Unexpectedly, I went to New York on Thursday.

A four-day, party-‘til-your-pins-drop event kicked off for Utah quilters this week—the seventh-annual Utah
Shop Hop. It’s a time for groups of women along the Wasatch Front to don
matching t-shirts and flip-flops, carry noisemakers to grab the attention of
shop employees, and fill gigantic quilted bags with quilt-related loot. Fifteen
times in a row.

This year’s shop-hop theme is “Trip around the World.” Thursday
I visited my favorite quilt shop, Threads
of Time. The shop used to be in the city of Centerville,
but it had been transported to the City That Never Sleeps. At
least through Saturday.

The best quilt-shop staff in New York—and in Utah!
That’s Stacy, shop owner, in the center.

Stacy was kind enough to dedicate the alcove by the front
door to a display about the “little box.” She called on the second day of the
shop hop to ask if I had more copies she could borrow from me to sell—she had already
sold out of her 30 copies. Hot dog! I took a case over to her that afternoon.

While I was waiting in line to buy $40 worth of fabric I
didn’t even know I needed, a woman started asking Stacy about the baby-quilt
display. Stacy pointed me out in line as the designer. The woman purchased a
copy of the “little box” and then asked me to sign it. What a hoot! To actually
see someone buy the thing right in front of my eyes—that made my day in New York even sweeter.

Stacy even made kits for the “Silly Stripes
and Doodle Dots” quilt. So
cool!

Threads of Time will officially revert back to its Utah location on Monday. So if you’re ever passing through, don’t miss a visit. And if I ever get to visit New York, you can be sure I’ll be quilt-shop hoppin’. Because from what I can tell, those New York quilters are really quite fun.

Purple Haze

"Jack, what is the rule about drawing?"

"Only on the paper."

BABY-QUILT TOUR ROCKS THE U.S.

Baby-quilt fans, get ready—quilts from The Little Box of Baby Quilts are hitting the road.

After their recent split to pursue various solo projects,
such as book signings, trade shows, and quilt-group engagements, the
girls have reunited for their first-ever tour. They’re tuned up and ready to
rock a quilt shop near you. 

To bring the tour to your town:

Quilt-shop owners:
View this flyer for details about
having the tour stop at your shop. Contact Jenny, Tour Manager, to sign up. 

Quilt-shop lovers:
Print out this flyer and take it to
your favorite shop (or email the shop a link to this blog). Let the owners know
you want these quilted honeys to come and rock your world! 

Check back soon for tour dates, to be posted in the coming
weeks.

Rock on quilters. ROCK ON.

A typical day with Daddy

Jack and Brett, summer 2005.

The dishes were stacked two days high. Bugger. I started
loading the dishwasher.

At the bottom of the heap was a jumble of sippy cups, lids
still securely fastened. 

Pry off lid #1. That was apple juice.

Lid #2. Milk. Eeew. 

Lid #3. Just water, I think.

Lid #4. Hmm. What is that smell? It smells like . . . 

“Jaaaaaaaaaack!”

Jack flies, Superman-style, into the kitchen. 

“Did Daddy put COFFEE in your sippy cup?”

“Yes. And marshmallows.” 

“He put marshmallows in your sippy cup with the coffee?”

“No, just in my hand.” 

Coffee. In a sippy cup. Akin to finding a wild boar in the
backyard and placing a Twinkie in between its ears. Akin to sliding a cigarette
into a box of crayons. Akin to . . . giving a two-year-old coffee. In a SIPPY
CUP.

Okay, I exaggerate. I overreact. But Brett, no more coffee
for Jack, please. Or at least pour it into a regular coffee cup. I think it’s
the sippy-cup image that sent me over the edge.

Happy Father’s Day, my Bretty. When it comes to Jack’s
nutrition, you could try reading a book. But when it comes to loving the
stuffing out of your son, you wrote the book.

Finally, a few quilt photos!

It took some time for me to figure out copyright restrictions, but I have
now posted photos of five of the 20 quilts from The Little Box of Baby
Quilts in a new photo gallery.

These are fantastic flat shots taken by veteran quilt-picture-taker and
all-around nice and funny guy Brent Kane. He's the house photographer at
Martingale & Company. (He also directed the “little box” video.) If you
own other Martingale books, you know Brent is the best. He really knows how to
get those girls to make saa-weet love to the camera. SO HOT.

How DO you do it, Brent? I've taken a gazillion photos of my other quilts but
I can't bring myself to post any of them because the photos SUCK. I recently took a photo of one of my framed quilts. It looked like it was actually bending around the wall. I mean, how did that happen? It's in a wooden frame!

Once again in my life, I’m considering professional help. Sigh.

ALERT: Jackspeak (and the Mom of the Year award for language education goes to…)

Me: “Take that drill bit out of your mouth or I will take it
away from you.”

[Jack drops the drill bit and melts into a puddle on the
floor in hands-over-face, ready-to-cry mode.]

Me: “Oh boy, did I set you off?”

Jack: “No. You PISSED me off.”

Back in April I was famous for a day in Utah.

I was recently reminded about an article that a statewide paper ran about me and The Little Box of Baby Quilts a few months ago. The link to the article is still on the paper's site, at the Deseret News. You can read it here.

Just in case you are wondering, the "Deseret" in Deseret News means this, according to dictionary.com:

Des - er- et [dez-uh-ret]
An area proposed by the Mormons in 1849 as an independent state or a state of the Union. Deseret would have included much of the southwest United States, with a capital at Salt Lake City. Congress refused to recognize the provisional state and created the Utah Territory in 1850.

They couldn't name the state "Deseret." Naming the newspaper "Deseret" was the next best thing.

A very kind woman named Carma interviewed me. She got lost on the way to my house and ended up at the local Ben Franklin store, where my baby quilts were on display. The photographer, Jeff, and I (and Brett and Jack) met Carma at the Ben Franklin for the start of the interview, and for photos. Here's the first photo Jeff took:

Carma asked me one question, and I was off. I blabbed. On and on I went. When you are designing 20 quilts in nine months, it's a pretty solitary journey. I hadn't talked to anyone about my start-to-finish experience. Poor Carma, I opened the floodgates on her. Her pencil nearly set fire to the paper she was taking notes on.

We went back to my house for a few more photos and some final interview questions. I was nervewracked at the time. But looking back on that day, it was actually pretty fun. And flattering to find that I ended up on the front page of section B. Hey, it's not section A, but I'll take the next best thing!

I once had aspirations to become a reporter. Then I found out about the hours. Now I'm a copywriter. Sometimes what you think is the next best thing actually turns out to be the real best thing.