I don't yet have one of these guys in my grubby little hands, but the announcement can now go public... At least I got the "official word" of the go-ahead, just haven't seen the fruits yet.

That spring issue of Quilt Magazine's Simple Quilts & Sewing that will be popping up in quilt shops, bookstores and magazine shops officially today, March 19th, will be featuring one of my quilts! ON THE COVER!!

This is my first quilt ever to get publication and I am so thrilled! And they even catered the title colors to those of the quilt!

The genesis of this little gem is actually quite a simple one. Last spring (2012) I decided to design something from scratch for the juried PMQG exhibition within the annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, the largest such show in the country, I believe. I have to say that given the amount of talent and drive within our Portland chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild I was honored to have my Lock 'n' Bolt quilt among those chosen to exhibit.

And certainly could never have imagined what would come of it. At the most I thought maybe someone would take note of my name and add me to their blog roll or something. Maybe. (this was before I realized that the guild had spelled my name wrong!Ooops.)

But what does a person do with this momentum? Run with it, of course. The question is, how? As those of you who have been following my blog are aware, I am approaching 2013 in a pro-active, positive, get-things-done sort of way, and this is perfect fodder for that fire.

And in celebration of that energy, I'm offering a little GIVE-AWAY. A copy of the magazine (which always has a whole bunch of fun projects included!), plus a little fabric bundle bonus. Leave a comment letting us all know either what project of your own has been the fire in your belly, or if someone else inspired you, please share your inspiration (and the credit) and perhaps where you hope to go with it. One thing I love about being involved in the quilting world right now is that we are truly a community - both online and in the real world. One that shares its experiences, its loves, its questions and difficulties, its techniques and its inspirations. So please share with me as I am so eager to share with you! A winner of the give-away will be announced one week from the magazine release date (March 19), on Tues. March 26th.

Oh, and if you want to enter the giveaway, please be sure to leave an email address in your comment. International entries welcome.

The Modern Quilt Guild has introduced its winter challenge for this year. Well, actually, they introduced it close to 2 months ago, but due to my inactivity with the guild last October and November I missed the first sailing of that boat. But, thanks to forums like Flickr, friendly blogs and the fact that the designer at the heart of this challenge, Violet Craft, happens to be a member of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, I got a deferred chance to participate. That is, once I could pick up a bundle of fabrics at our January meeting for PMQG.

Participating guilds were given yardage of certain prints from Violet's collection for Michael Miller, Madrona Road, which were then cut down to fat-eighths to distribute among guild members.

From what I've gathered, the official challenge from The Modern Quilt Guild is relatively open-ended, the only requirement being that individuals may ONLY use prints from Madrona Road plus any solids they deem. However, each of the individual regional guilds were open to making more specific challenges within their groups. For instance, PMQG specified a size restriction and to use an inspiration word which should then be incorporated into the actual quilt. This challenge did not inspire me so much. But then, at our guild meeting earlier this week it was made clear that we did not HAVE to comply with those restrictions in order to enter the greater challenge category. Now we're talkin'! So, I picked up one of the last available packets of fat-eighths and started thinking.

And put fabric bits up on my design wall.

Now, the real challenge here is the timing. Completed submissions are due on the flickr page by January 31. There is also a flickr page for the larger pool of photos related to this challenge including process photos, but it was emphasized to us that in order to be considered for display at the Michael Miller QuiltCon booth photos MUST be in that first group. I might end up with something smaller than I'd like simply by necessity. Ah well. I've started playing around with a design, but I can tell you now that it doesn't compare with so many of the great pieces already submitted! But part of the joy is just playing along, right?