Meet Maritime Modern: My Turn!

Well now...glad you're here!
I'm also glad it's Saturday. Saturday pleases me.
GREATLY.

Welcome to Purple Boots and Pigtails! Home to musings & ramblings about quilty things, springy things, motorcycle things, hiking spots and life in general. I don't tend to take life too seriously, especially where quilty things are concerned...it's all about the joy factor for me! Life is Good. It is also short. So we had best enjoy it. We should also enjoy chocolate. Daily.

I'm a fairly new blogger, started in January  of this year as part of my "What Can I Do To Make 2015 Even Better Than 2014?" project. I don't believe in New Year resolutions, even the smallest life improvement is a bonus in my mind, and with my raging ADHD they're bound to be forgotten anyway after about 3 days or 4 glasses of Jack. Why "Purple Boots and Pigtails" you're wondering?  It's my signature look when I ride my bike, my biker peeps have come to expect a certain level of quirky from me. Perhaps in time, if you hang out here now and then, you will notice it as well.

Me...in my nutshell...

I joined the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild in the fall of 2014. Took a long time to find a group of quilters that might accept my often unorthodox quilty ways and my often off the wall sense of humor. Last June I rode my Harley to a meeting and clad in leather from head to toe stepped into a room full of strangers. They didn't seem rattled by my appearance in the least, in fact, the lack of shock value was almost disappointing. I have come to love and expect quite the opposite reaction when I pop into a quilt store in all that gear...the ole gals are always rather bewildered by my presence and surprised that I actually know what a fat quarter is...clearly bikers aren't typical fabric shoppers. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself feeling quite at home the meeting. Months of decent biking weather kept me from getting back to the guild til the fall, but when I did, I jumped in with two purple boots! That's what I do...I jump in! I'm not a "dip-your-toe" kinda gal.

That's what happened to me a couple years ago when I discovered free piecing in patchwork. Blogs are wonderful things; I stumbled across an amazing and inspiring blog called The Patchery Menagerie written by Lynne Tyler and I was hooked.... done like dinner. My jaw dropping "Holy cow!" moment led to Purple Cow freedom! The rest is history. I'd been making traditional quilts for a long, long time and when I saw these liberated, free forms of quilt making my brain simply caught fire. I still love traditional quilts too, but these new ways challenged and excited me in ways typical patchwork had long ago stopped.

A few of my creations: free pieced & otherwise..
Oh, and pardon my salute to the Kona Nerds back when
I first realized "they had me" in their clutches...

Not much original stuff on the quilty front these days, I'm working on The Gravity Project. Normally I wind down my quilty ways at this time of year so I can concentrate on biking, paddling, hiking and drinking my way through what is a very short summer in Nova Scotia, but this year I have a hunch that I might continue to quilt...there is a new robot that demands attention. Gravity is a big quilt designed by Jaybird Quilts, it's made with 114 colours of Kona cotton. Since joining Maritime Modern I have been assimilated into a cult-like group of people I refer to as the Kona Nerds. My stack of Konas is growing every week, resistance proved to be futile. I curse them, those nerds, and their evil plot for solid domination of the Kaufman variety. I'm also chomping at the bit to get my brand spankin' new long arm up and running. I've managed to get the frame assembled without injuring myself, or anyone else, and have finally installed all the many bits and pieces necessary to get this giant thing wiggling. I'm hoping by the time I head to my nest Sunday night I might have had a meet and greet with the robot. It's more likely that I'll meet R2D2 himself, but hey, a girl can dream.

...Long Arm Love...

So there you have it...that's me in a nutshell. If I were a nut I think I'd resemble a walnut...with all those little compartments inside to hold all my interests. If you were a nut, what sort would YOU be?

Thanks for hopping in! Go ahead and leave me a comment to let me know you were here. It's always nice to know that someone actually reads this stuff...in fact, leave me a comment that answers my nut pondering and I'll enter you in a random draw for a half meter cut of that crown-wearing-skully fabric I've been coveting! (You can see it on my blog post called Round and Round. Can you believe I'm willing to part with any of it? I'm a bigger walnut than I first thought. Clearly.) I'll leave the draw open til May 13th @ midnight AST, the last day of the hop, to give you time to contemplate your inner nuttiness...and to give me time to figure out how the little random-number-picker-thingy works. I told ya, I'm new at this!

OH! I almost forgot, tomorrow hop on over to visit my pal Linda at Scrapmaster!