Rain Brings Out The Killers (Pacific City, OR)

In books, of course.

Ever since we settled in Pacific City, the days have been filled with lots of rain.  My walks have been short and the cats are not getting out....boy, are they telling us about it too.  No new photos of the outdoors, so I will talk about some of my favorite summer reads instead.  Nothing is more cozy than a hot cup of tea and a murder mystery on a stormy night....or an all day of dark skies and rain.

Buttons and Bones by Monica Ferris
I have read all of Monica's Needlecraft Mystery series.  Her series is one of the few paperbacks that I made room for in our motorhome.

One of these days, I will read them all again.  I have followed Crewel World's owner Betsy Devonshire as she accidentally becomes the owner of her sister's shop and a sleuth with a knack for solving mysteries by talking to people.  Her friends can be quirky as well as talented and helpful.  The best part is that each book covers a different needlecraft theme, so I learn something new each time.  Betsy's favorite handwork is her knitting.  It helps her to think better while solving mysteries, but she does try other needlecrafts such as cross-stitch, needlepoint, blackwork, and you name it, she has probably tried it.

In "Buttons and Bones", Jill and her husband buy an old cabin on one of the many lakes in Minnesota.  They invite Betsy to join them to help with their two little ones while they spend the weekend starting on renovating the cabin.  Soon, Betsy's quiet weekend is changed with the discovery of a hidden cellar and a skeleton with only buttons from WWII for identification.  Crocheting is the theme this time...just like in Grandma's house with doilies covering the back of chairs and tables.  The clues were great and I actually figured out the mystery before I got to the "here's what happened" disclosure.

The Quilt Before the Storm Arlene Sachitano

This story did not have as much quilting as it had more to do with the homeless and rescued dogs while dealing with a huge NW storm that has cutoff the small town of Foggy Point.  With most of the police force on the wrong side of the flooded river, it is up to Harriet and her house-full of friends to solve the multiple homeless murders while helping out the storm victims.  I admit with all the clues, I was surprised by the "who-done-it".

I saw this site and thought I would share it with other readers...
17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand


On The Cutting Board

My needles have been on fire with all the handwork I have been getting done lately.  I finished three mug rugs so far:  the Witches Brew/frog and 2 of the 3 witches.  I got a little tired of working on dark backgrounds and decided to work on the two hogs instead.  I'm quilting them now.  I'm trying to finish all my unfinished mug rugs before starting new ones.

The only problem with that is how many I have sitting around.  I have at least another ten UFOs to finish with most of them being seasonal themed like turkeys and reindeer.  If I don't finish them soon, they will probably wait until next season and that is not good. 

I should make some more Santas, but I'm going to wait until I see how long I can keep up this pace.  If I don't burn out, I should have quite a stack of new mug rugs to list by the time we move back to Seaside on 9 Sept.

I hope to start working on some new trailers soon.  See, they are all cut out.  I just need to decide how I am going to embellish them.

I also have quite a few unfinished wall-hangings that I would like to list before the end of this year.  I worked on this one in-between working on the mug rugs.  

I bought this stack of teacups with a mouse design from Urban Threads.  I added the quote from "Alice in Wonderland" along with the wonky squares for the borders.

Happy Quilting!