Two Thousand

This blog started with this quilt, way back in 2008.

It was my first free pieced quilt. It has the first free pieced letters I ever made, and the quilt included the butterflies I designed. I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and I spent as much time swearing at this quilt as I did sewing on it. It's got as emotional a story as any quilt can get, and it means the world to me.

From there to here,

This quilt was published in Tonya Ricucci's "Word Play Quilts." This sampler quilt is based on traditional New England needlework samplers which often included a house along with the maker's name and location.

and here,

The sentence in this quilt is an example of a pangram, which uses every letter in the alphabet at least once. It was my way of making a sampler that wasn't a sampler.

from jumping foxes,

I made five versions of Katharine Hepburn's famous quote. This is the first.

and rules,

Every quilter makes at least one quilt with colors of the rainbow. Mine just happens to have nine letter words.

and nine letter words,

My friend Julie made this quilt out of all my dud letters and orphan blocks. I love it so much it lives on my bed to this day.

 and duds that surely aren't,

I wanted to see how far I could break rules. The answer was pretty far. The end result though, looked like it fell out of a jewel box. The quilt was laughing at me. So I named it "Laughing Out Loud."

and laughing out loud,

I made this quilt as a sample to sell a class I was teaching about making free pieced houses. Little did I know the effect this quilt would have on my pal Julie Sefton. It is published in her book "Build A Barn."

 
and wonky houses,

An image of an open box combined with Twyla Tharp's famous quilt inspired this quilt.

boxes,

This is another quilt I made as a sample to sell a class I was teaching.

birds and butterflies,

This was the result when a plan for a baby quilt I was making went sideways. You learn a lot more from your mistakes and recoveries than you do from your successes.

 colors,

A conversation with a waitress inspired this quilt, which won an Honorable Mention at AQS Chattanooga 2016.

chickens,

This is the fourth of a series of Crayons quilts. The plan for this quilt came to me in a dream. Really.

Crayons of all varieties,
 

I didn't give this quilt much thought as I was making it. I was on "automatic pilot." Just goes to show you have to guard against overthinking.

curves,

A suggestion from a student got me playing with long triangles that used curves instead of straight lines.

 
and more curves,

My friend Julie asked me to be a Charter Member of the Secret Society of Barn Builders, so I made this barn quilt.

barns,

I designed this quilt one piece of fabric at a time.

Diamonds,

My friend Daniela suggested I make birds based on people I know. So many of these birds represent real people in my life.

and still more birds,

My granddaughter was born in August 2016.

and a very special baby,

...you have accompanied me on this journey of two thousand posts.

In the eight years it has taken me to reach this number, my life has changed dramatically, and for the better. For those of you who read every day, I salute you. For those of you who comment and let me hear your voice, my most heartfelt thanks. For those of you who reached beyond the technology and have become my friends, (from Maryland to Tennessee, to California and Missouri, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) words cannot express my gratitude and joy.

None of this... And I mean NONE OF THIS, would ever have been possible without you.

Thanks.