I've got ideas!

happy sigh

When I pulled this stack of fabric out of the box it came in, my mind immediately started racing. I know exactly what I want to  do with the pink fabric on the bottom...and the light blue print that's four down from the top...and the butterflies...

Thanks so much to Mary Ellen for sending it to me -- this is going to make the cutest baby quilts! 

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 2 1/4 yards
Added this Week: 23 yards
Added Year to Date: 30 yards
Net Added for 2013: 27 3/4  yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 125 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 200 yards
Net Added for 2013: 75 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Slices of Life

I cook because I have to feed my family, something I think I've mentioned before. Slices of Life: A Food Writer Cooks through Many a Conundrum by Leah Eskin is one of those books that could easily convince me that I want to spend more time in my kitchen, experimenting with ingredients and techniques.

Ever wonder how to to cope with a half baked chicken and a trip to the emergency room to remove a plastic toy from a child's finger? Or how to make a tart that gorgeously imitates the dark night sky? I really, really want to attempt that tart even though I know my own wouldn't match up to the image that the author created in my imagination.

There are 200 recipes in the book and I've made a long list of the ones I want to try -- Dumpling Pillows, Ricotta Stuffed Focaccia, Chicken Paprkash (I've made it before, but want to see how her version compares to the one in my tattered old cookbook), Banana Bread (same explanation) Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (because just knowing that you can make Nutella from scratch makes me need to try it).

The recipes are broken down into steps that she clearly explains. Unfamiliar ingredients get footnotes telling you where you're likely to find them in your own grocery store, or what you can substitute.

The publisher provided me with an electronic review copy of this one, but I think I'll be wanting a paper version that I can bookmarks and haul into the kitchen with me.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {1/28/14}

How are your baby quilts coming? Got anything fun to share with us this week?

I pulled together these fabrics at about the same time as I kitted up the fabrics for that bird baby quilt I pieced a few weeks ago. There isn't much of the animal print, and it's in a long strip instead of a square, but I'm sure I can do something nifty.

I did a Google search for baby quilt tutorials and found a bunch of fun ones that I hadn't seen before --

Modern Baby Quilt at Piece N Quilt
Monogrammed Rag Quilt at de Jong Dream House.
3-D Pinwheel tutorial at Pumpkin Patch Quilter
Jigsaw Puzzle Baby Quilt at Helping Little Hands
US Map Baby Quilt at Sewn Studio
Apple Core Baby Jane at the Sizzix blog
Skyline Baby Quilt  at Crafty Crafty

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

{Yarn Along} More Than I Realized

It feels like I've been slogging along on the green knits for months without making any progress. It has been months, and I'm getting nowhere fast, but there's actually a lot of knitting done here. The Weasley sweater needs a few more inches on the back and both sleeves. The Croc Socks need a heel and a foot. The Green Envy Socks need a heel and a cuff.

I was anxious to read The Myth of the Spoiled Child: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Children and Parenting, because I've read so much lately about kids who are "spoiled" and "entitled" and these generalizations that are being made about all of our kids honestly scare me a bit.  Maybe I should have figured it out from the description, but the entire focus of this book is on grades and rewards and self-esteem, not stuff. (And the "stuff" aspect of being spoiled and entitled is what I was really curious about.) I found myself slogging through some of the chapters because there are so many quotes and references to other published works, but it was an interesting read about attitudes towards children, both now and in the past. Not a lot has changed over the years --- one of the articles mentioned is from 1838!

I've also been reading I Forgot to Remember: A Memoir of Amnesia. It's the story of Su Meck, who completely lost her memory when the ceiling fan in her kitchen fell onto her head. After just a couple of weeks in the hospital, Su was back at home taking care of her two small children, who she did not remember.  She also couldn't remember how to do any of the hundreds of simple little tasks that day to day life requires.  It scares me to imagine that situation.

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with electronic review copies of The Myth of the Spoiled Child. I Forgot to Remember is from the library.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.

Wanna guess what this is?

Only one of my sons would go out into the yard to get his shoes and come running back with this...

