April 29, 2012

I'm writing from my hotel room in the St. Louis area where, you may have heard, mother nature put on quite a show last night.  My husband and I found ourselves hunkered down under bank drive-thrus to wait out thuder, lightening, tornado sirens, and marble to golf ball sized hail not once but twice yesterday!  Now I know why they call this "tornado alley". 

It was more excitement than I'm used to on a Saturday night but it still couldn't compare with the excitement and buzz that surrounded the AQS Paducah Quilt Show, where I spent the previous four days.  Do you know they open the show with marching band that parades around the vendor floor?  Pretty cool, huh! Unforunately, I wasn't quick enough with my camera to get a shot but I did take some beautiful pictures of quilts that I'll post later when I have a little more time.  I've got to write this morning (bel. ieve it or not, my 2013 book is due in just a few weeks!) and then I'll be signing books at Jackman's Fabrics in Fairview Heights, IL and St. Louis later today.  After that, it will be on to Rochester, IL, two stops in the Chicago area, followed by Leo, Indiana....well, you get the idea.  Be sure to look on my appearances calendar to see if I'm going to be in your area.

Paducah was just fabulous!  Day One got off to a great start when I was greeted by two ladies from Australia who I have met in Portland, Oregon and Sisters, Oregon last year - and now Paducah.  I had to ask them if they ever stay home!  Apparently, they are ticking things off their bucket list and Paducah was near the top.   Completely understandable - its an amazing show.  They brought me rather unusual present, a....ummm, well, how should I put this..."anatomically correct" gingerbread man all the way from Australia.  So funny!  I wanted to post a picture here but Ginger Man appears to have taken a walk while I was busy signing books because by the end of the day he had disappeared.  Well, I'll just leave it to your imagination.  It was so great to see my Aussie friends again - they are such a fun-loving pair.

 For me, meeting so many readers, getting to meet many of my Facebook friends in person, and connecting with people were getting their first taste of the Cobbled Court Quilt novels, was really the highlight of the show.  Everyone was having such fun - it was wall-to-wall smiling faces.  We stocked way more books than we thought we'd need but still were all but sold out by Friday afternoon.  I found a few more books in my car and brought those to the floor on Saturday but they were gone in just a few minutes.  If you came to see me on Saturday and were disappointed, I'm sorry.  It's always hard to anticipate demand at a big show like this.  Hope we'll connect another time.

I did want to share a photo I got to take with Paducah's very own superhero, Quilt Man!  Isn't he a hoot! Don't you love patchwork cape?  My only regret was that his sidekick, Bobbin, wasn't with him.  Oh well, something to look forward to.

April 21, 2012

As April 24th, release day for TIES THAT BIND comes closer and closer, it seems my to-do list grows longer and longer so this will, of necessity, be a very short post but I wanted to let everyone know that my very first original quilt desing, Path To Cobbled Court, was published in the May/June issue of Quiltmaker magazine.  As you can imagine, I was pretty excited about that!

I also wanted to share a link to the Quiltmaker blog where you can see a picutre of my quilt, several concepts for doing the same quilt in different colorways, and an opportunity for one person to win the full set of my Cobbled Court novels, and for more to win a copy of TIES THAT BIND.  Leave a comment to enter but make sure you do so midnight on Monday, April 23rd. 

April 16, 2012

I've got some VERY exciting news to share today! 

If you've read my Cobbled Court Quilt novels, you probably remember The Stanton Center, which provides emergency shelter and transitional housing to women and families escaping situations of domestic violence. 

The Stanton Center is modeled on an organization in my area, The Susan B. Anthony Project.  When I was doing research for A THREAD OF TRUTH, the people at the Project were very generous with their time and helped give me a deeper understanding of the issue of domestic violence.  In the process, I learned a great deal about the important work they are doing in this part of Connectcut.  So, when the owners of Quilting By the Yard in Vernon, Connecticut told me they wanted to donate 10% of all sales of my books in the month of May to the charity of my choice, I knew right away what the charity of my choice would be.

My book signing at Quilting By the Yard will take place on Saturday, May 12th from 12:30 to 2:30 and, if you live in the area, I hope to see you there.  But, I want to reiterate that the purchase of ANY of my books from Quilting By the Yard ANYTIME in the month of May will mean that you not only get a great read (or a great gift - Mother's Day is coming up!) you'll be helping to give familes escaping domestic violence a fresh start!  What could be better?  Thank you, thank you, thank you Quilting By The Yard!

If you'd like more details about my book signing and the 10% program at Quilting By The Yard, click or paste this link  -  http://www.classschedule.net/cgi-server/schedules/classdisplay.cgi?account=quiltingbtyard&action=display&record=20016&locate=

If you'd like more information about The Susan B. Anthony Project, click here... www.sbaproject.org