Gotcha Covered Quilting: custom quilts.

Woot Woot!!! My blog is officially up and running.

Welcome everyone and thank you for keeping me company here.

So what will you find with my blog? A lot of quilting…ideas, projects, tutorials and inspiration with a spattering of life spread around. After all, quilting doesn't occur in a vacuum in the real world so it won't here either.

For some of you who know me personally, this jump into quilting may seem a bit dramatic. It isn't a leap though. I started quilting back in 1998 when I moved from Santa Barbara to the San Francisco area. After spending most of my life crocheting, needlepointing, and cross stitching, I had always been intrigued by quilting. The move was the perfect opportunity to give it a try as I wasn't established in the community (ie: I had no friends and thus lots of free time). Within my first week in this new town, I joined the Pacifica Quilters guild, and although I was the youngest in the group by about 25 years, the Pacifica Quilters took me under their wing and encouraged me on. There's nothing like a group of older women oohing and ahhing over everything you make to feed the fabric and quilting addiction. A passion was born.

After hand quilting my first few quilts, I really needed to speed up the quilting process in order to keep up with the pace I was making quilt tops, so I taught myself to machine quilt. I quickly fell in love with the process and shortly after started a small machine quilting business. I absolutely LOVE quilting for others, creating the finishing touches for the beautiful quilts they have put so much time and energy into creating.

And then came a back injury. If you have ever hurt your back, you are very much aware that it will stop you in your tracks. Oh yes, everything came to a screeching halt, including my quilting. And then life took a few twists and turns and before I knew it, six years had passed.

A Few Of My Favorite People

Katelyn (aka "KK") age 22 and graduate from Chico State

Brody, age 18 and in college

Ally age 13 (with her friend's dog, Skylar)

Super Mark, my wonderful boyfriend of 3 years.

So here I am, many years later, finding myself immersed into the world of quilting once again. Although much in life has changed, my passion for quilting hasn't, in fact, it's back with a vengeance. Apparently my addiction to fabric hasn't slowed down one bit either. My love for machine quilting is just as strong as ever. What has changed though is the outside world of quilting. Boy oh boy has that changed. There was no social media when I stopped quilting. The most fabulous and daring fabrics were batiks. The concept of modern quilting was really "out there." And now? The sharing of ideas is only a click away. Shopping for fabric (much to my dismay when my credit card bill arrives) is also as easy as a click away. Written tutorials, video classes, quilt photos, endless ideas, online swaps and quilt alongs, sharing, encouraging, celebrating, helping, giveaways and blog shares…all only clicks away. I'd be lying if I didn't say it can be a bit overwhelming. So much quilting, so many quilting friends, beautiful quilt fabrics, new fabric lines coming out almost daily...Seriously, this new world of quilting is amazing and I am beyond thrilled to have jumped back in.

I'm so happy that you've decided to join me here. I hope to make this a culture of community, sharing, and quilting fun, so please join in freely.

(Coming up next week…a look at a brand new pattern and what I've done with Kate Spain's Sunnyside).

Until next time...