today is the first day of school.

but i also just got back from a vacation that our family drove 4, 438.8 miles to california (and to utah and Disneyland and so forth) and back.

we are still toasted.

i am totally celebrating with having my car detailed to get rid of all gooey/stickiness/sand and basically scrape all the”kid” off from the inside of my car.

they asked for 5 hours.

apparently that’s how much time they need for people with gross children like mine. 🙂

i have a new free quilt pattern (the quilt at the bottom of this post) coming your way (i’m hoping this week) i have to tell you about my trip back to my beautiful san diego…and i have to let you in on a lot of fun projects that have been brewing in my head all summer long! yay for kids going back to school, and yay for a wonderful summer to look back on!

but because i am still fried from my family trip i have none of that prepared. sooooo i thought it would be fun to share a post i did for Gen X blog earlier on this month.

at the beginning of this month i was asked by the lovely ann marie of Gen X quilters about my very first quilt.

here’s what i wrote:

i’m so excited that i was asked to share with all of you my very first quilt. 

i made this “rag quilt” with a wonderful group of seasoned quilter friends. i along with one other were the only ones in the group that had never made a quilt before. so as a group we went and picked out fabric enough to make (i think) 6 throws and the idea would be that we would all walk away with the same “friendship quilt”.

as the years would pass we could look at it and think of our group of friends. 

i am proud to say that it still hangs out prominently in my home. (in our basement but still prominently!) and yes, i still think fondly of those wonderful women that held my hand and said “you can cut the fabric, there’s no need to cry. seriously…its just fabric.” 

looking at the colors you can probably guess when it was made! early 2000 when the reds and the greens and the tans and the yellows were very popular is a dead giveaway.

i remember going to the store and picking out the flannel with a couple of the friends. it was exciting and fun and i absolutely loved the picking out of fabric process.

i did have a hard time cutting into the fabric. and yes i did cry. i was scared that i was going to ruin the fabric make a mistake or something. 

they told me “it’s just fabric.”

i yelled back “ITS FABRIC!!”

 i did end up putting on my big girl panties and i cut the squares and didn’t line up all my seams that great, but darn it i had made a quilt!

and i will forever love it. because it started the journey of what i create now:

reverse hopscotch

 see i still love mixing and matching colors and prints. and i no longer cry because i’m afraid of making a mistake. mistakes help you learn. understand how not to do something, and sometimes mistakes come out with pretty cool outcome.

i heart you quilt pattern V and Co.

 one thing is for sure, i still love color. sometimes i focus on just one color like in my i heart you quilt  here we have all the shades of pink (ombre fabric by V and Co.)

houndstooth quilt pattern V and Co.

and sometimes a quilt like my houndstooth quilt just needs to be simple and two toned.

bubbles (baby version) V and Co.

i struggle to label myself as modern or

kaleidoscope quilt pattern  V and Co.

 traditional in the quilting world.

i feel like i am a little bit of both every single time.

confetti quilt pattern (baby version) V and Co.

but what ever kind of quilter i am, i’m glad i am one.

bloom quilt pattern V and Co.

the dutchman quilt (free pattern coming soon)

it’s very much a part of who i am and what i love to do.

i am forever grateful for that first quilt because it has led me to keep trying new things and finding a passion in something that i hope to instill in anyone who wants to listen.

quilting is the best.

thank you ann marie for making me talk about my journey in quilting!

we’ll talk soon!