1,000th Post Celebration

This post is number 1,000 for Fleur de Lis Quilts!  I can barely believe it!  Not quite five years ago I began blogging with one intent: to write about my quilting and have a way of documenting my growth as a quilter, teacher and human.  At 50 it became important to me to look back on my life and see what kind of difference I was making in the world.  

At first I was uncomfortable with telling the world about myself. I'm not a shy person, but it took a bit of humility to convince myself that my truth could be shared.  I read many, many other blogs and just jumped in.  Eventually, I became comfortable with more than just blogging about my quilting, teaching, and life.  I've even begun writing about my family.  I've sense taken on another purpose: that of sharing our beautiful state and our traditions.  

Just as I've grown into blogging, I've grown in quilting.  As a writer I've had several tutorials posted on Totally Tutorials and a couple of quilt patterns published in The Quilt Pattern Magazine. 

As a quilter I've seen "Reflections in Grey" juried into QuiltCon 2014, several of my small quilts were sold to raise money for Alzheimer's through AAQI.  (It is now over, but you can read an article about AAQI here.)  Finally, I received a request from American Made Brand to create the Louisiana license plate block for their quilt representing all 50 states.  The finished quilt was shown in Houston in 2014.  In these almost five years, I have grown as a quilter, a teacher, and a writer/blogger.  But there are others to thank for this, my husband Richard, especially. Knowing that he is the butt of oh, so many remarks, he takes it all in stride and turns much of it around on me.  I sometimes even deserve it.

Richard and I cannot take any credit, though.  Since I occasionally write about my Catholic beliefs, you have likely already figured that I give God credit for all that's been accomplished. Preaching to come later, however.  

Tonight is about celebrating all that He has allowed and given: growth, learning, and YOU!  My readers are a great inspiration. Your views and comments encourage, inspire, and reassure.  So a huge part of this celebration is saying thank you.  Thank you for coming back again and again.  Thank you for reading my silliness and not calling me goofy on a daily basis. Thank you for everything you offer in suggestions, comments, and questions.  Thank you for including me at guild meetings, in blog hops, in online quilt bees and so much more. Thank you for writing your own blogs, for having blog parties, for the giveaways, for everything you do as a quilter and blogger.