Counting up

Last Saturday when I got this site up and running, I had the chance to look through my long-neglected picture files on my laptop.  I was inspired to do a little spring cleaning through many years of digital picture files and folders dating back to my earliest digital images from 2002 when I spent WAYYY too much money on a 1.6 megapixel Canon camera. 

Over the last few days, I separated the pictures into family/personal photos, quilting photos of my personal patchwork, and then longarming business photos.  

Oh Jess, you're so adorable!

I've had a sewing machine for the last 10 years exactly.  As I remembered it, I started a quilt immediately after getting the machine, but photos actually reminded me that I first made a curtain for my new baby's nursery and didn't start quilting until a few months later.  So, as I approach my 10 year anniversary of quilting, I'm feeling this need to look back and take stock of the quilts I've made.  I do want to know a number, yes - but I also am wanting to be reminded of how that quilt-making tracked alongside my life.

In some years, there are very few photos of a very few projects.  In other years, the folders are bustling with hundreds of photos of various stages of quilt-making with all sorts of colors, sizes, techniques and people in mind as recipients. 

As I look forward to many more years of quilting, I'm also taking the time to look back and remember what came before.

Adel Bricks pattern

I live in a small town which also happens to be the county seat.  Part of the charm of my town is that it has chosen to keep/maintain brick streets surrounding the courthouse square.  Let's just say that visitors to town find the brick streets more endearing than the residents who travel regularly on them. :) 

For better or worse, the brick streets are here to stay and they inspired the name of this quick and easy baby quilt - the finished dimensions are 40" x 40".  It's definitely fat quarter friendly!

Two years ago when I wrote this simple pattern, I didn't have a good platform in which to share it.  Now that I do, I thought I'd publish it and make it available as a free download.  Just head on over to my patterns and click on the image.  From there, you can print, make, enjoy. If you decide to make it, I'd love to see what you come up with: tag me on Instagram or post a picture to my Facebook page. 

Having a website

I've known for a long time that I would need to take the plunge and create another website.  I say another because I was a regular blogger/site operator for over three years of my life, from about 2008 - 2011.  I grew so weary of keeping up with the ever-changing Wordpress platform and photo uploading/editing, that I stepped away and took a much needed break.

I'm back and am pleasantly surprised that there are now much more simplified ways to update and maintain a site.  Hooray!  I do want to offer content that I think might be useful for the quilting community I adore and this will be the place I do it.

Instagram first, expanded content here (like videos) and eventually, I have several quilt designs that I'm in the process of patterning now and hope to make available as soon as I possibly can.

At this stage of my life, I'm longarming for customers and that's my primary focus.  I decided late last year that I needed to follow my passion of creating quilts in all stages and at that time began ramping down quilting for others.  I'm booked with that final quilting work until the end of 2015.

I hope you'll join me in this journey to discover what's next for Threaded Quilting Studio.