Life just keeps on going

I have been so busy w/the McCall's Quilt Design Star 2011 contest the last several months it seems that I've been out of touch with real life sometimes, let alone keeping up with what is going on in the quilting industry. Within the past week I have tried to catch up on various activities that I enjoy browsing online. This includes promotions and sale fabric and other fun things like that!

I just want to give a shout out for Sew Lux! I saw a promotion shared by one of their friends on Facebook, checked it out and actually purchased some sale fabric. Of course I signed up for their newsletter and now follow their blog. When I received the newsletter I was their FQ winner for the week! OH my!! How exciting! I'm adding a FQ of Kate Spain's Terrain Fern Berry. This will go nicely with the Terrain charm pack I already received in the mail. I'll probably use it as some element of a zinger in the design. Love this color!

As I get close to the end of the year it is nice to reflect on what I've done and think forward to new goals for next year. This year included gaining exposure in the quilting industry and the McCall's contest alone has done a significant amount to reach that goal for sure! Thank you to all who are now following along. Getting into several juried shows, one regional and two national, was also very exciting and helped to increase my exposure and reputation for quality work. These included: AQS - Knoxville, PWQS and MQX-West. Another goal was to create balance in my work life. That was going well until McCall's started! HA! But, I'm already settling back into it and it feels great!

I just took a moment to look at the statistics of this blog and am blown away. Thank you to Patchwork Times and Freshly Pieced for their weekly hosting of linkups. They are my highest referral sites and I got a huge amount of traffic when posting at Patchwork Times when the FINAL quilt for McCall's -Mi Amore was posted. Wow!
If you read my WIP posts on Wednesdays or my Design Wall/BOM's Away/{Sew} Modern Monday posts (click on the labels to the right to read the indexed posts) then you have some idea of things that I've been working on personally. This next year I hope to build on this to include tutorials and other fun projects that I try. Is there something you want to do but would like a little advice? There seems to be a plethera of options online for learning about the art of quilting. I'd like a list of all my favorite resources so I can access them quickly when I need them!

The next few months are going to be an adventure. My husband's work project is wrapping up in just over a month and we're wondering what will be in store for us in the future. He is a mechanical engineer who has enjoyed fulfilling a life long pursuit of working in the renewable energy industry with this current project. He is also interested in airplane construction, air powered cars and pneumatics. We draw on our faith to believe that the right situation will present itself as we search for the next opportunity. Perhaps you'll be a part in that journey.

Fortunately for the most part, my work in the quilting world can travel with me wherever we may end up.

Have a wonderful weekend!

YMarlene