Dru Ann Love is the creator/founder of dru’s book musings where the “day in the life” and “get to know you” segments are prominently featured. She is a 2017 Mystery Writers of America Raven Award recipient and a two-time Anthony Award finalist. Dru Ann is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and a reporting monitor for the Sister in Crime National Monitoring Project. Dru Ann will be the Malice Domestic Fan Guest of Honor for 2021. Check out Dru's book musings at drusbookmusing.com.
I’ve always been a reader and my love for books keeps me entertained. I was not a crafter. I remember home economics in school where we sewed the obligatory apron and bib dress with patch pocket. I knew how to darn socks, stitch a hem or two. But in 2003, the year I was downsized from my job, I decided to take one of the quilting classes that was offered at the community college.
The art of picking out fabric within a color scheme and creating a quilt was so magical. It’s all the pieces and the story you create that reminded me of a cozy mystery, where we are introduced to characters, a murder happens, and the goal is to find the killer, which aligned with quilt making. Pick your fabric, design your pattern, and the result is a quilt that is to be treasured, just like a cozy mystery brings satisfaction when the killer’s identity is revealed, and justice prevailed.
My first quilt (see photo above) was a sampler using four different quilt blocks and it was 100% hand stitched. From that first experience, I can now create centerpieces, table runners, pillows, bed scarf to name a few. Click here to see sample of my quilt projects. However, my quilts are now 100% machine stitched because carpal and cubital tunnel affected my hand dexterity, but that did not stop my love of creating quilts. In fact, now that we are dealing with a certain crisis that will be nameless, I’ve made more quilts in the past six months than I did in the last two years.
Quilting and reading cozies is relaxing, engaging, and entertaining, both spurring the creative juices whether to create a design pattern or solving the puzzling cases in the stories.
When you begin to write your story, you have a beginning, you may have the middle and you may have the end. That’s how it is with quilting. You have the fabric pieces, you may have a design, but by the time you start cutting the pieces, that middle section changes and as a result the end that you didn’t have in mind, makes itself know when the last piece of the process is binding the quilt with a satisfied smile on your face because you are done. Just like when you type “end” on your story.
