*GASP!*

She had seen them in the wild, the first time in North America! She texted me immediately of their location. I felt incredibly alert and knew it was time to go hunting. Not long after, there it was, among the heavy dense magazine rack at Chapters/Indigo… Love Patchwork and Quilting Issue #70! *Gasp* I had received my advanced copy in January but this?! I excitedly picked up one for you (and your friend!)! Luckily my mom lives in a different province, so we had a fighting chance (my apologies to any Albertans out there).

You read that right. I picked one up for you (and a friend)! I’ll be doing a GIVEAWAY on Instagram starting this Saturday March 16th. I wanted you to be be the first to know about it! It’s the same rules as always, you must follow me @lysaflower on Instagram and tag a friend to play… BUT you will both receive a copy! I’ll also be emailing you both one of my patterns! And it doesn’t have to be the same pattern! International entries are welcome. The winner(s) will be announced Monday, March 18th on Instagram.

I’m sure you can imagine I was stunned when I was asked to do this feature. My favourite part was being asked about my quilt-y heros. It’s an amazing community isn’t it?! We’re all in this together. I’m always floored and greatly honoured when my patterns are sewn, especially when they’re sewn for someone they love. Thank you for that! Having said that, I’d like to share with you some photos of projects people have done: @chelsealanefields’s boombox pillow (she won first place at her local fair for it!). @bespokeoutlaw made both the bag and the cassette thread catcher. @needleplusthread’s extra rad boombox. @iadorepattern’s cassette LOVE block for a quilt bee baby quilt. @reecemontgomery who combined my cassette tape with @sewsweetness Polaris bag pattern. @sterlingsewn’s B-side for her daughter’s quilt! AND @simplesewendipity’s 28 (yes 28!) cassette tape boarder of her boombox quilt!

As a tradition… RECOMMENDED FOR YOUR PLAYLIST: I love You by Said the Whale. It’s a lyric video so we can sing along together!

Keep on #sewinglikeamothertrucker!

WHY I HEART THE MQG AND THEIR NEW BOOK! : : PLUS A BLOG HOP : :

Where to begin? In art school I so badly longed to be part of a movement. Like impressionism or cubism but all those ships had sailed. I have always LOVED fabric but it was a well kept secret through my art education. It was well... girly, not big (as in scale) and too colourful (another big no, no). Fast forward to the year 2000. One of the gifts of having my first son other than intense nesting fever, I made several baby quilts (including one where I hand painted the fabric). He didn't sleep much (err, I know that doesn't sound like a perk) so my life whittled down to what I had time for. If I was going to use my precious time it had to be doing something I really, REALLY loved to do. So long horror films! My husband loves you but I've been faking it this whole time! I started to really embrace things I loved/needed to do. I still wasn't quilting yet but I had started buying fabric, making kick ass Halloween costumes and taking the odd printing workshop here and there.

Fast forward to 2010. New to Twitter I had seen this little tweet about the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild starting up. This tweet changed my life and put me on a trajectory that landed me here. I had very little knowledge of what The Modern Quilt Guild was. All I knew was that I wanted to be part of it so bad I could taste it! I couldn't even put into words what modern quilting was but I knew it when I saw it. And I LOVED everything I saw. E V E R Y T H I N G. It was a movement. YES! Fist Pump!

I went to that first VMQG meeting and then quickly co-founded the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild. With very little experience I started sewing every challenge, sewing in quilt bees and took every workshop I could. That first year I made 12 quilts! I was so in love with the movement that this shy girl went to a LAMQG meeting... by herself! I'm not sure where the courage came from but a big perk was meeting Latifah Saafir. I remember her telling me about this idea they had, which became Quiltcon! (Side note: are you going in 2018? ME TOO! I just decided. High five!)

Fast forward to November 2016. After my Cassette Tape quilt had been accepted the year before I thought I'd like to expand on that idea with another design. I research A LOT before I start a project and when I came across the old movie poster of John Cusack from Say Anything holding his Boombox over his head... everything kind of fell into place. I posted on Instagram as I made the Say Anything quilt. It was an intense month but people were so generous in cheering me on. Gosh I love that November 30th deadline. (Shout out to @mscattergood for mocking up my boombox over John Cusacks head!)

I was thrilled when Say Anything was accepted into Quiltcon! And I was doubly thrilled when I received an email invitation for it to be a part of a book by the MQG, Modern Quilts: Designs of the New Century. M I N D B L O W N .

I've seen the list of quilters included and, understanding this is totally cliche, I'm humbled. There's just no other good way to say it. I mean, my heroes are in there. And then! My quilt will be joining the Museum tour! The location details can be found HERE.

It's been an incredible year but the party doesn't stop here! We're celebrating with a blog hop! So many great blogs, quilts and people Have a look-see HERE. 

While you're checking that out, stay cozy over this winter holiday break okay! Again thank you for a wonderful 2017. I swear every time I saw a boombox being sewn I gasped with delight! Hugs all around. I'll see you in the new year. Until then I'll leave you with my favourite holiday song: FATHER CHRISTMAS by the KINKS! Warning once you listen to it you'll be singing it all day. My gift to you, wink! Wink!