New Quilt Kit is for Digitally Printable Fabrics

I was so excited this morning as I tested the quilt pattern for the second time.  It only took me 1/2 an hour to print, cut and assemble this quilt block!  It was so much faster without having to write the instructions as I was going along.  So, if you sew more often than once a year (like me Blush )– you will find this a very quick project to do!

Sunflower Quilt KitThis kit will be on its way to Stacey at The D.A.I.S.I.E. Company in a few minutes and hopefully will be up on Friday along with the Victorian Rose kit that was previewed earlier in the week.  Each digitally downloadable kit will sell for $7.95 and have all the art and instructions necessary to make up the block.  If you want to make your own printable fabric follow this link.  You can purchase Pabric (www.pabric.com) or other commercially available printable fabrics to use for the project as well.

This kit will have 3 options, as shown with a scripture, blank for you to put any quotation on and a png format center square for you to drop a picture in and make it a photo quilt square.

 Quilt kit pages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also shown are all four pages of the kit.  You simply print the pages, cut carefully apart, stack the pieces and follow the instructions to assemble. 

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

To Guilt or not to Guilt?!

From the comments I've received about my feature "Saying No," it's a subject that most of us are struggling with.  It's really hard for most of us to say "no" even if we know it's the right thing to do and the biggest reason why is that we feel guilty.   I've decided to spend all week writing about this a little each day.

The model for how I live life, at least as much as humanly possible, is Christ and how he lived his earthly life.  He who was capable of healing anyone whe stepped in front of him… didn't.  Who could have fed the masses every day of his life, only did it twice.  He stopped.  He rested.  He went away to be alone.  Why did he do that, was he just "over the crowds?"  Had he had it with those foolish unbelieving masses?  Or did he come away to be alone with God and be refreshed, recharged and sent back out again to do what he had been called to do?

The first principle in guilt reduction is this… "God is God and I am not."  It sounds very silly, but sometimes we take on a role that's just too darn big for us to handle.  Jesus was all powerful but he said, "The poor you will have with you always."  He knew that while on earth he had the limitations of any other human in terms of energy, strength, and stamina.  He chose his daily tasks carefully, seeking to do that which would yield the greatest fruitfulness.  He chose to do only what he first saw his father in heaven do and speak only what he heard his father in Heaven speak.  He left a lot of possible "good" tasks undone in order to pursue purely the "best."

If you seek to accomplish the best possible use of your time, where you function the best and yield the best fruit in the lives of others around you, you'll have to leave a lot of "good" things undone.  Knowing your limits, just like Jesus did, helps you to make those decisions in wisdom and not in human emotion (i.e. guilt!)  Let me use an example from my own life.

We have a wonderful lady at our church who is involved in prison ministry to young girls and is also very involved in the drama club for the kids.  She's fabulous at it, the productions are marvelous and the kids adore her.  I was standing outside the building one morning when they were calling people in to a drama club meeting.  It's a very small church so they were meeting in our sanctuary.  I had to run into the use the restroom (and had to go through the sanctuary to get there) and I JUST KNEW that this lovely lady would put me on the spot when I went inside… but I had to go!  So I stopped and thought out my answer in advance.

Sure enough, when I walked in the back of the church, she shouted out to me, "Come on Audrey, join us!  We could sure use you!  I know you're a busy lady, with a crazy schedule, but we're doing this drama production to serve God.  I know you want to serve Him"  I responded in this manner, "Yes, I'm busy, but that isn't why I'm not participating in the drama club.  My gifts aren't in the area of drama or singing.  I know that I'm not called to be involved in drama, and that I am called to be involved in the Marriage Ministry here for the young couples.  If I devoted my time to the drama club, I wouldn't have the time or energy required to do the Marriage ministry that I know God has called me to do.  Thanks for asking me though, I'm flattered."

Knowing who you are involves finding what you're good at and often involves discovering what you're NOT!  What are your gifts?  What is easy for you to do that isn't easy for someone else?  What can you do that no one else can do?  What are you doing that someone else (or many someone elses) could do?  What do you do that produces good fruit in other's lives?  What do you enjoy doing — and conversely what do you not enjoy and find yourself chaffing over?  What makes your heart leap with joy?  When you figure that out you're half way there. 

Eliminating some things that you're just not good at and removing them from your list of possible places to serve can be very helpful.  I can't sing.  I have about a 6 note range…. period!  So when the call for choir or other singing involved commitments is made I can safely rule them out for me.  I don't cook particularly well, nor do I love doing it, so when serving on a committee to do the food for one of our major events comes up it's probably not something that God is going to ask me to do.  However, I don't rule it totally out because He may want me to simply be there as a one time service perhaps even just to be involved in set up, tear down and cleaning up… but it's not likely He'd call me to do it as an ongoing ministry.

