Oh my, It’s a Dinosaur!

I wrote this post and made this baby quilt last year, but did not post it on the blog. Better late than never I guess! I made this baby quilt for a friend of mine from my boat. The quilt pattern is “Dinosaurs” by Elizabeth Hartman. I made the small quilt about 48” by 48” which works perfectly for tummy time I’ve been told! This picture is the start of this journey with all the blocks cut and fabric sorted for each dinosaur. I think cutting is the worst part of making a quilt, so I do all of the cutting at the beginning. The only trouble with this method is keeping all the tiny pieces from being lost! I usually end up re-cutting a few pieces, and that is why I always buy more fabric than I need (if that is even possible!). Read to the end to see the final project!

I read the Old Testament last year, and the stories about the Israelites sometimes frustrate me! God had just sent ten plagues on Egypt, parted the Red Sea, and was visibly leading them to the promised land in a pillar of cloud and fire. “Israel saw the great power that LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.” (Ex. 14:31) The fear of the LORD was the only right response in this situation! The awe of the LORD’s power and might, not fear of what man can do to them. They had the LORD on their side, and they knew what He was capable of, for they had witnessed His wrath on the Egyptians. But time and time again, we see the Israelites become fearful, ultimately leading them to mistrust God and turn to sin. They did not have any water, so the people grumbled against Moses, saying “What shall we drink?” and Moses cried unto the Lord, and He made the water drinkable (Ex. 15). Then the people were hungry, and the whole congregation of Israel grumbled against Moses and said, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Again, Moses cried to the Lord, and the LORD rained down Manna from heaven, so those who gathered little and those who gathered much never went without (Ex. 16). God provided the perfect amount to feed the people. Not another chapter later, we find the Israelite nation crying again for water, and again the LORD provides (Ex. 17). Why did the people grumble so much in the wilderness? They feared they would die. They did not trust that God would provide for them. This is not even the most well known story about the Israelites unfaithfulness!

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” ~Exodus 32:1

Out of their fear and their sinful hearts, the people requested an idol to protect them and go before them. They could not see past their own fear of being in the desert, out of their “comfortable” life in Egypt, to the promise that God had already provided them; a land flowing with milk and honey. God did not promise an easy journey to the promised land, but He was faithful to lead them.

Here are the T-rexes for the baby quilt. I took the expecting parents to JoAnn’s and let them pick out the fabric for their baby quilt. They went with a blue and green theme. It is always fun to take fabric that someone else has picked out, and decide where those colors should go in a project. The T-rex on the left was tougher because I had to re-cut pieces out to get the stripes going in the same direction. Not sure if I have him the flattering or unflattering strip direction!

Here is my army of dinosaurs all living harmoniously together!

Reading the story of the Israelites, we might be tempted to say, “Well, I would have trusted God that He would provide.” We are all guilty of not placing our trust in God and allowing fear to take root in our hearts. Fear can have a very strong hold on us. It can make us do many things we would probably not do in the first place. Fear can be good, like the fear of burning your fingers, so we stay away from fire. The fear of the Lord is right and good. On the other hand, fear can be irrational, uncontrollable, nail-biting anxiety. This fear is not productive nor does it provide anything good.

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

~ Matthew 10:28

What do we do with our fear? What do we do when we have placed idols in our life to deal with our fear, our anxiety, the missing piece that we cannot seem to fill? We give it back to God in prayer. The answer to all of our problems is simply Jesus. We need Him to lead us through the fears of this life. I know it is easier said than done, but I want to challenge you to give your fears, all of them, to Jesus and allow Him to work. Jesus said, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”

Now you may be like me and say, “You just said not to have fear and fear the Lord in the same sentence. How does that make any sense!?!” In the Bible, the word translated “fear” can mean several things. It can refer to the terror one feels in a frightening situation (Deuteronomy 2:25). It can mean “respect” in the way a servant fears his master and serves him faithfully (Joshua 24:14). Fear can also denote the reverence or awe a person feels in the presence of greatness (Isaiah 6:5). The fear of the Lord is a combination of all of these.

The fear of the Lord comes from a dedication to serve Him and get to know Him. If you are not in awe of His creation, His power, His authority over this world and your life, I encourage you to read deeper into the stories of the Bible. Look at what the Israelites saw in the Exodus! He is our redeemer and our fortress, but He is also the Just King (Isaiah 30:18) and the ultimate Judge (Romans 14:10). If you do not know who God is, please ask more questions. This is the biggest question you could ever ask, and we will continuously pursue the answer all our days, as we learn a little more about Him each day.

Now back to quilting. As you can see in this picture, I wanted to free motion some little dinosaurs on this quilt. My first attempt (the one at the bottom) was a little creepy… But with some practice, I got better! See below for some videos of me quilting. I loved making all these little dinosaurs. If you are just getting into quilting, don’t be afraid to try new things! I promise you don’t need a fancy machine to do free motion, you just need some patients and lots of practice.

The final quilt! I added some appliqued dinosaur prints to the border for fun and added a flange binding (also seen here previously). When I make a quilt for someone, I always let them pick out the backing fabric as well. My advice for backing fabric: it can be whatever you want because no one sees it unless you flip the quilt over. For this quilt, they picked out a puppy fabric because they love their dogs and a fabric with compasses on it because they are a Navy family. I think allowing some personality in the backing adds character and more connection to a quilt. As always, please let me know if you have any questions about this blog post. Happy quilting!