I can tell a book is going to be really good when I've highlighted nearly the entire introductory chapter. If you follow me on Instagram, you also know that I was one of those annoying people who occasionally posted pictures of highlighted portions of this book as I was reading it. But really, I couldn't help myself. This book is too good not share with everyone I know. 

"Redeeming Love" is a re-telling of the Old Testament book of Hosea, only this time the setting is California's gold country in the 1800's. Central to the story is Angel, a beautiful young woman who was sold into prostitution at an early age. She has learned to despise men, selling herself because she knows no other way and feels trapped in her lifestyle. Enter Michael Hosea: a godly man who feels the Lord telling him to marry this harlot whom he barely knows. Though it makes no sense to Michael, he is obedient to God and sets out to woo and marry Angel. This proves to be a difficult task, given the years of walls Angel has built around her. Time and time again, Michael shows his love-- God's love-- for Angel in the way he relentlessly pursues her and cherishes her. This is a beautiful story of love and redemption (hence the title), but even more than that, it is a breathtaking illustration of God's love for us, his wayward children. The parallels between Angel and myself are undeniable. Of course I've never known a life of prostitution, but I have been guilty of abandoning my first love (God) in pursuit of selfish desires. Likewise, the similarities between the character of Michael Hosea and God are beautiful and all-consuming. God is a God who pursues and loves his children, even when we deny and abandon that love. 

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting a good read that will not only entertain but will also speak directly to your heart.  

Though I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for the purposes of this review, the opinions are my own. 

I finished the borders after mom left, and then was left with the dilemma of how to quilt it all together. For the backing, I decided to go with just one patterned fabric. I actually seamed the backing fabric horizontally, as opposed to vertically, and think it turned out just fine. I had great plans for some really intricate straight line quilting, but I just ran out of time. I started the quilting on the Monday before Tracy came on Thursday. So I had to go for something quick. This quilt is quite a bit bigger than my first quilt, so I was a little nervous about manuvering all the layers of fabric in my basic sewing machine. I wanted to try some free motion quilting, but decided now was not the time to try something so new and different that undoubtedly requires practice. I didn't want to mess up all the time and money I'd spent already with messy quilting! I love the look of lots of quilting-- there's nothing better in my book than a really soft, crinkly quilt. So I came across this technique of just sewing random wavy lines. The final verdict?? I LOVE it! I love the wavy line quilting. And if it hadn't been for a misstep with my bobbin tension, I would have had it all finished in a day or so. (I didn't adjust my bobbin tension correctly, so I wound up having to take out and re-do about 1/3 of the quilt!  Urg...) This is such a fun and simple method of quilting and it really does look good, I think.  




As you can see, I chose to just quilt the same way all over-- nothing special in the borders or anything. I think the softness of the wavy lines helps break up the structured linear-ness (not a word) of the disappearing 9-patch pattern.

Now about the binding... I prefer the look of hand stitching the binding to the back. But again, time. There just wasn't enough of it. So I googled around for a good tutorial on how to machine stitch the binding on. There are a ton of different options for this, and I would up using a combination of several different tutorial methods. Here is the one I liked best. This one suggested using a decorative stitch to finish the binding, something I had never considered. So after a test run on a small fabric sandwich, I decided on this wavy line. Somewhere in my math, however, I messed up and one side of my binding was bigger than the other. Meaning, if you look at the quilt from the back, the binding is about an inch. If you look at it from the front, it is more like an inch and a quarter. That's why the binding appears to ripple a little-- because it does! But I actually think it goes along with the wavy lines. And I actually really like the way it looked on both the front and the back.  I didn't get a really close up picture of the back, but the wavy lines go perfectly over both the binding and a teeny part of the backing fabric. You might be able to see that in the second picture above it you look reeealllly close. I chose to use a thread that matched the binding fabric, and I"m so glad I did. I wasn't sure how the teal thread would look on the back, but I think if I had used white thread, it would have looked messy and like a mistake.



One more new-to-me technique that I used on this quilt was a different way of joining the ends of my binding. I was taught to leave a really long tail on either end, the join them on the bias.... etc, etc. I can't really expalin it because I still don't fully understand it.  I also did not have enough left over of my binding to use this method that required leaving a 6-10 inch tail. (Oops, darn math again. Why do you think I went to Bible college?) So in my searching for machine binding, I found this awesome tutorial for joining the ends of your binding. The summary even says, "Start and end your binding using a pocket method that requires no math." Sold!! Revolutionary!!!  Watch this video, then try it. I was super happy with the result.

Even though Tracy and I hadn't seen each other in person for 5 years (!!!!!!!), we picked right back up where we left off. We talk on the phone several times a week so that helps, but its so good to have a friendship that isn't faded by years and miles. I love my friends here and am so thankful for them, but they all grew up together. They have memories and inside jokes that I"m not part of. It was so great to be with Tracy again and have those inside jokes and secrets to laugh about. We have secrets we'll take to the grave (unless we let them slip when we're old and senile, but then, everyone will just say 'eh, she's old and senile') and inside jokes that can have us rolling with laughter from the utterance of a couple words. (Swoosh! Tree pole dancing. Hee-haw!! Thunder! Old timey photos!) Much like this quilt, our friendship is cozy, woven together with years of love and laughter. And that's why a card just wouldn't do.