Hello quilting friends! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are off to a happy, healthy new year.
My blog has been quiet for the past few weeks. My dad passed away a few days before Christmas after a hard fought battle with Alzheimer\’s disease. I would like to take a moment to say that I am thankful for a father who believed in me, loved my family fiercely, and taught us the value of hard work and determination. When I was young, my dad\’s favorite line to inspire me was, \”Run fast, jump high, do good!\” That\’s the same mantra he has shared with my children over the years. It turned out to be quite a gift, because he instilled in them the feeling of being loved and capable people.
Well Dad, you fought the good fight, you finished the race, and you kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7). Thank you for the lessons and the love.
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| Dad\’s 70th birthday celebration in 2015. A Tractor for Dad |
Quilting friends, if you’ve followed my blog since the beginning, you know it was my dad’s early onset with this terrible disease that spurred me to create “Carried Away Quilting,” a blog where I could share my love of quilting with you and launch a pattern design business. I am so thankful to all of you for your encouragement, inspiration and cheerleading during 2016. It really amazes me the capacity for creative kinship that exists in the quilting community. My dad would have been amazed by all of the networking and sharing of ideas, and I\’m pretty sure he would have had some business ideas for me as well!
In 2016 I released five new patterns. It has been a joy to see them made up by talented makers all over the world. If you are not yet on Instagram, I encourage you to get this app! The Instagram quilting community is amazingly supportive, and it is where I see most of my patterns come to life by other hands, using so many different fabric choices. It is awesome! Here’s a recap of my 2016 patterns:
Picking Petals Mini Quilt
Crossing Petals Mini Quilt
Ribbon Play Runner
Sweetly Scalloped Quilt
Window Garden Quilt
I’m excited to share that I have new patterns planned for 2017, two of which will release this spring. One will feature Bunnies & Cream by Lauren Nash for Penny Rose Fabrics. The other will feature Coney Island by Fig Tree & Company for Moda Fabrics. I also have another big announcement for 2017, but I cannot share the details yet. Isn’t that awful? As soon as I’m able to shout out about it, you can be sure I will! 😉
Finally, I want to extend a sincere thank you to my blog sponsors. Each of these quilt shops are run by kind, hardworking, passionate teams, and I am honored that they support Carried Away Quilting. It has truly been a terrific experience getting to know each of them over the past year.
Thank you all for stopping by the blog and caring enough to follow my quilting journey. I plan to share many pretty projects and ideas with you in 2017 so that we can all get carried away quilting! Happy New Year!
~Taunja
