#CRAFTING WITH ANASTASIA--MYSTERY AUTHOR ROSALIE SPIELMAN'S DECADE QUILT

The Finished Quilt

Rosalie Spielman is a mother, veteran, and retired military spouse. She was thrilled to discover that she could make other people laugh with her writing and finds joy in giving people a humorous escape from the real world. She writes for the multi-author Aloha Lagoon mystery series and her own Hometown Mystery series. Learn more about Rosalie and her books at her website.

The Decade Quilt

For many years, I strove to express my creativity through textiles, as in quilting, sewing, or yarn related crafts. I do pretty well with counted cross stitch, which appeals somehow to my need for order and precision. I've been taught crochet, knitting, quilting…but let's just say, there's a reason I'm a writer! With writing, I can envision a story and through some magic, make it come out in reasonably understandable form. I might get stuck in that messy middle for a while, but eventually, the story is complete. But creating an epic textile art? Mmm, no magic happening there. Case in point: the infamous Decade Quilt. 

 

Around 1998, I visited my sister where she was stationed in Ohio. She had bought her first house, an older house with some antique wallpaper. After I returned home, I sought out vintage-style material that would go with the wallpaper and set to work. 

 

I was at Fort Bliss, Texas at the time and had friends who were quilters. Under their instruction, I had learned to quilt. My friends were surprised to hear I wanted to do a full-sized bed quilt but were happy to give me advice.

 

I didn't have trouble piecing the quilt top. That's the fun part to me that appeals to my sense of order, like cross stitch does. Then I combined the quilt top with the batting and backing and set to hand quilting it. 

 

Yes, hand quilting a full-sized quilt. By myself. 

 

When I finished the top, I took one square and 

made a pillow to show my sister what she had 

in store. The cat was out of the bag…

 

It was slow going. So slow, that my husband's assignment was up, and it was time to move. Off we went to Germany. Three years later, we left Germany for Virginia, where my son was born. Then after a few years, we headed back to Fort Bliss, where I gave birth to my daughter and reconnected with my quilting friends. They were amused – and probably not surprised – to see that the quilt for my sister was still unfinished. 

 

When we got orders to move on, I asked my friend to use her fancy quilting sewing machine to finish the quilting on the project for me. She said no, that I should finish it for it to mean more. I told her I was not going to move with it again, and if she wasn't willing to help me out, I would throw it out. I was not going to move that thing again!

 

So, finally, in 2008, after my friend finished quilting it with her machine, I finally gifted my sister her Decade Quilt, which in no way matched the walls of her current house, or any houses she had lived in since that one with the crazy classic wallpaper. 

 

She's used it on her bed ever since (at least when I visit) even though she has other quilts. Like her quilt from the Quilts of Valor foundation. Along with my husband, father, sister, and brother, I was presented a quilt in 2018. Quilts of Valor is an organization that creates and gifts quilts to veterans. I included a scene in my newest Hometown Mystery, Murder Comes Home, where my main character Tessa Treslow, her best friend Deputy "Freddie" Frederickson, and boyfriend Nick Hunt, are all presented with Quilts of Honor at the New Oslo Veterans Day ceremony.

 

I have been tempted to give back to the foundation by creating a quilt for another veteran. But I think they'd want it in less than ten years…

 

Readers, do you have an unfinished project out there, haunting you?

 

Murder Comes Home

A Hometown Mystery, Book 3

 

Army retiree Tessa Treslow is as excited as the other residents of New Oslo, Idaho, when the cast and crew of the TV show Picks with Ricks comes to town! Tessa and her Aunt Edna put their car restoration business on hold to let the celebrity antique hunters pick through their old garage, hoping the trash contains a treasure that will help fund their new business. But it turns out that the pickers come with TV cameras, likeable stars, a stressed-out producer—and a murderer!

