stitching novels list -- long version
Ann Giammona
Send new reviews to me at agia...@biosym.com
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The Textiles Novels List from RCTN
Author Title Genre Textiles Connection
------------------ ---------------------------- --------- ------------------------------
Churchill, Jill ** Anyone have title? ** mystery knitting
Craig, Alisa The Grub and Stakers Spin a Yarn mystery spinning?
Craig, Alisa The Grub and Stakers Quilt a Bee mystery quilting
Daheim, Mary Holy Terrors mystery embroidery
Holt, Victoria The Silk Vendetta mystery silk dressmaking
McLeod, Charlotte The Family Vault mystery candlewicking
McLeod, Charlotte The Drawing Room mystery candlewicking
Michaels, Barbara Shattered Silk mystery antique clothing restoration
Michaels, Barbara Stitches in Time mystery antique clothing restoration
Michaels, Barbara House of Shadows mystery sampler
Otto, Whitney How to Make An American Quilt fiction quilting
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compiled by agia...@biosym.com Ann Giammona
contributors:
neon...@crl.com Pat Timpanaro
kaye....@gtri.gatech.edu Kaye Barley
pro...@saunix.sau.edu Patricia Romza
m...@mv.mv.com Michelle Elder
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Reviews:
> From: neon...@crl.com (Patricia Timpanaro)
>
> I just finished reading a book, Holy Terrors by Mary Daheim, in which
> embroidery scissors are actually used as the murder weapon! I read a
> lot of mysteries and this is the only one I can remember in which
> stitching was not only mentioned, but played a major part in the
> crime!
>
> Pat Timpanaro
> Neon Flamingo Designs
> From: agia...@biosy.com (Ann Giammona)
>
> Barbara Michaels has one that
> includes antique clothing restoration (Shattered Silk).
>
> From: kaye....@gtri.gatech.edu (Kaye Barley)
>
> Barbara
> Michaels has another, which I believe may be a sequel to "Shattered Silk".
> I loved it, but can't be absolutely certain of the title right now -
> "Stitches in Time," I believe. Another is Whitney Otto's "How to Make An
> American Quilt" - wonderful! I'd be very interested in seeing your list
> after completion - it sounds like a great idea.
> -------------
>
> Kaye Barley GTRI/APO
> Administrative Assistant II Georgia Institute of Technology
> kaye....@gtri.gatech.edu Atlanta, GA 30332-0801
> 404-894-3348
> From: Patricia Romza <pro...@saunix.sau.edu>
>
> Mary Daheim's "Holy Terrors" and all her other books are fabulous--real
> people with everyday lives and great mystery plots.
>
> After someone mentioned Barbara Michael's "House of Shadows" I tracked
> it down in the local public library and yes, a sampler does figure quite
> prominently in the story (it's a fun story but a bit dated in style).
>
> Jill Churchill has a murder mystery about knitting (can't recall the
> title).
>
> Charlotte McLeod (One of my favorite authors)
> In the Grub and Stakers series:
> "The Grub and Stakers Spin a Yarn"
> "The Grub and Stakers Quilt a Bee"
> The Grub and Stakers are the local gardening and everything else club in a
> fictional Canadian small town; the sleuths are a writer-of-Westerns husband
> and a wife with a secretarial service and nearly full-time custody of
> hubby's
> romance-novelist-dingbat aunt.
>
> In the Sarah Kelling/Max Bittersohn series
> "The Family Vault"
> Michelle Elder reminded me of this one after I mentioned Charlotte McLeod.
> The heroine is a Boston Brahmin with an open mind (she's widowed in "The
> Family Vault" and eventually marries Max, an art-history Ph.D. tracker-down
> of stolen art and nice Jewish boy). In "The Family Vault", candlewicking
> figures prominently where the murderous MIL (i.e., Sarah's first marriage),
> who is blind, keeps her diary on the drapes in French knots in Braille. Of
> course Sarah has had to learn to read Braille to please MIL, so when she
> finds the drapes and understands why MIL was always French knotting away...
> (No MIL injokes, now.)
>
> Warning: Charlotte McLeod has been called "Queen of the Screwball Mystery",
> meaning that her books have lots of tongue-in-cheek humor, happenings, and
> observations on life.
>
> Off to read mysteries and stitch, stitch, stitch (one more row, one more
> row, one more row....)
>
> Patricia
> From: pro...@saunix.sau.edu (Patricia Romza)
>
> Both the Grub and Stakers series and the Madog and Jenny Rhys series of
> books by Charlotte McLeod are written under her pseudonym of Alisa (only 1
> s) Craig.
> From: m...@mv.mv.com (Michelle Elder)
>
> Mystery called "The Drawing Room" by Charlotte MacLeod. One of the
> characters does a type of stitching, though I can't remember the name
> of this type of needlework. What is the stitching that was so popular
> in the 70's--involves LOTS of French knots... Candlewicking? Is that
> right?
>
> Anyway, it's a nice, light, humorous mystery involving a young widow,
> Sarah Kelling, who finds that her hubby hasn't left any money--just a
> big house on Beacon Hill. (Nice reading just for the location if you
> live in New England, like I do.) To make ends meet, she decides to
> take in boarders. A whole cast of interesting characters, including
> nosy relatives, then come into play. Then some of her boarders start
> to get bumped off....
>
> I like Charlotte's writing because it's light, it's got good mystery
> and it's tongue-in-cheek. I was so excited to find a stitching
> reference in this book that is focal to the plot. She's got a whole
> slew of mysteries out there. I read The Drawing Room first before
> discovering that it's Book Number Two in the Sarah Kelling series.
> Book One is The Family Vault. (Or is it The Family Jewels?)
>
> Stitching and reading mysteries (in the tub, of course!) are my
> favorite things to do.
>
> Michelle
> From: LCerv...@aol.com
> I just finished really good murder mystery centered around the silk
> dressmaking industry.
> "The Silk Vendetta" by Victoria Holt.
>
> Donna
--
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* ____ Ann Giammona * "The ruin of states, the destruction of *
* /////| agia...@biosym.com * families, and the perishing of individuals *
* |^ ^ @ Biosym/MSI * are always preceded by their abandonment of *
* \ v / 9685 Scranton Road * the rules of propriety." --- Li Chi -- *
* --- San Diego, CA 92121 * *
****************************************************************************
--
Stuart L. Anderson
: Author Title Genre Textiles Connection
: ------------------ ---------------------------- --------- ------------------------------
: Churchill, Jill ** Anyone have title? ** mystery knitting
A Farewell to Yarns
Karen Anderson