Hi! Welcome…

The spark to start a blog started over a year ago. In the past two years I’ve given myself the permission to grow creatively (permission as in time, money, and excitement without feeling guilty about it or like I should be directing those things to something else). It’s been wonderful! I do think I’ve created more – maybe not as much as you’d think. But I have been very happy! I poured my heart into my needlepoint business over the past nine years. I grew an audience, have the most wonderful customers, and a job I’m sometimes wowed by…“I actually get to do this and make money?” BUT every part of my business is thought out, meant to serve my wonderful customers, every creative endeavor is looked at through the lens of business.

This space is just for me and my creativity. Without expectations. There will be no deadlines, I may post four times in one week and then once in the following six months. I’ll share what’s in my head without rewriting (or trying to cure my circular rambling writing). Most excitingly, I’ll share what I’ve created and share my creative process. 

I bought Blue Elephant Stitches “A Year of Quilts” book for my birthday. I read it over and over. I then ate up her blog and couldn’t get enough. That’s when I thought, I need to start my own blog. While nothing is planned and the future of this blog is unknown – I’ll share what I think this blog will look like. 

• Quilting will play a big role! No matter what happens in my life, I come back to quilting. Nothing gets me like collecting fabric, playing and putting it all together into a stack of color I love, cutting that gorgeous fabric up and sewing it all back together. 

• I want to grow as a painter – I’m sure I’ll be sharing my little projects and art pieces. 

• Fiber arts – I just love them all. They’ll pop up here as I finish or start new projects. Like that cross stitch pattern that’s been sitting in my drawer for two years. 

• Mostly – it’s a place to continue being open to creativity, to exploring, to being generous with my time and loves and allowing my creativity to expand and grow. To seeing what I create and having a documentation of it all. It’s a way of putting myself out there and inviting the future in. 

• Finally, I want to sell my art and I hope this is a place to do that! I’ve dreamed of retiring and become a folk artist for years. Then I thought, “why not start now?” Creating and selling my first folk art collection has been a multi year goal until I realzied I should start by just selling a few pieces as I go. I don’t need to shoot for perfection, at least not yet. 

I hope what I share inspires you! I hope it gives you the same thrill and enjoyment that I get from reading about other artists creative process and seeing lush photos of their work. I hope it drives you to make a quilt yourself, or buy one and fill your home with beautiful things. We’ll see where this takes me – it might just be down the block or on a nice long beautiful journey. 

About Abby

My quickish history: 

My name is Abby Wright. I’m in my thirties, married to my lifelong friend (I like to nerdly think we’re like Anne of Green Gables and Gilbert Blythe), expecting our first little one, live in the midwest, own and run a wonderful online needlepoint business, and I’m an artist (do I dare say that?). 

As a teenager I followed quilt designer blogs. I so wanted a life like theirs. I’m so lucky to have parents who encouraged that – I studied fiber arts and anything else that would aid a creative career through high school. I went to the Royal School of Needlework for a semester and learned traditional needlework. I studied art and illustration from varies colleges – piecing together the skills I thought I’d need for this career. Landed my first design job for the needlepoint industry in 2016 and poured my heart into growing my little business through many ups, downs, pivots, and a whole lot of growth…until a few years ago. My business was finally supporting me and others, successful, and shifting. It was no longer my creative outlet. 

At a friend’s recommendation, I read the Artists Way. It was the best! I started giving myself permission to explore and grow my creativity without feeling guilty that all my energy wasn’t going into my business (or something else). It was so much fun! Since then I’ve bought books, supplies, and classes. I’ve painted, quilted, grew flowers, and created. I’ve moved, decorated an apartment, got married, decorated again. 

So here we are, with a baby and about a hundred projects in the works. I’ll be sharing some of those projects with you!

XO ABBY