Hello!

Happy summer! Maybe because I was an August baby, I just love, love, love summertime. I love swimming and playing and the way time slows to a crawl in the summer–slow, nectar–dripping time.

Summer usually means I get the sheer privilege of fewer deadlines and emails so I can just surrender to my children and family–to just BE with them. Just be. To feel the exotic bliss of boredom…for my kids and me. Real-live, honest-to-goodness boredom. To just make dinner and organize the house and live really simply–eating watermelon, doing puzzles and seeing movies. After reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up this winter, I plan to get very Marie Kondo with my house and my life this summer. (And I’m already very Marie Kondo.)

Also, after three years of studying counseling psychology, my husband received his Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling last week and is now a practicing therapist. He has a job waiting for him in two months when he gets his license! So, he gets to just BE with us this summer, too.

Much as aI love social media and find it to be a rich and connected experience, I also like taking breaks from it. I am starting my annual month-long SOCIAL MEDIA FAST this week and I honestly can’t wait. I can’t wait to live in my life like it’s 1998. Just communicating by email and nothing else. No Facebook or Instagram. I wrote about my first fast two years ago here and I do highly recommend it. It is a fortifying, nourishing tonic for the soul. Give it a try.

So here are a few important updates:

1) I absolutely loved seeing so many of you at Quilt Market last week in Minneapolis where I introduced my next collection for Windham Fabrics, Story. Thanks for sharing your stories and tears and joy with me. This whole fabric design gig is absolutely lovely and I am more honored than you know to feel your love and support for what I do. Story ships to stores in September.

2) I’m doing lots of rebranding this summer and hope to emerge as a gorgeous technicolor butterfly from my digital cocoon by late July. To that end, I am moving on from designing sewing patterns for sale and am discontinuing ALL of my inventory on all sewing patterns. Head over to the shop for my closing sale! ALL PATTERNS 40% OFF! Use code: “MOVING ON” (If you are a shop owner, email your order to suchdesigns@cox.net and you’ll receive 30% off of the wholesale price.)

3) Lastly, I have decided to cancel my summer book tour to all cities except Denver. It all seemed like such a good idea when I spent months planning it. But in reality, it was supposed to be a fun excuse to take a road trip with my kids and they were NOT at all into it. As you know, my STORY is my FAMILY. I am surrendering to the sweet summer with them. I couldn’t be happier about my choice but I will miss seeing you. Come see me at Fancy Tiger Crafts on July 1 at 6:30 pm and at Book Bar Denver on July 2 at 7:00 pm and !!! I can’t wait to see you there.

Have a very happy summer and I’ll see you soon!

xo, Carrie B.