You know, for me it is a rare day to be the popular girl! Never happened to me in school, but I did get ‘tagged’ by two other bloggers at once for the Around the World Blog Tour. It is a blog hop, where a blogger tags you to share about your blog, then you tag three more for next week.

I ‘met’ Beth at Cooking Up Quilts – http://www.cookingupquilts.com – when we did the New Quilter’s Blog Hop a couple of months ago. Beth loves color, and her quilting shows it! She ‘tagged’ me first.  Look at this modern beauty she did on the left!

The same day, I was tagged by Karen at Karen’s Quilts Crows and Cardinals. http://karensquiltscrowscardinals.blogspot.com. I met Karen online after I found her blog through a linky party. I was trying to comment on her blog and having a bit of trouble. I really wanted to enter a giveaway for her pattern. A little while later, after corresponding for a bit, she gifted me with the pattern. I made the little wool work Spring Basket pattern into a pillow, you can see it at Spring Basket Wool Applique. I was going to tag her, but she got there first!  We were both added to Fave Quilts as new designers around the same time too.  Her Red Birds and Berries pattern (above right )was a Moda Bake Shop recipe.

I do a lot of quilting, but I also like to do a lot of other things, so my blog is a wide variety of quilting, crafting, sewing, cooking, book reviews, gardening, and anything else that catches my fancy. I’m also a football addict. I laughingly say that I have a short attention span, but really, I am just interested in a lot of things. Sometimes I quilt, some days I stamp, then I’ll make a skirt, and the next day dig in the dirt. Someone on another blog, I cannot find it now, says she is easily distracted by shiny things, and that describes me too!

Here are the questions we are supposed to answer.

What am I working on?  Right now my focus is on the Mountain Regional State Fair. I am entering 12 contests – four quilts, five crafts, and three photography contests. Today is Labor Day and turn in for the competitions. On Wednesday the quilts and crafts will be judged and the quilts hung. I’ll be there all afternoon. That will be after I spend the morning at the Friends of the Library as I am a volunteer for the book sale (and feeding my book addiction).  My quilt Autumn Around the Bend won first place a few years ago in the throw quilts category.   And I won several awards last year.  I’ll share more about this year in a few days.

I am blogging a block of the month this year using all batiks.  You can follow along as all the patterns are online.  Just click on the sidebar for Block of the Month 2014 to catch up.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?   I don’t think my quilts or crafts are really all that different, but each quilter is unique in his or her own way. I love autumn so that is a large part of my color choice.  Autumn in the mountains is just an explosion of color and inspiration, with those lovely cool nights.  This was our driveway a couple of years ago when the color was at its peak.  I love this time of year!!  I’ll be sharing more in the Mountain Living posts.  This photo is entered in the fair contest for landscapes.

Why do I write/create what I do?  I started this blog after writing for others for a long time. I wanted to create a tutorial for other longarm quilters to show their customers the right way to do borders. Then binding. Then more tutorials, because I like to teach.  I made my first post on Using Up Your Scraps because I had so many ideas on all kinds of fabrics and have taught this method as a class many times.  Then I wanted to share things on original recipes, books I read, and crafts too.  I wanted to show you how to clean an old sewing machine, and make cute quilts.  It just snowballed into a blog about a lot of things.

How does my writing/creating process work?  I just write about the things that interest me on a variety of subjects, everything from making a mug rug to learning knife skills and sharing my garden. I write to share what I have learned, and new things to try. I actually enjoy writing, and with the blog I have much more opportunity to write about what I am doing or something on my mind, causes that are important to me and sometimes just fun stuff, like National Donut Day.  I have a place to share the recipes I develop, as I have a hard time leaving a recipe alone.  All my quilting tutorials are gathered in a list on a page at the top so you can find them again easily.    Sewing and crafts, mountain living, stamping, wool work, books and reading, and a lot more are categorized on the sidebar.   And of course I like to share my successes, like being juried into a national show at AQS in Charlotte.

As far as creating, that is a tough one to answer.  It is difficult to identify what inspires me at any particular point.  Sometimes it is a pattern, sometimes it is a fabric print, sometimes it is a challenge from someone else.

Now to tag the next bloggers!  They will be presented in the order I ‘met’ them.

First  is Michelle at mmmquilts (mmmquilts.blogspot.com/).  I ‘met’ Michelle on a wonderful quilter’s forum called MQResource about 5 years ago.  Michelle was one of my blog’s early supporters, even adding a link on her blog to one of my tutorials.  Michelle is a wonderful longarm quilter, and is so inspiring with her hand-guided, free-motion finished quilts.  She is incredibly supportive and always has a word of encouragement or praise.  Michelle works with different textures like minky, and has a lot to share.  Be sure you see her Picnic in the Rockies quilt, it has some truly awe inspiring quilting on a masculine quilt.  She also introduced me to Bloglovin (the rat).

Next is Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation. Kelly’s blog was one of the first ones I started to follow after beginning blogging this year. Kelly is so supportive of the quilting community, regularly showing beautiful quilts and hosting a link up party every Thursday called Needle and Thread Thursday. She has been published in Modern Quilts Unlimited Magazine, too! Her quilts are very inspiring! Visit Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation.  http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com

Next is Sarah, who blogs at  Confessions of a Fabric Addict – Sarah inspires quilters every week with Make a List Monday, and Can I Get A Whoop Whoop link up for showing off finished projects. It is truly amazing what she can get done in a week, and she holds herself accountable for all her goals. Sarah is also heavily involved with charity quilting, a cause close to my heart too. http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com

There is so much inspiration out in the blogosphere, I think I follow more than 130 blogs on Bloglovin alone!  Thanks, Michelle, like I really need to spend more time on the computer!  So, that’s the tour for today.  Each of the three bloggers I ‘tagged’ today will post next Monday on their blogs about their quilting and writing, then tag three more bloggers.  You can go look at their blogs anytime, though, they are always up to something inspiring!