Close to Home in 2014

It’s amazing to me how life works. A choice I made last year, affects things in a much bigger way than I could have imagined. All of a sudden I stand back and say “now I see, I was supposed to be here”.   I decided in September that I would stay closer to home in 2014.  The next quilt market is in Pittsburgh in May, and for the first time in my career I’ve decided to sit one out.   This was not an easy decision for me, but at the time my reasoning was it was too far to travel, I needed a break, and I didn’t want the stress that market can bring.

I’ll have new patterns coming out around market time, but my next block of them month won’t be released until October.  It’s a block of the month quilt that’s going to more time to design than the others, and I want to make sure I have enough time to work on it so that you’ll fall in love with it.  It’s been in my head for 6 months now, with only a few sketches and drawings taking shape.  I’m excited to start working on this quilt.

Now, because I decided to stay close to home,  I will be here to take care of my family who desperately needs me, and still have time to work on my block of the month quilt.  I had no idea at the time, that I would need to be here, but someone up there was trying to tell me something.

2014 May also be the year that I search for another friend for Chelsea.  She and I are missing Bitsy more than ever, and I think it may be time to start looking for another perfect companion.

I want a dog just like the one Charlotte Lyons found.    She’s been going through the grieving process of loosing a dog and look at the one she finally found!

House Wren studio

Chelsea and I need a small gentle soul, who also loves cats.  Something tells me we’ll know her when we see her.  I’ll take Chelsea along to any rescue I visit because she has great taste.

Several months back my husband called me outside to look at what the jet stream over our house.  It was amazing to look up and see such a beautiful thing.  2014 should be a year we all try to see the beauty around us.  2014 will be the year I take more photos.  I want to capture those moments of awe, when the simple things touch me.

2014 will bring us a new, updated website.  I’ve been talking about it for months, but now I’m actually in the process of loading product to it and making the final changes.  It will look very much the same, but it’s definitely more sophisticated.  I’m going to try a few PDF patterns for some of our smaller patterns.  We’ll see how it works!  Coming soon, I hope!

2014 will be the year when I go out of my way to buy things that have the breast cancer logo on them.  A small portion of the proceeds goes to breast cancer research and you just never know when the next dollar might be the one that funds the cure.

To all of you who wrote to me with such compassion, thank you.  Your comments meant so much to me.  Our family has a battle ahead, and the next surgery scheduled, is to remove the lymph nodes under the arm to stage the cancer.  That will be sometime in the next few weeks.   Buy pink whenever you can!  If each of us do it, 2014 will bring new drugs, new treatments and maybe even a cure.

Be sure and look for our newsletter tomorrow in your email.  It has the code for our January 25% off sale!  Take today to look at the site and decide what you’d like.  The sale is for 3 days only, and happens every January!

Hugs to each and every one you!

Anne