Getting Cozy With a Few Mysteries (Conroe, TX)

I switched my blog's profile to the Gmail account last month so that I could leave comments on my friends' blogs.  With Yahoo, my comments were being rejected through emails, but they were showing up in the blogs.  I just thought it would be easier for my friends.  Bad move on my part because now my blog's post notifications are being rejected by my friends' email systems.  I received an email from one friend saying she had not heard from me for a month and yet, I had posted a couple of days before her email.  Now, I know why she did not receive her notice.  I am switching back to Yahoo and will just have to deal with my own email rejects.  Oh well...

So, what have I been doing recently....not a whole lot.  A little reading, walking, too much eating, and of course, walking cats.  Except for some shopping and running other errands, we have been contend to stay in the park then to go out exploring the area.  The weather has been warm and sunny so I have been sitting outside sewing while Dusty naps nearby.  He loves being outdoors.

For the past couple of months, I have been plowing through some uninteresting and disappointing books.  Most I started a while back and stopped due to a lack of interest.  Like my projects, I suddenly feel a need to finish them.  I did, but they were not very satisfying to read.  The stories did not carry me away.  I did not fall in love with the characters or worry about them or the ending was disappointing.  Finally, I decided it was time to fall back on some of my favorite subjects - a cozy mystery or two or three.....

Shear Trouble by Elizabeth Craig

As soon as I started this one, I knew I was going to have a hard time putting the book down.  This is Elizabeth's third book in the series:  A Southern Quilting Mystery.  The main character Beatrice is starting to sound more like Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote.  Asking questions, looking for clues, and actually solving who-done-it before the killer reveals him or herself.

I like Beatrice and her sense of style, not to mention the description of her little southern style cottage, her garden, and her little corgi.  She is a novice quilter with a quiet observation of those around her.  I also like the fact that she is one of the few female 'investigators' not involved with a law enforcer love interest.  It seems like lately most of the cozy mysteries' main female characters are always involved with the Sheriff/Deputy/Detective/Lawyer which I find a little irritating that they need a man around to constantly warn them that they are walking on thin ice when it comes to "snooping" yet they are the ones that solve the case.  Well, okay, her neighbor and quilting friend, Meadow is married to the Sheriff, but that isn't the same.  Plus, half the time he has no idea what those two are up to!

Anyway, I enjoyed reading Shear Trouble.  I'm starting to enjoy Beatrice's crazy neighbor - Meadow.  She is a little scattered in thought but she has a a big heart.   I enjoy the rest of the quilting group as well especially Miss Sissy.  What a character!  Plus it was a joy to read about a quilt retreat, descriptions of Posy's quilt shop, as well as a stray kitten that sounded soooo adorable that I wanted to adopt her.  I know, I don't need another cat..   In the end, I was sad to see the story end, but very happy for a good getaway read.  Of course, it helps to know there is a new Southern Quilting Mystery coming soon - Tying the Knot

Last Wool and Testament by Molly MacRae
The Haunted Yarn Shop series was a recommendation from Amazon.  I wasn't so sure about it after the first couple of chapters.  First of all, the main character, Kath seems to be cursed by Murphy's Law...anything that can go wrong certainly does go wrong for her.  She gets a speeding ticket on the way to her grandma's funeral.  Then she is locked out of her grandma's house and the cat is missing.  And that's just the beginning...her dead grandma is also suspected of murder.  Having no home or job doesn't keep her down though.  Kath keeps plugging away at the clues to prove her grandma is innocent.

So many elements were being introduced in such a short time that I thought the story would end up a jumbled mess.   There's a ghost, hints of a witch with powers, blackmailing, and so much more going on...and yet, I was enjoying the story. There were some funny moments and the characters are well done.  Some are a little strange or a little wacky, but that just made me turn the pages faster.  I loved hating the boorish condescending oaf of a deputy.  I bet those two will never become a couple.  Kath would rather punch him in the nose than kiss him!  LOL!  I plan to read more from this series.

Look!  The waiting is over!  I have been waiting months for Marie Bostwick's new book "The Second Sister" and it is available today.  I just bought it through Audible.com.  I can't wait to listen to this one.  The cats will be going for a lot of walks!



