Check out the new APQ!

I'm so excited to announce that a pattern for one of my quilt designs is in the April issue of American Patchwork & Quilting! Credit for making and beautifully quilting the quilt (and buying the fabrics!) goes to the one-and-only Mother, who's been alerted by her LQS that issues are coming in now.

I called the quilt Bird Crossing, but it's Birds of a Feather in the mag. Somehow my first quilt pattern slipped into the “expert tips” issue, which has me giving advice alongside the more experienced likes of Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle, Joanna Figueroa, and Amy Butler, and I'm even included in the “Tips from Quilt Designers and Teachers” feature on the APQ website. Not bad, eh? Perhaps I should have the Mother make all my quilts! Alas, it'd be tricky from the provinces of China (more on that later).

There'll also be a pattern for a matching stuffed bird made by Youngest Brother in the next Quilts & More—and it's even on the cover (I'll totally be making that cake pincushion)! Thanks Mom and Bro for lending your talents to these projects.

I have a few more projects in the publishing pipeline too (ones that didn't involve [as much] pimping my family out), so watch this space.

Update: Even if you missed the magazine while it was on newsstands, it’s not too late to get the pattern! Download it (with a new pillow pattern) from my website.

My favourite fabric of 2008

Kim at True Up invited me to pick my Best of 2008 fabrics—you can go see my choices there now, then see what other bloggers gave the thumbs-up to! She also gives inside scoops on where fabric is going in 2009.

Christmas catch-up, part 1

I hate to admit that I only got my last Chrimbo package sent out yesterday, so it'll be another day or two before I can show all the pressies I made. Despite the lack of travel, 'twas a busy holiday season round here with work and whatnot, so things got a little delayed. Felis Domesticus of course was no help in getting things done:

Yes, thank you, beast, it really helps when you plop down on something I'm sewing. Cheers for that.

As you can see she's been more naughty than nice this year, but the Other insisted that I needed to make her a stocking. All the better to fill with coal, I thought, but Father Christmas took a rosier view of her behaviour and showered her with gifts. And though she was meant to wait for Christmas morning like everyone else, she insisted on stuffing her snout into the stocking on Christmas Eve.

So Felis Domesticus had a very merry Christmas spreading this new toy's feathers all over the place. And if she stays on her best behaviour, perhaps Santa will be as kind to her next year.