"Pretty Crazy", My First Commercial Pattern!

What you see here is the result of 13 years of a beautiful friendship. Do click on the picture!

My friend, Tracey Brookshier, has a wonderful quilt pattern business called Brookshier Design Studio. Her forte is making bold, graphic quilts that look complicated but are in fact quite easy to construct. You all no doubt know her Bento Box pattern.


Tracey sometimes has designers contribute patterns to her line, and that is what "Pretty Crazy" is all about.
A little background...Tracey has been a "key player" in my quilting life, giving me good advice along the way and also prodding me to go in directions she thinks will benefit me.

We met at a Quilting by the Sound conference in Port Townsend, WA. Susan Else was there too, and the three of us hit it off like a house afire. (One of us had a spectacular melt-down during a Nancy Crow workshop that was a true bonding experience...but I am not divulging who....)

Here are me and Tracey after a really fun week together, back in the fall of 1998.

It was Tracey who suggested I attend the Point Bonita quilt conference, which you readers know has been a huge and valued part of my quilt life. I sit with Tracey and Sue there every year and though our work is wildly divergent, our friendship just keeps gets stronger through the years.

This was taken in February of 2010 at Point Bonita...it was our turn to host Happy Hour that evening!

It was Tracey who invited me to be the Featured Artist at her guild show last year in Santa Cruz, Tracey who made me overcome my reluctant shyness and meet one of the heads of the Empty Spools Conference at Asilimar....where I will be an Artist in Residence in May of 2012. When Tracey speaks now, I listen!
So when she invited me to make a crazy quilt pattern for her business, aimed at sane quilters, I took her up on the challenge. The result is what you see at the top of this post.

Tracey and I will be debuting this pattern at Quilt Market in Salt Lake City, Utah in May. I'll be demo-ing in her booth, Number 2131. After Market, I'll have it for sale here on the blog, but you will also hopefully be able to find it at your local quilt shop, as well as being able to order it off Tracey's website.

The pattern is easy, sews up fast, and yet filled with countless possibilities. The Accuquilt Go Cutter speeds things up alot when it comes to cutting the strips, too. My hope is that it will offer sane quilters a gentle introduction into the world of crazy quilting...and bring them in!

It would be so fun to see you at Quilt Market...do come visit us at Booth #2131.