a winter *break*

My mom used to say I was like the energizer bunny. It was straight go go go until I was spent and then nothing. Where others taper off as they exhaust themselves I go and then nothing.

That is still true. And evidently, it spills over to my favorite hobby.

I quilted my tail off last year and it all caught up to me at the beginning of the year, and I took an unplanned, rather long, break from making. 

So many things went into this, but a huge factor was the fact that I stopped making what felt good and made what I thought people wanted to see. And in doing that, I lost my joy. I think I have already mentioned this, so I won't bore you again, just to say that getting to that point was a wonderful thing because I feel like my focus is now sharpened and my time is dedicated to really making what feels good for me and what is a true creative expression of me. That sounded much deeper than I intended, but hopefully you get my point.

Some of the things I thought about as I moved forward, that are goals of some sort:

• Play with color. Negative space doesn't need to be white. Go bolder. Saturate!
• Don't dismiss a pattern at first glance. Find a way to make more traditional patterns modern and whimsical
• Create more from my own original ideas. Trust my own intuition. And accept that failure is an inevitable part of creating and making something new and beautiful.
• and on that note, let go of the need to make something brand new. Too much pressure to create a completely unique design. Just find a way to put my own spin on something. Stop limiting myself for fear of redundancy.

With all that in mind, here are some of the things I have made lately!

The one below is not in colors I would EVER gravitate towards. But I love how it turned out. The center fabric is divine!!

I loved the center fabric so much that I ordered it for the quilt backing!

This whole quilt was derived from a block I made for the Sewcial Bee Sampler.  I simply enlarged the block and based the whole quilt on 6 large blocks. I love making big blocks. I feel like it really gives the fabrics a chance to shine!

Also, that honeycomb fabric!!! I love it!

Above I mentioned making patterns that I was not particularly drawn to. This is a prime example. The pattern is from Camille Roskelley's book Simply Retro. Her blocks were really big, so with this quilt, I downsized them to make a baby quilt. Again, the center of the stars is a great opportunity to showcase fabric!! And instead of using my traditional white border, I grabbed a really soft pale aqua. I wasn't sure about it as I was quilting. Now-- I am really happy with how it turned out!

xoxo