Happy 2012!

Hi everyone, and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I know it's been a bit quiet 'round these parts. I wound up unplugging and taking an unexpected (but much-needed) break from most things electronic over the holiday break.

We had a great Christmas here in the Quilt Dad house -- we actually stayed home for the first time, and it was a joy to see the kids wake up in their own beds on Christmas morning. After Christmas, we headed up to New York City, where we visited with family, saw the tree at Rockefeller Center, and took the kids on their (now annual) pilgrimage to the American Girl store on 5th Avenue. We stayed in the Big Apple -- more specifically, Brooklyn -- through New Year's, and returned home on January 2nd.

While I work on gettin' my groove back, I wanted to let you know that I put together a new block pattern to celebrate the start of the new year! I call it "Modern Starlings", and the free pattern is available over on the Generation Q blog. I was excited that Scott, Jake, and the crew at Gen Q invited me to be a Guest Block Designer as part of their Playdate series, and quickly actualized this block that had been rattling around in the back of my head for weeks. I think it's a fun block with a lot of potential -- Scott and I have even been batting around some full quilt pattern ideas using this block.

I hope you like the block, and if you make any, I'd love to see them. Be sure to add them to the Quilt Dad is my Homeboy Flickr group.

Oh, and P.S. thanks for all of the love on my Hey Girl post. I am so glad that it was able to provide some laughs to so many of you over the past few weeks. I literally received hundreds of positive comments via the blog and Twitter, and one really ugly, nasty, negative email from someone who I clearly offended. Oh well, you can't win them all. I haven't had any flashes of Hey Girl inspiration since before the holidays, but who knows ... Ryan may make another appearance here on the blog soon.