Amazon Author's Fan Page
Want to know when an author has a new book?  If you are like me, you probably have several favorite authors that you like to keep track of their latest writings.  I use to keep a list of my favorites, but I always forgot someone.  Later, I used my Kindle to see if anyone had a new book being published soon. Now, Amazon will send you an email.  All you have to do is follow your favorite author on their Amazon fan page. Under their photo, you can click Follow and Amazon will let you know when your favorite author's latest book will be published.

On The Cutting Board
 I have also been getting in a little sewing done here and there.  A couple of the Happy Campers are getting a second look before I sew them together.  I feel a little tweaking needs to be done....
It seems to me that there is too much white for this Class-C mug rug.  I thought I would add the window frames and doors for more coloring before layering the white top to the blue background.

I'm going to add a few more flowers too....depending on how that looks, I might add more.  I plan to trim the bottom part off so some more of the blue background will show.

I added a lace stitch to the scalloped edging to match the curtains on this one.

I added two more snowmen to the collection for a better variety of colored scarfs.  Love the green polka-dotted fabric!

I finished transferring the A to Zzz Snowman patterns to the muslin blocks and I could not wait to start embroidering.  Actually, looking at the large pile of blocks, I realized that this project is going to take a year or two to finish.  No better time to start than right now!

Good Tip

Oh!  Before I go back to sewing...I learned a tip from Elizabeth Craig:  "Running your needle and thread through a folded dryer sheet before hand-piecing helps prevent knots." Craig, Elizabeth (2014-08-05). Shear Trouble: A Southern Quilting Mystery (p. 276). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.   

I wanted to see how well this would work so I waited until my embroidery thread became a tangled mess.  With some of the stitches I do, the thread is almost beyond repair once it starts knotting.  I rubbed the sheet on my DMC thread after it started to knot and it worked very well.  Plus, I found that the sheet cleans sticky needles after I have been sewing through fusible webbing.  

What an excellent tip!  My hand sewing has become even more relaxing and I am not losing as much thread now.  I plan to use a dryer sheet on my sewing machine's needle the next time it ends up sticky while sewing through fusible webbing.  

Well, I hear the projects calling to me.  I have my dryer sheet, the needles are threaded and ready to sew.

Happy Quilting!

A Good Day for Snow (Glenrock, WY)

Dan has been working since we arrived while I have spent most of my time working inside our motorhome.  I did a little spring cleaning.  I'm waiting for warmer weather so I can open the windows and do some major cleaning.  Nothing like fresh air to get me in the mood for a good spring cleaning.

On Sunday, Dan had a snow day.  He was happy for a break.  He is enjoying his new job, but he is not use to the labor work every day.  This is probably the first time since we started full-timing that we were happy to have snow.  It snowed all day.  I'm not use to seeing the wind blowing so hard that the snow came in sideways, but it didn't stick.  Even the snow on the car did not stay long.  We heard that south of Casper got quite a few inches.  Talk about a late spring, eh?

Quilt Trip: A Southern Quilting Mystery by Elizabeth Craig

Another good quilting mystery!  This time Meadow talks Beatrice into crashing a meeting for appointing a guild to establish a quilting scholarship by an eccentric and very despised matron.  It doesn't bother Meadow at all that her guild was not invited or that the meeting is up a lonely mountain road or that it is in the middle of winter and it is snowing.  Oh, did I mention that no one knows where they are going?  Now, there's a lesson learned.

This has the shades of Agatha Christie when the invited and yes, the uninvited guild members are stranded at the matron's old Victorian home with no power, no heat, very little food, no cell phone reception (Oh No!), and a body.

Beatrice immediately takes over when she realizes the person did not die naturally and starts to investigate the stranded quilters.  Keep in mind, they are also stranded with a killer with a motive or is she just crazy and likes to kill?  This gives us a chance to meet more strange a quirky characters that I feel Ms. Craig has become quite good at creating.

I like the story, but there was more investigating and less quilting.  When Beatrice started interviewing each suspect like a police officer, I found myself starting to skim the pages.  I prefer the accidental conversations people have with the sleuth and the sleuth starts putting the puzzle pieces together instead of an actual investigation.  There is some quilting because all the quilters except for Beatrice came with traveling quilt packs.  Now, that is some well prepared quilters!
If you are a cozy murder mystery reader, I'm sure you will enjoy reading this book.

On The Cutting Board

I haven't started working yet.  I was suppose to start this Thursday, but I was told yesterday that I would not be needed for another week.  I get the feeling that they need Dan's muscles more than they need another office person.  Maybe they will let me paint some picnic tables...

