One Year Down…

Yes, that’s right! Today is 3and3quarters: A Quilters Blog 1^st birthday!

A whole year has past and so much has happened within those 52 weeks.

This week I took a reflective look back at the posts I’ve written since day one, reminiscing on past quilts I’ve made and given away as well as the endless quilts and projects that I’ve started but are now left unfinished and forgotten. I never realised how many embroideries I actually tackled and finished this past year…last count was 11 plus 1 in progress equalling twelve.

This whole blog thing all began with wanting to eagerly show the process of making a quilt I made for a cousin in the UK. Purple Rain became a beautiful quilt that challenged my perceptions on the shades and values of the colour purple.

Hopefully one day I can make another like it, studying colours such as oranges and yellows or pinks and reds.

With thanks to the Craftsy Block of the Month (BOM) series, I learnt and became a master of some new and exciting quilting techniques, which in turn became concrete fads for me to delve into and get lost in. They included…

• Half Square Triangles (HST)

• English Paper Piecing or Hexies

• Mini Quilt Blocks

• Machine Paper Piecing (the current craze!)

• And Pinterest!

These wonderful techniques have definitely added another dimension to my quilting practice by enriching my knowledge, confidence and technique for the better.

Throughout the year, I’ve also shared some big moments in my life…

• I left my job of six years and delved into a strange new work environment that didn’t end up being the right path to go down

• I started the year enrolled in a Fine Arts course and am ending the year in a teaching/education course
• I travelled to new and exciting places as well as experienced my very first plane trip

• And humbly, I was awarded First Prize in my first ever entry in a quilting competition

It’s quite a strange feeling looking back at, what is, a written documentary of the past year of my life. There have been so many moods and emotions felt: feelings of failure, accomplishment, success, frustration and happiness. Confidently I can say that these things have made me stronger and much more determined to “Do what I love. Love what I do”. I couldn’t imagine life without my quilting practice. It’s what I breathe. What I think. What I feel. What I love. It is something that truly makes me feel happy, contented and successful.

And so with all that said, this week I’ve been meddling in a few new embroideries, have drunk far too many cups of tea and sewn together a couple more Union Jack Blocks.

Within the next few weeks I plan to sew together all of my finished BOM blocks into a beautiful sampler quilt and then get a start on some homemade Christmas gifts. (Oh my goodness, is it really that time of the year already!?). All the while, I’ll be continuing to hand quilt my Jacob’s Ladder quilt battling the Australian summer elements of hot, sticky humid days.

Happy Sewing! xx