Today was another busy day preparing for Christmas. I was at Mark's office bright and early to finish wrapping gifts - it took much longer than expected, but I am finished! Check that off.
I had hopes of arriving back home in time to sew for at least an hour. Eli's Prayer Quilt is cut into pieces on the ironing board and awaiting my prayers and sewing machine.
What is a Prayer Quilt? A Prayer Quilt is simply a quilt or blanket that I have made for the children. As I work on the quilt, I just silently pray for every aspect of my child's life that I can think of:
*Their life in Christ and service for Him
*Wise and loving friends
*Proper role models
*A healthy sense of self
*Their future spouse, for his/her upbringing, friends, etc.
*His/her children and parenting skills
My quilting skills are not impressive, I can only make the rag quilt. However my talent is lacking, these little blankets have tremendous power in terms of making the kids feel loved and covered, so to speak, in prayer by their mom.
This Americana quilt is the pattern I used for both Trevor and Colin's prayer quilt. I added an extra row of blue at the end of Trevor's due to his height and because it made them different, to avoid confusion.
This is Meredith's little baby Prayer Quilt. I saw the fabric combination at Hancock's and fell in love with it as it was begging to be made for my little girl. It's a bit small for her now, although she continues to use it as an extra layer in the winter, as a nap blanket or to cuddle and watch TV with.
This quilt is considered one of my artistic failures, but it still gets lots of love. The colors didn't look like I thought they would so it became more of a family blanket.
A couple of things I do:
*Look for fabric on sale, but it has to be something cute and/or attractive for years to come. Sales and coupons are in play here.
*Cotton only for the outer layers and the filling. I have spent too much in the past on cotton filling, now I just use cotton flannel. It works just as well. I like cotton because it shrinks nicely and it breathes.
You can make these a number of different ways. I usually cut 10" squares, this way you won't need as many to make the blanket and it makes for easy math.
A twin mattress top is 38x75, so 4-10" squares x 8-10" squares will do just fine. You can make smaller squares if you want, it really doesn't matter. Using a cutting mat and a rotary cutter, I just whip through the fabric and filling, cranking out 32 for filling, 32 fabric squares for the backing and 32 more fabric squares for the topper, in whatever pattern you like. For the 'row style' quilts, I just mark it off and use scissors.
Then I pin together my little fabric sandwich, first the backing, then the filling and finally the topper. Pin it securely enough so that it won't shift around with some handling. Once all of my 'sandwiches' are pinned, I lay them all out on the floor or table and arrange them the way I want them to look. Make sure to keep the fabric facing the outside.
Then, one row at a time, I stack the squares in the pattern they will be arranged. With a ruler, I make an X from corner to corner very lightly with a fabric pencil. While they are still pinned, I sew over the X. Sometimes I use a contrasting thread, other times I use one that blends in.
Once my row is sewn with X's, and making sure that they are in the order I want them to appear, I begin to sew the squares together, placing the edges upward. It won't look that great at first, don't worry, it will look very cool when it's done.
Once you have all of your rows sewn, just continue and sew the rows together. To make sure the seams line up, you may want to pin the rows together, lining up the seams, before you begin. The great thing about rag quilts is that they are very forgiving of little boo-boos, so don't worry, just keep praying for the recipient.
Once the quilt is sewn together, you will have all of these ugly edges facing you. UGH! Did you do something wrong? Nope, just hang on. Now the tedious part. With sharp scissors, begin to clip the flipped up edges, making sure to not get too close to the seam and making the clips about 1/4" apart. You will have a lot of strings and lint, but keep going. This part can take quite a while.
When you're done, you'll still wonder if you are on the right track. BUT here's the secret.....put it in the washer. Yep, washing it will cause all of those ugly edges to turn into wonderful ragging. You won't believe your eyes. YOU DID IT! And you have a wonderful heirloom for your child.
More pictures tomorrow as I sew Eli's quilt.
Finally, the kids could start on the gingerbread houses! Hailey and I "glued" the houses together with icing first. Rahel, Eli and Isaac worked together, while Hailey worked with Bereket, Mer and Ephy.
Here's the finished products, aren't they cute?
Now it was time to bath all the kids, dress them and get ready for Christmas Eve service. This is a very special tradition for us and everyone was very anxious to get there. When we return home, I will put out quite (another!) spread for the family, including the Braided Sandwiches, chips, chicken drummettes, sliced veggies and FAR TOO MANY desserts....oh, and Sparkling grapejuice! We live on the edge, don't we?? :D
