Fresh Start

The worst thing about being absent from your blog is getting back to it. It seems like the longer the time between posts, the harder it is to get back in the groove. So... I have decided to just start fresh, not worry about what time has passed and just begin. 

If you look around the internet this time of the year you will see a lot of talk about resolutions and lots of folks choosing a word for the year. My plan is to be present! Show up! Not just on my blog but in my business and life too. This may sound silly to those of you who have your crap together but I am pretty sure there are some out there who know what I am talking about. The year 2015 was a pretty good year for me, don't get me wrong. I strengthened my working relationship with Quiltmania and several other magazines. I released several new designs that I am pretty proud of and did a ton of travel to speak and teach to name a few. But, I could have done so much more. I let some hard situations with my personal and family life drag me down and paralyze me. Instead of using hard work to keep me moving, I focused too much on the negative situations and that slowed me down and held me back from doing all I could have done. So, without further speculation I will be present in 2016 and I will show up! So look out, I have a lot planned for the year.

After being absent from my local guild for a year,  I made the decision to get involved again. I am now six months into my term as the president for the evening chapter. I am doing a block a month exchange with them.. (forgive the bad photos, it's very dreary here and my phone takes awful pictures) My hope is to pass along my love of applique to everyone. So the deal is- every other month I offer an easy applique block as a free pattern. Everyone is asked to make a block and turn it in to me the next month. Then we do a drawing from the names of those who participated and someone wins the stack of blocks. Instant quilt top! We have done a Scotty Dog and Sunbonnet Sue and now for February we are doing Hearts. By keeping it simple I hope to increase participation especially among those who are not confident in their applique skills. A heart is an excellent shape for learning applique, it has points, valleys and curves. Everything you need to know and even a simple block can make a dynamic quilt.

I am using a grey print from Art Gallery for the background of my block and French General reds and pinks. Here is a simple mock up of what the blocks would look like set on point with black sashing and borders.

How about no sashing and a red border?

Easy peasy! Participation grows as folks feel more confident in their skills and isn't that what quilting is really all about? Building each other up?

Happy Quilting,

Dawn