I know that I haven’t been blogging much lately and what I have posted has been mostly fleeting thoughts just to say “hey!”  If you have been by at all then you know that I have finally published pattern designs which has kept me quite busy sewing.

Using Aloha Girl fabric by Fig Tree and Co by Joanna Figueroa for a new pattern.

Photographing, which is WAAAY harder than it looks.

Folding and stacking

and stuffing patterns.

The good news is Checker Distributors has picked up my patterns, they have been found all the way in Iowa!

And there has been a lot of Instagramming. It seems there is a huge quilting community there which I love! Most of my online sales have been from Insta-peeps and I appreciate that so much. The encouragement, stories, de-stash sales and general support is wonderful! So I have been more active posting over there, you can follow me here. (elaine.summercrafter)

I have also joined several swaps (crazy I know) there is the Home Sweet Home Mini Swap (#homesweethomemini) where we make something “housy.”

The Beach Bound MQS (#beachboundmqs) which was a no brainer, right?

I made my first Dresden as the sun. (More on that in a future post.)

And another “no brainer” of course, was the Christmas Swap and there are two. The Most Wonderful time of the Year 2015 (#themostwonderfultimeoftheyear2015) and a Christmas Craft Swap 2015 (#christmascraftswap2015).

Swaps are great because  they are good “down” projects to get your mind off of “work” related items. and sewing for fun. Swaps are also a good opportunity for making “quilty and crafty” friends since I don’t have any in person. On Instagram, I am not a “follower” collector, I prefer meeting and greeting authentic, genuine  people who love to quilt and craft and share their creations via IG. This commonality is important to me for general camaraderie and friendly support and encouragement. It really helps me connect with people who understand me and my love for quilting and vise versa.

Another recent surprise I had was an invitation from Pat Sloan to be on her American Patchwork and Quilting podcast (click on link to hear some interviews).  Yep, I’m still pinching myself on that one. My interview will be sometime in September so I’ll keep you posted.

 I had reached out to her on one of her blogs regarding the quilting business some time last year (?)  and she was so gracious to answer all my questions via email and she gave me some great tips. I also had the pleasure of meeting her at Quilt Market 2014. She is generous and sweet, I have found that to be a common thread among quilters I meet.

Hoping to get back to some tutorials as I finish up some of those swaps and share them right here on the blog. Thanks for stopping by.