Newport Evening News! Free Kindle Book!

I am back to my room and it is only 8pm! I’m in my jammies with a hot cuppa of my favorite tea and I plan on having a leisurely evening!

Will I plug in the sewing machine? That remains to be seen…it might not be in the cards…I really think I’d like to tuck in and read a book---

Kindred Crimes (The Jeri Howard Series) by Janet Dawson is free today in the Amazon Kindle store. It’s got a 5 star rating!

Genre: Mystery/Suspense

Book Description:

Renee Foster left her toddler son with her mother-in-law, cleaned out the joint bank account – and vanished. Now her husband wants Oakland private investigator Jeri Howard to find his wife, though it looks like she doesn’t want to be found.

A simple missing persons case? There’s nothing simple about it. People aren’t who they seem. The past comes back with a vengeance. And the trail leads to murder.

Product Description

“A welcome addition to this tough genre.” The New York Times Book Review

“Dawson keeps suspense and interest at high pitch.” Publishers Weekly

“A satisfyingly complex and multilayered novel . . . A wonderfully told and compelling story from a writer who’s in complete control – as is her heroine – from start to finish. We’ll feel cheated if there aren’t more Jeri Howard books to come.” The Denver Post.
“An auspicious debut.” New York Daily News

“Dawon writes believable dialogue, creates quickly realized and appealing characters and has a particularly nice atmospheric touch.” San Francisco Examiner

Kindred Crimes - Winner, St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America contest for Best First Private Eye Novel. Shamus, Anthony and Macavity award nominee.

SO there you go! Worth a download and a try out! But check before clicking that it is still free when checking out as things can change without notice.

This afternoon after class I was hijacked by Nancy who took me all over Newport to see the gorgeous unbelievable mansion houses and other incredible places along the shore!

We walked along the cliff walk --- and decended the “40 steps” to get toward the bottom of the cliffs for some photos….LOVE the rocky shore line!

There was a lot of traffic behind us, so we weren’t able to stop and take many photos of the wonderful sights, but we did stop to snap some pics in front of a group of young kids in “sailing lessons!” It was like watching water ballet for small one person sail boats – they were all going in circles like on a merry go round with their instructor barking out orders to them over a bull horn…….very fun to watch!

Nancy even gifted me the official Newport Souvenir Tshirt! I’m official now!

Thank you, Quilters By The Sea! Let’s do it again TOMORROW shall we?

iPhone-o-Gram! Live from Portsmouth, RI!

The zen of string piecing is in full swing here with the Quilters By The Sea!

The machines are humming and the sun is shining against a beautiful April sky!

It's a happy scrappy Friday!

Bonnie

Life Without Margins!

Sometimes, once in a blue moon --- there is just no way to possibly put it all into words ---

Everything that I saw and experienced at MQX yesterday impacted me in so many ways --- from the people who came to talk to me that I either knew from previous visits with their guilds, or quilters who joined us on cruises, or stranger-friends who stopped to introduce themselves and welcome me to Rhode Island, or mentioned they were blog readers, or book owners, or magazine column followers---I am just so touched by everyone’s kindness and open friendship!

Fran, Nancy and I left Westerly around 9:30am and headed back to Providence eager to see the show.

Tina was already there waiting for us ---we all met up and spent the morning viewing a good portion of the show before breaking for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.

Goodness gracious the size of those oriental chicken salads! I think ONE would have fed all 4 of us!

After lunch we browsed the show some more, before it was time to head on over toward Portsmouth for my evening guild meeting.

One quilter who wishes to remain nameless stopped us in the hallway on our way out when we were leaving……opened up a box she carried with her after telling me she was hoping she would run into me at the show --- and gave the three of us our choice of handmade stilettos, as a gift….just out of the blue. It blew me away! But this is what quilters do….

I chose the blue one with the big beads…..I might not lose that one!

From MQX we drove to Portsmouth. Drop the bags at the hotel, grab a quick dinner ---yes---we ate AGAIN! ---and off to the church we went to set up and make everything ready. From one thing to another with no space in between ---- where I gave a lecture last evening, and will have a workshop today, and tomorrow ---Sunday afternoon I fly home. I'm running out of steam!

