Busy Girl Sews: Maureen Cracknell Handmade

I had dinner with one of my best friends tonight, an aspiring novelist. We enjoy getting together to talk about our personal lives, but we also love to discuss writing -- an interesting topic for us when we approach it from such different genres. Writing, like sewing, is an art form, and my friend and I agree that those who do it have to find their own balance between creativity and structure.

It's one of the things that I was most passionate about as I was writing Sew Organized for the Busy Girl. I wanted to give my readers a framework for discovering what works best for them as they look for that same balance in their sewing rooms. There's no magic bullet, no one perfect method that works for everybody. You have to know yourself and your situation well enough to create systems and habits that will be useful in the busy corner of the world that you're living in right now. Nothing has made me happier than to have people email me or tag me on Instagram to say that they're working through my book, that they're getting more organized, and that it's really helping them find time to sew. I am so thrilled to hear it, my friends!

This week's stop on the Busy Girl Sews Tour is Maureen Cracknell Handmade. I started following Maureen's blog before I even learned how to use a sewing machine, and I continue to be just as much in awe of her now as I was then. Maureen is both wonderfully sweet and artistically gifted. She has a never ending supply of gorgeous quilting designs -- all of which are showcased through her stunningly beautiful photography. You can purchase her darling felt creations (my daughters each have one of her personalized floral crowns) on Etsy, as well as buy her beautiful Wild & Free collection for Art Gallery Fabrics from any designer fabric shop. I could not admire her more and am so thrilled to have her on the tour as well as featured in my book. Be sure to stop by her blog for a peek!

True Confessions

So here's the thing...I've been walking the most painful of lines lately with some big news that I wasn't able to share with you yet. However, after a little conversation and some great clarification from my editor, I am thrilled to tell you that I'm in the process of writing a book for Stash Books! I debated long and hard over when to share this news with you. Writing and publishing a book is a really long process (we're looking at a publication date of spring 2015 for my title), and not only am I not allowed to share any of the juicy details with you for quite a while but I also don't want you to be sick to death of the whole thing by the time the book actually hits the shelves. On the other hand, it kills me that I've been writing and sewing like mad from morning till night each day and yet can share almost none of it with you here at Fabric Mutt. I didn't want you to think that I'd lost interest in sewing or was letting the blog slowly waste away to nothing. So please know that though I won't be posting more often than once or twice a week and though I can't spend nearly as much time as I'd like reading all of your blogs and leaving comments as I go, it isn't because I don't want to. I'll be back to my regular routine in a few months, promise!

Can I also just take a moment to say that the people at C&T Publishing and Stash Books are fabulous? They have a fantastic introductory pack for new authors which is so helpful, and just look at the incredible box of goodies they sent me above. For someone who's walking into the great unknown here, it's so wonderful to be surrounded by encouraging people who know exactly what they're doing.

Bunny raced off to her desk and wrote this note for me on the day I found out that my book proposal was accepted.

And my dear sweet family...no one is giving up more than these people to make this project happen. They are so proud of my amazing opportunity and so patient with me as I constantly swing between excited and absentminded and completely overwhelmed. I absolutely could not do this without them.

So that's the scoop, my friends. I can hardly wait to share this book with you when it's done, but for now I promise not to bore you to pieces with constant chatter about it. Just know that I'm still here and still honored to have the chance to be a tiny part of your lives.