"A Patchwork of Lies" - our National Novel Writing Month Quilt Mystery!

November is National Novel Writing Month. What's that you say? If I may steal from the official website:"National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved."

 In my own words, NaNoWriMo is a lot of fun! Everyone has a story inside them - not necessarily a good one, mind you, but a story all the same.

I've done NaNoWriMo twice now and produced two really bad novels (but bad in an entertaining sort of way I hope!) This year, I'm adding a little twist to my novel...It's a mystery, set at an annual quilt show, and I am inviting my blog, website, Facebook and Twitter readers to play along. Choose character names for me, help me decide on this plot twist or that, or just give me your feedback!

The novel's working title is "A Patchwork of Lies" (I know, I know...I am taking title suggestions!) and here is the synopsis:

Bluebonnet Creek was once a bustling little south Texas town, home to the Hadley Textile Mill (which employed most of the town's residents) and the nationally famous annual Bluebonnet Creek Quilt Festival.
The mill closed in the early 1970's but the quilt festival remained, under the direction of the Bluebonnet Creek Quilter's Guild. These days, the festival is the only thing keeping the little town alive economically. All year long the town's merchants and innkeepers struggle to stay afloat until those magical two weeks in September when the town is once again filled to the brim with tourists and their much-needed dollars.

This year the quilt festival has been plagued with problems. Alexander Hadley, the last family heir, wants to move the festival to Salton, a larger city closer to Dallas and has threatened legal action against the guild for the rights to the Bluebonnet Creek name. The mayor of Salton has turned up at the festival to boast about his larger, newer convention facilities and hotels. A reporter from the Dallas News is also nosing about, asking uncomfortable questions of everyone.

The night before the festival opens, Bluebonnet Creek Quilters Guild president Eugenia Lange is found murdered. Suspects abound, but the festival must go on!

Now here's what I need from you....I need a name for the pompous mayor and the nosy reporter. And some suggestions for deep dark secrets that might be harbored by an assortment of small town residents.

The first few chapters will be posted online Monday! Thanks for your help!

Halloween Costumes You Can Make in an Hour

It's still not too late! I swear!  You can make any of these costumes in one hour (two if you count time spent shopping).

These costume ideas are all based on pajamas or sweatsuits, something most kids already have or aren't very expensive to buy (and you can use them after Halloween too!)

This is my daughter's clown costume from (sigh) 12 years ago! It was made with white sweats, some scraps from my craft box and fabric. I cut the felt into circles and sewed them to the sweats, glued some pom-poms to her sneakers. The cuffs and collar are easy:  just hem one side, gather the other and quick-stitch onto the sweats. The hat is just a cone made of posterboard, with fabric and trim glued on.

I painted on some rosy cheeks and she was good to go!

After Halloween, I took a seam ripper to all the add-ons, and she had a pair of sweats to wear for the rest of the Fall.




The following year, I could not find white sweats in her size (why, I'll never know!) so I used a plain white sleeper suit to make this bunny outfit.

I sewed a puffy white pom-pom to her tush, a pair of white gloves, and some bunny ears leftover from Easter (although you could make them easily with a headband and felt) and drew on a pink bunny nose and black whiskers with lipstick and mascara.

You can make any number of animal costumes with jammies/sweats. Brown sweats? A dog! Black? A cat or skunk. Green ones? A frog! Yellow? A canary or baby chick. Just use felt for the details and attach the appropriate type of ears to a headband or hood.

With gray sweats you could be....a squirrel! Yes, a squirrel. My youngest daughter informed me this year that she would like to be a squirrel. So I used the basic sweatsuit concept - gray sweats with a white felt "tummy", felt covered headband for the ears. The challenge was the tail. It had to be suitably puffy, but not so heavy that it weighed her down.  After experimenting with a few other methods, I ended up taking some craft wire and bending it into a "S" shape and then tying several dozen short strips of gray and brown tulle around the wire. The result? A seriously poofy squirrel tail!

Other quick and easy costumes I've made with clothes my children already had (sorry, no pictures!) have been:

Race-car driver: Black pants, black long-sleeved Tshirt covered with sponsor logos and patches (download company logos like UPS and Tide, print them onto ink-jet fabric paper from IndygyoJunction.com). Add a NASCAR hat from dad's collection.

Maid: Plain black skirt, long sleeved black Tshirt with lace added to cuffs and collar. Add a little hat also made from lace.

Nurse: Plain white skirt, white shirt with Red Cross symbol sewn on (made with scrap grosgrain ribbon). Little hat with Red Cross sew on, white tights and shoes, accessories from their toy doctor kit.

Dirty laundry: Cut two holes in the bottom of an old plastic laundry basket, add shoulder straps, stuff basket with odd socks and dirty clothes, empty containers of laundry soap, fabric softener, etc.

Reverse Trick-or-Treating Granny: (This is fun for older kids who are past Trick or Treating age): Classic "granny" look: stockings rolled up at the knees, slippers, hair in curlers and powdered with baby powder to look gray. Old bathrobe or housecoat. Glasses. When ringing the door bell, instead of saying "trick or treat" act like the residents of the house have come to YOUR door, tell them how cute their costumes are or ask what they are supposed to be, and give THEM a piece of candy.

Quilting for Peace 100 Yard Give-away

Last week, I blogged about the new book, Quilting for Peace,  a collection of stories about quilters who quilt to change the world. Author Katherine Bell interviewed an extraordinary assortment of women (and a few men) who have organized groups of quilters to provide warm bedding to people made homeless by poverty, violence, or natural disasters. Some make quilts to comfort those who are sick, hurt, or grieving. And still others use their craft to raise money and draw attention to a cause—the AIDS quilt is the most famous of these. The quilters she encountered during the making of this book had a few things in common: practicality and old-fashioned resourcefulness; considerable persuasive and organizational skills; a firm belief in justice and people’s responsibility for each other; and a faith in patchwork’s ability to absorb the maker’s care, respect, and on occasion outrage, and to let whoever touches the quilt feel those as well. These needle-wielding activists are making a difference in the world!


I was so inspired by the book that I have pledged to donate a total of 100 yards of fabric to charitable quilting groups. To receive a donation, all you or your group needs to do is send me a letter on your guild or organization letterhead, or an email with attached photos of your group's previous work. Although I am particularly interested in helping groups in my local area (Dallas, Texas) I will accept requests from any state.
Also, all my proceeds from sales of the Quilting for Peace book will go toward purchasing donation fabric.

 Groups receiving donations will be featured on my blog, Facebook, Twitter and webpage, which will hopefully bring even more attention and donations to their cause.

Quilting for Peace is not just a photo essay, it is also a pattern book, filled with simple, flexible patterns that you can follow them to the letter or use as starting points for your own designs.


The book includes 15 projects from super-easy to not-too-difficult, including:

• Three baby quilts and other gifts for kids
• A pink string quilt to support breast cancer
• Tote bags you can make in half an hour
• A sleeping bag designed for the homeless
• Quilts to honor wounded and fallen soldiers

My mailing address for donation requests is: Ruby Jane's Retro Fabric; 2940 Broadway Blvd #114; Garland, TX 75041. My email is linked above.

Happy quilting, all!