Link Love: Are You Ok?

One of my all time favourite authors and chefs died last week of suicide. I adored Anthony Bourdain for his honesty, his passion for the things he loved and for showing me a different perspective on the world. HUBBY and I would sit together and watch No Reservations or Parts Unknown and laugh, talk about where we wanted to go and drool over all the different meats on a stick the world has to offer. We talked about Anthony Bourdain like he was a good friend. He felt like a good friend even though we’d never met. The news of his death has clung to me all weekend and reminded me just how indiscriminate mental illness can be. It’s easy to look at celebrities, or anyone really, and think they have it all, but no one knows what any of us face on the inside. The toughest battle in life is waged not with the world, but with our own internal voice.

My heart breaks for his family and friends, but it also breaks for the thousands of others around the world that die by suicide every day and leave behind friends and family. It’s happening more and more and it’s devastating. Every day we’re bombarded with advertising, social media and entertainment. I’m not sure our brains have evolved at the same speed as technology where they’re in a place to be able to process and handle so much at once. It’s never-ending and it effects all of us. I know that there have been a number of times in my life where I’ve had depression and anxiety. I’ve been on medication, I’ve been to therapists and I’ve been lucky enough to know deep in my core that I have a family that loves me and supports me. Not everyone has that support system. I know without a shadow of a doubt that if I didn’t have that support system I wouldn’t be here today. If I hadn’t had access to mental health services that my story would be a different one, and possibly a shorter one.

I don’t want to miss this opportunity to ask if you’re ok. Are you ok? If you’re struggling with your own thoughts and mental health reach out. Help is here. You are worth more to this world then you’ll ever truly understand or know. Please don’t battle on in silence. We need you here. We need your voice in the world. If you’d like to talk to someone, Lifeline Australia can be reached on 13 11 14. (The equivalent in the US is 1800 273 8255 and the UK 0845 7909 090, for other international numbers click here.)

I know that’s all a bit heavy for a Monday morning, but we need to talk about the heavy stuff. We need to take it out of the shadows and shine a light on it. May your week be filled with love, laughter and much fabric fondling!

Amy Friend has a great tutorial on making a colouring in sheet of your quilt design in EQ8 for those of you that are interested in that type of thing. Click here to read more.

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Need a one block quilt tutorial that will be great for fussy cutting? Check out this Chained Nine Patch tutorial from Art Gallery Fabrics. Click here to read more.

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If you’re looking for a sampler sew-along with a difference check out the Modern Plus Sampler Sew-along. Click here to read more.

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Looking for a quick quilt tutorial that delivers a lot of punch? Check out Patriotic Stars by Chelsi Stratton. Click here to read more.

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This tutorial for a box zipper pouch by Minki Kim on the We All Sew blog is a great project with lots of impact. (Don’t worry you don’t have to stitch those hexagons, it’s a cheater panel! Brilliant right!) Click here to read more.

Have you seen the prizes on offer for the #100Days100BlocksFinishalong? There’s not a massive amount of people participating and there’s still time to join in so you stand a pretty good chance of winning one of these!

1. $200 Voucher for Quilting Services from Driftwood Quilting, and
2. $30 Gift Certificate to The Modern Sewist.

To be eligible for these prizes you must follow @DriftwoodQuilting and @TheModernSewist on instagram, tag your photos with the event hashtag (#100Days100BlocksFinishalong) and post the three required photos within the event timeframe. To find out more click here.

Click here to shop with Driftwood Quilting.

Click here to shop at The Modern Sewist.

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.

• Sam Hunter of Hunter’s Design Studio has released a collaborative quilt with Lisa Congdon called “Show Up”. It’s a really great quilt (with lots of fussy cutting possibilities) and is available for purchase by clicking here. Sign up to Sam’s newsletter as well so you can find out all the details about an upcoming sew-along to make the quilt.
• Stephanie of Modern Sewciety and Natalie of Sew Hungry Hippie have teamed up for a Dress-A-Long. June is the Metamorphic dress by Sew Liberated.  July is the Painted Portrait Dress by Anna Maria Horner. It looks to be a great event where you can learn new skills, make clothes you love and have a great time while doing it. To find out more click here.
• Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs and Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl are excited to announce that they are co-hosing the Tips and Tutorials Festival in June. The goal of the Tips and Tutorials Festival is to share and celebrate all the wonderful online tutorials that the quilting community has created recently. We encourage fresh, new content, so we ask that you link up posts that have be published since January 2017. You can find out more about it 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!