A Thread of Truth (Cobbled Court Quilt #2) - #TeaserTuesday, First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros

A quilting friend recently gave me all seven books in Marie Bostwick's Cobbled Court Quilt Series. I finished Book #1 and today I'm featuring excerpts from Book #2, which I've barely started. So far, I'm enjoying the intertwined stories of the women of small-town New Bern, Connecticut, all of them connected by the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop. This story deals with domestic violence. Thanks for the books, Nan!

Genre: Women's Fiction
Book Length: 335 Pages
Amazon Link: A Thread of Truth
Author Website: Marie Bostwick

First Paragraph (from the Prologue):
     The counselor is young, blond, and pretty, and obviously nervous. She glances at her reflection in the wall mirror when she enters the waiting room, adjusts her collar, and clears her throat before extending her hand toward me with a wide, rehearsed smile and a request for me to follow her back to her office.

Teaser #1 (from Pages 15-16 in my trade paperback):
She wouldn't listen to any of my excuses about passing on the quilt class, just knocked them all down in that way she has, huffing and puffing out words like "Nonsense!" and "Rubbish!" like the big, bad wolf on a mission, not stopping until your little house of sticks is lying in a heap and there you stand with nothing left to hide behind. Next thing I knew, I was sitting in a room with six other students, listening to Evelyn Dixon explain the techniques for constructing our first project, a log cabin quilt.

Teaser #2 (from Page 90): 
There never was a moment when I could relax and be myself because I was always aware that he could walk through that door at any moment and if he didn't like what he saw, there would be consequences. Inevitable, unpredictable, irrational consequences. 

Synopsis:
At twenty-seven, having fled an abusive marriage with little more than her kids and the clothes on her back, Ivy Peterman figures she has nowhere to go but up. Quaint, historic New Bern, Connecticut, seems as good a place as any to start fresh. With a part-time job at the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop and budding friendships, Ivy feels hopeful for the first time in ages.

But when a popular quilting TV show is taped at the quilt shop, Ivy's unwitting appearance in an on-air promo alerts her ex-husband to her whereabouts. Suddenly, Ivy is facing the fight of her life--one that forces her to face her deepest fears as a woman and a mother. This time, however, she's got a sisterhood behind her: companions as complex, strong, and lasting as the quilts they stitch. . .

Just for fun, here's a photo of a log cabin quilt I made several years ago. I arranged the blocks in a diamond pattern, and it's one of my favorite creations.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.

Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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The Runaway Quilt - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

     The Runaway Quilt is one of my favorite stories in Jennifer Chiaverini's "Elm Creek Quilts" series. If you enjoy family history, if you're curious about the Civil War (and the underground railroad), if you're a quilter, or if you like to read about friendships between women, you'll like this book too. The story takes place in present day but goes back into the past as the main character, Sylvia, reads an ancestor's diary, written during the Civil War.
     The Runaway Quilt is the fourth book in this series, but it stands alone. However, as with most series, you'll get to know the characters better if you start with the first book (The Quilter's Apprentice).

Book Beginning:
     When her sister, Claudia, died childless at the age of seventy-seven, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson became the last living descendant of Hans and Anneke Bergstrom and the sole heir to what remained of their fortune. Or so she had thought. She had certainly searched long and hard enough for someone else who could assume responsibility of Elm Creek Manor, for as difficult as it was to believe now, at the time she had thought the estate in rural central Pennsylvania too full of unhappy memories to become her home again. Her lawyer had told her she was the sole heir, an opinion corroborated by her private detective.
     Now she wondered if they had overlooked something, a familial connection lost to memory but documented in a thread-bare antique quilt.

