Weekend before Thanksgiving

I have a busy weekend planned just ahead of the holidays.

Friday, Nov. 21st from 6 - 9 pm I will be part of Webberville's (MI) Ladies Night Out.  This is the 6th year for this event, my first.  Should be a fun time with all the vendors out there catering to women (JamBerry nails, Mary Kay, etc).  It is held at the Webberville Library.

Saturday, Nov. 22nd, I arise bright and early to head to the Sand Creek Craft Show (6518 Sand Creek Hwy).  This will be my third time there -- always a fun time and lots of crafts to look at and buy for Christmas presents.  I will be in the high school gym, booth #106 from 8 am - 3 pm.

Sunday, a little closer to home I head to Morrice Elementary School where they hold their annual PTO Fall Craft Show from 9 am - 4 pm.  This is one of first ones that I did when I started out. 

Daughter's Graduation Quilt

My oldest daughter has graduated from college.  Hurrah!  She is now a Funeral Director!

While I was in Florida this past March I naturally stopped in the local quilt store.  There I found a panel of eight horses.

 My daughter spent many a summer at horse camp and still dreams of owning her own horse.  Since she would be graduating in another few months I thought this would be the springboard for a quilt. 

When my husband and I drove from Michigan to North Carolina for her graduation I brought the panel along.  Knowing that I hit every quilt shop along the way she already had a few lined up for us to go  visit.  The second shop was a gold mine.  The owner had a fabric estate sale going on and her shop was loaded with material plus sale prices. 

My daughter found two pieces of fabric that she loved but worried that they wouldn't go together.  They were both bubble fabrics so I figured we'd see what happened.  I could always take one out.

Next we found some fabric with variations of blue with a little bit of purple thrown in and a hint of green.  Okay, there was some of that going on in the panels.

Now how much to buy?  I had no idea what pattern I was going to use so I guessed.  And boy, as you'll see I lucked out.

I came home and found a pattern that I thought would show off the panels nicely in the 100th issue of QuiltMania entitled Eleanor, which I had also purchased in Florida.  Slight problem though, the panels were too small.  Hence, the black line that you see.  The quilt also needed something bright.  Going through my stash I found the yellow/orange piece.

And then -- what do you do with eight blocks?  I needed one more but what?  I went through many ideas and eventually decided to quit this quilt for awhile and go on to my fairy quilt that I had lined up next.  I actually had backing for this one: huge flowers that I found in a shop a few years back. And that's where I found my last block to do. Since my daughter's middle name is Rose I thought that would be apropos.  

The banner that runs along the bottom was ALL that I had.  I have one inch left over.

I have a little of the other fabrics and hopefully enough of the blue left for binding.  My daughter also liked a panel of foxes with matching fox fabric.  That will go on the back.

Hope to have this done for Christmas!

For Kindle Readers #3

                                 

                                      Beg(ga)(he)r, my third book is now out on Kindle.   

A vacation goes awry for a group of sorority sisters when their one sister wants them all to change their identities for the time that they are together.  As much as her friends protest DeMaris takes on the role of a best-selling author.  After finding a safe deposit key and a key to an apartment in a shady part of town it's too much for DeMaris.  If she's going to pretend to be a mystery writer why not try to solve a real one?

And the girls find themselves in trouble once again.

Dragon Quilt Done!

                                           Finally, it's done!  Quilting done and binding on.

                 Next up: a fairy quilt and my daughter's graduation present quilt.  Both, almost done.

Book: Truly, Everything

Truly, Everything is now out on Kindle.  This is the sequel to Owe It To The Wind and won ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award for Romance.  It was also a Finalist in the Eric Hoffer Award and Indie Excellence Award.

Kindle Readers

Just a quick note to all you Kindle readers: I now have "Owe It To The Wind" out on Kindle world-wide.  This is my first book which won First Place in ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards for Romance.

Walk in the Woods quilt

The Walk in the Woods pattern is one of my favorites.  In fact, I have another one in the making.  The blocks are easy to do and it only takes two different fabrics.  Whenever I am going through my stash and I see two that look good together I immediately put them aside. I made this quilt a few years ago however the yo-yo's attached with thread were too delicate and we would catch them on things and break them.  Needed a solution.  I decided to string them on ribbon and one day I was walking through Costco, came around the corner and there it was.  A wide, gold, wired ribbon.  I spent 3 days sewing the yo-yo-s in place, making new ones for the ones that were lost and now I have my quilt back.  Hopefully this has made it secure enough to last.  Now, what to do with the remaining 35 yards of ribbon . . .