God made us for a purpose.  Discovering that purpose and the gifts that go with it, become a way to discover the path we're to walk on.  When we walk on the path God has called us to, there is joy in the service.  It isn't possible to walk on two paths at once.  We feel torn apart when we try to walk someone else's path or the path that they think we should be walking rather than the path that has been assigned to us.  When it is settled in your own heart, as mine was about drama, even someone who's really good at pushing your guilt buttons won't be able to!  When you serve the Lord first, serving others becomes much easier to do without guilt and conflicts.

If I tried to walk out my friend at church's path, I would be exhausted and drained at the end of each day.  My natural skills might allow me to do it pretty well, but my spiritual gifting wouldn't come into play and it wouldn't be very fruitful in the long run.  If she tried to do the intense counseling that our marriage ministry entails, she would probably do okay, but likewise be drained and exhausted and feeling very much unsatisfied because God has called her to be a different part of the body.  

Jesus says to you, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for i am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden light.  Matthew 11:28-30"

More later…

Audrey Jeanne Roberts  

 

Recipe Card Design Contest

For those of you who are not familiar with The D.A.I.S.I.E. Company’s website, it is a digital downloadable store where you can purchase artwork to download and use in creating an endless array of products for your personal or small crafting business use. 

The company is sponsoring a recipe card contest this month where members have created their own recipe cards from the graphics available on the site.  You can visit the area where the cards are being shown by clicking on the recipe card shown here:  

Sample Recipe Card 

If you like to create your own digital designs you might want to get involved on the creating side of the equation, if you just like recipes and recipe cards, you can sign up for a daisie membership (free) and make sure that you sign up to receive the extras.  5 times a year the recipes/recipe cards get sent out for FREE!  Not a bad deal!FRIDAY FREEBIE

There are quite a few free graphics that are available to give you a taste of the art and artists at daisie, and the D.A.I.S.I.E. Club is a great way to start very economically.  Each month for $9.98 you receive 2 art kits of approx. 30 pieces each, 1 scrapbook kit and 8 printables kits.  This month for example, just one of the printables is a 3D Gazebo that stands almost one foot high and makes a fabulous center piece with a gift box attached! 

(UPDATE: freebies are for a limited time only.  This link no longer functions.  Check back later for other special gifts). Click on the Chocolate Bar Wrapper image and it will take you directly to where you can receive it for FREE!  The Recipe card will take you to the gallery where you can see all of the cards created so far for the contest.  If you sign up for D.A.I.S.I.E. and D.A.I.S.I.E. Extras, all of them will eventually be yours!!!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts 

To Garden Successfully, Go With the Flow

I've had several emails and comments this week with a similar theme, "I kill everything I try to grow, but I want to have a garden, help!!!"  I've never met anyone with a truly black thumb, usually just a life that's a little too busy to maintain a complicated garden.  Most often it's a matter of neglect through busyness or abscence. 

My first recommendation for the "green-thumb-challenged" among us, is to start small.  Don't do your entire yard at one time, do one flower bed and maintain it until it becomes second nature to you, then tackle a vegetable garden.  Read a book about what interests you and then do it for a while.  Over doing it has kept more nurseries in business than anything else!  Remember, they make money on those plants you kill and then replace!

The number one need any garden has is to be watered consistently.  If you are the kind of gardener that loves to hand water your plants each day and finds it restful and restorative great, but if you're like the rest of us who forget or get too busy to water consistently I have a recommendation for you.  Before you invest any money in plants, soil amendments, fertilizers or beautiful garden arches, I suggest you invest in a watering system of some kind.  Drip irrigation systems are really easy to install and as totally unhandy as I am, I've managed to do it even without help.  They are also very affordable.  You can run them directly off of a water spigot or have someone come and install a complete irrigation system. It's best to connect them up to a timer that can be set to water in the early morning without your ever having to give it much thought.  Most of my life I watered by hand until I inherited a home with a complete landscaping watering system on timers and it is a life saver (for my plants anyway!) 

Nothing will stunt your flower or vegetable growth more than sporadic watering.  A lack of water will weaken your plants and make them much more susceptible to disease and infestation.  You can spend months making your garden bloom and grow only to lose all of it in a single day in the heat of the summer.

The second recommendation I have is to go with the flow.  If you live in Phoenix, don't try to plant what would be native to London, England!  You'll have a lot of grief and frustration and little good results.  Plant what is native or similar in nature to what grows naturally in your area.  My favorite thing to do is find a local, smaller nursery that can give me guidance and counsel on my specifc area.  The super stores may have better prices, but they don't generally have anyone who LOVES gardening working in their garden departments.

