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!

Tuesday Treasury (Patagonia, AZ)

I decided to start posting my Etsy Treasuries again.  I enjoy window shopping online and I like sharing what I find especially in Etsy.

The birds are starting to return to the Preserve.  We are seeing more activity and the Birders are reporting more sightings.  

Says Phoebe

No more sightings of the lion, but he did leave a paw print a couple of nights ago.  He was just letting us know he is still around.  I'm not sure if the lion is a he or she.  I'm too lazy to type he or she each time.  Knowing my luck, the lion will turn out to be a female.

Rufous Crowned Sparrow?

I don't know my Sparrows, so I'll leave this to my birding friends.  So many of them tend to look alike...

Sparrow

This Canyon Towhee has been spending a lot of time under our motorhome.  He is a brave little guy.  He comes within a few feet of the cats.  He runs out when they are not looking to eat some of the seeds on our mat.

Canyon Towhee

He is not very quiet between his running and crunching seeds either.  As soon as one of the cats sees him, he runs back under the motorhome.  Sort of reminds me of the Road Runner and Wiley E. Coyote.  All he needs to do is exit with a Meep! Meep!

Tuesday Treasury
In honor of all the tea drinkers around the world including Arlene's quilting friends from Harriet Truman's Loose Threads Mysteries and me!  Time to steep a pot of tea, curl up in a favorite chair, and read a good cozy mystery...or quilt.  Hey, I'm not picky!   By the way, here's Arlene Sachitano's link to her blog.  Happy Tea...Happy Reading....Happy Quilting

Quilt by Association (Patagonia, AZ)

The new year is starting off well.  I finished another quilting murder mystery and a quilt.

Quilt by Association - Arlene Sachitano

I always enjoy a good mystery with quilters and I wasn't disappointed.  This time the theme of the story is on charity quilts for animal shelters and adoptive children.  The Loose Thread quilters are busy making quilts for the Humane Society's charity with one special quilt being picked for a raffle while others will be sold or used as dog blankets.  Their first mystery is how the competing quilters are coming up with the same designs...hmmm...

White Breasted Nuthatch

The second mystery shows up as a young African woman saying she has brought her dead sister's baby to the baby's daddy.....and the baby's daddy happens to be Harriet's boyfriend.  The mysteries just keep piling up.  So, begins the sewing and solving of another quilting mystery.

The third mystery comes with an adopted child and her quilt.  Wow, had me a little breathless at times trying to keep up with everyone and all the clues!  Despite all the mysteries and clues, Arlene doesn't lose the reader along the way.  She actually surprised me at with the "who-dun-it" ending.

I love reading Harriet Truman's mysteries, but one thing bugs me.  The quilters in this series are either the most amazingly patient characters or addicted to tea because whenever someone announces they have just found a major clue that, one of them always says "hold that thought until we have made some tea".  Really?!  If it was me, I would have them by the collar saying "the heck with tea, spill the beans!" then we can have tea. :0)

On The Cutting Board

And here's my finished Bear Hugs quilt ready to be added to the Project Linus pile.  Okay, I only have two for PL, but I hope to add one more to the pile before we leave here.

Bear Hugs

Happy Quilting!

One More Block Done and Another Quilting Murder Solved!

Well, this block took a lot longer to finish considering I did not do much stitching on this block.  Can I blame it on the holidays?  Oh, and my brother came down for a visit and the weather was just perfect for being outdoors.  The cats wanted to go for walks and kayaking to do.  So, yea, lots of excuses for me not to be working on the quilt.  I guess I better stop with the excuses now the weather has turned a little colder and windier.  Time to do some serious quilting!

 

I just finish reading another Quilt-Murder-Mystery book called “Quilt As You Go” by Arlene Sachitano.  Yea, call me obsessive.  

Anyway, Arlene gave the best tip that I have ever heard.  I have often heard and read about threading a bunch of needles before you start your project to save you time. I have never tried it because I always thought I would cut a strand of thread, thread the needle, tie a knot and then……..well, where do I put the threaded needles? I would need to hide them so my cats would not tangle the thread or run off with the thread or worse – getting the needle with the thread. They have taken straight pins and needles in the past, but I have learned to hide all sharp objects while I am quilting. So I thought I would have to put the pre-threaded needles back into the pack and hide the pack. That sounds like more trouble than threading a needle as I needed it.

Here’s Arlene Sachitano: Load a whole package of needles onto the spool. Tie a knot in the end of the thread and then each time you want a new needle, you grab it and pull some thread out, then clip the thread and needle from the spool. Retie the end of the spool piece. Perfect! I can keep my needles and thread in a baggie and none of my smarty cats will be able to get to either one! HA!

Needles ready to go!

Oh, and how’s the book?  I would recommend it to anyone interested in murder mysteries and quilting.  The main character is a long-arm quilter so I have learned about the other side of the quilting business.  I’m more of a traditional quilter so I don’t know very much about the long-arm or the quilting business.  The story can be a little slow at times, but I like the characters.  I also like the story’s location which is near Sequim and Port Townsend, WA.  I spent a lot of my childhood growing up in the Puget Sound area on Whidbey Island.  This is the third one in a series of Harriet Truman/Loose Threads Mystery and I have read all three.  I hope she writes more Harriet Truman books.

Happy Holidays to All!