LOOKING BACK: Celebrating Four Years
Four years ago, I celebrated my 27th birthday in the desert of southern New Mexico by hiking up a mountain, visiting White Sands National Monument, and launching a business. It felt right to intertwine the start of my new year with the beginning of Vacilando - the work that I make is very personal to me and I couldn’t imagine a better way to celebrate a birthday. Plus, it’s one less anniversary to remember…or forget.
February 2015 at White Sands with the Grandfather Quilt
This past year was a big one for me and for Vacilando. I’m still pinching myself over literally all of it - it felt like one of those years where all the hard, frustrating work finally started to pay off.
Personally, I turned 30, finished building the Airstream studio/home of my dreams, married my husband in the California desert surrounded by family and friends, spent several months traveling around the West Coast and the Southwest, found a new passion in garment making, and honeymooned in Thailand for two weeks.
Vacilando had a pretty crazy year as well. We hired Lindsay, our first full time production assistant who works out of her home studio in Ohio - she’s amazing and we’re so lucky to have her. I attended QuiltCon in Pasadena, where I saw our Topa Quilt hanging in the show, met some awesome folks and was in awe of the incredible art people create with fabric. There was a month or two of a big scary creative block after feeling completely exhausted from my wedding and finishing the Airstream.
I spent the second half of the year designing, making, photographing, and writing patterns for 20 brand new quilts for my book, Simple Geometric Quilting, that’s coming out August 2019. What a wild experience that was! We launched the Lowlands Collection, our second collection of quilts, inspired by the architecture of Northern Europe. I was invited to attend a business workshop in New York City by Hermes and Nest that was (or will be) a game changer.
Vacilando Quilting Co. was featured on Country Living Magazine’s Top 100 Most Creative and Etsy’s Top Trends for 2019 as well as on Airstream, A Cup of Jo, Curbed, Chairish, and Outdoorsy. We made quilts for Autocamp’s new Yosemite location, sent quilts to be displayed at Etsy HQ, worked with a handful of clients on custom quilts for weddings, births and anniversaries, and sent quilts to our customers around the world.
A FEW FAVORITE MOMENTS FROM LAST YEAR…
2019 and our fifth year in business is shaping up to be an exciting one, with lots of new quilts and collaborations in the works, the launch of my book in August, and a secret mid-year shake up that I can’t wait to share with you guys!
THANK YOU for your amazing support of Vacilando - literally could not, would not be here without you. So glad you’re along for this adventure of ours!