If you live in an arid climate, go with low water requirement plants.  They don't have to be boring —  there are specialty catalogs for every kind of growing environment.  One of my favorites is High Country Gardens (www.highcountrygardens.com) they specialize in low water, deer resistant plants that are spectacularly beautiful.  They even think through the seasons for you and will sell you complete gardens with plans and instructions to lay them out. 

My final recommendation for today (I'll come back to this topic again later in the week) is to choose your plants with maintenance needs in mind.  If you have 2 bushes to choose from and one will require monthly pruning to look good and the other might require a once a year cleanup, which one will you enjoy more in the long run?  If you want to enjoy a flower garden with minimal fussy tasks, perhaps a formal English garden isn't the direction you should head, but an English Cottage Garden with it's wild and free look would be perfect.

My favorite way to perk up my deck and yard is with window boxes and a patio filled with large pots of flowers.  The benefit of planting in pots are these: I don't have to weed them much, when something dies, I plant something new in its place.  With very little work I can plant them so that I have non-stop color all year around (I can even grow flowers in the winter where I live).  Similar to pots are raised flower beds.  I'll share about them the next time.  Enjoy Spring!

Simplifying Strategy #2 One Ball of Yarn at a Time!

My "Nanny" (my maternal grandmother that we lived with growing up) was an amazingly creative woman.  She knit, crocheted, embroidered, tatted, grew her own fruits and vegetables and cannned them just for starters.  One of the things I remember most about her was that she always had a yarn basket at her feet and it was always a mess!  When it was as its worst, she would grow increasing frustrated as she tried unsuccessfully to separate a skein of floss from a ball of crochet thread that had wrapped itself around a ball of angora yarn.  In her frustration, she would only succeed in tying the mess into even greater knots.  About that time I would hear her muttering under her breath, "Where's my scissors, I'm going to cut this mess apart and start over."  That's when I would volunteer to help her untangle the basket.

For some strange reason I loved untangling her balls of yarn.  I would rewind the worst of the wayward ones, put the embroidery floss back in its pocket, the knitting needles and crochet hooks in another pocket and organize her balls of yarn by color, so it looked pretty and was ready for her to create from once again.  In doing this task many times over the years, I discovered a key principle that has stayed with me throughout life.  

If I went after the most tangled balls in the mess, it only made things worse.  But if I would find the balls of yarn that were the least entangled and gently remove them from the rest, it became a doable task.  The first few balls could sometimes take a long time to untangle, but inevitably there would come what I came to think of as the magic turning point.  That was the place where things would suddenly get very loose, separate and the task would begin to progress very quickly.

Does your life feel like that basket of yarn?  It's a tangled mess and you want to change everything about it RIGHT NOW!  You don't know where to even begin to start untangling to get it reorganized.  Don't take on every out-of-control area of your life at once.  Pick one thing at a time.  Make the changes you need to in that one area.  Do it thoroughly and consistently.  Do it until the task is completed, you're able to maintain the change in your life and then pray about what you need to take on next. 

More importantly, pray before you even begin to try to make the changes.  If you're like me, you know you just don't have the power to change yourself anyway.  None of us can succeed if we try in our own strength.  For some of you praying is as natural as breathing, for others it's a something you've never really done before.  If you're in the later category, it's not something you have to do in a certain way, it's merely having a conversation with God.  James 1:5 says "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."  He loves to answer these kinds of prayers!

Lord, my life feels like that basket of yarn.  I don't even know where to start or which one to untangle first.  I probably don't even realize how tangled up it all is, I just know it isn't working.  Please show me a little at a time what I can do to restore sanity and function to my daily life.  Show me the extra burdens I'm bearing that you haven't asked me to.  Show me the commitments I've made that are for good causes but aren't good for my family life and even my relationship with you.  Show me the tasks in my life that can be let go because they won't matter in twenty years and those that are important to daily life and can't be let go.

Then Lord, change the attitude of my heart about doing those that I simply must do, help me to do them cheerfully rather than with resentment.  Help me to see the tasks that really don't have any lasting value and find a way to eliminate them or simplify them so that they take less and less of my precious time with my family.

I don't even know where to begin… but you do, I turn over this crazy mess of a basket of yarn to you and thank you in advance for starting to clean it up and organize it so that I can once again find joy and effectiveness in the life you've given me to live,  Amen!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Simplicity… One of my Goals in Life

I have been working on a book for 6 or 7 years about peace through simplicity, tentatively titled "Finding Peace… a 31 day journey to simplifying your life."  It's been an interesting journey from a life of utter chaos and stress, to a life that has plenty of external stress (deadlines, deadlines, deadlines!) and yet very little internal stress or chaos. 