The Friday 56 (This excerpt is from Page 156 in the trade paperback edition):
One of those seats had a block with a black center square, and if pushed in just the right way, the wooden slats folded into a hidden recess beneath the bench like a rolltop desk, revealing a hiding place beneath the gazebo. According to family lore, fugitive slaves would conceal themselves in the hiding place until nightfall, when one of the Bergstroms would escort them into the safety of the manor.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Mystery / Crafts & Hobbies
Length: 329 Pages (trade paperback)
Amazon Link: The Runaway Quilt
Author's Website: Jennifer Chiaverini

Synopsis: In the fourth novel of the beloved Elm Creek Quilts series, Sylvia Compson searches for evidence of her ancestors' courageous involvement in the Underground Railroad.

                 

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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Renton Quilt Show - Saturday Snapshots

Last weekend, my son's neighbor invited me to a quilt show hosted by her church, Fairwood Community United Methodist Church in Renton, Washington. Each quilt included an information sheet, telling its story and the name of its maker. Here are a few pictures I took at that delightful event. (Click on pictures to enlarge for more detail.)

Cats and yarn make a clever quilt design.

Crazy quilts (like the one pictured below) can include buttons, lace, charms, embroidery, silks, satins, velvets, and just about any embellishment you want. Traditionally, these quilts have been created for show rather than for function and often cannot be washed because of the fabrics used.

Here's a signature quilt, with each square signed (and embroidered) by the person who made it. QuiltingInAmerica.com says:

In the mid-1800s, Victorian quilters began a popular tradition of making signature quilts, signed and quilted remembrances, to honor family members or friends. At a time when many loved ones moved away and seldom, if ever, returned home to see their families again, these quilts served as precious remembrances for those families who had only occasional letters to connect them with friends and relatives back home.

Beautiful cross-stitched whole cloth quilt. In a whole cloth quilt, the emphasis is on the stitching. Some designs include trapunto, a technique that involves stuffing certain areas of the motifs to add more depth.

   

More amazing embroidery.

 

I wish I'd written down the name of this quilt pattern. The simple design and autumn colors appeal to me.

Now I'm inspired to start quilting again!

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, 

click HERE or on the box below. 

To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) 

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Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate 

for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. 

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A Quilt for Christmas - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

A Quilt for Christmas is the story of a woman whose husband enlists in the Union army to fight in the Civil War, leaving her to cope with running the family farm. It's also about friendship, courage, hardship, forgiveness, and family (and quilting, too). This is an engrossing 5-star book that paints a vivid picture of rural Kansas in the 1860s and shows the effects of war on the wives and children back home.
     Seems like I've been reading books lately that have Christmas in their titles. This one was a birthday gift from Sandra Allen, my friend (and I.O.U. Sex co-author). She knows I enjoy quilting and reading a good story, and she sent along some beautiful fabric (for quilting) too. 
Thank you, Sandra!

Book Beginning:
Prologue - November 20, 1864
     It was a fine fall evening. The wind carried the smell of rotting apples and wood smoke and a hint of frost that would likely come after midnight. The setting sun made the stubble in the fields shimmer like flakes of mica and sent rays of light through the clouds as if the Almighty Himself were casting down the fiery shafts. Far off were the night sounds of cattle lowing, and nearer, of chickens clucking. The wind swirled papery dead leaves across the porch.

Friday 56 (from Page 56):
Eliza put her hands over her eyes, then shook her head. Will wasn't dead, she thought. He couldn't be.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Historical Fiction
Length: 242 Pages (hardback)
Amazon Link: A Quilt for Christmas
Author Info: Sandra Dallas Website

Synopsis from the author's website:
The Civil War, 1864: Eliza Spooner’s husband, Will, has joined the Kansas Volunteers to fight for the Union. Confident that he will return home, Eliza helps pass the time by making a special quilt to keep Will warm during his winter months. When the unthinkable happens, she takes in a woman and child who have been left alone and made vulnerable by the war, and she finds solace and camaraderie among the women of her quilting group. And when she is asked to help hide an escaped slave, she must decide for herself what is right and whom she can count on to help her.

