Moving. I hadn't moved in 16 years until this fall. Add in a husband, 3 kids, and 3 dogs (thankfully no horses this round), and going cross country? I had big dreams of returning to quilting much quicker than I have. The biggest holdup has been construction on the new studio. I get to build it from the blank room up! Which is exhilarating, and nerve racking. I got carpet 2 days ago, and I get good lighting tomorrow. Then I will probably just start sewing until I am forced to make a decision on all of the shelving and furniture. Until then, my folding table and kitchen table from a buy nothing group will suit me just fine! 

I went down a rabbit hole this past week. It started when my phone ran out of all storage space. And my photos took up over 50% of it. I downloaded essentially all of 2022, got them sorted, catalogued, and backed up. One day I went to pull up a quilt, and it had been carefully archived away. So my rabbit hole told me to get 1 photo of every.single.project I have ever made. Oye. I quickly pared that down to not include the tiny things - pot holders and table runners, key FOB's, etc. But still, there were so many. I knew I had a bunch back there. Honestly the ones before 2018 are for the most part, ones I don't mind forgetting. They are my beginner quilts. I was a beginner at piecing, at picking out fabrics, at long arming. And while I feel a bit cringey looking at them now, it's putting them up next to the quilts I have created recently that allow me to see the incredible growth I have experienced. Oh I still get some failures on color choices and execution, but it makes those older quilts hold a special place in my heart now. A feeling of gratitude and awe of how this hobby has turned me into an artist. (Now to just up my game on quilt photography .... ;) )

I made a lot of log cabins after that first Christmas. I felt confident in what I was doing, which allowed me to get better each time. My mom kept {kindly} harassing me to try something else, maybe something with a triangle, but I was firmly in the camp of doing something enough times to get really good at it. I think this green and gold was the last one I tied, and I am pretty sure I took it apart a few years back and put it on the longarm! It was gifted though, and I can't remember who got it. 

Now that I was getting good, it seemed like a great time to start that WIP (works in progress) pile. This hung out there for at least 10 years. I wanted a quilt for my bed, made by me, and this was to be it. The dark green blackberry fabric and the red centers made me think of home (Oregon), as I was living in Colorado at the time. I finally finished it after Addison was born, and quilted it on my mom's Gammill longarm. It was large, king-sized, and my husband wasn't keen on it, so it was gifted to my brother who also noticed the blackberries, and who hadn't received a gifted quilt yet <3