10 Years Ago Today

I wrote my first blog post!  I looked at other blogs on blog rings (a collection of blogs on one site) and decided to start one myself.

What started it off was taking part for a short time with TAST, Take a Stitch Tuesday run by Sharon Boggon, which I took part until June 2007, when I fell further behind and could not keep up.  TAST is still going, though on Sharon's website, Pin Tangle.  There's more about TAST here

I found the blog was also useful in recording the work I was doing. In that year I was active in two postcard groups, through Yahoo Groups. One was BQLPC (British Quilt List PostdCard) another was Arts In The Mail group (both closed groups) as making fabric postcards were popular and mail was cheaper to send then.  I stopped making postcards in 2013 but I still have photos of postcards on my Flickr site. That's still going too but not updated very much. 

At the time I was also a member of two local quilt groups, Quaterjacks in Wimborne and Bourne Quilters in Parkstone, Poole, now i just go to the one group Bourne Quilters. I've been a member for over 20 years. A move to Yorkshire in 2008 and back to Poole in 2011 (gosh, that's 6 years ago!) meant I didn't rejoin Quarterjacks, but I still meet ladies from that group now and again.

Another difference between then and now is how I compose my posts. Back then it was finding the time to go on the computer and uploading my photos from a camera and typing up.  This morning I started typing this post on my iPad using Blogger app and can take photos with my iPhone which can instantly be shared on Facebook and Instagram. Downside of using Blogger app is that I can't link to other sites and if there are links and more complex stuff on the blog I will use the computer for that.

I don't share a lot of family stuff as this blog is mainly to do with my crafts but back in 2007 I shared a bit of family news with the arrival of my second grandchild, Leo and also the weddings of my sons, the youngest Jamie to Carly and my eldest son Alex to Mary.  Since then we've had two more grandchildren and this year in September my daughter (eldest of my children) gets married and the boys and their wives will be celebrating their 10th anniversaries this year! 

About time for a photo- these are my grandchildren, taken in the summer.

So what else has changed? I think my focus of the blog is still the same - I've always found this useful for recording my work and also as a personal reminder of our holidays and events. I'm not very good with keeping up with a written journal or diary but I've always gone back and referred to the blog. I could see back in 2007 I was experimenting with different techniques on a small scale (such as the postcards) and I don't think there's been anything recently to push me in that direction so would be good to get back to that.

Oh yes, another change has been the recent rediscovery of knitting and crochet.  Back in 2007 there wasn't a lot around in the way of yarn shops then but there are certainly more online shops now for fabric and yarn that are quite fresh and modern as with a lot of crafts nowadays. When I can't sew and after a day's work I don't always have the energy to cut, sew and iron so to settle with a little bit of knitting I've found really relaxing. But it is still sewing I go back to, even making a journal quilt in an evening.

For the future I will keep the blog going and hope that you will still enjoy reading about what I've been up to.  I've enjoyed composing the posts over the years. If you have time do say hello.

There will be more Splendid Sampler blocks to come, which finishes in February and I've got to catch up with that.  The downside of working nearly full time (I work 4 days a week) is there is always something to do and never enough time to do it, but I think that is a common problem among us creative lot.

There will be more sewing (got all that fabric to use up!) and there will be more yarn-y stuff too, maybe arty stuff.  Stay tuned......

Best wishes

Sue