The first time they found one of these, we were completely stumped. I thought it was a piece of broken cup handle. Hubby thought it was from an animal. Someone thought it was a claw. I can't remember which of my online friends steered me towards images of taxidermy supplies, but it looks a lot like the images of porcupine teeth. I don't think I have a lot of porcupines in my yard, so I was confused until we started seeing the nutria. Those, we've got an overabundance of.

And apparently they leave their teeth lying around.  

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/21/14}

Let's start with the happy stuff.

Audrey from Glory Be Quilter has finished seven baby quilts so far this year, and they're all adorable. I love, love, love this panel of smiling animal faces!

Janet from Simply Pieced has been making gorgeous baby quilts. Make sure you visit her post to see the great texture the quilting adds and the back, which looks just as impressive as the front! And she did a pair of quilts for twins that are equally wonderful. 

I've been putting off this part and hoping that I wouldn't have to write it at all but, after this week, I feel like it's time to explain why I've only finished one baby quilt and two tops in the past three months.

The goal I announced when I started the Let's Make Baby Quilts linky party last year was to make 50 baby quilts in 2013. I managed to finish twenty-nine and was sure I'd do better this year. Fifty is an achievable goal. (In 2010, I made forty-seven little quilts before the wonderful group I'd been making them for disbanded and I ran out of steam.) I know I'll have another fifty quilt year, but it's not going to be 2014.

At the beginning of December, my husband was in a head on collision with a drunk driver. You can see what it did to our SUV in this post. We're lucky he's alive. I didn't write about his injuries here, because that's not my story to tell, but we got MRI results this week and it's bad news, worse than the scariest worst-case scenario that the orthopedist had prepared us for.

I don't really know what else to say, except that I've been completely rattled by this whole thing and it sounds like the worst is still to come. We're as okay as we can be given the circumstances.

A break from blogging doesn't make sense at this point, because I don't know what's happening from day to day. I still wind up with time to quilt and write, but it's going to be less and less predictable. And since I really need to use it for stress relief right now, I'm going to completely drop the one-baby-quilt-a-week goal for the moment and just work on whatever seems like a good idea that particular day. Half inch finished squares are an amazing distraction and so is free motion quilting.

Please stick with me, even though I don't have many new baby quilts of my own to share right now.  The Let's Make Baby linky party will continue to go live every Friday at 4am Pacific Time, even if it's just the linky without any original content. I'll continue to feature my favorite baby quilts from each week and links to baby quilt tutorials. I have plans for new tutorials of my own and will add them to the blog as I get them written. When I find free patterns and tutorials online, I add them to the Let's Make Baby Quilts page over on Facebook and my Baby Quilt Tutorials board on Pinterest. (If anyone is interested in doing a guest post about what inspires their baby quilts, or wants to promote patterns for baby quilts, or something else that ties in with the theme, please send me an email!)

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

Still there!

Do you ever go back to the thrift store, hoping that by some miracle you'll be able to pick up something you saw but didn't buy the previous week? I'm avoiding Value Village as long as I can because that steamer trunk is still haunting me. When we went down the following week, it was still in the front window and had been marked down to sixty dollars.  Sometimes resisting temptation is really, really hard -- but I managed!

Things are never there on the return trip. Last weekend, I think we set a record for going back and finding that thing you should've bought in the first place.

Back when we were first married, or maybe a bit before that, Hubby and I were exploring a junk store on the way to the coast. I can date that trip to a pretty narrow window because he bought a can of  paint for his Dodge Charger. What kind of weird quirk is it to stumble across the exact factory color that matches your twenty year old car,  especially when it's a single can of paint that's just sitting there?

I'd completely forgotten about the paint. What I didn't forget were the new old stock dresses. I didn't want one at the time, but I knew in the back of my mind that they were something neat. I've thought of them quite a few times over the years, still not wanting one for myself, but hoping that they'd been found and bought by someone who'd appreciate them.