Memories of a small town

My Dad grew up in a small town in southern Illinois.  I know very little about it except that my grandfather was the Postmaster there and my father and his friends enjoyed hopping on moving trains. 

Recently I have been going through boxes of my parents that have long been packed away.  I had several of my Mom's things.  Nothing of my Dad's until now.  What a treasure trove!  And the ideas for stories have been whirling in my head after reading some of the newspaper items that he kept.

My Dad left this small town in 1924 and never went back.  Am not sure of the date but I know that the town burned down at some point after he left.  I have photos of people and buildings.  A few of the people I recognize the name and think, "So that's what they looked like."  For the first time I see an adult picture of my Dad with hair!

I see a road trip in my future plus a new book. 

Lines in Nature

While in Florida traveling with my sorority sisters I picked up a book called, Mark Making by Helen Parrott.  Why a whole book on lines?  Why buy a book about ordinary lines? 

It's a different way of looking at everyday items (although the reason I bought it was because I liked the holes punched in the cover and THAT gave me an idea). I have only looked at a few pages so far but one of them showed pictures of sketches the author had done of a tree scar.  My immediate thought was, 'Yeah, I'm not going to be drawing any lines that I see.'

What did I do today?  I drove into town to the library, picked up an audiobook from an author I've never heard of (but I need to take my own advice of trying someone new) -- and sitting in my driveway listening to a few minutes of it I looked up to see -- really see -- the tree in front of me. 

This tree has been growing there for probably thirty years or longer.  I have pictures of it from when it was just a sapling.  Have I ever really looked at it?  Sat under it for shade but no, have not paid much attention to it otherwise. 

Is it a W? A couple of Y's hanging out? Or V's? 

From here I clicked pictures of various leaves in my garden. Snapping them only for their lines. 

 Reminds me of the Zentangle movement.  Just lines.  But look what they can do. 

I need to revamp my Willowrose Publishing logo.  Maybe I've found the idea for W.  Maybe I've found something new to quilt. 

A Place to Read

Do you have a favorite place to read?  I have a couple.  One of them is in my back yard.  Quiet and peaceful I can relax, read, check out nature -- once I had a deer walk right by me -- and just enjoy the solitude.

This is also a great spot for me to sit down when I'm out walking to reflect and think about the book that I am currently working on.  Where is it going?  How am I going to get my character out of that tight spot I got her in?  Do I really think she's in love with that guy?

Sometimes, something totally new, out of the blue, comes to me. 

Reading to Imagining

While outside weeding in my very over-grown gardens I realized that I could imagine perfectly and on a tremendously small scale relate to the book I had just finished reading.

My Dad transplanted these yellow flowers from the house that I grew up in.  Yes, they are over my head and have not bloomed yet but they are taking over everywhere!  I needed to thin them out and in doing so thought about Lost In Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff.  A very good read.  Survivors of a plane crash in New Guinea during World War II, I pictured myself in the jungle and what it must have been like.  Besides the wild animals that roamed the island they had to worry about cannibals and the Japanese.

My biggest threat was possibly finding a garter snake.  

The survivors in all their physical pain still had to walk to a clearing -- a landing site.

I am not minimizing what they went through but I love when I can really get into a book.  When 'I'm there' with the characters. 

Have you ever read a book where you could put yourself right in the pages?

Lovina's Pressed Flowers again

Almost done!  Only one more block to make.  Have the fabrics picked out.  
Then finish making yo-yo's, put them on the hexagons that don't yet have them and sew together.

  

The hard but fun part will be rearranging the blocks.  Several times.

Breaking my string, Part 2

In my last post I talked about people at book signings asking me if I had swear words in my books or were they Christian/spiritual?

Now I am heading in the other direction . . .

Recently a mother and daughter stopped at my booth.  "Oh, look Mom!  An author!" said the daughter.  She picked up one of my books.  "We both love to read.  Don't we, Mom?"

The mother, somewhere in her 70's or 80's, hurried over, "Yes, yes, we do.  Listen, are these anything like 50 Shades of Gray?"

"Mom!"

"I just loved that --"

"Mother!"

"I read all three books inside a week.  So, are these books anything like that?"

