First up, thank you for all the kind words and support on my post yesterday.  You reminded me once again that when I put myself out there I get it back ten fold.  Thank you xx  Today has been chaotic (I got all ready for my first walk post packing and discovered that my shoes and hat have been packed!) but I will start to respond to comments tomorrow <3

Greek Cross Cushion by Aoife of thREDhead

A big thank you also to everyone who linked up last week!  I finally got around to visiting everyone’s blogs last night  I hope everyone linking up is showing some of the love and visiting other linkers, we all love comments and traffic  This week I am featuring the talented Aoife, I LOVE her blog name, thREDhead.  Seriously girl, how long did it take you to come up with such a great name?!  I thought about mine forever and I still question it LOL  Make sure you pop by Aoife’s blog, last week she shared her Greek Cross cushion which is absolutely stunning in bold solids with some AWESOME quilting to boot.  Aoife pointed out how dense quilting dramatically shrinks your quilt and she used this as a clever design feature and densely quilted half of her cushion back (photo below).  Aoife, you may have completely inspired my current work in progress Thank you xx

Greek Cross Cushion (back) by Aoife of thREDhead

My post yesterday probably left you thinking that I’m somewhat introspective at the moment.  Yep, it kind of happens when you go through the moving process and touch every item that you own.  Left with an empty house I put up our advent calendar that I made two Christmases ago.  My idea was to make a Christmas tradition/symbol that was portable as we are often in transit during December.  I had very little quilting experience (and confidence!) when I made this wall hanging.  The wadding is synthetic felt, the white fabric is a super high threadcount sheet (NOT fun to quilt through!) and I did all the blanket stitching and binding by hand.  Yep, I have grown a lot since I made this baby!

Quilted Advent Calendar with felt decorations

Growth is good.  I love the quilts I make now (I love my early quilts too).  I’d never use synthetic felt as wadding now (never say never!!) LOL  I rarely mark my quilts anymore and for this quilt I even marked all of those straight lines in chalk.  I didn’t even own a walking foot so I dragged that sucker through my old Husqvarna.  Yep, I don’t do any of those things anymore, but I love this wall hanging and so does my family.  If I hadn’t jumped in and made that wall hanging and lots of other projects, I wouldn’t have ended up where I am now.  Marking quilting lines gave me the confidence to quilt.  Quilting gave me the confidence to not mark lines.  Not marking lines gave me the space to get creative and play.

my current quilt in progress 12″ x 27″

I would love to hear about how you’ve grown as a quilter.  How did you build your confidence?  Do you still have your early projects?  Did you have lessons and learn methods or did you just jump in and give it a go?  As much as I am a perfectionist, I don’t think there is really a right or wrong when it comes to quilting.  Sure, you might not feel every piece is “show worthy” but we learn from each piece we make and that is invaluable.  My Blessings quilt (below) was a major turning point in my quilting journey <3

Blessings Quilt

I have also become a better photographer since then but I gave this quilt away so I can’t photograph it again.  You can see the quilting better from the back (where I learnt that sometimes whole cloth is better)

Blessing Quilt back (I thought a pieced back was fun, but in hindsight it took away from the quilting.)

How is your quilting journey progressing?  I’d love you to link up below.  I ask that you visit at least two other linkers and link to me in your post and/or add my button to your sidebar/post.  You can find the button html code near the top right of my blog or, at the bottom if you’re on a mobile device.  Remember that this linky is all about quilting process, I’d love to hear all about your process!

Thanks for linking up xxx