Saturday I bought one for my teenage daughter, which has to be one of my weirdest junk shopping stories ever. They'd been moved from a back corner of the hardware building up into the front of the store and the price had been raised considerably over what it was in the very early 1990s, but they're the same dresses. (Yes, I asked!)

This has led to discussions about what "No-Iron" actually means. Ever tried to get creases out of a jumper that's been folded in its original packaging for forty years? That was a new challenge.

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style, Thrifter Maker Fixer.

{Yarn Along} The Memory Child

I'm reusing a picture from an earlier Yarn Along post because everything is still green and looks pretty much the same, despite hours and hours of knitting. I don't know if these projects are really this boring or if it's just because it's all so green. I like green, a lot, but I'm really wanting to cast on something pink or red or any other color! 

I read The Memory Child by Steena Holmes almost straight through, with one quick break to stretch my legs and feed my kids lunch. It's obvious from page one that something is wrong in Diane's world. She was apprehensive about having a baby, afraid that the dark tragedy from her own childhood might repeat itself. Now that she's given birth to Grace, she can't imagine anything better than motherhood. But things aren't quite right. Her husband Brian hasn't returned from his company's London offices, and he hasn't been calling or responding to her emails. Their live-in nanny, who takes constant notes about Diane, seems completely unconcerned with the baby's welfare.

After a couple of chapters, I really thought I knew where the author was headed, but I was completely wrong. The ending hit me like a punch to the stomach. The impact might have been stronger due to recent experiences of my own, but I still didn't see it coming.

I highly recommend this one if you're looking for a suspenseful read. I'll definitely be looking for Steena Holmes's other books.

Quilted Turtles

This is one of those long-term projects. I made the first of the blocks back in October 2012 and put together a tutorial explaining how to make the block with the AcccuQuilt Go! Drunkard's Path and Dresden Plate dies. Then I went through the usual routine of trouble choosing the right green fabrics (because I only got to use 16 different prints -- that's daunting!), putting it aside to work on something else, losing some of the pieces (big problem since the light blue background is a vintage sheet that I was never going to be able to match), not knowing what to do for a border...messing up the math for the border...  I got the top assembled last September and basted it on Mom's longarm in late November.

The plan has always been to quilt each turtle in a different design.

Turtle #1 is a single continuous spiral, which was probably the worst idea I could have come up with. This quilt is so much bigger and heavier than anything I've done on my DSM in recent months that I couldn't maneuver it smoothly. I thought it would be just like quilting a spiral on a baby quilt, but it's not for a lot of different reasons that I should have probably realized in advance.

Turtle #2 is a kind of radiating flower design. Starts in the center and goes out, just like the spiral, but it offers a lot more opportunities to start and stop without obvious glitches in the stitching.  

Turtle #3 is a kind of pebbled design, which really  shows up well on this fabric. I think it might be my favorite turtle so far!

More Lozenges

Now that I've got some dark and light lozenges to mix together, I'm seeing how this quilt is going to work with my fabrics. And I'm loving the idea of it even more than I did last week. 

happy sigh  Can I drop everything else and just  cut pieces for a while? Unlike Bonnie, I'm using 2 1/2" and 1 1/2" strips. Makes it easier to scavenge from other projects! 

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. 

Spring? Really?!

People have been talking about being anxious for Spring and I've thought they were nuts. Because in my mind, it's apparently still mid-January. All of the stuff that we're still doing to deal with the fallout from Hubby's car accident in December has been keeping me so distracted that I don't even know what month it is anymore. 

Not even the daffodils that have popped up in the front yard gave me a hint. 

But on Monday I saw asparagus at Safeway for ninety-nine cents a pound and it finally clicked. It's the middle of March! Spring is actually just around the corner...

And I'm pinning Halloween crafts for paper plate skeletons. This is seriously cute and I want one. I might not even wait until October --  my little guys could study some bones and make it a school project.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 2 1/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 7 yards
Net Added for 2013: 4 3/4  yards

Yarn Used this Week: 125 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 125 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 200 yards
Net Added for 2013: 75 yards

I just realized that, by cutting and pasting and not thinking anything has changed about my yarn since the previous week, I've counted the same 200 yards of yarn as added every single week since mid-January. This week's totals are correct. And I went back and fixed all of the previous weeks. If I'm going to be this good, I'm getting credit for it!

