Link Love: Welcome to 2018!

I’ve got a good feeling about this year! I love it when the start of a new year falls on a Monday as it makes everything so neat and orderly for my OCD as Monday is the day I use to kick off all my planning and routine. I’ve really enjoyed having my “soft break” over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been pottering around the house decluttering, sewing from my UFO pile and enjoying being with my boys. We had a really quiet festive season and it was just what I needed. I could probably do with another couple of weeks of just pottering around but 2018 is starting with a bang and so I really need to get back to work.

The Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt 2018 Sew-along kicks off today in the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Sew-along Facebook Group. Each week in 2018 I’ll be prompting people to sew 2 blocks from Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt book so that by the end of the year they’ll have a completed quilt top. I’ll be using the event as a prompt to get my two Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt tops sewn together and sent off to Raylee for quilting. I’ve been slowly going back through the block tutorials from 2015/2016 and updating them for this new round of sewing and it’s been a really interesting exercise in retrospection. I’m not a big fan of stopping and looking back, I like to always be looking forward at the next thing on my list, but sometimes when I’m forced to revisit stuff it’s a great way to see just how far I’ve come. That sew-along kicked off so many things for me both professionally and personally. It was the catalyst for some of the biggest changes I’ve made in my life and it really was the starting point from when I stopped thinking about sewing and blogging as my hobby and started the transition into a business. I really enjoyed looking at the photography of my blocks – oh how far I’ve come. This event really was the start of my photography stepping up a notch and some of the images from this event hold such a treasured place in my heart. I do wish in someways that I had the time and money to go back and reshoot everything with what I know now. But that’s something to think about when my lotto win comes in.

Wednesday sees the Elizabeth Hartman All the Animals Sew-along kick off and I’m excited to see what everyone makes for this event. The quilts are so iconic and there’s so much room to have fun with making items other than quilts with the blocks. This event is going to be a bit of a departure for me as I look at hosting an event and not making everything in the event as I have tried to do in the past. I’ve been really thinking about how I can offer more events without having to participate myself and this year will see a bit of an evolution of structure here when it comes to the sew-alongs. As much as I love participating in them I really do struggle at times to keep up and I hate the feeling of failing that it gives me when I fall behind. I’m thinking that I’ll move some of the events into a hosting capacity and will participate in the events that I really want to do and can make the time for as other take priority behind-the-scenes.

2018 is going to be about prioritising for me. I’ve worked hard since coming back from Houston to clear off my plate to make room for the things I want to work on. 2016 taught me about the impacts of doing things out of obligation and 2017 drove home just how important that lesson is. 2018 is going to be focused on growing the things that bring me joy and fill my bucket. Our family will go through another transition as the Little Man starts full time school. He went to preschool 5 days a fortnight in 2017 and it was great for all of us. We didn’t use any childcare in 2017 and I’m really proud of that because it shows that we made the right decision when I decided to work from home. It’s been hard to find a balance between working and being present in the home. I don’t feel like I got the balance right in 2017 so I’m looking forward to making changes and seeing if I can get it right in 2018. I am really looking forward to seeing what changes full time school brings with it. We’ve got to do additional speech and occupational therapy to help him transition to Kindergarten so that will be interesting and challenging for all of us for various reasons, but I’m quietly confident that the time we invest now will be well rewarded in years to come.

I’ve been ruthless in the past few weeks as I put together my priority list for 2018. I’m done saying “one day” to a number of things on my list and I’m ready to take charge and ownership of making the changes I need to make. It’s weird, but I’m looking forward to the feeling of conquering things in 2018. I proved to myself in 2017 that I can just go cold turkey on things and walk away from the things that aren’t bringing positivity into my life, I just need to prove to myself in 2018 that I can stick with giving them up.

So, without further ado it’s time to get on with the business of making 2018 a fun filled, laughter driven, amazeballs, hold on to your seat, fabric fuelled adventure. I hope you have a corker of a first week of January and that it’s filled with love, laughter and fabric fondling.

Start the year off with love by making this free heart string mini quilt pattern. Click here to read more.

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This free embroidery pattern from The Long Thread has me tempted to pick up a needle. Click here to read more.

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It’s time for a new calendar and these free printables from Alice & Lois (click here) and Scrapbooking (click here) have you covered.

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Loving this simple and quick quilt free tutorial called Arrows Aweigh from Fort Worth Fabric Studio. Click here to read more.

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Looking for a free 30 day habit tracker, then Elise Joy has you covered (check out her website for great articles, podcasts and more) you just have to sign up to her newsletter to get it. Click here to read more.

In case you missed winners announcements over the festive season you can find a full list of the winners for various events by clicking the links below.

• 52 Weeks with the Quilters Planner Winners
• Round We Go Winners
• Tula Pink Butterfly Quilt Winners

Have you got an event, a charity drive, a pattern release, a class schedule or something else that you think my community would be interested in hearing about? Why not drop me a line and let me know – I’d love to share it with my readers. Click here to email me.

• Meredithe and Anne are hosting a challenge in 2018 where participants can nominate 6 UFO’s and 6 New Makes that they want to conquer in 2018. It’s a great way to find new friends and have an accountability framework in place for getting things done. Find out more by clicking here.
• Sherri Noel has released two Tomte patterns which are a great way to celebrate Christmas, or you could make one for each season. You can buy the quilt pattern by clicking here or purchase the matching plushie pattern by clicking here.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a very small commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link, in fact in some cases I can offer you a better price via an affiliate link. I will not recommend something that I do not use myself. These commissions help me keep being able to provide you with great content for free. Thank you, in advance for your support!