Day 2 - And More of an Introduction

I started my blog late last night so I thought I would better introduce myself this morning.

I am 44 years old and live in Dover, NH with my adorable husband, Bruce, and soon-to-be-married 23 year old son, Geoffrey. We live in a condo in downtown Dover. Living in downtown is cool. I can park my car on Friday night and not have to drive it again until Monday morning, unless we want to go the big grocery store. Within a few blocks of my home I have several restuarants, our church, the theater, a coffee shop and a great butcher shop. The only thing missing is an LQS. The closest one to me is 10 miles away! So most of my fabric shopping is done on-line.

I work with my husband, four brothers-in-law and my father-in-law. It is a family owned business. We specialize in hotel real estate brokerage and hotel real estate data. If you want to know where a hotel is going to be built or what hotels have been renovated recently or who owns a hotel, then you call us.

As for quilting, I started playing with fabric again in September 2004. I had spent two years taking drawing and painting lessons trying to satisfy my need to express my creativity. I wasn't thrilled with the results I was getting from the lessons and was trying to find something else to do. In July 2004 Bruce and I visited his aunt for the July 4th holiday weekend. On the bed in her guest room was this beautiful quilt all made from 2 inch squares. I asked her about it and she told me her aunt had made the quilt from the aprons her mother (and Bruce's grandmother) had worn when she worked at the hair brush factory. WOW! What a great way to honor your relatives. It took me another couple months and being laid up from shoulder surgery to finally decide to try quilting.

I signed up for a basic quilting course from QuiltUniversity.com and took the plunge. It only took me a few weeks to realize I was addicted to fabric and quilting. I have spent the last 18 months learning a lot about quilting, but I know there is always so much more to learn. In that time I have only completed 2 bed quilts - one baby quilt and one twin size quilt. I have many UFOs and am working hard on not starting anymore projects until I finish some of what I have. A few of them are very close to being finished and some of them only have a block or two done.

Here is a picture of my latest project. I call it PinkFinity. I was inspired by the Infinity Block quilt in the March/April 2005 issue of Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting Magazine. It's the first two-color quilt I've made and I love it. I still need to quilt it and I'm thinking of machine quilting stitch in the ditch around each block and then hand quilting hearts in the blocks.

Today I am working on a Chiclets inspired quilt that will be donated to one of my online groups for soldiers going to Afghanistan. Although it is a gorgeous spring day and maybe I can Bruce to go out this afternoon.