A Return to Quilting

 Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?

I wanted to share not only an update, but some creative developments too.

A lot has happened since I last shared. I graduated from law school, have started a new job that I love, got engaged, had a baby, and have another baby on the way. My fiancé and I are scheduled to close on our forever home at the end of the week, we're planning a wedding at the end of next year, and needless to say, there's just a ton happening in my life at any given moment. 

Sounds like a good time to start a sewing project, don't you think?  

A combination of lack of time and lack of space has prevented me from doing much sewing over the past few years. I'm not sure exactly what inspired me, maybe sewing a few projects for my daughters for Halloween, or pulling out the half dozen sewing machines that lay around my house just begging me to start a new project. Or maybe it was sorting through boxes of old quilts and fabric and sewing notions that have been boxed up in my garage for several years. Something, or maybe, all of these things, inspired me, and so I started playing with Electric Quilt and thinking about what I might make if I were so inclined to make something. Anything.

The fruit of my sorting and tinkering and day dreaming resulted in a project. I started designing a quilt with the goal of entering it into a few quilt shows. The quilting landscape has changed dramatically since I was last actively sewing. Shows have gone defunct, publishers have gone out of business, and it seems as though the online quilting community moved from Blogger to Instragram and now are all moving directly to Facebook! For the record, I am on all of those platforms, but there's something I still enjoy about blogging. But I digress. 

There's no name for my quilt yet, a necessary practice for identification in shows, but one that always felt a bit foreign to me. What I am  sharing here will just be the framework for a more elaborate design. 

I am inspired by Margaret Solomon Gunn's quilts. She creates designs with a great mix of piecing and applique, which I'd like to try my own hand at. I'm finding that I want to create quilts that I would eventually want to hang around my home afterward. With that in mind, I've decided blue's are going to make up the base of my newest project.

It's been so long that I wasn't even sure where to order fabric! I found Kona solids at Missouri Star Quilt Company that coordinated with my color palette. With hope, they will be true to the image on the computer screen. I'm looking forward to cutting and piecing this quilt in just a few short weeks.

The next step will be to plan out some applique. I think I want delicate flowers or vining. Or maybe both. I'll have to think on it for a while and then draft something.

In the mean time, I'd love to hear from any quilters who are still out there blogging with me! With any luck, it won't take me an entire year to post another sewing update.