new beginnings

So, it's been a while since I've visited, hasn't it? It wasn't intentional: sometimes, life just gets in the way. I've been busy with family, with friends, with work, with crafting. For a while, it was exactly what I needed.

But here I am, even if I don't know where to start. I hope you'll forgive one more mushy feel-good post before I give you a real project (they're coming!).

During my blog break, I finished two (!) quilts; I spent an amazing weekend away sewing with four amazing women; I turned 30. I went to the inaugural Sewing Summit with Karyn, one of my favorite people, and met more amazing women (like Amanda J, Amanda H, Jeni, Deirdre, Angela, Jessica, Kait, and Lindsey). I made new friends. I got to hang out with Lizzy twice, and once with her equally amazing sister, Melissa. Lizzy is another of my favorite people, and I've decided officially that we need to live much, much closer together than we currently do. I made not one, but two improv mini-quilts.

Mostly, though, I've been thinking. About inspiration, about possibilities, about the people I'm so grateful to have in my life, many of them because of quilting. Reminding myself about what's important, and who I want to be, where I want to go, forgiving myself for things that were never really a problem in the first place (yes, being analytical can make me a better quilter, and yes, it is sometimes good to let go of reason).

When Lizzy was in Toronto in August, she said something that was profound to me, even if I instantly knew it to be true: people create things that look like them. I started seeing it everywhere. My quilts, my garments, indeed, all of my craft projects looked like me: pink, soft, and, mostly, orderly. It's a comforting thought, isn't it, that we really are a part of everything we create? The more I sew, the more intrigued I am about how craft shapes who we are, and vice versa.  For me, it's meant an interesting collision of my worlds--quilting, politics, and family--without really knowing where those things will take me.

It doesn't matter, though, because I'm feeling inspired to branch out and put a little bit more of me into the world, one day at a time. Especially if it means more improv patchwork and mini-quilts.