Those of you who have come to know me, might guess that my life is anything but simple — and you'd be right.  Simplicity as a concept can be fairly easy to grasp, but as something I can actually do… it's a lot harder to implement.  Hmmm, do you think that might be why I'm still working on the book 7 years later…?  

I don't want to "preach" something that I haven't been doing!  But in reality my life is much simpler today than when I began.  I've learned that no matter what I think, I'm not super woman!  I do have limits and I've learned to stay within those limits or perhaps live even a little below them.  I've started building in down time to my schedule for those urgent requests, sicknesses or any other unexpected crisis' that inevitably hit my life.

The first principle I learned about simplicity is that siimple doesn't necessarily equal easy.  When I began to simplify my life, it was less a matter of throwing out extra things from my closet (a simple task) and more of throwing out extra, non-meaningful tasks out of my life (a difficult task to say the least).  It was about evaluating what is even eligible to be removed from my life… no, I'm sorry teenagers can't be left out at the curbside for the goodwill to pickup!

Here's the criteria I began to use in analyzing what I wanted to accomplish.  I wanted each day of my life to have a lasting meaning and purpose.  I wanted my work to be enjoyable and meaningful.  Even though I have the privilege of working at my passion, trust me it is still work.  I wanted each day of my life to be of eternal value to the Lord and His kingdom.  I wanted to have joyful memories left at the end of each day rather than have them blow by me with nothing more than a completed check list to show for them.  I wanted to end each day knowing those I love a little bit better and THEM knowing I loved them a little bit more as well. 

I wanted to do things that I HAD to do with a better attitude of heart, eliminate the things I DIDN'T HAVE to do a little bit at a time, and ADD INTO my schedule things that brought me joy and pleasure, even if it were only for a few minutes in each day.  Big goals, big tasks… where was I going to begin?

I'm going to start sharing that journey with you a little bit each day.  This will be in addition to my other posts on art, gardening, quilting, crafting etc.  It's going to be a little hard to figure out how to break up such a huge topic into doable daily segments, but I'm going to give it a try!  Please feel free to email me with any issues that come to mind as you read, especially any issues you might be struggling with and would like to have addressed.  This blog will be most effective when it is a dialog between all of our hearts.

STRATEGY #1 A TWO LETTER WORD THAT CAN BRING INSTANT RELIEF

I learned a two letter word that stopped overcommitment in its tracks like Raid stops bugs… "NO!"  I don't think that my mouth even knew how to form the word.  "It will only take me a minute, I might as well say yes," was my natural thought process when I was asked to do something.  Too often I found my mouth saying "Yes" while my heart was screaming, "No!!!!"  Then I would simmer with frustration and resentment while I did the task with a less than joyful heart.  Slowly, I learned that "NO" could be a perfectly acceptable answer to a question, and I was the only one that could really make me feel guilty about saying it.   

When I began my journey to find peace in my life, I wanted RESULTS NOW!!!  I was at wit's end and was so anxious for the change that it seemed terriby,horribly, painfully slow to start.  That was because I had become so overcommitted it was impossible to do all that was required of me, let alone do it well.  

I chose to end my commitments slowly, because I was determined to do it with honor, so that I didn't let anyone down in the process.  It tooks months for the first tiny changes to happen, then one by one I removed old commitments and actually resisted adding new ones in their place.  A word of warning here, some people will not take kindly to your new strategy.  The ones that are most incapable of saying "No" themselves, also know how to lean pretty hard on anyone easily guilt manipulated into saying "Yes."  Knowing it's the right thing to do for your life, your family, your peace and to serve the Lord more effectively, will give you the strength to follow through.

I'll leave you with a thought that haunted me when I was struggling to gain control over my schedule.  It would come to my mind often, "If I can't learn to say 'No' to man, will I put myself into a position where it's likely I'll be saying 'No' to God instead?" 

Audrey Jeanne Roberts  

My New Quilt Block Template is Here! For Digital Printing on Printable Fabrics

This is the first in a series of quilt block templates that will allow you to design your own quilt tops to print on printable fabrics direct from your computer.  I will have a square format block in the next couple of weeks and will continue to play with this format and add to the collection.  The fabric I used for this project is Pabric's "Pabric Soft" which is a lighter, thinner fabric suitable for sewing projects, (www.pabric.com).  You can also create your own printable fabric following the link in the post directly below this one. 

