My stop on the New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop!

Welcome! I'm really excited to be participating in Plum and June's New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop. It's an annual event that showcases new, modern quilt bloggers. It's a great chance to see new blogs and share this blog that has become a big part of my life over the past two years.

My name is Jenn and I live in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. When I'm not quilting and blogging about it, I'm a Middle School French teacher at a local independent school. The most exciting non-quilty news in my life these days is that Himself (as I refer to my husband throughout the blog) and I are soon to be parents of twins. Have I started their quilts yet? Nope! Still waffling on a design choice! ☺

*A note about the smudgies in the above photo. Not smudgies, but actual Canadian snowflakes.

A few fun facts about me and my blog:

• I'm a life-long Girl Guide.
• I use a LOT of Kona solids in my projects and (one of) my dream job(s) would be to name new Kona colours.
• I have a weakness for chocolate and peanut butter - together, apart, whatever.
• I can't throw away selvages. Just. Can't. Do. It. Especially if they don't just have dots on them...
• I like to take my finished quilts to fun locations for photo shoots.
• I use nicknames for friends and family on my blog and I rarely show anyone's face. Just because I have a blog, doesn't mean they want to find themselves on it!
• I don't talk much about my non-quilty life on my blog. I figure people read quilt blogs 'cause they like quilting - not because they care what I made for supper last night or what TV show I'm obsessed with (and that would be Downton Abbey BTW).

My tip for new quilt bloggers is to keep your blog layout simple. Let the star of your blog be your lovely work showcased in big, well-lit photos. I also like to include lots of links to resources I've used to make my blog not just a fun place to visit, but also a useful one!

And my general quilting tip? Make what you love. Period. A number of years ago, my practicality crippled my creativity. I was constantly worrying about where the quilt was going to end up, what it matched, etc. Now, if I feel like making something, I make it. There's always someone out there happy to give a home to your quilty love. Lots of my "just because" quilts make their way to the local women's and children's hospital. It brings me such joy to share them.

Now, my dear readers (and blog hoppers), before you hop over to check out the lovely blogs listed below, why not leave me a comment? I'll even give you a topic (said in Linda Richmond Coffee Talk voice). Perhaps you'll even talk amongst yourselves. What's your quilt-y guilty pleasure? Discuss!

 Elli @ Lovelli Quilts

Marcie @ Marcie's Quilt Therapy

Sharon @ Motherdragon's Musings

Cynthia @ Cynthia's Creating Ark

Jane @ Jersey Jane Quilts

Sally @ Wonky Patchwork

Bee @ Pink Almond Quilt

Debbie @ Quilting Makes My Heart Sing

Leanne @ Devoted Quilter

Karen @  Capitola Quilter

J

P.S. My quilty guilty pleasure is... Robert Kaufman's Kona solids. I love organizing (and re-organizing) my Konas. They're stacked in warm and cool piles and labeled with yardage and the colour name (even though I own a Colour Card!) I even have a scrap bin just for Konas! I can hardly wait for the 32 new colours to be available!

I'm so excited...

And I just can't hide it! I'm about to do my first blog hop and I hope I like it!!!

It's....

 

It's going to be a doozy! There are so many blogs participating that my head is sort of spinning! I'm not on deck until July 16th, but there will be lots of cool blogs to check out starting June 4th.  If you don't follow Plum and June, you should. You'll be in on the hub of the blog hop and not miss a single day of new quilt blogs!

J