Autumn ~ The Mellow Season

Youth is like spring, but autumn is the mellow season.

What we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.
 

~Samuel Butler

Image ~ Pumpkins, by Maxx Girr

via pixabay CC0 Creative Commons

Welcome, October

Listen! the wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves.

We have had our summer evenings, 

now for October eves!

~ Humbert Wolfe

Painting ~ Autumn Leaves 1902, Tom Scott 1854-1927

From the Sewing Room ~ Autumn Wall Quilt

I've had Nicole's Autumn Pumpkin Patch pattern for a couple of years, and decided to work on it for our first autumn in our new home. Finished it up yesterday, and it's now hanging in our kitchen, where we'll get to enjoy it for several weeks.

I used mostly batiks from my stash, except for the pumpkins which are just plain cotton, and worked with fusible applique and blanket stitch.

I had intended to do the applique by hand, but the combination of fusible, batiks, and cotton batting made it much too stiff for hand-stitching, so I machine-appliqued and quilted it. Looks like I need to add a door knob. ;-)

I added some veins to the leaves.  

I decided to make yoyoes for the berries instead of trying to applique all  those circles, and tacked them onto the stems by hand, just catching the centers. If you've seen the original pattern, you'll notice that I didn't add the star to the top of the house. Wasn't going for quite that much whimsy.

So, that's it for this week in the sewing room.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday.

Welcome, September

Happy we who can bask in this warm September sun, which illumines all creatures, 

as well when they rest as when they toil, not without a feeling of gratitude.

~ Henry David Thoreau

Photo ~ nilgans, KHFalk,  Pixabay CC0

Autumn Leaves

I've enjoyed lunch on the back porch these past several days with the glorious beauty of autumn all around me. The sights and sounds and smells are so homey, filling me with thanksgiving that God gives senses not only for practical purposes, but for pleasure in His grand creation as well.

How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colors gleaming in the sun.
At other times, they wildly fly
Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow.

Leaves, Elsie N. Brady

Photograph ~A view along the river over the slope of our backyard.

For The Children's Sake

Tim Hill, pixabay

Autumn is my favorite time of the year. It's so homey and cozy. But the season is being rushed, rushed, rushed. I've been seeing Christmas decor in the stores for a few weeks now! And Halloween has been here for quite awhile. I read that Halloween is now the second most celebrated holiday.

Halloween has overshadowed Thanksgiving in the thoughts of most Americans. Halloween is more marketable, I suppose, which seems to be the bottom line of holidays these days. And Americans aren't so much given to being thankful, anyway. We live in a me-focus culture.

Are we connecting the dots here? Halloween has overshadowed giving thanks to God for his bountiful provisions and abundant blessings. Santa Claus has overshadowed rejoicing in the birth of our Savior. The Easter Bunny has overshadowed rejoicing in Christ's Resurrection. Could it all be part of The Enemy's subversive plan?

Halloween disturbs my spirit. It's a marriage of pagan and Christian beliefs. Can light and darkness co-exist? What partnership has righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Cor. 6:14) It troubles me even more when churches participate, having a Harvest Party, calling it a Halloween alternative. It's still Halloween.

I understand that it's an opportunity to get children to come to the church, an opportunity to reach them with the gospel message. But don't we see that this sends a confusing and double-minded message to the children? They may be told that it's the eve of All Saints Day and encouraged to dress like a Bible character, but if a survey were to be taken during a Harvest Party, no doubt the children would think the church is celebrating Halloween. Maybe some churches do, but how do they explain to the children that blood and guts and gore and ghosts and animal sacrifices and witchcraft and demons and all the underworld goings on are not what their church celebrates? If it's All Hallows Eve, what's holy about it? And do we understand that All Saints Day was a day for praying for dead people?

So let's go back to the underlying purpose of a Harvest Party--to use it as an outreach opportunity for children. Divorce it from Halloween. Delay it a week and have it in early November, certainly an appropriate time as we're looking toward Thanksgiving and having a thankful spirit. Children will still come to the party, and they'll understand the purpose--to celebrate God's goodness in giving a bountiful harvest. A true Harvest Party, and no confusion as to what the church believes and celebrates.

For the children's sake, lead them in clarity of the gospel message.

Image ~ via Pixabay
CC0 Creative Commons