Nothing makes me feel better than stretching myself in my current (and past) endeavors—even if it is uncomfortable. As a new quilter in the mid-1980s, I took a class at a shop close to my home in North Olmsted, Ohio, aptly named - Hoops-N-Hollers, with a teacher named Cindy Craft. I'll never forget her or that feeling of wanting to learn the "craft" so badly, yet I felt I was all thumbs when learning the appliqué blocks on the sampler quilt we all made.
Fast-forward to today, and I would not be the quilter I am if not for moving to Maryland and joining the Southern Comforters of Bowie/Crofton Quilt Guild, along with a few quilting bees, to dive more deeply into leveling up to my colleagues in the fiber arts and creating deep bonds of friendship I cherish daily.
In June 2020, Hubby Bill and I joined a newly formed Writing in Community under Seth Godin and Kristin Hatcher, which also changed my life, as quilting did in the 1980s. The people I met in that community and the various writing communities I am a part of today stretched me beyond my wildest imagination, pushing and prodding me to finish and publish my first book. The leveling up in all my writing projects continues to this day with the generous worldwide cohort of chasing dreams and creating value, not only in our lives but in the lives of others, no matter the genre. That's saying something.
When my brother-in-law, Don Tomoff, threw the gauntlet down the last week of December 2011 about starting a blog (to know one in particular), I took him up on the offer. Little did I know what I was doing, but I picked up the baton and started running down the track with this new idea under www.QuiltsFromTheHeart.blogspot.com. I never knew where it could lead, but it gave me a great start in practicing the craft of writing (and hopefully, I've improved!). QFTH morphed into my current blog under this website entitled Manufacturing Sunshine - which all started by sewing pretty fabrics through the throat of my sewing machine, creating a quilt with them as my son Ryan was recovering from his tongue surgeries, and named that quilt; Manufacturing Sunshine - and a movement was started!
I am blessed and grateful.
I'm also Manufactuting Sunshinie with words and stories.
It's the little things...
bSoleille!
Terri
Photos: Ryan and I with MS Quilt at the March 2017 SoCo Quilt Show; 2) MS Quilt and a prize; 3) an old-timey typewriter taken in Culpeper, VA.