I took so many photos at MQX but because the guild meeting wasn’t over and cleaned up to get me back to my room til close to 10pm, I found myself too tired to even THINK of going through all the photos to edit them down and get them ready for a slide show for you.

My margins right now are non-existent. There is no time to prepare photos to post. I have to be ready to leave for class this morning at 8am ---

Last evening instead of editing photos at 11pm, I was online trying to arrange air flights to go to Illinois in May --- and because I was so tired, I forgot that I was looping that trip with an Ohio trip together…..and I totally screwed up buying my tickets online----and spent an hour or more trying to cancel that and add a leg -----I’m still not sure if it’s resolved.

Because there are no margins, I’m having to purchase airfare at 11pm when I can’t think straight and mistakes happen.

I have not sat at my sewing machine for more than 2 blocks this trip so far --- because there have been no margins of time ----

Margins are like shoulders on the road --- a little room for lee-way, a bit of breathing space…..did you ever drive on a road that had no shoulder? Did it make you feel uncomfortable like you were afraid your tires were going to go off the edge? I am feeling kind of that way ----and I spent so much time on hold on the phone trying to deal with the stupid airfare thing –the tires of my sanity are feeling very close to the edge.

So today ---I’m taking a bit of a breather from a travelogue of a post with a ton of pictures, and not stressing it. I’m going to teach a class. There may be an ipohone-o-gram popping up later ---or maybe not.

I’m in search of margins ----wherever I can find them.

PS----while on hold with the airlines ---I went through the listings of the 80+ people on the “What’s On Your Bed” post! Some I had to remove --- because they linked to their whole blogs, not the specific post they wrote about the quilt that is on their bed, and since they’ve added new posts on top of their bed quilt post --- it was impossible to find the bed quilt posts. When I do a linky,, you need to link to EACH SPECIFIC post, not just the whole blog address, okay? So if you don’t see your link there anymore ---try again, and make it post specific…it helps us all to find the post you were trying to share.

It's FRIDAY! Enjoy!

A Narragansett Afternoon!

Yesterday after our Basket-Weave Strings workshop in Westerly, I was hijacked by Tina and headed first to Wakefield for MORE Rhode Island Retail Enrichment!

Our first stop? Folk Art Quilts!

The building is really fun --- it used to be a large department store “back in the day” and now the inside is divided up into individual shops…….and I felt right at home in Folk Art Quilts – because they have as much fabric available in a cozy spot as you can possibly fit! And the variety is really great – everything from civil war type repros to batiks to modern lovelies such as Kaffe!

The owner was just delightful and we had a good visit.

That pile right there—yep! “Honey, remember those business deductions you told me I needed more of? I’m taking care of it!” LOL!

Me and Mary, the owner! I think she is a bit numb at my purchases….hehe

Oh Yeah, don’t I look happy?? OOOOOOOHhhh Fabric!

I experienced some other Rhode Island firsts --- I have now officially had a DEL’s! It’s a lemon slush, and oh, is it delicious! We were joined by Tina’s daughter Julia, and off we headed for the sea wall to take an afternoon walk!

The few rain drops that fell were gone by the time we parked the car, and it was a great afternoon for stretching our legs and getting some fresh air. It’s a bit chilly down by the water, so I was glad to have that sweater! Here the tide is out…do you see that building in the background with the “drive through” beneath it? The one that looks like a castle? That’s called “The Tower”. We walked that direction! ((Don’t we look like Mutt & Jeff?))

The tide was out – of course….but we found a spot to take a pic with “The Tower” in the backdrop…

Closer still….it was farther away than it looked! Isn’t this cool?

Even a stroller full of doggies are out enjoying the sights and the beautiful spring afternoon! ((This cracks me up when people push dogs in a stroller!))

Big blue ocean, rocky shore..and our shadows --- can you see mine? :cD

Yep, the tide is WAAAAAAAY low! looks like the birds are waiting for it to come in again –and though it looks stormy, not a drop fell while we were walking --- good thing! I didn’t have an umbrella!

