Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. -G.B. Stern

Thank you all for you lovely comments on my first Moda Bake Shop pattern and here on the blog! I really appreciate all your kind words of encouragement and approval; I was pretty nervous about the whole thing but I'm so glad that it was well-received! Oh, and the pattern is now available as a pdf download so that you can print it out - just scroll down to the bottom of the pattern post and click on the icon that says "printer-friendly version". I'm already working on my second pattern for Moda (another of my little secrets) and can't wait to share it with you too!

On Tuesday my Mum came to Toronto and we went to the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition). We go every year and always have a lot of fun and eat way too much! This year we were *this* close to seeing a baby lamb born - we saw the mama's water break and about a half hour of the labour, but unfortunately a lamb's labour can take up to two hours and we still had so much to see and do. I got to hang out with one of these beauties....be still my heart! We spent a lot of time in the international pavilion checking out all the awesome goods from around the world and I bought myself the sweetest matryoshka...

Last Tuesday (the 17th) was my Mum's birthday, so of course I had to make her a present!

The fabrics in this pillow are a mix of linen and prints from the Shade Garden collection for Henry Glass (all of which I got from Above All Fabric - Mel rocks!) - the colours are very "my Mum"! The hexie blossom in the centre is all hand pieced and sewn down, and I did some hand stitching around the blossom in a burnt orange-brown colour perle cotton. I didn't take a picture of the back, but it's envelope style and I used some handmade wood buttons that I picked up at Bluebird Handmade.

My Mum really seemed to love the pillow and said that it will be living on her bed. I had a fun time showing her what hand piecing hexagons was all about; without actually sewing a hexie in front of her I showed her all the steps from the paper pieces up to sewing them into blossoms (she was particularly amazed when I popped the paper piece out of the centre of a blossom I'd already sewn) - it's so fun to be able to share the things I love to do with her! She even sat for a few minutes arranging the hexies I had made into a new pattern.

It was also very cool to have my Mum here on the day of my pattern release - I was able to show her the pattern and the actual quilt in person. She emailed me last night and told me that she's printed off the pattern so that she can take it and show it to my grandparents - she's very supportive!

I'm heading back to school for the last year of my Masters in about two weeks and I'm nervous but also excited, and to be frank I'm also a little leery. The Faculty was in such an up roar last year and we were the guinea pigs for their new curriculum (which by the way they did not tell us when we applied - we only found out things had changed after we started classes. Pretty lame if I do say so myself); I'm hoping this year goes a bit better in that regard, but I can't help but wonder what crazy thing they're going to do next!

Okay, I've got some sewing to do (yay!) and then off to work (boo!). This weekend Alex and I will be attending a wedding and on Sunday I'll be heading my second meeting as President of the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild - should be fun! Talk to y'all soon!