 

The show’s lead makes an insistent offer on one of Aunt Edna’s renovation projects and won’t take no for an answer. And when Tessa finds the show's cameraman dead in the restored 1965 Mustang, Tessa knows murder has come home yet again. And the mystery takes a very personal turn when the dead man is found with an antique inscribed pocket watch connected to the former owners of Aunt Edna's farmhouse. As Tessa digs into the history surrounding the pocket watch and the relationships of the TV crew, shocking details—both old and new—arise. Will Tessa be able to catch a killer...before they return for a repeat performance?

 

Preorder (available 11/7/23) 

Gemma Halliday Publishing is donating a portion of the presales of Murder Come Home to Disabled American Veterans (DAV).

#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--GUEST AUTHOR LEA WAIT ON ANTIQUE EMBROIDERY

USA Today bestselling author Lea Wait lives in Maine, where she writes the (so far) 5-book Mainely Needlepoint mystery series and the 8-book Shadows Antique Print series, as well as historical novels for young people. Learn more about Lea and her books at her website where you can find links to a free prequels of her books.

Old Embroidery That Tells Stories

Growing up as a fourth generation antique dealer, and then as a dealer myself for 35+ years, I sometimes saw embroideries that had been treasured not only as decorative works of art, but as illustrations of family stories.

For example, some samplers didn’t just have a verse and several alphabets. Some preserved family records. The stitchers embroidered names of their family on trees or more often (considering the 10-18 children I’ve seen listed), included names and birth (and sometimes death) dates and bordered the names with embroidered flowers.

Mourning embroideries usually picture a tomb shaded by one or more weeping willows, and several people (usually identifiable as family members) grieving next to the tomb, which is engraved with one or more names.

But not all “story” embroideries were sad. Patchwork memory quilts were sometimes given to new mothers, new brides, or young women heading west. Organized by friends of the recipient, the patches were often from garments that had been worn by the stitcher, who also embroidered the patch before the quilt was assembled, often at a quilting bee. Some simple quilts had patches embroidered with the names of those giving it, perhaps women in a church group, or young women who’d gone to school together.

(As a side note, today, at least in Maine, a popular library fundraiser is to cut quilt pieces and send them to authors, who sign and return them. The names are then embroidered over by volunteers, the quilt assembled, and then auctioned off.)

One of the most beautiful quilts I’ve ever seen was pieced with velvets and silks, and each piece was embroidered by a different person. The skill of the embroiderers varied considerably. I’d guess that some were very young, while others were very accomplished. Although we’ll never know what the exact message of the quilt was, an educated guess was that it was given to a new bride who was leaving the town where she grew up – probably a seaport.

 

The embroideries of the patches appeared to be memories that the recipient could take with her. A clipper ship. Strawberries. Holly. A pine tree. A dog. A cat. A house. Daffodils. Queen Anne’s Lace. A cardinal. A chickadee. A music note.

  

The quilt pictured has embroidery on the patches … and the embroidery linking the patches is designed to look like seaweed. (Collecting and preserving seaweed was a popular Victorian pastime for young women. But that’s another subject!)

Another memory quilt I’ve seen was made from the clothing of a union soldier who’d served in the Civil War, and the flag he’d carried. Embroideries on it included his dates of service, the battles he’d fought in, his unit, and the states he’d traveled to. It was pieced and embroidered by his wife, who wrote an explanation for the patches, which was saved with the quilt.

Unfortunately, not all quilts have legends.

But perhaps, the stories we made up about them are almost as interesting.

Tightening the Threads, A Mainely Needlepoint Mystery

I

n the coastal town of Haven Harbor, blood runs thicker than water—and just as freely…

Antique dealer Sarah Byrne has never unspooled the truth about her past to anyone—not even friend and fellow Mainely Needlepointer Angie Curtis. But the enigmatic Aussie finally has the one thing she’s searched for all her life—family. And now she and long-lost half-brother, Ted Lawrence, a wealthy old artist and gallery owner in town, are ready to reveal their secret connection…

