Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Quilt By Association!

Riddle: Can you find the odd one out - "Stun", "Ton", "Evil", "Letter", "Mood", "Bad", "Snap", "Straw"?

Is anyone out there named Glenna?  While selling and signing books last night I found a copy of Hanging by a Thread already autographed to “Glenna” and with an inaccurate punch line: “Arsenic last time, here’s” which is as far as I’d gotten before realizing that the arsenic was this time.  So that makes the book useless, unless your name is Glenna and you don’t mind a sig line that doesn’t make sense.  But if it is and you don’t, contact me and I’ll send you the book for free.  (I will not ask for proof of your name, btw.)

What a great night last night was!  I was invited to speak to the Quilters Sew-ciety of Rochester, MN.  It was a big gathering.  Like many stitching groups, they have divided into those who can meet during the day and those who can meet in the evening.  But several times a year, they combine.  This is a big club, and there were over a hundred members present for the “salad supper.”  Such salads!  And desserts, too!  These ladies can really cook as well as make fabulous quilts!  They had a “show and tell,” at which gorgeous quilts were shown – and the stories they told to go with them were touching and/or amusing.  Best of all, they really loved my talk.  They laughed hard at my jokes and emphathized with my problem of frantically learning to stitch well enough to write stories about it.  I wish I could quilt, I saw some designs last night that are truly works of art, not just heirloom but museum quality.  I did bring a quilt which made a background for me while I talked.  I told the story: I used to do signings at quilt shows, and walking around on breaks I started buying fabric that had a chicken theme.  I accumulated so much I thought maybe I should make a crazy quilt of it.  But I kept making mistakes in cutting squares and became alarmed at how much expensive fabric I was ruining.  I found a woman in Wisconsin who took my fabric – and a number of chicken-themed pieces I’d stitched – and made my quilt for me.  It’s beautiful, but not magnificent.  If ever a quilt show comes to your area, go take a look and prepare to have your socks knocked off.  I'm attaching a photo of one of the quilts shown last night.  Isn't it great?


Heard from my editor this morning: she wants the revised manuscript of The Drowning Pool by the week of July 15.  I've just started looking at her notes, and they seem very clear.  Meanwhile I submitted a synopsis of the one about finding a mail bag full of undelivered letters dating back to 1987 - tentatively named The Needle Case, and am hoping to hear positive remarks about it soon.  Just keepin' on keepin' on!

I’ve been complaining – a lot – about the weather we’ve been having here in Minnesota, so I should take a paragraph to tell about how absolutely magnificent the weather has been the last few days.  Sunny, temps in the upper seventies or low eighties with low humidity, and dropping down into the lower sixties or even upper fifties at night to make sleeping with the windows open a lovely experience.  Driving home from Rochester last night, the air was sweet with young growing things.  Makes playing golf a marvelous experience, even if I don’t get a par on a single hole.  I will note that the goslings by the ponds are at an ugly stage of growth, no longer the darling little fuzzballs they were a few weeks ago but all feet and neck and no feathers.

Answer:  "Letter". Every other word makes sense when read backwards.

2 comments:

Christine Thresh said...

I love reading your Tuesday posts. I hope your weather continues to be nice. It was fun to read about the quilt show.

Betty Hechtman said...

I'm glad to hear your talk went well. Great that you are finally getting some good weather.