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Clamshells?

This time, I followed the clamshell tutorial from The Inbox Jaunt.

There's a lot wrong with my clamshells, but on a quilt with prints and little pieces and seams, I don't think it would be as obvious.  And, with enough practice, I think they'll look pretty good. I hate how tiny these stitches are, but I can't make the curved shapes quickly enough to get any kind of decent stitch length. Yet.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/14/14}

Have you seen Cute Quilts for Kids by Kristin Roylance? The nine baby quilts are adorable, ranging from butterflies and flowers to dinosaurs and boats, and most of them have unique three-dimensional touches. I'm dying to try the butterflies and those boats with the chenille waves. You can see all of the quilts on the book's product page over at Martingale's website. So many baby quilt patterns look the same, but these designs really stand out. Another things I like is that they're not huge. I can understand the theory behind making quilts that kids can use for years to come, but I prefer to make smaller quilts. If nothing else, it gives you an excuse to make more as your favorite little ones grow bigger.  

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

a rescued quilt

Of course the week that I write a post about not feeling the need to rescue quilts that we know nothing about just because someone made them, I remember that I've got a rescue quilt I haven't posted about yet.

Look what I found in the Goodwill bins on the same trip that rewarded me with the Happy Hollisters...

I can't even begin to tell you why I bought this little quilt. It's not at all my style, but I kind of like it. Mostly because of that yellow wool. And that big chunky black and white plaid. This thing has amazing texture. It's small, about 30 x 45." And it's backed with the softest, prettiest flannel...

While Teenage Daughter dug for treasures, I walked around with the quilt in our shopping cart. Goodwill Outlet strategy #1 - if you even think you might possibly want something, get it in your cart fast. You can always change your mind and put it back. Strategy #2 -- keep a sharp eye on your cart in case another customer decides to shop from it. If you've got small kids to put in the cart, they can guard your potential purchases for you.

 I definitely didn't need a little wool quilt. I wasn't quite sure whether I wanted it or not. I think what finally tipped the scale was the price. At $1.39 per pound, I figure it can't have cost more than two bucks. At that price, it made more sense to buy the thing than to leave it behind and regret the decision later. (There's a tag still attached from the regular Goodwill store -- if it had been $9.99 when I saw it, I wouldn't even have been tempted.)

For the past month, it's been living on my enclosed porch because I  can't figure out what to do with it. The outlet bins aren't clean and even though it doesn't really look or smell dirty, I can't convince myself to bring it into the house without washing it.

Did I mention that it's wool? I know how to hand wash wool. It should be fine. Worst case scenario, it felts and I wind up taking off and reattaching the backing to fit its new size.

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style, Thrifter Maker Fixer.

{Yarn Along} A Hatchling!

It's a sort of misshapen knit egg. Wanna guess what's inside?

Because of course the spring knitting should include a baby alligator, especially when every project I've been slogging along on for the past three months is green.

The pattern is Egg to Alligator from Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out Knit Toys by Susan B. Anderson, which I blogged about when it was first released last June.  The green yarn is Red Heart Super Saver which I bought when I was knitting the Christmas ornaments and white mystery acrylic from a fox hat Teenage Daughter knit.

He's a quick little knit -- I cast on Monday afternoon and added the legs and wove in the ends on Tuesday morning. I tinkered with the legs a bit so that he'd have actual feet, and did a three needle bind off instead of kitchner stitch for the end of his nose.

I've been wanting to reread Duma Key by Stephen King. It's one of those books that I haven't been able to shake from my memory.  Have I mentioned that I'm a sucker for haunted houses? Although in this case it's an island. And Edgar's problems with his memory, his descriptions of "sideways thinking" when a word he needs is just on the tip of his tongue but he can't say it -- those scare me more than any of the supernatural elements in the book because a couple of times a year my migraines do that to me. It's not something I want to think about too hard when I'm not in the middle of one.  This time, I was more focused on the supernatural events. Something about abandoned old houses really creeps me out, especially the one in this book!

