tools of the Trade

It's not easy to escape the lure of a new tool. I'm impressed with the simplicity of my blogmates' needs. My collection of got-to-have gizmos and gadgets threatens to take over my sewing room. I seem to have my own personal Billy Mays shouting in my head, listing the ways this tool or that gadget will a) ease the process or b) save time or c) make this bestest project I've ever, ever made.

Along the way, I've invested in things I don't like to use, can't figure out how to use or that flat out just don't work. I've struggled to remember how to use the blasted thing, like that neat tool for turning piping inside out. It works great, I just need to read the directions every time. I've held a quilting ruler in 8 different directions before finding the one that allows me to read the dimension I need. I've parked the unopened package next to others on my someday I’ll need this shelf.

Lately, I’ve purchased two tools that I truly love. One saved my fingers; the other my sanity.

In my first book, WILD GOOSE CHASE, the first person is killed with a rotary cutter. Everyone who has handled a rotary cutter will eventually cut themselves with it. It’s a sharp circular blade that the user is running alongside the ruler, mere inches away from fingers. Fingers that stray over the line. The first time I cut myself with the rotary cutter, I was in the dining room standing over the brand new white carpet. Red, red blood bubbled out of the finger that I’d so carelessly moved just south of the ruler, right in the path of the blade. I hollered for help so I wouldn’t stain the new carpet.

This tool, the Gypsy Gripper, would have saved me and my carpet. It allows you to use the ruler with more control and better pressure than when just using your hand. And best of all, it keeps your fingers up out of reach. I move it from ruler to ruler. I love using it on the big 16”square. Really wrangles that baby.



This second tool is a ruler. The Creative Grids Curved Corner Cutter Ruler. Rounded corners make it easy to sew binding on or edgestitch. I like to use them on flannel receiving blankets, small quilts or projects like the walker bag I made a few weeks ago. You can use a plate or coffee can or water glass to draw that curve, but getting each corner the same becomes a challenge. This little ruler took care of that nicely.




Any gadget making your life easier? Let your inner Billy Mays out and tell us all about it. No need to shout, though.

PIQF

I'm signing books today and the rest of the weekend at the Always Quilting booth at Pacific International Quilt Festival. This is a big quilt convention held in the heart of Silicon Valley. Sorta kinda like the one Dewey gets into so much trouble at in Wild Goose Chase. This is the first convention since the book came out. It's lots of fun meeting fans, and making new ones. I've seen my books at three, wow, three different vendors. Thrilling.

Now if I could just find the charger to my camera battery. I bought a new camera a while back because the old one took too many batteries. I was forever replacing those double AAs. Rechargeable battery seemed like a good idea. The last time I charged this camera up, I put the charger someplace new. I remember thinking, "Gee, I hope I remember where I put this. Oh, I will, because THIS is a much BETTER place for it."

I cannot find it. So if you'd like to see pictures of the quilts at this quilt show, head on over to my friend's blog. Jaye has taken wonderful photos: http://artquiltmaker.blogspot.com/

Off to the show. Stop by Booth 1021 if you're in the neighborhood.

gifts

The best part about being a quilter is the gifts made for me by my extremely talented friends. It's smart to cultivate gifted people because they give the best presents.

Case in point. My friend Virginia made this art quilt for my birthday. Can you see the little cover of Wild Goose Chase? So cool!



And if that wasn't enough, my friends at Always Quilting made me an Old Maid's Puzzle quilt to celebrate the publication of the second quilting mystery. Pernille organized, Kit quilted it and a dozen or so friends worked on blocks to include in the quilt. The best part was they did it right under my nose. I was in the room (hey, it's a big room) working on my own projects while they were sewing up the blocks.



I lied to them. Not on purpose. I told them I had never received a quilt before. That was almost true. I did get this quilt from my quilt guild when I left Pennsylvania to move to California. It's full of very cool sentiments.




Along the way, I've been given plenty of unique, handmade treasures. If you don't have a crafter as a friend, I suggest you start looking for one. Now. Christmas will be here before you know it.

10 Lessons

Ten lessons I learned from quilting, stamping and writing

This is a version of the talk I gave at my launch parties last week, so if you couldn’t make it, you won’t miss out. In fact, I’ve added one lesson, so you’re actually winning.

10. There’s always a point where you look at what you’ve done and you’re tempted to throw it out and start over. Resist the urge.

9. You don’t need to know where you’re going. You’ve heard it before, but it is truly about the journey. Give in to not knowing where you’re headed. Often you find a more interesting path.

8. Quilts and books are like houses. A house needs a roof and four walls and a bathroom and a kitchen, but beyond that, the rest is up to you. Your quilt, your stamping project or book has to follow certain conventions, but there is a lot of leeway within that structure to make it your own.

7. Know that there’s a lot of work to be done, but don’t let that stop you. It’s helpful to work in chunks, and celebrate each time a chunk is finished.

6. Learn to take criticism. Finding someone who can be an impartial judge of your project, and can suggest new ways of looking at your work, will help you to soar to unimagined heights. Critiquing is a good thing.

Continued next Friday…

Inspiration

My readers ask me all the time about my protag's boyfriend, Buster. If you haven't read Wild Goose Chase (why not?),Buster is a tall, broad-shouldered, black haired, blue-eyed hunk. A homicide detective, he wears his hair short and his button-down shirts starched.

When people would ask me who Buster was, I'd lie. Up until now, that is.It's time to come clean.

This is the real model for Buster:



What? Want to see that again?



