

Swamp Angel is from Psalm 91: 9 - 11:

Here is Psalm 27: 4 - 5 called David and Goliath. This is the block that was slowing me down; it has 41 pieces :-).

I went to a sewing retreat day with my local quilt guild and made three more blocks for my Dear Jane quilt. They are: A-8 Florence Nightingale, A-4 Courtney's Stethoscope and A-5 Cathie's Campfire. A-4 took me all morning! I must not have been awake yet and kept having to rip things out. I even forgot my stitch ripper, but my neighbour had one :-). I did get another block all ready to sew so I hope to put that one together soon.

A bit of progress....

I have been sewing up a storm lately, but I can't post photos yet because some members of my family read my blog :-). Can't reveal their Christmas gifts! Tonight I finished another Psalms block. This is called Winged four patch and is based on Psalm 57, "I will take refuge in the shadow of Your wings until the disaster has passed."
I also finished another Dear Jane block, H 13 Farm fields. It was the block of the week on the Dear Jane list and since it was a very simple one, I figured I could do that between working on Christmas gifts.

And another Psalms block...

Just finished another Psalms block tonight. This is called Ocean Waves and is from Psalm 46. I used some new batiks that I bought a few weeks ago. Love this swirly fabric!

Psalms Block

Finally got another one of the Psalms blocks finished. This is Psalm 23, A Table for Four:

New Psalm block

This is the 6th block in the Quilting the Psalms (see post of October 19). This block is based on Psalm 16 and is called End of Day. I decided to use brown and green again since I was drifting to a lot of blues lately :-). The browns and greens were perfect for an end of day kind of scene and I put in the little touches of yellow for the sun going down at the end of the day. Verse 7 really fits with this block:

7 I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.