-

Of course a long beach walk means we were soon to be hungry! And of course when in Rhode Island, one must NOT miss a stop at Iggy’s where I indulged myself in much fried golden brown goodness --- Doughboys! Clam Cakes! A yummy bowl of clam chowder ((Which was creamy white and thick enough to stand a spoon in it ---)) and a shared basket of onion rings ---

I have a feeling I’m going to need lots more walks to work OFF all this goodness!

Thanks Tina, for suggesting this outting in between the workshop and the evening meeting – it’s been so great to spend this time with you in person!

iPhone-o-Gram!! Let the show begin!!!

First glimpses of MQX as we enter the doors!!!

Oh this is is going to be an awesome show!!!

Stringing Up A Storm!

First off....the "What's On YOUR Bed?!" Linky Party now has over 75 fantabulous quilters showing just what is on their bed quilt-wise --- you have to go check it out!

Man, this turned out more fun than I expected!

Wanna share what's on your bed?

Write your post, upload those pics to your blog, and come link up ---What a great way to spring clean and change the quilt on the bed and share and show it of with all of us! Thank you to all those who have played along with me...they are ALL so gorgeous!

Yesterday started off with an explosion of strings for the Ninigret Quilters in Westerly, Rhode Island! And they were anxiously awaiting our arrival when we showed up about 8:20am –the doors of the church building were still locked, but that didn’t stop anyone from piling all their stuff ((And you know we quilters are ALL ABOUT OUR STUFF!!)) in the courtyard just waiting to get in and set up and get sewing! We were ready for a Basket-weave Strings workshop!

It is so NICE to have an extended spring ---because what is just blooming here with wild abandon has already FINISHED in North Carolina --- so here I am in Rhode Island enjoying HUGE hedges of forsythia just bursting to overflowing with radiant masses of yellow everywhere you turn. The daffodils and jonquils and even hyacinths are so happy with the spring weather and are blooming brightly showing off their colors --- oh I love the smell of hyacinths! And blooming trees are everywhere, much to the dismay of my allergy afflicted sticky itchy eyeballs.

See these buckets and bins of fabric? How fun is this? Oh, the possibilities ----the sheer variety of fabrics that were brought --- dug up from DEEP STASH ((The term I love for the “golden oldies” who have not seen the light of day since 1970-1980-1990-something!))

Along with DEEP STASH STRINGS, came boxes full of the ends of left over “strata-panels” from previous quilting projects --- what to DO with this stuff? USE IT of course!

Laundry baskets are great for an assortment of strippy strings –room to dig and shuffle, and walls to contain! This basket holds a variety of purples, neutrals, greys and a bit of yellowy green --- it’s going to be yummy!

How about a container full of the tail ends of a long-ago Thimbleberries Phase? Absolutely!

We had quilts of many flavors going on and we all had a great time --- you should hear the stories these ladies tell!

This is Barbara ---her wit and sense of humor had me rolling all day! She is working with blacks and a variety of novelties to make a donation snuggle quilt ----

Her side-kick Rose ((Or would that be partner in quilt-crime?!)) also kept us entertained – what talented ladies! I love the fashion statement with the wearing-of-the-strings! Lord knows they didn’t need to take this class, they could quilt circles around me ---but you know what? Sometimes taking the class is more about spending the time with each other and the other ladies in the group, and what we learn one from another in the course of just BEING THERE --- than what the class is actually about!

But let me tell you, it’s a good thing these ladies were off at a table by themselves or no one else would have gotten ANYTHING done – LOL! ((Just teasing, ladies! What a fun day!))

I hope you get the feel for how our day went by the photos below! I took MORE photos than this, but when I went to upload, I got error on several of them? What’s that about?

As always, I love the variety, and the stories that come with each remembered piece of fabric ---but get this---there was NO Millennium fabric to be found today! Maybe that’s a GOOD thing??

		Basket-Weave Strings, Westerly, RI 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Did you catch the leader/ender bowties that are being worked in in between string blocks? Those belong to Elvia --- aren’t they great?!

Thank you so much Ninigret Quilters! It’s been a very memorable trip and I hope to visit with you again some day!

Today is our big day to head to MQX in Providence and see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves into ---then this evening I’m giving a lecture for the Quilters by the Sea in Portsmouth – another new place for me to discover – I can hardly wait to soak it all in!

Have a great Thursday, everyone!