Around the World Blog Hop

It is still Monday, right? This is what happens when you have three children 5 and under and your husband goes out of town for the weekend - your Monday post goes live closer to Tuesday than you would like! Anyhow, thank you for visiting if you are here from Ants to Sugar or Veni Vidy Vicky, I'm so thrilled to have you.  On with the blog hop! What am I working on? Most of my sewing time recently has been spent on my Emerge Quilt from the Angled Class by Stitched in Color. I love that Rachel is able to present a way of designing quilts with triangles and diamonds of various angles in such a way that makes the angles perfectly easy standard seam sewing.  This class presents 5 different quilt patterns and I hope to make each of them in time but the Emerge pattern appealed to me the most so I want to stick with it even as the class moves on.

Sorry about the terrible exposure - late night quilting at its finest!

I also started my first hand sewing project during a recent girls' weekend with my mom and her sisters.  The 4 hour plane ride to Las Vegas was the perfect opportunity to do a little slow stitching.  This is a pattern by Katy from I'm a Ginger Monkey called Spring Carnival.  I hope to make a pillow from this eventually and hopefully one day I will get to make one with a color palette similar to Katy's as well.  I'm not exactly a speeder sewer, but I'll be taking this little kit with me to guild meetings.

How does my work differ from others? I don't know that my quilting differs from others but I hope that you find that my blog has an authentic voice.  I am a mom who works full-time and I struggle daily with depression and anxiety.  Quilting is my creative outlet and a place where I can express myself.  My Emerge Quilt represents a light that glows when I am sit at my sewing machine.  I am working on an original design based on my experience with anxiety this year.

Tumbling Blocks by Undiscovered Optimist

Why do I create what I do? Quilting connects me to my grandmother who passed away a few years ago.  I ended up with a large amount of her stash that sat in my garage for several months.  I loved the beautiful things she created but I had no idea where to start. So the fabric just sat and sat until I finally decided that it was time to start.  No idea what I was starting but I was determined and so I sat down at my computer and googled something related to quilt patterns.  Suddenly I was in a world of blogs with stunning work and there was no end in site.  I am so thankful for the blogging community!  This virtual community gave me the courage to find my local Modern Quilt Guild and take some technique classes at Spoonflower.  My anxiety would typically keep me from reaching out to a community of strangers like this.  This was just the beginning of my love affair with this diverse art. How does my creative process work? Like so many of us, I just work on what I feel drawn to.  I have been more determined to remain focused on my Emerge Quilt, but I have a list of projects in various stages of piecing.  At first this made me really uncomfortable, but I am learning that this is part of my creative expression.  If I am going to express myself and my mental health is reflected in my work, then what I work on is going to vary from time to time.  

GenX Quilters BOM January block - definitely a WIP that needs some attention!

Thanks again for stopping by!  As I am quite new to this community and so many bloggers have taken part in this awesome blog hop already, I don't have anyone to pass the baton to, but if you want to carry on this fun little tour, leave me a comment and I would be happy to send my readers your way next Monday!
Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.