AnneMarie at GenX Quilters is reviewing You Can Quilt! today.   I've 'known' AnneMarie forever, but finally got to meet her in person a few weeks ago at Market.  It was awesome.   Head on over and check out her Mini Lone Star block and see what she has to say about You Can Quilt!.  (You can enter the giveaway here.)

Yes, those are my PJs and Becca is on my lap pawing through the desk drawer and dropping crayons all over the floor.

 AnneMarie got a behind the scenes look at the writing of You Can Quilt! a few years ago.  I hadn't told many people that I was writing a book but a casual comment on a post ended in me writing a loooong email back to AnneMarie about the stresses of writing a book.  I really needed someone to 'talk' to and she got an earful.  I can't find the email now, but I think I mentioned how the book was taking over my life - that every decision was weighed by how it would affect my sewing and writing time and how it was taking time away from my family.  (Ironically, I was using prime book writing time to email her.)

For example, I would look in the fridge, realize that we were low on milk and had no fresh fruit or veggies and instead of going shopping I would say, "That's ok, we can have canned beets/pears/applesauce/beans for dinner and I can go shopping later."  I knew that between getting kids in the car, driving, shopping, driving, kids, unloading and putting away that I would loose 2 hours of writing or sewing time.  Every day I could put it off was time saved.  Insane.

Photo by 4 year old Kate - different day, same PJs

Anyway, this is where I would write.  Sometimes with an 1 year old on my lap (until she pushed the screen off button too many times).  The kid's Phineas and Ferb Pandora radio station would be playing in the background and every once and awhile I would take a break and we would dance to " I'm the Queen of Mars."  Hearing those songs now really takes me back to writing.  We would listen to hours of kids music a day.

I had a print out of the book's Table of Contents taped to the wall by the computer and I put dates by each chapter so I knew what I had to do to stay on target and meet the deadline.  (So glad that green wallpaper is gone now!)  I also wrote down who was pattern testing each chapter on it.  That piece of paper was my brain.

Was writing You Can Quilt! hellish?  Yes.  Was it worth it?  It was.  Totally!!!
Tomorrow I will post more about the actual process of writing.  See you then!