Anyway, with Dan outside most of the day, I'm taking advantage of my unscheduled free time to get more Happy Campers done.  I wanted to get more tops done before I start assembling them on the sewing machine.

I can't stop coming up with new ideas.  I barely finish one and I have another idea of what I would do different the next time.  Since I don't want to change the one I'm working on, I go back to the drawing board to sketch out my ideas before I forget.  Then, I want to start on the new idea to see if it is going to work out.....and before I know it I have six tops, but none finished.

A sneak peek of the one I'm working on now.

Well, I finally had to put my foot down...yes, my own foot down on myself......and I told myself that this is enough. Yea, I don't always listen to myself.

If I can stop making new ones, I want to have the six above ready for the sewing machine by this weekend.  I haven't done a single buttonhole stitch to tack down the fused fabric on any of them.  Hopefully, I will get them listed sometime next week.

Happy Quilting!

Knot What It Seams by Elizabeth Craig (Sutherlin, OR)

Knot What It Seams by Elizabeth Craig
This was a quick and fun read.  This is the second in a new series by Elizabeth Craig about a small southern town filled with some unusual folks - a sheriff that would rather be reading Thoreau than catching a murderer, an elderly driver thinks sidewalks are part of the road when she drives (pedestrians beware!), a mail carrier that likes to use people's mail to blackmail them....and then there's the quilting guild called The Village Quilters that is made up of even more quirky members.

The main and the more sane character is Beatrice, a recently retired folk art museum curator from the city.  She is also a new member of the guild, but a novice quilter.  She finds herself in the middle of a mystery involving dead quilters, quilters' with extreme competitive attitudes, judges with even larger egos and opinions of what they consider a show quilt.  In the meantime, Beatrice's next door neighbor and leader of The Village Quilters is busy trying to lure some of the best quilters from the other guild.  There was more talk of competing than quilting in this story, but I still enjoyed it....quirky characters included!  It would be a dull world without them.

On The Cutting Board

Speaking of quilting...here's what I have been up to for the last few days.  I'm almost done with the two owls.  I just need to quilt them and they will be ready to list in Etsy.  

Owl Mug Rugs

I finished appliqueing the lion to the Jungle Stars quilt and I have started working on the elephant.

I used permanent fabric markers along with crayons and some embroidery to accent the elephant and lion's face.  

And, I started working on the second quilt with the same design using paper foundation.  It certainly goes together a lot faster than most of my quilts.  I have three rows done within a short six-hour time.  That includes setting up and breaking down my sewing areas.

I had more of the focus fabric for this quilt so it will have six blocks across and six blocks down.  I don't have to worry about adding borders like I did to the Jungle Stars.

A Southern Tale (Benson, AZ

For the last couple of days, I have been visiting with my friend from Albuquerque.  She is on her own adventure to see some of our beautiful country in her small RV.  I'm very excited for her!  I spent a lot of time just enjoying our visit with chit-chat and walks, so I haven't been taking pictures.  It has warmed up quite a bit so we spent most of our time outdoors soaking up the sunshine.  The cats have been loving this visit since they got to spend extra time outdoors during our visits!

Quilt or Innocence by Elizabeth Craig

I found a new series with quilters and a cozy murder mystery.  So new that the second book just came out in February 2013.  Set in a small town in the south, Beatrice is the main character - a retired folk art museum curator from Atlanta, GA, she decides to follow her daughter and moves to a small town for some peace and quiet with her corgi after she retires.  While the quilting guild is determined to convert Beatrice into a quilter, she is just as determined to solve the death of one of the quilters.

It is a fun quick read filled with a strange mix of quirky people in a not so quiet let alone peaceful town.  Such as one elderly driver almost hits Beatrice as she is walking down the street.  The elderly woman shakes her fist at her and calls Beatrice a "road hog!".  Apparently she is well known for her driving skills and yet, she is still driving.  Now that's an endearing quirky town....I won't even start in on Beatrice's new neighbor!!  It is also a very clean read with no swearing or sex.  They did do a lot of quilt talking in between solving the murder mystery.  This is my kind of book.  I can't wait to read Elizabeth's next book.

On The Cutting Board
Before we leave Benson, I plan to give the Park's quilt group three quilts for their children's charity.  We will be heading on down the road next Tuesday.  I'm already starting some new tops.

Well, actually some of the blocks have been sitting around waiting to be finished.  It is time to blow the dust off of them and get them done!

Happy Quilting!