Meeeeeoooooowwwwww!
(that's me letting the cat out of the bag!)

Thanks for giving Jon such a warm welcome on his blog writing debut last week. I'm hoping your words of encouragement will give him the confidence he needs to take over more often when I'm in this state of craziness.

Soooo, I've just been given the green light to make the big announcement so without much further ado: I AM WRITING A BOOK!!! With WILEY!!! WOOOHOOOO!



Sorry, that's about as much as I can say about it at this point. But I can say that I am super excited that the folks at Wiley took such an interest in me and even more excited that they thought my idea for a book (right down to the title, which, again, I can't share at this moment) was as cool as I thought it was. eeeee!

In addition to reading a bazillion contract pages and signing on the dotted line til my hand cramped up, I've also been working on a whole new set of sewing patterns, due out this Fall...



And when Jon said "up to her neck in cut up fabric" he wasn't kidding! Here's a little snapshot of my studio floor right at this moment. I'm somewhere under the pile of ModBlooms, I think.



Oh, and I've also been proofing tons of strike offs for my next fabric collection... also to be released this Fall. Here's a little sneak...



I truly cannot wait to be able to share this collection in its full glory. It is my most sophisticated line to date and showcases some of the best drawing I've ever done... plus it has the widest range of print sizes of any of my existing collections... pattern sizes range from a teeny-tiny 1/2" to a full 24" repeat, and everything in between!

So, now that the cat's finally out of the bag hopefully you'll believe me when I say that things are about to get CRAZY around here. I know I say that every time but this. time. it's. for. reals. YO!

As if book-writing, pattern-making and fabric-designing wasn't enough to fill up my day, I'll also be doing a little bit of traveling, this time around the lovely Midwestern "I" States of Indiana, Iowa and Illinois. Tomorrow I'm headed to the beautiful city of Indianapolis where we'll meet up with the lovely duo of Paula Prass and Jennifer Storey for a little R&R with the fam. On Friday, I am continuing my WDT in the city of Clinton, Iowa where I'll be giving a lecture at Sew Many Things (holler if you're coming!). And finally, on Saturday, we are all headed up to Chicago to spend a little quality time with loved ones before school starts.

OK, OK, since I'm feeling happy and grateful, I'll give you a one more teensy tiny fabric sneak...

Blue Monday

I'm feeling quite blue this morning (but in a good way!). I started seeing quite a few color parallels as I was editing my photos so I thought it was time for a wacky-fun blog posting.


(Photo courtesy of Caroline Devoy.)

The ribbons you see above are fresh in from the manufacturer and ready to be worked into some happy little spring-time projects. The top two are from Jessica Jones and the bottom 4 are mine. But check out how well Jessica's aqua/chocolate bloom ribbon coordinates with my aqua/chocolate birdie damask! If anyone out there makes something using these 2 together, please share a picture!

These ribbons are the new jacquard collection available by the yard and by the roll at jcarolinecreative. I'm just giddy to get some of my Andalucia designs in the aqua colorway... and I know a lot of you out there are too, based on the amount of daily requests I get! ;) The kiwi/greens in these ribbons will be a perfect match to the kiwi colorways in Andalucia and the little splashes of pink will match the Petal colorways, so have fun with them! (I'm thinking: Easter!)

The color blue has followed me around this past weekend too. Jon and I celebrated our 9-year anniversary (yes, this time we didn't forget it!) in the windy city, sans kids! WOOHOO! We dropped off the girls at my in-laws' place in Chicago then checked into the Wyndham near the Magnificent Mile. Those of you who follow me on Twitter got my tweets from the Apple Store, where Jon & I drooled over the latest & greatest, and later from Borders where I tried to find the elusive issue of Quick Quilts featuring my article (I still haven't found it, by the way! haha!)

After window shopping in sub-zero temperatures (brrrr!) we headed out to Greek Islands. Jon wore a blue shirt & jacket... and we had blue menus.



And even our Greek waiter with the sexy Greek accent wore blue... OPA!
(haha, check out the guy in the back!)



After dinner we caught a late showing of the ... you guessed it: Blue Man Group!



All this talk of blue is making me really crave Spring/Summer weather, how 'bout you? But since I can't have that right now, I'll be content with listening to this song over & over again this morning (the Weimaraner in that video looks exactly like the one Jon & I used to have in FL years ago! His name was Blu. I miss him.)

Off To Chi-Town

That's what we Illinoians affectionately call the windy city. I planned a "girls only weekend" with a friend of mine months ago and it's finally here!

She will come to my house at 9 am today (so, in like 10 minutes) and we will drive to Chicago together (about 2 hrs) and stay at the Sheraton (right near Michigan Avenue... the Magnificent Mile) and shop and eat and drink and talk to our little hearts' content without being worried about kids or husbands! Ahhhhhhhhh! Can't wait!

Neither one of us is taking computers with us... just our cell phones and iPods and cameras, so I'll probably have eBay withdrawal while I'm gone, but I think it'll be good for me. I promise that when I get back I will share some awesome pictures of Chicago, plus I haven't forgotten about the cool pictures of the City Museum in St. Louis that I promised to share a few days ago. Boy, I've just been a traveling fool lately! ;)

Just wanted to let you know that I will be MIA for a couple of days in case anyone was trying to reach me. I will check back in on Sunday evening. Have a great weekend, everyone! I know, I WILL! :)