2025: Retrospection and Introspection.

 It may not have been obvious to many, but the past couple of years have been personally very challenging. For me it was a time of head down and get through what needed to be done…which I did by putting aside a lot of projects, and turning down design and teaching opportunities.  2025 looked full of promise to get back into the game, and it started off well. My Thursday afternoons helping out at Mrs Pugsley's Emporium resumed, and as always, I have kept busy with my online store of Aurifil thread. 

I had a design accepted by Island Batik fabrics for their Spring “Look Book” of new fabric collections and that quilt – “Head Over Heels”- was delivered to them in Carlsbad, California in early January…right before all the upset began in Washington...

It has truly been an unsettling time.  Like other professional quilt designers in Canada, I rely on the market and resources south of the border because that’s where they are: the fabric companies are there, all the industry magazines are published there, and the trade-shows and markets for patterns are there.  It isn’t a matter of preferring to work with American quilt companies over Canadian ones, there just simply are no Canadian counterparts. It was really disheartening to think the connections I had made over these many, many years of designing were all changing in a very negative way.  There was no clear and obvious path but as I mulled it over and over in my head, I also quietly decided a big change was necessary. Time to pivot, or stop. During all the insulting rhetoric of Prime Minister Trudeau becoming governor of the 51^st U.S. state, a courier arrived to return my “A High Tide Floats All Boats” quilt from its previous year’s tour of the U.S. with Hoffman of California Fabrics.  I was so relieved to have it back. 

In February, I did a guild presentation on Aurifil thread to the Cumberland Quilt Guild. In March the feelings of patriotism running high in our country inspired me to design “En Garde” which unexpectedly became a huge hit with quilters across our country.  I had made the rather bold decision not to sell the pattern outside of Canada and figured that would kill my sales.  Instead the opposite happened, and quilt shops across Canada who had never been interested in carrying my patterns before, now wanted to.  At the time of writing, the pattern has now gone into it's 5th printing.  You can read more about it here. A big thank you.

I ordered stickers to add to the fronts of all printed patterns to advertise their home-grown nature.  Subsequent pattern jackets now have the maple leaf printed directly on the cover.

And then, just because things weren’t confused enough, we had another blip from Canada Post which disrupted mailing individual patterns once again.  Sigh…

May saw the release of another pattern, "Well Anchored", a down-home design great for days at the cottage.

With June and lots of "Elbows Up" sentiment still abounding, I was asked if I would be interested in being one of the designers for a new CANADIAN quarterly subscription quilt box.  Would I ever!  This brilliant project was developed by Monika of Penny Spool Quilts who has put a tremendous amount of time and energy into making this a spectacular program.   It took a fair amount of time for me to get the design worked out, the pattern tested, and the proper yardage off to Monika so she could order fabric - and goodies - for the box.  My deadline to get the material to her was November so it was a very busy autumn indeed.  I just made the deadline. ;)

In August, I was invited to judge quilts at the Cumberland County Exhibition in Oxford, N.S. in September. I had never done anything like this before but called on my past experiences entering major shows and recalled things the judges were looking for, and the feedback they offered in the comments.  I learned so much from judging the quilts; it turned out to be one of my favourite things of the year. (Thank you for the invite, Margaret.)

In October the Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival was a busy week, working extra hours at Mrs Pugsley's quilt shop, and vending at the Cumberland Quilt Guild show. Guild president Debbie Rolfe issued a challenge to the group to make "En Garde"(s)  to display at the show.  It was wonderful and humbling to see the gaggle of geese at the front of the church.  Thank you to Debbie and the guild for the honour.

Immediately following this, I hurried off to teach a workshop on Maritime Beauty with the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild. It was a wonderful class with a very happy group of quilters. I even managed to squeeze in presenting a noon trunk show on New York Beauty quilts. Here are two completed table toppers from the class:  the first one is by Cindy Forbes, and the second by Mary Guildford. Both are beautifully done, and make me feel proud.

While vending at both the Cumberland Quilt Guild and the workshop, I became acutely aware that I had outgrown my pattern racks.  My floor rack was built to display 25 patterns, and to that I had added a smaller one to hold 4 more but I had way more print patterns available than this (and even more available in just digital format!)  I found some lightweight, collapsible, easy-to-pack metal pattern racks online (from a Canadian source called Eddy's Hang up Displays) which have slots for 18 different patterns, so I ordered 2 of them. This means I now have display space for 65 different patterns...but it still isn't enough.  Yikes!  Somebody stop me...!

My solution was, of course, to release yet another pattern:  FROST.  This one was actually sketched out almost 20 years ago and has been waiting patiently to get sewn. So it did.

With December came the release of the quarterly "Quilt The North" box, and I could finally show Polaris.  This pattern is "tied" to the box until July 2026, when I will release it as a single.

So that's the year 2025: 5 new patterns released; ties cut south of the border and new connections made on this side; a foray into quilt judging; a trunk show/workshop; a guild presentation; a couple of outside vending days, in addition to the online thread shop. I am grateful for all of you who have a part in keeping my days filled and interesting. What's next for 2026 is really anyone's guess;  certainly no one saw the upset of 2025 happening.  My hope is to continue to do the work I enjoy, and have sense enough to stop when I don't.  I intend to de-clutter my space, keep what's important and let the rest go, and hopefully spend more time on the road teaching, which I thoroughly enjoy. 

I also need to stitch some lupins;  I can't stop thinking about them.