Better Late (Whitney, TX)

Than never...right?  Late on posting...Late on wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.  I hope you were able to spend time with your love ones.  Since we traveled the day before, we spent a quiet day at home and had a couple of our favorite dishes.  No big spread this year with just the two of us.  I rather enjoyed the change of pace.  The only turkey I prepped this year were the two below for my shop.  

The WiFi has been very weak here.  We are in Whitney, TX until 17 December.  Hopefully, the new location will have a stronger signal and I can do a better job of posting my blog.

In between sewing, I have been doing a lot of reading.  This one is a quilt theme cozy mystery:

Motif for Murder by Karen Lowe
This story addresses women living in abusive situations more than it does about Browen's quilt detective work.  There is an old quilt along with a past and present mystery, but for most of the story, Browen is busy trying to help and support several abused women while the local community seems to close their eyes to the situation.

In between helping others, Browen has been asked to help with the opening of the new art museum in the renovated old mill.  Reading about the history of sheep farmers, spinners, and weavers in the little Welsh town really kept my interest.  That and Browen fiber art quilt portraying fairies dancing in the woods from an old Welsh story.  The ending wasn't too much of a surprise, but the reading was pleasant and left me feeling good.  It would probably be nice if the world was filled with more gutsy Browens around.

Before the cold front came through, we were getting the cats outside every day.  Hitch shows his approval of our new location by running up and down the motorhome.  "Time to go outside!  See all this energy I have?"  He is wearing a trail into our wood floors with all the running back and forth.  He rarely shows that much enthusiasm.  This one is perfect for him.  I can hear him counting off the good points: trees to climb, bushes to explore, campgrounds to snoop, and dirt roads to walk along with no traffic.

Hitch enjoys his new chin scratching place

Can I take this with us?

We haven't been out exploring too much due to the colder weather.  We did drive to the east side DFW a couple of days ago, but I did not take my camera.  It was such a dreary day with icy cold wind!  Brrr!  So, I took some photos of the fall colors that I have been enjoying around our site.

On The Cutting Board

We have been spending time at the park's community center, so I have been able to load up all my new photos for Etsy.  I have 21 new items to list.  I just need to do a little tweaking here and there in the listings and I will be ready to open my shop for business again.  Here's a sneak peak of my new items.

I have been missing my southwest style garden since our return to Texas.  I decided to design a trailer with a southwest theme by embroidering a Pueblo ladder, a flowering barrel cactus, and an ocotillo cactus.  I plan to add morning glories to the ladder just like I had in my own garden.  I'm enjoying this so much that I have already cut out three more SW theme trailers so I can make more desert gardens.

I also put together two more Santas from Nancy Halvorsen's pattern.

Actually, I have a whole pile of more mug rugs to embroider and sew together, so I better get back to them!
Happy Quilting!

The Hugs Squad Manages Patchwork Time (Somewhere in Idaho)

We left Utah two days ago.  We are back on the road heading north to Spokane, WA with a few stops along the way.  We will take our time by staying a few days here and a couple of days there along the way.  Plenty of time to relax before getting back on the road.  A no stress travel plan.

I got in a little sewing time during the last week.  As you can see, I have lots of supervision from the Hugs Squad.  The Hugs Squad's official job is to make sure I do not spend too many hours sewing without a break.  Break time must include a cat in the lap getting undivided attention...usually with a big bear hug.  If only I can get through to them that 15 minutes of sewing is not a long time in human life.

Shift change with the time managers

Before we left Utah, we did a quick trip to downtown Salt Lake City to visit a new/used book store.  This was on the side of the building.  I just had to share.

There were so many ornate buildings scattered throughout the downtown area, but we did not have much time to walk around after spending most of our time browsing through the bookstore.  I love the balconies on this one...........

and the face on this building.  Maybe next time I will be able to view and take photos of some of the temples in the city.

This little guy came running right up to Dan's feet looking for a handout while he was setting up the motorhome for the night.  So, Dan came in for a couple of nuts and told me that I had a great subject just waiting to have his picture taken. 

nom! nom!  almond...gooood

 He is one friendly fellow or very hungry.  He got so close that half my photos were a blur.  And the more I think about it....he was probably just hungry because he left as soon as realized I wasn't going to give him anymore nuts.

no nuts...no photo!

A Patchwork of Poison by Karen Lowe
This is the first book I have found since Barbara Michaels' "Stitches in Time" where the mystery is center around the quilt and its maker.  This one is even better!  As a teenager, I read a lot of Gothic mystery/romance books.  Some of my favorites were Victoria Holt, Phyllis A. Whitney, and Barbara Michaels. Karen Lowe takes me back to those days with a different twist.

Set in present England, Bron is getting ready for her first fiber/quilt art gallery exhibit when she is approached by a young goth girl named Cat with her family's heirloom quilt.  Soon Cat and Bron are busy unstitching the secrets and history behind the quiltmaker and her quilt.  Mysteries abound as one person goes missing and another is found dead.  Are they all tied to this one quilt?

Karen does a wonderful job of merging the past and present.  The description of the historical quilt has my imagination going big time!  Great historical mystery story.  My fingers are crossed that Karen will make this the first book of a new series.
Happy Quilting!