Do you have a strong reaction to stories of women in the Bible? Are you curious about their interactions? Do you want to glean wisdom from their life lessons?
Whenever we encounter these story lines, it's helpful to capture these ladies of faith on a Bible Quilt Journal page to learn from their life lessons.
We may highlight a person as an illustration of a concept or we may want to document a person's life in a historical context, emphasizing character traits and their relationship with God. There are so many ways to approach this project!
Here's an example of a BQ page on Faith in which I used Sarah as an illustration.
Later I did a more in-depth study on Sarah, taking notes and creating a freestyle BQ page.
I decided to incorporate my previous template page on the back side of my freestyle page so I'd have them together in the same place, adding a Sarah tab to identify her place in my journal.
Having a dedicated space to tuck all the notes on female characters I was studying gave me the idea to make a Bible Quilt Journal dedicated to Women of the Word.
I thought I'd share my process with you if you'd like to join me in this quest!
Developing a "Women of the Word" BQ Journal
You can do freestyle pages or use a variety of templates from the online shop to summarize your notes. This set of templates with female images helps us get started on pages about Women of the Bible. (Tip: I prefer to print templates on 67-lb bristol vellum paper.)
A couple years ago when we did our monthly series on Redemption, I read through the book of Ruth and did a page in my Original BQJ capturing her Tale of Redemption.
Once I had this project of Bible Quilting stories of women in the Bible, I wanted to include this page I'd already done on Ruth. I photcopied it and glued it to the back of another page I had started in my Women of the Word journal, adding washi tape around the border and a few stickers to enhance the texture.
So, if you have handouts, notes or other BQ pages on female characters you've already studied, you can totally incorporate these into your Women of the Word BQ journal.
To help us organize all these Biblical ladies, I created a set of tabs with numerous women named in the Bible. (Note: These tabs are included in the Women of the Word journal download.)
Once printed, I cut out all the tabs and put them into a storage tin to be available when I get to a particular character. There's even a handy label you can use. 😉
The reason I opted not to attach the set of tabs to my BQ journal all at once is that I wanted to maintain the flexibility of creating pages on each woman as I encountered them in my Bible reading.
Whether you're attending a Bible study or doing an independent study focused on a character in the Bible, these tabs can provide you with a quick way to label pages in your journal.
You can attach these tabs directly to your BQ page or use washi tape to add it to a page protector if you're using a 3-ring binder. For durability you can "fake laminate" the tabs using clear packing tape.
For loose BQJ pages, I often slip them into page protectors until I determine which BQ journal they're going in. By placing them into a 3-ring binder, I have ultimate flexibility moving pages around until I've determined the sequence I'd like to use for these character summaries in my Bible Quilt Journal.
Ultimately, I decided to use a Happy Planner punch system to make a disc-bound journal specifically on Women of the Bible.
You can personalize this process however it works best for you. If you prefer a bound journal, you may wait until all of your pages are ready, then take it to a UPS/copy store to get it bound with a coil of your choice.
Setting up the Order of your Women of the Word BQ Journal
There are several ways you can order this journal. Use the cutout tabs to sort the names in the arrangement you prefer. Having them in order will allow you to stagger them for visibility as you attach them to your template pages.
Maybe you want to document women alphabetically, chronologically, follow the structure of a devotional book, or categorize according to a sermon series or Bible study program you've attended?
One of the easiest arrangements is to place the women's names in alphabetical order.
However if you like to read through the Bible chronologically or from cover to cover, you may prefer to arrange your tabs in the order these women appear in the Bible.
I've put together a flip-through of my journal-in-progress which shows you a variety of ways to set up your journal as well as provides some commentary on how I've incorporated materials from different resources.
I'm offering a printable version of the Women of the Word BQ Journal rather than a printed one, so it's flexible for the most amount of people. This allows me to continue to add to it over time to make it even more robust as we go along. I'll also have separate parts of it available online in order to make it adaptable for whatever you may already have in progress.
Many resources are out there for in-depth study materials (Blue Letter Bible) or creative elements. I'll share some as I continue to develop my journal and encourage you to drop tips in the comments below or over in the BQJ Facebook group.
Print the cover and tabs on heavy card stock. For the template pages, this 67-lb weight paper is recommended for the interior of your journal. Choose whether you'd like to slip BQ templates into page protectors for a 3-ring binder, use a Happy Planner punch/disc system, or have your printed pages bound at a local copy store with your preferred coil type.
Launch sale: use coupon code WOMEN to get 25% off
Replay of our #zoomchat to discuss how to set up a disc-bound journal:
Individual templates are available if you're not quite ready to tackle a whole journal. These can always be added in later.
If you prefer to journal with a vertical orientation, try these:
Browse the online shop to find templates that may coincide with a particular theme of a woman's story. Ex: Lydia and Martha both welcomed people into their houses, so you may use this wecome mat template to highlight their gift of hospitality.
Devotional Resources*
Blog Posts related to Bible Quilting Women's Stories in the Bible
*Amazon affiliate links
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