"Umm," I looked at the daughter with her mouth hung open and then back to the mother, "No, but I have swear words."

Breaking my string . . .

For the few years that I have been doing book signings it seems that at every one of them someone (or two, or three) will come up and ask me, "Do you use any swear words?" or a variation of this.  I find this odd in that, they never ask about sex or violence in my books.  

I finally started asking people why they are only interested in that aspect.  "I never read a book with swear words."  But what about violence?  Sex?  "Oh, that's just part of the story.  There is no place for swear words, though."

Okay.

Recently I was nearing the end of a book signing wondering when the question was going to come up.  Maybe, just maybe, my string of people asking me this was  broken.  I checked my watch, a half hour to go and here she came.

With a stern expression she asked, "Are these Christian books?"

I stared back at her, "No."

 She slammed her big purse on my table.  "I'll take one."

Beg(ga)(he)r e-book discounted

For those of you interested in e-reading I now have my latest book, Beg(ga)(he)r out.  And until June 13, 2014 it is discounted 50%.  Go to the link: http://smashwords.com/profile/view/jrarmstrongbooks and at check-out type in code: LD28Z

Knit Clothes Pin Bag

I am one of those people who enjoy hanging my clothes out on the line to dry.  However, I always seem to have a flimsy bag to hold my clothes pins in.  After a very long winter of snow and cold it was nice to have a few days in the 60's. I took some freshly washed sheets outside and there I was with my pins falling out of my bag.  Need, once again to get a new one.  Something durable.  Something to last a few seasons. 

Now there are several things I could have done but I'm not one to do the norm. 

And what about all those selvedges that I've been collecting from making quilts?  I actually have two sets and friends have also donated their selvedges so I have a lot.  One set of just the selvedge and the other group has at least an inch of the actual fabric attached.  My thin group I have tied together and rolled into a ball.  The idea was to knit something with it. 

And for two days I did just that. 

Next up: bags, purses, place-mats, table runners . . .

Dragon Quilt -- Done

My 64 x 64 in. dragon quilt top is done!  I appliqued the 4 dragons on last night.  Next up: have it quilted and put the binding on. 




Close up of center: 

And the 4 dragons:

Dragon Quilt

Being snowed in and going a little nuts I decided to get out a new project.  I went out to my studio and found a box where I had started putting fabrics together to make a small quilt.  Using the book:  Prairie-Point Pizzazz by Karen Sievert this is what I made. 

Close up of the 120 prairie points that I made from 2 different fabrics:

After I was all done it dawned on me that I have an embroidery machine and that I had recently purchased a design package full of dragons.  Why not put those in the corners? 

I made this on a separate piece of cloth to see how well it stitched up.  I was impressed and have 3 other upright dragons picked out.  I will probably carefully cut these out and applique them on.

Author Blog Tour

I have done my first author blog tour.  If you would like to learn a little bit more about me head on over to: http://wp.me/p40rbA-57.

Sewing

Serendipity --

The dictionary says that this means: an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.  Have you ever had one of those times?  

I have had them when I'm writing.  Far down the road it will hit me:  so that's why I wrote in there about that.  I had no idea why I did that but now I do.  That ties it all up.  I have read where other authors say they have done the same thing.

On a more material level I can remember the time ages back when my sewing machine broke and I took it in for repair.  A few weeks later I picked it up.  Right away I noticed that the top was not the same.  It was a dingy yellow compared to my white one with the crack and chip on the top.  I did check the sewing machine and found my sticker with my name and address.  Alright.  I at least had the right sewing machine, forget about the case.  

But it bothered me.  I felt there was no yin to my yang.  That my sewing machine was missing something.  And this was silly.  I had a much better case now although the color wasn't the greatest to my way of thinking.  

Flash forward 10 years.  My friend who has the same type sewing machine takes hers in for repair at the same place.  They no longer give out loaners so she buys a used sewing machine, same kind.  Some months later I ask to borrow it as mine is broken again.  I get it home and look at it.  Isn't that funny, it has a crack in the top.  Oh, look, a chip.  Just like mine had.  But that's not possible.  

I popped the top off and flipped it over.  And there was my sticker with my name and address.  

It had been to some strangers house for years
Traded in for a newer sewing machine
Shortly after my friend walked in with her broken down one
She picked that one out among all the other used models and bought it
The one and only time I have ever asked to borrow anybody's sewing machine

Yin had finally come home.