I feel really good about the start of a fresh new year, especially since 2018 was so eventful. I’m trying to dust off this blog a little–it’ll turn 11 in April, and even though I spend most of my social media life on Instagram I’m not ready to abandon it. So, the first big thing we’ve done this year is take a little last-minute mommy/daughter/pup road trip to Canada.
Last year was unlike any other year I’ve ever had. I think the silence on this blog kind of reflects that. Trucking along in a quieter-than-usual but other wise normal year, and then June 17th comes and off the grid I go. That’s when we finished packing up everything we owned in NJ (everything that was left after weeks of purging, yard sales, and donations), left the house we’d owned for 10 years, 7 months, and 12 days, spent a week driving across the country to Washington, moved into a rental apartment, spent three months looking at houses/putting offers on houses/buying a house, and then moved into our farmhouse on the 28th of September. It’s on six acres of forested woodlands, it’s beautiful, and I’m so in love with it out here.
It’s been a little more than six months since I last posted here, which is a record. This blog is ten years old, and I’ve never gone that long without posting! But it was kind of a welcome break–I needed to concentrate on packing up, moving from New Jersey to Washington, getting settled, finding a house, getting H settled at a new school. It’s been a ride, and we’re just starting to settle down.
I started this quilt almost two years ago with a ton of sketches, and it is finally, finally finished. I don’t know why I’ve never posted photos of the progress on this quilt, only sketches. But I’ve worked on it, put it aside, finished the top, put it aside for months upon months before making the backing, and then putting it aside again before I finally got it quilted and bound. But now it’s done…just in time for us to move out of this house, and out of this bedroom that we specifically painted to coordinate with this quilt. It’s like the curse of the boyfriend sweater, but for bedrooms.
We put our house on the market last month and have started packing away. Which means it’s a little quiet here on the creativity front–we’re keeping the house tidy for showings, so no ongoing projects out and taking over my studio. I’ve already started packing some supplies, and the stuff that’s boxed up now I won’t see again until we’re in a house in Seattle, after we rent for a few months.