                         

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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Upcycling - Saturday Snapshots

As I'm sure you know, upcycling is the process of giving old items new purpose. I like to do that with clothing. Here are some upcycled outfits I've made for my granddaughter (and one project for my grand-dog). I think it's a fun challenge to see what I can transform into something useful.
(Click on photos to enlarge.)

When Corrina decided to dress as a doctor for Halloween,
I made her lab coat costume out of an old dress shirt
of my husband's.

I've made several blouses using this pattern from Etsy. 
The top one was originally an old dress shirt. The cuffs
were frayed but the back and sleeves were perfect.
The one with rickrack was made from
surgical scrubs given to me by a friend.

A pair of my son's jeans became a dress.

Scraps can always be made into a quilt. This dog mat is
constructed from flannel left over from another project.
That's my dog Rufus trying it out.

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, 

click HERE or on the box below. 

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) 

have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. 

Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate 

for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. 

Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

How to Make a Yo-Yo (Quilt, That Is) - Saturday Snapshots

When I inherited a yo-yo quilt from my mom, I knew it needed repair; but I had no idea it was in such bad shape! It's a bigger project than I realized. So lately I've been spending random moments working on fixing it. This project has given me a new appreciation for just how much time my mom devoted to the quilt's construction. Out of curiosity, I decided to create just one individual yo-yo from scratch to get an idea of what was involved and document the steps. Here they are. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

I used a DVD as my template. It's about 4¾ inches in diameter. The resulting yo-yo has a 2-inch diameter (approximately).

Gather the edges of the circle, turning the raw edge under about 1/4 inch as you go along. Bigger stitches are better. I think mine are too small. Use a heavy thread like quilting thread.

Pull the stitches tight, then take a couple of locking stitches and tie a knot to secure the thread. 

Once you've made about a million yo-yos, tack them together to form the quilt. (These stitches will be on the back side of the quilt and won't show, so they don't have to be perfect.) 

Here's my mom's yo-yo quilt.

I'll probably sew this quilt to a backing (gotta figure that out!) to make it more stable. By the way, there are lots of tutorial videos on YouTube showing people making yo-yos, in case you'd like to give this a try. 

I doubt if I'll ever make a yo-yo quilt from scratch, but I have a sentimental attachment to this one. Not only did my mom sew it by hand, my niece Kristin also contributed her stitches. Now I've become a part of it too.

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, 

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One Block Wonder - Saturday Snapshots

I've been making quilts for quite a few years, and every time I create one, I learn something new. This quilt is called a "One Block Wonder." The secret is to stack six layers of fabric on top of each other, line the patterns up perfectly, and then cut the shapes (triangles) through all the layers. When the six triangles are joined, you have a kaleidoscope effect. It's easier than it sounds. In making this quilt I learned that a fabric with a bigger pattern and with a greater variety of colors would have resulted in a more dramatic look. But I think it turned out nice anyhow. 
(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Two groups of three triangles pinned
together to form a pinwheel,
plus a stack waiting for assembly.

Tentative layout

Kaleidoscopes/pinwheels after quilt top assembly

The finished quilt measures 52 x 64 inches,
a good size for snuggling under while reading a book.

Quilters who are curious about this technique can find detailed instructions in a book by Maxine Rosenthal: One Block Wonders

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, 

click HERE or on the box below. 

Baby Quilts - Saturday Snapshots

Baby quilts are so much fun to make! Since they're small, the construction goes quickly. Not so much delayed gratification! They're also a good way to try out quilt patterns without making a big commitment. While I'm creating, it's fun to think of the child who will be snuggling under the quilt. I put a lot of love into every stitch.

I've made several quilts for my granddaughter
but this is my favorite. The quilt square pattern is 
Nine Patch, and the hearts and name are appliqued.

This is a flannel ragged-edged quilt.
It gets softer with every washing.

Baby quilts don't have to be made of pastel colors.
These coordinated fabrics came together in a package.
Just right for my grand nephew!
This pattern is called X's and O's.

********

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, 

click HERE or on the box below.