Link to Quilt block templateThis template kit is free.  Click on the quilt image to the left to begin the download process.  Feel free to let other quilters know about it, but please refer them to this blog site to download from here rather than simply pass on the files(http://www.daisiecompany.com/blogs/audreyjeanne/?p=41, copy and paste this link).  Also, if you do pass along the information to your quilting group or friends, post a comment telling me that you did so or email me at audreyjeannesblog@daisiecompany.com and I'll enter you in this month's contest in which the prize will be an digital art kit of one of my quilt blocks! 

The kit as shown with my art in digital graphic form will be available next week from The D.A.I.S.I.E. Company.  It will have several options: as shown with 1 Corinthians 13, Faith, Hope & Love, a second option to put your picture where the verse is and a third option with the text shortened up allowing space for you to personalize the piece with a couple's names and date. 

You can use any of your fonts that are similar in feel, or my Copperplate 2 handwritten font also available from The D.A.I.S.I.E. Company for a perfect match.

Have fun quilting and creating.  Please send me pictures of your creations and I'll post some of them here to give ideas and inspiration to all of us!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Pabric or Printable Fabric Quilt Wallhanging Kit

I pulled out my little "blue" Elna sewing machine today (she's probably 40 years old and still works like a dream).  I have had so much fun designing a pieced quilt that can be made out of your favorite digital graphics (or my kits) and any printable fabric.  It requires 4 sheets of 8.5" x 11" printable fabric.  You can make your own fabric, (see this link for instructions on how to do it http://h71036.www7.hp.com/hho/cache/313-0-0-39-121.html )
or purchase the blank fabric by the pack of 10 pieces at www.pabric.com  This product and some other of their goodies will also soon be available in the D.A.I.S.I.E. Company store as well.

Audrey Jeanne's Victorian Rose Quilt Wall HangingThis kit features the text of 1 Corinthians 13 (Faith, Hope & Love) on it.  It would make it a great wedding or anniversary gift.  You could make it up as a pillow or as a wall hanging.  Its finished dimensions will be aproximately 12.75" x 14 3/4".

It could also be lovely as a gift for any family member or as a little girl's room decoration.  I used 8" x 10" as the dimension of the interior image so it could easily be traded out for your own 8" x 10" photo, or a smaller photo on a background print.

Well… if I don't get off of my blog and back to my "little blue" Elna, It's going to take me a long time to get this kit to you!  I'll have a Free downloadable blank template and instructions first, then the kit that you see will be available at The D.A.I.S.I.E. Company as soon as I can possibly get it finished, probably by March 9th, next Friday.

Audrey Jeanne Roberts 

And the Winner is….. drumroll!

Deb "Itsmee" from the Daisie Boards won the prize in the drawing this morning.  Thanks so very much to her and all of you that participated.  It will be a monthly feature, so keep that in mind and when you read something that you think would benefit someone special your lives, please pass the link on (and then tell me you did, so I can enter you).

I'm working on a craft project that I will post here, maybe as early as tomorrow, so check back in!  I'll have a template and instructions on making a wall hanging with Pabric (or other printable fabrics).  I'll be making it out of kits that are already available from Daisie Company, but will make a mini kit of the design elements available separately in case you don't already own the graphics to create it.

On another note.  I wanted to mention the incredible sense of community that has developed in the past year at The D.A.I.S.I.E. Company and especially in the Message Board Forum.  In a world where we can live next door to people for 5 years and barely know their names, it is amazing to discover the loving, caring, fun relationships that have developed between the women there.  My husband and I have talked about it quite a bit and have come to the conclusion that in many ways, it's similar to centuries ago when the women would have gathered together at the river's edge to do their laundry together.  Or perhaps more like an 18th century weekly quilting bee.  Often times there would be nothing more than a little bantering and playful conversation, but when one woman was hurting all would gather around and help bear the load emotionally and prayerfully.

We have women literally from around the world, that are gathering at the river's edge throughout the day, to share the events of their daily lives and to support one another.  I think that there's little difference in the quality of those relationships because they're "cyber" relationships… except that we don't get the joys of holding a hand, wiping a tear and giving a hug except with the thoughtfulness of our words. 

One of our members, Sue (OzSue) from Australia, recently had been missing from our midst.  It was noticed, shared, wondered about and then last night discovered that she and her husband had suffered the loss of his mother unexpectedly.  Our community worked.  We noticed.  We cared.  We reached out to make a difference.  Take a moment today to think about those who share your lives in both your day-to-day world and elsewhere.  Is anyone missing?  Is anyone suffering through a challenging time?  Does someone need a hug?  If so think about what you can do to draw close and lighten their load.  That's community in action.

Audrey Jeanne Roberts