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. I'm also linking to

Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Get Crafting Friday, Pinworthy Projects, Freedom Fridays, Inspired Friday. and Friday Favs.

Edited to add -- I just saw that the designer has two free inside out patterns, Egg to Turtle and Duck to Bunny

Be Brave!

Right after our oldest was born, Hubby and I ventured into the local Asian market. I can't remember what we were looking for that day, but that was the start of it. I only remember the timing because the owner offered to hold my baby for me while we shopped and I was still deep in my "no one is ever going to hold my infant except for me" mode and the idea of leaving the baby carrier up by the cash register made me want to run for the door.

That Christmas, I went back and bought the hottest, scariest looking sauces I could find to put together a gift basket for Hubby. (I've posted about his taste in food before, and how it's  contagious.) That's when the fun started. Some of those bottles are still in my pantry because we're still afraid to open them. Some got used and enjoyed and we went back for more. Since then, we've found six or seven different markets that we go to on a regular basis.

It's resulted in a lot of experiments and dares, and a lot of new foods that have become part of our regular grocery shopping.

This clay jar has been sitting in the pantry for about three years. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but we haven't worked up the nerve to open it.

Edited to add: Thanks to Kathy (who is a no-reply blogger, so I can't give her more credit than that) for shedding some light on the contents of the jar "The clay jar is preserved vegetables that you use when you make pot stickers. It is highly salted and needs to be rinsed before use. It lasts for years since it gets used at about 1tsp at a time. Refrige after opening." 

This stuff is candy (and the only reason we figured that out is because it was on the candy aisle.) The flavor was a surprise -- kind of like tame lemon drops. From the artwork, we were expecting something super sour or otherwise dramatic. There are red ones, too, but we can't decide what flavor those are. Maybe it's watermelon.

And this, the "purple rice porridge with mixed Chinese sweets," is just indescribable. It looked good at the time, and it had a cute little folded spoon under the plastic cap, but I just don't get it. Maybe it was because Teenage Daughter opened it up for a midnight snack and it was late and I wasn't hungry or in the mood to experiment. I don't think I want to give that one a second try. But I washed out the can and I'm going to keep pens in it in the sewing room because I like the look of it.

I still have the lingering fear that I'll poison the family by not knowing some important detail about our latest experiment, but so far we've been fine. And, like I said, we've added some really neat new vegetables and sauces and noodles to our regular diet.

Anyone want to bet on how long it'll be before we work up the nerve to try Durian?

This post is linked to WFMW at We are THAT family.

Lozenges!

I'm loving the idea of this quilt, but I'm still not sure how it's going to look with my fabrics. I could play it safe and stick to my bins of lights and darks and make a version that's similar to the antique quilt that started this whole thing...and that's tempting!  Then I look at some of the wild prints that Bonnie is cutting up and I really want to see where she's going with hers.

This could be the perfect project for me right now. It's just a little bit less mindless than Teenage Daughter's postage stamp quilt, but it doesn't require a lot of decision making as far as fabric placement. As long as I can make up my mind which fabrics to cut to get myself started!

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times.

Would you ever throw out a quilt?

Beth's post about a sad quilt sighting, and the comments she got, especially the one about rescuing the quilt and driving away with it, started me thinking -- why do we always assume that the quilter, or knitter, or whoever made the object that we think is being abused would be upset? What's with the need to rescue those handmade items we find at Goodwill and yard sales, even if we don't love them ourselves?

I don't think I've gotten rid of a quilt yet, but I've sure tossed enough sweaters into the trash. Including all three from my accidentally ugly sweaters post. And yes, I do mean the trash. Those were so awful I felt the need to remove them from the world. Other, less icky sweaters have made their way to the thrift shop because they were outgrown and no one else in the  family was ever going to wear them. And they weren't special enough to keep forever and ever.

