As usual it seems, it’s been a busy few weeks so here’s a catch-up/round-up kind of post… lots of things going on these days and I rarely get a quiet hour in front of the computer now that my eight-month-old, Everett, is really on the move!

Sisters was awesome, a bit of a whirlwind but fantastic. I LOVED the Portland Modern Quilt Guild special exhibit, our area was beautiful – a calm, breezy walkway with 18 guild members’ quilts hanging on both sides. This post has some lovely photos from Michelle, too.

I had my 20-pound baby in the Beco carrier pretty much the whole time I wasn’t at my book signing, so I didn’t get any great pictures myself, but luckily lots of folks in the guild were out in full force and the group flickr pool has a lot of amazing ones! Thanks to Heather for snapping these three photos – here’s my quilt in the mix, Modern Crosses.

I met Valori Wells, Jean Wells, and Kathy Doughty when I headed over for my signing and managed to (hopefully) not be too inarticulate and star-struck. The Quilters of Gee’s Bend were there too – my second overlap with them, after my trip in 2009 (here are four of their gorgeous quilts in front of the shop – how much do I love the second one?!). It was pretty awesome.

Thank you so much to everyone who came to my event at the Stitchin Post! I met so many nice quilters and it was really lovely. I have to admit that it was a challenge co-wrangling a lively three-year-old and a laid-back baby all afternoon in a beautiful, crowded, hot place, but it was a great day.

Meanwhile, Fat Quarterly has posted the second and third installment of the Apron-a-long – the free Block Pocket Apron pattern and tutorial. Week 1 (choosing materials and tips on the pattern) is right here,

Week 2 (all the cutting and piecing the block) is here,

and Week 3 (making the pocket and apron body) went up today, right here.

There’s a giveaway this week – since so many people have mentioned that they love the patchwork pillowcase I used for my apron-along, I’m offering up the second one in the set! Just leave a comment on the FQ post this week to enter once, or add a photo of your apron in progress or finished) to the FQ flickr pool and the MLCQ flickr pool for a bonus 10 entries.

Next Wednesday is Week 4 – finishing the apron, the giveaway winner, and a new MLCQ announcement… so please stay tuned over there.

I was going to try to write every single July thing up at once, but after this much HTML-ing I’d rather save a few last things for their own special post. So next week I’ll write up the Log Cabin Quilting class I taught at PNCA this month, which was amazing. I was so inspired by my six lovely students. And then this weekend I get to take Denyse Schmidt’s Walking The Line: Working with Improvisation and Structure in Patchwork workshop. I’ve been looking forward to this one for so long.

Here are my current solid fabrics – the five on top are from Cool Cottons, the ones underneath are from my stash. I am excited to do some trading with Rachel, Michelle, Robin, and Jaime at class! I’m bringing the same red scissors as a print option, which I pieced into several of the blocks I made in the 2009 Denyse Schmidt class.

I’m hoping to find some interesting new directions for improvisation and design, but I do like the idea of “cousin” blocks that have a common fabric, a couple years apart… and well, I just love those scissors.

See you on the other side!

PS: If anyone is interested in shorter and more frequent crafty updates, I’m posting more at my FB page + I just finally (finally!) joined Twitter this week. I’m only finding time for longer blog posts here, at my main West Coast Crafty blog, or for World of Geekcraft every few weeks or so, so it’s been nice to write tiny things instantly, too.