I'm so excited!

I noticed that Nova spilled the beans on her blog and Chrissie has a link on her blog, so I guess it's safe to share some news that has me very excited!

See this adorable book...

I got to be a part of it! Last year, the lovely Chrissie Grace herself asked if I would be interested in contributing to a book she was writing about quilt swaps.  Have you seen Chrissie's other books?  Yes, I was interested!  I was in some very good company too. It still doesn't feel real to have participated in something like this with Chrissie and some of the coolest bloggers out there.

I haven't seen a copy of the book in person yet, but from the preview at Amazon, it looks amazing!  The illustrations are beautiful, the photographs are inspiring, and the text is clearly written.  I can't wait to get my hands on a copy.  The publication date is November 8th, which is not very far away. (I'm grinning right now.)

I'm sure I'll be mentioning this lovely book again soon, but I just wanted to share since I am so excited.

Oh and and that orange hexie flower on the cover... I made it!  Eeeek!  (Yes, I'm grinning again.)

Yes, I've been a bad, bad blogger.

Life is good, I've just been crazy busy.  I've been working, quilting, sewing, teaching sewing, gardening, working on my house, and serving on a very active PTA board for the first time in addition to my wife and mother responsibilities.  Sixth grade has been a major transition for my daughter, but she is doing really well in school and I'm so proud of her.

Photo from and great article Boston.com

The drought and weather here in Texas has been completely devastating. We've had the hottest and driest year in Texas history. Wildfires, dead and displaced cattle and livestock, withered crops, and parched soil. It's really heartbreaking and the outlook isn't good. Forecasters tell us the situation isn't going to improve anytime in the foreseeable future. I'm trying to think of something positive to end this paragraph with, but I'm completely at a loss. The impact of 2011 on our landscape, lives, and economy will be profound.

On a happier note, I finished a quilt! This is the quilt I started in my previous post. It's completely over the top and I just love it. This quilt is for my cousin's gorgeous daughter, Teagan. I wanted to make something as delightful as her smile.

I quilted it with bright colors of Perle cotton and tied it with some hot pink for a little extra hold. Everything except the binding is dots. I was surprised at how easy it was to pull a dots quilt together from my stash. I must have a serious love of polka-dots. 

Teagan evidently really likes her quilt and I hope she gets years and years of use from it.

So, if you are reading this, I'm guessing you haven't deleted me from your blog reader due to inactivity. I'm going to make an effort to post more regularly and I've got lots of fun things to post about. It's good to be back.   

Fun with the Go! Baby!

I'm sure you've seen a few of these new Go! Baby cutters around blogland lately.  I was so excited when I was presented with the oppourtunity to try one out and show it to you.  As someone who has been in the emergency room having seven stitches to re-attach the side of my left pointer finger after cutting all the way to the bone with a rotary cutter, the Go! Baby seemed like a great fit for me.  I was also excited because I teach kids to sew and I think this would be a really fun (and safe) product for them to use.

Accuquilt let me choose three dies, and I chose the Value Die, the Quarter Square 4" Finished Triangle, and the Half Square 4" Finished Triangle.  My favorite die so far is the quarter square triangle. It cuts eight triangles at once, but the best part is that they fit together perfectly making it simple to get perfect points.  I have never made HSTs or QSTs that fit together this nicely. 

The corners of the triangles are dog-eared, so that when finish sewing your four pieces together, there's nothing to trim!  Using the Go! Baby is easy and it's really portable.  I took it to a Saturday Sew with the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild on Saturday and it fit easily in my bag and wasn't too heavy.  When it's folded closed, it looks really cute on the shelf too!

I've been cutting lots of Kona white triangles and bright dots to make a quilt for my cousin's daughter.  I'm going with a totally random layout and I'm loving the way it's coming together.  I'll show you more as soon as I get the blocks together.  The way the points line up is amazing!

I wanted to share this link with you too.  Head over to Accquilt and sign up to receive 22 free patterns!  I downloaded the patterns and there are some really cute ones in there.  You get one set of quilt patterns and the other is a collection of quilt blocks.  I really want some more dies for my Go! Baby now.  I'l drooling over the Tumbler and the Drunkard's Path.  

So, stay tuned for more of the quarter square triangle quilt and some exciting news for one of my sweet blog readers!

And the scraps go to...

Jo at Sew This Mama Jo!

It's kind of weird but it appears that Jo lives in Dallas!  She's a fellow Texan and  a fellow member of the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild!  I'll send you a message, Jo, and get your address.  I've got two pounds of scraps (a Target bag full) that I'll send your way!

And to my international friends, I apologize for restricting this giveaway to the USA, but I wanted to be able to send it in a flat rate box that's one price anywhere within the states.  I promise, there was no prejudice, it's just a matter of my shipping budget.