Starting Over

Dear Friend, Grab a carton of Ben and Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar ice cream, pull up a chair and commiserate with me. While switching Toad Haven Annex to Beta, I inadvertantly deleted my whole blog; a whole year of communication right down the tubes. It is heck to be so computer illiterate!!! But, what better way to learn. It's all right to fall down but now it is time to get back up and begin again. [Is there a way that I can backup my blog so I don't lose it again?]

Here is the block for Herodias (week 42) for the Women of the Bible quilt and study I'm involved in. I chose the purple and gold fabric for the Queen's Pride. I thought the pattern of the purple was frantically busy as Herodias must have felt while doing all her scheming and plotting to better her position in life. This block is done in fused raw edge applique. I love the combination of circles and squares. This is the 23rd block I've done of the series of 52.

Herodias was the wife of Herod Atipas, who schemed with her daughter, Salome, to get Herod to behead John the Baptist. Her wicked and bloodthirsty story can be read in Matthew 14, Mark 6, and Luke 3:19. In researching Herodias I found the absolutely fascinating chronicles of the three New Testament Herods (Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, and Herod Agrippa). [I confess to being nuts about Jewish history, as well as other histories.]

Since I am now up to date with current blocks, I went back and completed the Altar Steps block for Hannah (week 18). Hannah was a barren wife who wept and prayed at the Tabernacle for a child. Eli, the priest, saw her and thought she was drunk. When she explained her suffering to Eli he prayed that she would be blessed with a child. Hannah dedicated her son, Samuel, to the Lord and after he was weaned she took him to stay at the Tabernacle with Eli, where he could be trained to serve the Lord. Each year she took him a new robe that she had stitched.

This block was paper pieced with the center octagon fused on and machine stitched. The light blue was for trust and confidence, the purple for spirituality and wisdom, and the green was for fertility. The touches of Gold represent the presence of God.

You can read Hannah's story at I Samuel 1-2.