I’m no expert at Sashiko stitching, so it’s a little laughable that I’ll be teaching the craft this Saturday, but I’m rolling with it. It’s a FREE event, Seattle friends, if you want to drop on by the Kinokuniya Bookstore at 2pm on June 11th. I’ll be joined by my writer/editor/journalist friend Tamiko. Imagine a cooking demo, but with indigo fabric and Sashiko thread and needles instead of food– that’s the concept we’re working with, anyway. We’ll be making coasters and I think it’ll be sweet and casual and fun. I hope. I suppose it could also be weird and awkward and dull, but we’re all optimists here, right?

Copies of Sewing Happiness will be available and I’ll be doing a signing as well. I’m curious to see how it goes!!

As you can tell from my last few posts, I’ve been flitting about like an industrious bird, pecking away at my massive to-do list. But guess what?? After this Saturday, I am going to be so relaxed. I may not even post anything on this here blog for the next month to experience what it feels like to be completely disconnected from the internet and off the grid (we all know that would never happen; I’m too much a creature of habit). Anyhow, my big deadline has been met, I have virtually nothing on my calendar, and I can actually feel my innards decompressing. It’s glorious. Sewing might actually happen!!

Just a little more prep work to do for the Saturday event — be back Friday.

(Image is from the book. Photo by George Barberis)

It was a jubilant and triumphant weekend. After months and months of preparing, hoping, sketching, querying, refining and negotiating, I received a confirmation: I will be publishing two more books with Sasquatch Books!!!

In fact, behind the scenes, I’ve already been working on book #3 (those pesky deadlines), but until the countersigned contracts and advance check were in my nervous, sweaty palms, it felt like make-believe and not at all truly true. And this past Saturday, I had a very happy mail day indeed. Of course I’d told my most trusted circle of friends and family members a while ago when discussions started, but I seem to have a hard time convincing myself that these things will actually materialize.

This image above is a little segment of the proposal I assembled for the 2-book deal. We’re making Little Kunoichi into a series of sorts, and the next one will be released Fall of 2017. Followed by another book in the Fall of 2018. I’m beyond grateful, especially for my editor who champions the ideas that I toss out willy nilly like errant spaghetti noodles, crossing my fingers that something will stick. And I’m thankful for you! Without this blog space, and without the AMAZING Furoku membership (the most awesome of awesomest groups ever) which gives me the mental and financial buffer that powers me through…well, I shudder to think what I would be doing. Most likely flipping burgers. No shame in that, sure, but oh, the grease stains!

“It’s not luck anymore, is it?” a good friend asked me when I told her the joyous book news. I don’t know — I still think lady luck and timing have significant parts to play, but I do hope that I’ve become a little more assertive and persistent compared to my past self.

I started this blog on July 16, 2012, almost exactly four years ago. As I published that first post, I told myself that I would do everything that felt right and would stay open-minded. Sometimes, the things I did troubled and puzzled the people around me, particularly those closest to me. Sometimes, I felt alone and very lost and a bit coo coo for cocoa puffs. Sometimes, I couldn’t believe I got to live this remarkable life. And that last part…those moments are increasing slowly, slowly, slowly.

Whew. It’s been an eventful year already! I hope you’ll be patient with me as I figure out how to juggle the multiple projects I have going on in the background, and I am yearning for some extended sewing time, but I’m doing little bits when I can. I look forward to sharing some sewing with you eventually.

The purple bouquet at the very top was actually a gift from a friend at the Sewing Happiness launch party, but it made me think of the cover of Little Kunoichi — I was looking at the various meanings ascribed to the purple hue, and the ones that jumped out at me were: creativity, mystery and magic. Yep. It all feels like mysterious creative magic to me.