Entry #600!

Well, if I could set off fireworks on this page, I would. When I started this blog, I had no intention of writing after the McCall's Challenge was over (it was the impetus of starting this blog; a way of keeping family and friends up-to-date on what I was doing during that frenzied time).  Here I am now a few years (the first entry was written on July 21, 2011) later still plugging along.

That I continued is due in great part to Est who pointed out that writing clarifies thinking.  She was and is right.  Over the years, I have written my way through design issues in quilting, learning curves in painting, and vice-versa.  Family and friends have filled my pages, too though, thanks to some of the less wonderful attributes of this digital age, I have had to be very circumspect in what I say or show in these pages.   Successes and failures have also been frequent topics as have mishaps and unexpected delights.

Basically, this blog has given me far more than it has given any of you.  While I do wish that more people would read and comment from time to time, I also understand that blog reading is not for everyone - especially when the subject/s is/are so limited.  Yet, I sigh, and wish I knew how to encourage those of you who do read to join in and answer back (three people responded to the first blog).  Writing is lonely work, and most of the time I really would like to know what someone outside of my own head thinks about my views or what you think I could improve upon.  

So what have I gained?  I have a place where I can record what I have done in both my creative and everyday life.  There is now a record of my photographs, paintings, quilts, travels, and many other aspects of how we live and think in the 21st century.  That may give my descendants some needed information in the future or just something to wonder or laugh about.  It may explain why or how some things were done as they were.  There is also a record I can turn to when I try to figure out when or for whom something was done.   

The conscious thought that goes into writing leaves a trail for me to return to if I lose my way in a similar problem when doing art work.  It's easy to forget the particulars of a solution to a problem if that problem isn't encountered regularly.  Writing it down helps keep it alive, but if that fades - well, I can turn back to this blog.  Writing regularly is itself a discipline of which is its own reward.

For those of you who do respond to my blog, THANK YOU!  I am very aware of your presence through all 600 pages and love you all the more for your unstinting support.  I hope you know that when I write, it to you that I address my thoughts, and you whom I imagine when I think of possible reactions to my words.