A new year, a quilt, and a....

Happy New Year! Man alive, 2014 went by so fast! It was this time last year I was sitting in our builders office looking over floor plans and deciding to build a new house. It was a year of firsts, for sure! I went to my first quilt retreat, QuiltBLISS and so excited to be heading back in February!

Photo Feb 1, 2014, 4:43 PM
Photo Jan 31, 2014, 12:42 PM

We packed up our first house that we started our lives together in and brought our babies home to. We sold our house so fast that we had to move into a temporary, much smaller, home while we waited for our new house to finish. I also decided a QAL with Pretty Little Quilts was a perfect time during the move. I never said I was smart.

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I had my first, of hopefully many, publications and even put my first (and only for now) pattern for sale on Craftsy.

Photo Jan 14, 2014, 3:39 PM
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We moved into the new house over the hot and miserable Texas summer and have been getting settled since.

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I've been taking my time getting the house decorated and just the way I want it. We are really trying to evaluate each space and make it ideal for our needs.

Dining with Dresdens

With such small kids, it's hard to commit to making a room serve a particular function without worrying that it will need to be changed. For instance, there is a small room right outside the family room and we were going to make that Mr. Relish's office. Well, in the meantime, the little relishes have taken over with about a 20 doll houses and 100 Barbies. Since we know this phase in their life is brief and magical, we have decided to leave it like that. Most days it looks like a tornado spitting out barbies has wrecked havoc on the room, but it makes them so happy to have that space so I am happy. Memories are being had and that's awesome!

So even though blogging has taken a back seat, it's still on my mind daily. I am creating as much as I can and so lucky to have the space of my dreams to create in.

 

I've also been keeping busy teaching and love sharing and teaching my passion. Overall, a pretty bad ass year!

I want to blog, but I also believe in creating content that inspires and motivates all while sharing my story along the way. Well, because, isn't that why we do what we do? So, that is my goal this year, do just that...Create. Share. Repeat. Not worry about where I do it. So weather that is here on my blog, on instagram, magazines, or teaching, I will just worry about sharing! I am not going to set goals about blogging or issue apologies for my absence, because in reality, I'm around, just in more than one place. I have composed this blog post for about a month in my head and I didn't want to start off saying sorry, but wanted to be honest and real with anyone that is even still reading this. So with that out of the way, here's what I want to share....

I do have a finished quilt to share and something else pretty amazing! I started this quilt as an easy, just need to sew during all the unpacking, quilt. The top has been hanging finished in my sewing room for months and finally finished it.

It was a quick quilt to put together especially if you use pre-cuts. I took a Ten by Ten (layer cake) of Cotton + Steel 's Moonlit, cut each 10"x10" into (4) 5"x5" squares. One became the center, and the other two became the sides of the plus, and a leftover 5"x5" for something else.

I then used my low volume stash for the background. The cuts are (4) 5"x5"'s and then (4) 3.5" x 5". Easy enough!

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I then decided to quilt it with loopy meandering on my new spanking.....


LONGARM! It's a Handi Quilter Avante and I love it! Michelle at Urban Spools is a HandiQuilter dealer so that part was easy. All it took was one lesson and I was hooked!

I still have no clue how I convinced Mr. Relish to let me get one, but so thankful for it! I can not tell you have fast and easy it is to baste and quilt on this thing! I haven't gone all fancy on it yet, because, honestly, that takes a lot of practice. But all my go to quilt designs are pretty breezy on the longarm. I am enjoying it immensely! If I dont have a quilt on it, I have practice muslin and batting on it just playing around. If you have a chance to even take a class on longarm quilting or able to rent time on one locally, I highly recommend it. It's not hard or complicated, just looks like it should be.
Big relish even had her hand at it the first day and she's 4! I'm really not sure if I hope to make this a business or just use it to make more quilts faster. I guess time will tell.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back sharing and have my finished Texas Roadtrip QAL quilt completed so look for that in the next week or two! It's actually hanging out in Mr. Relish's future office/Barbie city. hehe Oh, and I have a guest room reveal coming soon! Here's a sneak....

I hope your new year is starting out great and so glad you stuck around!

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Comments

  1. Wow! Your new home is gorgeous! I love the living area! So bright and pretty!!

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  2. And I hit send to quick! Lol. Face palm!
    Just wanted to say thank you for blogging! I'm a new quilter and I so appreciate all of you bloggers. I wouldn't have been "taught" if it weren't for all the fabulous ladies that do blogs and give such great advice and tips. Yall really and truly rock!!

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  3. What a bright, colorful home you're creating. And you're right, the Barbie fun room mess-o-rama will mean more in the long run than a few months delay of a home office.

    Mr Relish sounds very accommodating and wise in regards to play spaces (both theirs and yours) - "because if momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy". HA!

    All the best in the new year. I look forward to further decor reveals and results from the long-arm.

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  4. What an amazing your you have had.. Thanks for the highlights.. love that opening shot of you too :) Congrats on the new things in your life.. I hope they bring your and your family peace and joy for many years! Kathi

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  5. Jaw. Dropped! MELISSA!! That is so exciting!!!!!

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  6. You have a stunning home and a wonderful hubby! You lucky girl. :-)

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  7. What a year! What an AWESOME long arm. lucky duck!

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  8. So jealous of your light! Your home is beautiful, and your work room is dreamy. Makes me want to buy paint again.

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  9. Beautiful home. Love the rug in your living room and your quilt looks fabulous in your studio.

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  10. Happy New Year! Remember me, one of your Texas QAL buddies (Houston)? Time has just flown. I can't wait to see your Texas QAL finish. I LOVED seeing pics of your new house and guest room. I love your eye for color. I put a lot of color in my quilts, but my house is pretty minimal. Yours looks to happy. I also can relate to your idea of blogging when it matters - not just to blog. I do the same. I think we should be happy to blog when we have something to say and be free to skip it when others things are more pressing. The hardest part about blogging for me is keeping up with all the blogs I want to follow - there are so many good ones and so few hours! Good luck with your teaching and pattern sales.

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  11. You will for sure remember 2014 as a year of many big things! Your house is looking great. Good for you for letting the girls have their space because you're right about it being fleeting and temporary. Also, I love your philosophy about sharing wherever you are, no apologies. It's strange to me how much social media has come to own us sometimes. I don't read anyone regularly anymore but ill still pop in periodically. That's ok. I'll see you around where ever we happen to bump into each other! I like a mix of quick looks on IG and longer posts with more thoughts here. It's all a good thing! Have fun with your creating and sharing, Melissa!

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