Seams Just Right to set up a blog!

Welcome to my new blog!

Hopefully this post finds everyone full of Christmas - food, cheer, family and goodwill in general. This is my absolute first post and I am both terrified and elated at the same time. As I sit here and ponder my new endeavour, I wonder if I am completely mad or just doing what I do - starting into something just because I find it interesting. The little kid in me is truly shaking in my socks but like all kids, giggling at the audacity and the gall of me putting it all out there. If you knew me in person, you would realize just how out of character it is for me to "put it all out there."

I am a person who loves people, works with teenagers, and a huge believer in treating the elderly with respect and kindness and just loves life and all it offers - even the warts of life. I get overwhelmed with responsibility often but always try to see the silver lining - even if it is a little on the tarnished side.

I have a tendency, much to my husband's chagrin, to try all kinds of new things and have no hesitation jumping in wholeheartedly to whatever I am trying at that moment. As a result, our life is somewhat cluttered with the remnants of these past projects. I use cooking as my stress reliever, gardening for my soul and quilting for my creative outlet. Quilting is my one enduring passion. I realized the other day, when I had found a small hand-sewn block I made as a teenager, that I have been sewing and quilting since I was in about Grade 7. It has been my interest, through school, university, and twenty-five years of marriage. I have done other `crafts` and stuff but I always go back to quilting. I have never taken pictures of my quilts because that is not what it is about for me. I guess I will take pictures now in order to share with you... I have made numerous quilts, but I am not an exceptional quilter - there are just so many incredible ones out there that I must step back and give them their due.

I am currently working on a large double quilt for my husband for his birthday - I have a suspicion that it will be complete by his birthday in 2010 instead of this coming year. I have pieced all the of the star blocks from a block-of-the-month project through the local quilt shop. (He saw them as I did them and really loved them.) (They are pictured behind my heading.) I recently found some photo panels (not a panel person but these really were quite nice and a perfect match for colour) of some fresh-water fish that I want to incorporate into the middle. I also want to add some flying geese between the stars. My husband is a fisheries biologist so it is an undeniable fit. Speaking of him -he just called and said he caught four pike at the Rivers Reservoir and was quite elated as it is his first time out this year. Woo-hoo!!

I am also currently working on a table runner that will match the tree skirt I made at an absolutely wonderful quilt retreat at Camp Koinonia (not sure on the spelling), near Boissevain, this fall. I have two other lap quilts in rich fall colours that I am hoping to have ready to quilt by the end of January. These I will be giving away to two older friends who are not well.

Take care - enjoy every moment of this year as there is not much left of it. Have a super New Year's and remember that there is a great year waiting for all of us.