When I donated them, I assumed that they might get worn by someone else who liked them. It never crossed my mind that another knitter might feel obligated to rescue them from the racks just because they were handmade and she was imagining some poor grandmother who slaved away and had her hard work rejected.

I made them. My family used them. I made the decision to get rid of them. And I can't believe that I'm the only one who's done this.

When my father's parents died, everything my mother had ever made them found its way back to her. It makes sense that my aunts wouldn't be the ones to get rid of it, but Mom certainly didn't keep it all. A lot of the things were duplicates of ones she'd made for herself and her own mother. I adopted a few things and the rest got tossed out into the world. Honestly, after twenty years, tastes had changed and no one wanted them! A lot, but not all, of Grandma's ceramics were absorbed into our households.

We can't keep everything that every woman in the family ever made -- although sometimes it seems like I'm trying! And we definitely don't have to keep everything we've made ourselves.

Weekly Stash Report

Nothing in and nothing out -- but I'm working on things that will change that soon!

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 2 1/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 7 yards
Net Added for 2013: 4 3/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 0 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 200 yards
Net Added for 2013: 200 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Free Cozy Mysteries for your Kindle!

It's a good day for free cozy mysteries over at Amazon... I found several that are new to me, and downloaded them all. I haven't read any of these myself yet, but if I wait until I've found time to read them, they may or may not be free anymore. They may not be free by the time you read these (Amazon prices change quickly, especially on ebooks) so make sure to check the prices before clicking that order button!

Murder by Syllabub--
A ghost in Colonial dress has been wreaking havoc at an old plantation house in Virginia. The house is owned by Elizabeth Smithwood, the best friend of Ellen’s Aunt Mary. Mary is determined to fly to the rescue, and Ellen McKenzie has no choice but to leave her real estate business and new husband to accompany her. Who else will keep the old girl out of trouble? When Ellen and Aunt Mary arrive, they find that Elizabeth’s “house” comprises three sprawling buildings containing all manner of secret entrances and passages, not to mention slave cabins. But who owns what and who owned whom? After Monty—the so-called ghost and stepson of Elizabeth’s dead husband—turns up dead in Elizabeth’s house, suspicion falls on her. Especially when the cause of death is a poisoned glass of syllabub taken from a batch of the sweet, creamy after-dinner drink sitting in Elizabeth’s refrigerator. Monty had enemies to spare. Why was he roaming the old house? What was he searching for? To find the truth, Ellen and her Aunt Mary will have to do much more than rummage through stacks of old crates; they will have to expose two hundred years of grudges and vendettas. The spirits they disturb are far deadlier than the one who brought them to Virginia. Murder by Syllabub is the fifth book of the Ellen McKenzie Mystery series.

Murder Half Baked--
A dead man in the cemetery, another in the bakery. Ellen McKenzie has to find the killer soon ... before another death puts a stop to her wedding. The groom is Dan Dunham, Santa Louisa’s Chief of Police. The guest list is growing and Ellen’s dreams of a small, intimate candlelight ceremony are rapidly disappearing. A major distraction is Ellen’s quest to find a new building for Grace House, a halfway house for needy women. Then she finds old Dr Sadler dead in the cemetery, his head bashed in by the arm of a marble angel. Every suspect is connected to Grace House. After it goes up in flames, all the residents, including one new-born, move in with Ellen and Dan. Will Ellen and Dan ever solve the murders and get their lives back?

Deadly Magic--
A night of magic turns into a night of murder.
It's Halloween night and the normally unhappy co-workers of the Straker Toy Company are eagerly looking forward to the celebration of their tyrannical boss' fiftieth birthday. None more so than Grace Holliday. After all, it's not every day she gets invited to the annual costumed bash at the Dragon's Lair, the premier magic theater in Manhattan.
What promises as a night of magic and mystery, quickly turns into a night of mayhem and murder when the boss' equally tyrannical wife dies on stage.
According to the police, it was an obvious suicide. Now it's up to Grace to discover which one of her co-workers pulled off the trick of the year before she becomes the killer's next victim.

