I attended a trade show for work a few months ago and had the pleasure of meeting Jason Yenter of In the Beginning Fabrics, a fabric company from Seattle. Jason showed us his upcoming collections, and one that particularly caught my eye was Mooshka by Julie Paschkis. The Mooshka collection has a companion children’s book that came out this March, and all the fabrics in the collection are illustrated in the book. I didn’t have time to read the story closely at the show, so I recently asked Jason if he’d send me a copy. Being the nice guy that he is, he did.

Mooshka

I’m always on the lookout for good children’s books that have crafting of various sorts in them. There are dozens of them that feature knitting, but I’ve had a hard time finding good quilting ones. The ones I have found are too pedantic and not very entertaining. It’s like the author has set out to write a children’s book about quilting and it’s very forced. (Alice loves the book Mother Earth and Her Children, but the fact that the illustration in the book is actually a big quilt escapes her, so I don’t really count that one.)

Anyway, Mooshka is the first quilting-themed book that gets my enthusiastic stamp of approval. Alice was delighted by it. The story is very sweet, and it’s perfect for a child with a baby sibling. We’ve made a game of finding the fabric pattern that matches the illustration on each page, which she loves. Alice enjoys mimicking things she sees, so when I suggested that we take a picture like the one on the cover, she was thrilled.

IMG_4031

We didn’t try to get the cat in the picture, as getting James to cooperate was enough of a struggle. They had fun with it though.

IMG_4034

While taking these pictures, I realized that we don’t really have any patchwork quilts in the house that are completely scrappy and big enough for snuggling. The one we used just barely fit the two kids underneath. I’m resolving to remedy that next year. I will have to pick up some of the Mooshka fabrics when they come out this January, as they are full of colorful folk-art charm–perfect for mixing into a scrap quilt.