It's true. His name is Bo Bice and he was runner-up on American Idol, Season 4. Four years ago, I was writing the 200th draft of Wild Goose Chase and watching this rocker sing his heart out every week. I'd wait with girlish anticipation for the show to begin to see what he was going to do. It didn't hurt that he sang like a dream, really knew how to work the stage, and was easy on the eyes.

There’s a little Buster in Bo, and a lot of Bo in Buster. That's because underneath this tattooed, long-haired exterior is a Southern gentleman who loves his mother, has a silly love of puns and an innate talent that he’s passionate about sharing with the world.

There’s the nicknames. Neither one goes by their given name (Benjamin and Harold). There’s the guitar playing, although I’d admit Buster had never picked up a guitar until I saw Bo on American Idol. There’s the underlying sweetness that infuses their being.

But mostly it’s about following your dreams. Bo Bice was a guitar store manager, a bar band lead singer, when he went on American Idol. He came in second to Carrie Underwood. Since then he's put out two albums and traveled the country despite major health problems and starting a family.

I went to see Bo in concert this week, when he finally came to Northern California and was reminded how much he'd inspired me. Each morning before writing, I'd play me a little Bo Bice, just to get the creative juices flowing. His voice served to remind me about people who are lucky enough to realize their dreams.

So I gave Buster a little Bo to keep the dream alive.

One more. Just for inspiration.

Tag, you're it

I feel about memes about the same as I feel about chain letters. I try not to pass them on. But I was memmed by my friend, author, Jana McBurney-Lin, author of My Half of the Sky, which is about to come out in paperback. This is a great book club read, so get your copy. You can read the answers to her questions at her blog: http://www.myhalfofthesky.blogspot.com/

Why not? It's a way to get to know people a little bit better. Here we go:

What were you doing ten years ago?
I was taking classes to figure out what to do with my life. I’d recently moved to CA and was ready for a change. In the class, we were instructed to cut out pictures from magazines and collage our fantasy life. How very Californian, I thought. Mine was all about a quilt shop I would open. Plenty of fabric, fab teachers, cute displays. But then, waaayyy down in the corner, in the teeniest, tiniest spot was the cover of a mystery novel I’d written. This was a bit of a surprise to me. I’d thought I’d laid that particular dream to rest in the late eighties. As I was making the collage, I knew I didn’t want to open a quilt shop at all. The teacher said that might happen, that you might find out what you don’t want to do. It took me a few more years of looking at that tiny cover to get up the courage to begin to write Wild Goose Chase, but that was the seed.

What are five things on your to-do list today ?
Blog at Inkspot, the Midnight Ink Author site http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com/
Send out ARCs of Stamped Out.
Experiment with blueprint fabric to use as a clue
Write a new scene for Ocean Waves, the next in the Quilting Mystery series
Clean up sewing room

What snacks do you enjoy?
Eat between meals? MOI? I don’t think so. Actually, all my meals are between meals. I’m particularly fond of Starbucks lattes, and the occasional original coffee cake.

What would you do if you were a billionaire?
Travel. Build a huge quilting studio and fly all my friends in to sew when I get back from the traveling. Feed people who don’t have enough. Endow a scholarship for people who want to write and sew.

What are three of your bad habits?
Biting my nails
Reading instead of writing
Not entering in my check register when I use the ATM card, so at the end of the month, I have to force the balance, and own up that I spent $234 more than I thought. Every month!

Who have you tagged?

I’m tagging the rest of my Killer Hobbies team:
Play if you want to!

The question

Today is my launch party today. WooHoo! There will be quilts, food, and plenty of smiling faces. All the elements for a great day.

I’m looking forward to it. Especially the Q&A. I can guess what some of the questions will be. Where do you get your ideas? Is that quilting diva based on Alex Anderson and/or Eleanor Burns? Am I in it? Did you kill off someone you loathe? Am I the pretty one or the really annoying sister-in-law?

I’m not looking forward to the one question that gets asked of both quilters and writers: “How long did it take to: (Insert here) make that quilt/finish that novel?”

How long did it take? I find that impossible to answer. I don’t work to deadline with my quilts. I sew because I like to. The quilt is finished when the pattern is complete or the quilt is large enough to cover the bed. Or perhaps the baby has arrived two weeks early. Sometimes my inner designer tells me it’s finished.

How long did it take? How would I track the time? There’s the actual sewing time, of course. I could keep a log of time spent in the studio. What about the germinating? Just like novels, ideas for quilts come from everywhere. Do I count the time star-gazing that led me to sprinkling my sky with crystals? What about the long walks, where I often come up with a new solution to a tricky piecing problem. Shopping the quilt shops is an integral part. Do I count sleeping time if the right fabric choice came to me in the middle of the night? And how about studying time? Museum time, classes? Techniques learned and discarded often find a place in a different quilt.

How long did it take? What I want to know is what the questioner is really thinking with that question. Is it: a) If I had that kind of time, I could have done a better job. Or b) What a colossal waste of a life.

How long did it take? My first book took over five years to write, by the calendar. But that doesn’t take in Mr. Robinson’s senior English class or the business writing in night school or the proposal writing classes at the extension. The writers conferences, the seminars, the how-to books. The words that were cut, the drafts discarded, the characters axed. The other stories (typed, for crying out loud) that were almost sent into Redbook’s story contest.

So when that person in the back row, raises her hand and sweetly asks, “How long did it take you to write Wild Goose Chase?” I’ll be prepared. I know the answer.

My whole life.