Killer Cupcakes--
Things are going great for Lexy Baker. She's finally opened her dream bakery, gotten rid of her cheating boyfriend and settled into her grandmothers house with her perky dog Sprinkles at her side.
But her blissful life doesn't last long. When her ex boyfriend is found poisoned with cupcakes from her bakery, Lexy finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation headed up by her hunky neighbor detective Jack Perillo.
With the help of a gang of iPad toting, would-be detective grandmothers, Lexy decides to take it upon herself to find the real murderer in order to clear her name and get her bakery back in business.
As things heat up on the murder trail, in the kitchen and between Lexy and the hunky detective, it's a race against time to put the real murderer behind bars and get back to baking.
Will Lexy get her man?

{Whatcha Reading?} The Devil in the Corner

From Amazon: 

Penniless, and escaping the horrors of life as a governess to brutal households, Maud seeks refuge with the cousin-by-marriage she never knew. But her efforts to please Juliana are met with increasing levels of contempt as it becomes apparent that Juliana is jealous of Maud's youth and beauty. Further, Juliana quashes Maud's emerging friendships with the staff and locals - especially John, the artist commissioned to restore the sinister Doom in the local church. John, however, is smitten with Maud and makes every effort to woo her. Maud, isolated and thwarted at every turn, continues to take the laudanum which was her only solace in London (and which was commonplace in Victorian London). Soon she becomes dependent on the drug - so is this the cause of her fresh anxieties? Or is someone - or something - plotting her demise? Is the devil in the corner of the Doom a reality, or a figment of her imagination? And what is its power? Will Maud ever learn the truth of her inheritance and be free? Will she lose John for ever?

This one is wonderfully dark and gothic, with an unreliable narrator who kept me guessing until the absolute end.  Maud is in a desperate situation, without a penny to her name and completely dependent upon Juliana’s whims.  She’s haunted by her past, struggling to exist in her current circumstances, but her life is so close to changing for the better. 

In case you're wondering what it looks like, the painting in the book is inspired by a real work of art, the Wenhaston Doom.

Disclosure -- the publisher provided me with a review copy.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/7/14}

I've got four baby quilt tops finished and ready to quilt, but now I'm dragging my feet. I want to stretch myself a bit and do something fancier than my usual meander, but I can't quite work up the nerve.

Here's this week's addition to the pile --

If you missed it last Friday, go over and read Keera's post about her baby quilt.

And have you seen the free pattern for the Road Runner Blanket?! Now I want to drop everything and start making little applique cars. The pattern is for a twin size quilt, but I think a few of the cars would make a perfect baby quilt.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

Trying to work up my nerve..

This is a kinda sad attempt at Swirls and Twirls from the Inbox Jaunt. I'm not happy with it, but I zig-zagged the edges and I figure it'll make a usable mug rug until I have enough nice ones.

If you haven't seen Lori's blog yet, she has a whole amazing slew of free motion quilting tutorials. This is the kind of quilting I want to do. All of those gorgeous borders -- that's what I want to do with the baby bird quilt from earlier this week.

That's why I've got four unquilted baby quilt tops sitting here. I'm resisting the temptation to just do my usual meander.

I'm linking this post to Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Get Crafting Friday, Pinworthy Projects, Freedom Fridays, Inspired Friday. and Friday Favs.

More Mysterious Vintage

That little antique needlecase that appeared in my living room has possible explanations, but these have us baffled!  Would you believe that they turned up in my parents' garage, in my dad's box of oil rags? Mom saw them, intervened, and passed them on to me. 

No one has the slightest idea where they came from or how they wound up with the oil rags. (Do I need to mention that no one in our family would do that to pretty needlework?)  I don't know what I'm going to do with them, but the embroidery is absolutely gorgeous.  I'll keep them safe until I figure something out. 

There's one piece with a monogram. That could be from Delores, my father's mother, but aren't monograms usually the last initial? I can't figure out what this piece of hemmed flannel would have been. Or even if it went with the other two pieces. 

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style