Whenever I travel, especially on quilty adventures, I feel the need to make a new bag. And usually this feeling doesn't come over me until the last possible moment, so right on schedule yesterday, I found myself desiring a Super Tote. Have you seen these bags? It's probably Kelly's fault, because she made a gorgeous one adorned with applique leaves for Tracey, come to think of it. All the same, Anna, as always, wrote an amazingly easy to follow pattern that yields beautiful, professional looking results. I am super excited to board a plane to Portland today carrying my new bag. I love this bag.

It's huge. I could probably even fit my laptop in here, but I'm not going to try on this trip. Inspired by Kelly, I made a few changes to the bag - I added the exterior pocket to both the front and back of the bag, because I like pockets and I added a crossbody strap rather than two shorter straps. At Market, you wind up lugging a bunch of stuff around, so I figured the crossbody strap would be way more comfortable.

I used Essex Yarn Dyed in Flax for the linen bits, Melody Miller's amazing viewfinders in aqua for the exterior pockets, Madrona Road Sprout in Straw for the lining mixed with an old Kumari Garden print called Tarika for the lining gusset. I only wish I'd bought a whole bolt of the viewfinders when they came out, now that they're out of print!

All in all, I'm really happy with how this turned out and have plans to make a second one for Jacquie. She jokingly asked me to make her one to bring to Market, but rather than rush through it, I'm going to make it for her after I get home. She can use it to cart some of her necessities to all of her wonderful classes that she's teaching these days. You should check to see if she's teaching near you, because she's seriously awesome!

I'll be back with loads of pictures from my trip next week, and I will indeed be posting to Instagram (with my terrible camera phone) while I'm away if you want to follow the #quiltmarket fun. Have a wonderful rest of your week!

Thank you all so much for all of your well wishes on my book news. I'm still pinching myself over the whole thing! I'm so touched by the things you guys have said to me, I really appreciate all the support. As soon as it's listed for pre-order, I will be sure to let you guys all know! In the meantime, I've got some good news to share on my Hope Valley improv quilt today: I finished the quilt top. Yay! It's officially big enough to fit on my queen-sized bed, and because of that, it's nearly impossible to photograph. But, I love it so far. :) You can read a little more about my work on this quilt right here.


The bad news? Now I have to baste the darned thing! Yikes. My weekend clearly is going to include a heck of a lot of quality time with my 505. And I need to shop for some Aurifil thread to match the yarn-dyed Essex to quilt it with - thankfully my MQG meeting is tomorrow at Inspire Quilting & Sewing, where they stock boatloads of Aurifil! Hope you have a great weekend!

I have started and deleted and started this post over at least five times now, so maybe the sixth time's the charm...I have really something big to tell you guys. I kind of wrote a book.


I really did write a book. Omg, omg, I can hardly believe it. Becoming a Confident Quilter will be out this September and it's chock full of tips, techniques, and exercises to stretch and build your quilting skills. There are fourteen quilt patterns, and I can't wait to show you every last one of them, but I have to keep them under my hat for now.

I can tell you this much - I've wanted to be an author since I was six years old. I still have the very first book I ever wrote, a delightful tale I called Bunnies, about a family of bunnies, so this is a really big deal to me. It nearly makes me cry when I think of the idea of running into a copy of my book in reality at a bookstore someday in the not-too-distant future. I cannot begin to tell you how much this whole experience has meant to me, and I can't wait to share more about it with all of you, including loads of pictures and stories about the quilts over the next several months. Suffice it say, I'm beyond excited. And proud. And joyful. It's a good day :)