A New Beginning

Welcome to 2016. First day of the new year, and first day of My Patchwork Life. Allow me to introduce myself.  I’m Jane, I’m 48 years old (for a few more weeks anyway), single, mum to two furkids…one beautiful Tuxedo cat called Nate, and one scruffy, though also beautiful, Shih-tzu cross Long Haired Jack Russell older girl named Wags (who thinks she’s a cat also). I live with a few chronic illnesses…Crohn’s Disease and Hidradenitis Suppurativa are the two main ones that give me the most trouble, keep my doctors busy, and have me visiting hospital all too frequently. And…I’m a Jesus chick!! 🙂

This year is a new beginning, in many ways. It’s time to step out of my comfort zone and jump into some new adventures and activities. And this blog in particular is going to focus on my journey into the world of patchwork and quilting!!

Many years ago now, probably about 25 or so, I taught myself how to make Log Cabin quilts from a video borrowed from the local library. Yes, back in the days of video…they were still debating whether VHS or Beta was best back then!! I made numerous quilts…all log cabin, all quilted with “stitch in the ditch” lol I haven’t made anything in a number of years, but now it’s time to move forward, to get back into sewing, learn new patterns and new (to me) methods of quilting.

To start myself off, I had a look around Facebook.  And there I found the most wonderful group of people. My dear friend, John Cole-Morgan, had set up this amazing group on Facebook called Beginners Quilting Support Group. They are truly the most talented, kind hearted, generous, helpful and just plain lovely bunch of ladies and gentlemen I have come across in a long time. The support, the enthusiasm, the inspiration and the friendship they all provide is second to none.

There are so many patterns and techniques I wish to learn now. The list grows daily too!! Now is the time to make a start and actually DO something rather than just dream about it. And to keep me accountable, the aforementioned John very strongly suggested I start a blog page so I can log my progress. 🙂 So here I am.

Over the coming days, I will be starting to list the patterns I wish to learn, practice and conquer…just so I have them all in one place, so more for my benefit than anyone else’s. My very first starting point will be with half square triangles or HST’s as they appear to be more commonly known. It appears so many patterns are made up of these tricky little things, and especially in all the Block of the Month, Block of the Week, etc groups I have excitedly joined!!

So many new abbreviations to learn, it’s almost like learning a new language  lol But block of the month is generally written as BOM. So, in my super excited and keen to get started state, I signed up for Rose’s Block of the Month, John’s Block of the month which starts very soon, and 40 Women of the Bible (except that one is a new block every week). I haven’t sewn a stitch for any of them yet, but the fabric comes out this afternoon to do some practising and cutting and sewing of these frightening HSTs. I will take some photos to post, but please be kind as I’m sure they’ll be absolutely dreadful. However that’s the point of this blog, so I can track my progress from being a complete newbie to a hopefully somewhat talented quilter.

Finally, I’d like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and wish you all the very best life has to offer you in 2016. I pray you all stay in good health and enjoy life to the fullest. It really is far too short to sit back and let it pass you by. God bless!! 🙂