What a Week... or Two...

When I left for my vacation I had a happy relationship, a healthy daughter and a great job... When I returned my daughter was sick as a dog, my relationship was not so healthy and my job... non existent.

I was so focused on nursing Cadence back to health there was little time left to focus on the fact that pretty much everything else in my life was about to change... big time... AGAIN! Sigh... Im not gonna lie, it's a little scary. But Im old enough and wise enough now to know that I can handle this and as long as I stay focused everything will be just fine. With out struggle there is no growth. Or as Ledra would say " Thank God you were born a woman! That means you can do ANYTHING!"

So with Cadence at Disney, no job to go to and a relationship the was only hanging on by a thread I had a lot of time to think about where I am going and what I really want. The answer of course was simple  I want to wrap my arms around my daughter and never let her go (boy I missed her!) And I want to pour myself into my quilts in a way I have never done. I have out grown the image based style of my past and I can feel my subject matter moving in a much more personal direction. My life is overflowing with inspiration and after a year of nothing but custom orders Im really looking forward to this new phase.

Project number one is to finally nail down a color scheme for the Hoffman Challenge. I'm shooting for the "Best First Time Entry" award and I think I have a fair chance. After collecting fabrics for about 6 months this is the final cut.

I tried to use as many Hoffman batiks as I could find and I threw in some good old Jinny Beyer blenders, Fusions (of course) and a touch of Micheal Miller Fairy Frost. Oh and the blackberries because they're just plain awesome! If you haven't seen the focus fabric yet it looks like this...

Gorgeous right!?! But defiantly a challenge for me. Green is my favorite color but I rarely use anything that would fall in the "minty" category. I'm a jewel tone girl (as Im sure you know). I also made it tougher on myself by swearing up and down I WOULD NOT DO ASIAN! Everyones gonna do asian and I want to stand out! Shit I want to WIN! It doesn't have to be first place I just want a ribbon on my wall for once.

So anyways here's to the start of a new project, a new focus, a NEW JOB and a new happier healthier me! Oh and just to make you smile here is a beautiful picture of my girl loving the manta rays at Sea World.

Look at that face! <3<3<3