Ted’s adult children are suspicious of their newfound aunt Sarah—especially after Ted, in declining health, announces plans to leave her his museum-worthy heirloom paintings. So when Ted is poisoned to death during a lobster bake, everyone assumes she’s guilty. If Sarah and Angie can’t track down the real murderer in time, Sarah’s bound to learn how delicate—and deadly—family dynamics can truly be…

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THIS WEEK'S BOOK GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Another busy week here at Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers! Thanks to all our guests and to everyone who stopped by. I'd also like to give a special shout-out to author and quilter Annette Mahon who so graciously offered advanced reading copies of St. Rose Goes Hawaiian to two of our readers who posted comments. The winners are cyn209 and Patricia Stoltey. Ladies, please send your mailing addresses to me at anastasiapollack@gmail.com so I can forward them to Annette.

CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA - GUEST QUILTER AND MYSTERY AUTHOR ANNETTE MAHON

Cozy mystery author and quilter Annette Mahon joins us today. Annette is a former librarian and native of Hilo, Hawaii, now living in Arizona, where she writes cozy Southwestern mysteries, with quilts and quilters, and sweet Hawaiian romances--some of them with quilts and quilters. Learn more about Annette at her website. 

Annette is offering advanced reading copies of St. Rose Goes Hawaiian to two of our readers. To enter the drawing, post a comment to the blog. And don't forget to check back on Sunday to learn if you're the winner. -- AP

In the Black at the Pink Plumeria

As a quilter, I love putting quilts into my books, which means I want to make the quilts my characters make. I actually have a collection of wall hangings I call the “book quilts.” It all began with my fist romance, Above the Rainbow, when I made one of the quilts described in the book, one called In the Black at the Pink Plumeria. The quilt store owner heroine made it to celebrate her store’s success, but I do want to comment that black fabric is not usually used in Hawaiian quilts. However, it is one of my favorite quilts and was used for the cover design of St. Rose Goes Hawaiian.

Maggie Browne, the main Character in the St. Rose Quilting
Bee books, designs an obake anthurium wall hanging in
ST. ROSE GOES HAWAIIAN 

Having a quilt for each book was almost a given with my mystery series since it involves a group of quilters who solve crimes over the quilting frame. At the time I conceived the series, I thought it would be fun to include a quilt pattern at the back of each book—a rail autograph block for A Phantom Death and a nine patch with hearts for An Ominous Death. However, I abandoned that idea with books three and four as it was too difficult to try to explain making a string quilt for Bits and Pieces or a Hawaiian quilt for St. Rose Goes Hawaiian.

Creating your own pattern using an8" square. Remember
to allow for the seam allowance which is included in
the cut pattern.

Writing St. Rose Goes Hawaiian was especially fun because I took my characters—the St. Rose Quilting Bee—to my home town in Hawaii for a quilt seminar. Hawaiian quilts are my passion, so I enjoyed planning a quilt for each of my characters. Creating the plot, planning the murder—those are the difficult parts of the writing process. Putting in the quilting bits is the fun part.

I love creating my own Hawaiian quilts. I usually design on a 40”-45” square; it’s not only a more manageable size than a full sized quilt, but I don’t have to piece fabric for the backing or appliqué.

You can make one, too. Hawaiian quilts take their inspiration from nature, so think of your favorite flower or plant. I love plumerias and anthuriums and have done wall hangings using both.

The anthurium paper pattern piece fully opened. The pencil
line shows where you should cut a slit for the flower in the
heart shaped spathe.

Begin by folding your fabric square into a triangle. It’s just like making paper snowflakes. Fold the fabric in half (bottom to top), in half again (left edge to right edge), then take the top left tip and bring it down to meet the lower right tip. This is your design space. Draw your pattern in that space, remembering that it will repeat eight times when opened up. I often start small, with a square made from one sheet of copy paper, so that I can see how the design will look when I open it up. Have fun.

Thanks for joining us today, Annette, and allowing us to see some of your beautiful quilts. Readers, want a chance to win an advance reading copy of St. Rose Goes Hawaiian? Post a comment. -- AP