Welcome to I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins, your weekly quilty linky party.  I was so focused on remaining bubbly and happy and all things positive at work today, that I came home and completely forgot that it was Thursday!  So here I am, a little late in the evening, but here nonetheless!

As always, I ask that you please visit three or so other linkers (share the love people!) and add a link and/or my button to your post/side bar.  The reason that I started the I Quilt linky was to give back to the great online community that we have.  I want to provide a place where we can get together, share our quilting process, our lessons learnt, successes and things we might do differently next time  Immaculate photos of beautiful quilts are great eye candy, but the process is what gets me really excited.  Thank you for sharing your process and for spreading the quilting love

Image used with permission by Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals.

This week I am featuring the amazingly talented Karen from Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals.  Last week Karen shared an absolutely stunning table runner.  Karen’s free motion feathers are stunning, there is no doubting that, but what I love most about this piece is that it came from a visit to a Fiber Festival.  Now this really warms my heart, because last week when I showed one of my quilts, it was a thread embroiderer that came up and was super excited.  I love that whilst we may choose one field of art or craft, we can still appreciate the work, skill and expertise that goes into another.  Karen added wool felt flowers and three dimensional cotton flowers to her table runner.  Karen, I LOVE your creativity!  Mixed mediums are so much fun and I love experimentation can take us to whole new realms of creativity.  Please pop over and visit Karen, I especially love her recent cardinal piece and all the FMQ, just beautiful!!

Image used with permission by Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals.

Thank you all so much for the advice that you shared with me last week on this balancing act that I’m fumbling my way through.  I really appreciate it.  Being back in the office is a bit crazy, I’ve been gone eight years and am a bit shocked to find that NOTHING has changed.  It is a stark contrast to my life that has changed radically during those eight years.  I have had three wonderful children, found my passion in quilting, struggled through illness and stress, faced challenges bigger than I imagined possible and come out the other side as a happier, better, nicer, stronger person.

Contemplating the sunshine this afternoon after big storms yesterday <3

Every day I’m at work I feel like my shadow that is eight years past is one step ahead of me.  It’s a bit of a mind bend, but it reminds me how important it is to be positive, to be the best me I can be and to not take on shallow or petty mind sets.  I often find myself giggling under my breath at myself when I remember the things that used to be all consuming, having a cubicle near a window, chasing a promotion, being regarded as a go-get-er.  I am sure that I am way more productive now than I was back then.  It’s funny how motherhood has made me a more productive and confident employee.  Here I was for all those years with a sense of inadequacy that I was no longer the young professional I once was LOL  On the off chance that I ever become a manager I will value highly the skills that parents bring to the workplace!

Me yesterday in a local sculpture garden that we discovered. I love this photo (I spent the day with my husband) but I also don’t really recognise myself. Aging is weird, right?!

In terms of finding balance, quite a few people mentioned setting goals and writing ‘to-do’ lists.  I’m a bit scared of the to do list as I will then see how much I have to do LOL  But I have been setting myself daily goals and I am super happy that I have been getting a little quilting done on my office days  On my studio days I have been trying to get quilting and paperwork done.  It’s a struggle to get it all done, but I’m following much of the advice that I was given last week and it is definitely helping  Thank you for sharing!!

I’m loving my Intelliquilter (computer guided system) which allows me to quilt on the days that I don’t have time to do custom/free motion work. I love this customer quilt with it’s cool tones and contemporary feel.

Speaking of balancing and quilting, I’m really finding the Intelliquilter (computer guided system for the longarm) is a Godsend.  I had thought it would be a means to an ends, but I still find it very rewarding to load a quilt and do an edge to edge pattern after a day at the office.  I’m hoping to do more custom/free motion quilting on my studio days.  Watch this space

Another computer-guided edge to edge design. I LOVE this backing fabric! I think it would make the perfect full skirt <3

So that’s me in a nutshell (OK, how many of you are picturing that scene from Austin Powers now? )  I have a few secret projects on and great hope to get back to blogging more often than once a week…  But in the meantime I will be visiting your blogs, trying to gain some more balance and staring on a new version of my Starry Skies quilt, I can’t wait to share that one!

Now it’s your turn  Add your link, visit three or so other linkers and share you quilty process!  Big love xxx  (Can you tell I’m feeling the love this week?  Kinda weird that being back in the office has me super happy LOL)