Welcome to day one of the Between Heaven and Texas Blog Hop. Over the next 12 days, 12 talented designers will each be creating a 12″ star-themed quilt block tutorial just for you. Each of the participants will also be giving away a copy of Marie Bostwick’s latest book, Between Heaven and Texas, to one of their lucky readers.
Here’s the line-up:
Monday, April 29 – Marie Bostwick
Tuesday, April 30 – Michele – Quilting Gallery
Wednesday, May 1 – Bonnie – Quiltville
Thursday, May 2 – Pat – Pat Sloan
Thursday, May 2 – Kim – Persimon Dreams
Friday, May 3 – Melissa – Happy Quilting
Saturday, May 4 – Jo – Jo’s Country Junction
Sunday, May 5 – Wendy – Ivory Spring
Monday, May 6 – Victoria – Bumble Beans Inc.
Tuesday, May 7 – Vicki – Quilting Lodge Blog
Wednesday, May 8 – Melissa/Jake – Generation Q Magazine
Thursday, May 9 – Jennifer – Sew Hooked
Friday, May 10 – Jackie – Canton Village Quilt Works
We have a Flickr group set up too for you to share your completed blocks. I’d also like to invite you to complete an extra block (or as many as you wish) to send to Jennifer of Sew Hooked, as she’ll be putting together the blocks into quilts for The Linus Connection. You can follow along on Facebook too.
Now over to Marie to get this party started…
Whenever I give an interview, I’m almost always asked which of my novels is my favorite. It’s really an impossible question. Every book I’ve written has been close to my heart, but each in a different way. But when people ask which of my characters is my favorite, I don’t have to think twice before answering, “Mary Dell Templeton.”
Mary Dell Templeton is brassy, sassy, native-born Texan with a heart as big as her hair. And, as the host of a popular cable quilting show, she is possessed of every technical skill and talent required of a world-class quilter — except one: taste. Mary Dell doesn’t have any. Not a drop. Fortunately, Mary Dell’s son, Howard, a young man born with Down syndrome who serves as co-host on her show, has all the color sense his momma lacks and loves choosing the fabrics for her quilts. Together, they make an unbeatable team.
Of course, if you’ve read my Cobbled Court Quilt novels, you already know all that. But, what you don’t know is how Mary Dell got to be…well, Mary Dell.
You don’t know about her childhood in Too Much, Texas, a town that breeds strong-willed women and handsome but shiftless men. You don’t know that Mary Dell has a twin sister named Lydia Dale, that the women in her family, including Grandma Silky, Aunt Velvet, and her mother, Taffy, short for Taffeta, are named after fabric as an homage to the family history of producing expert needlewomen. You don’t know that those same women, including Mary Dell, have an unfortunate tendency to fall for exactly the wrong sort of good-looking man, a weakness they have dubbed “The Fatal Flaw”. Nor do know how Mary Dell falls in love on her honeymoon, or repairs her strained relationship with her sister, or finds triumph in the face of tragedy, or keeps her family from coming apart at the seams, or realizes her most audacious dreams…
Nobody knows about that, except me. At least not until April 30th.
That’s when BETWEEN HEAVEN AND TEXAS arrives on bookstore shelves, and longtime Cobbled Court fans, as well as those who’ve never read any of my books, will learn all about Mary Dell and absolutely fall in love with this story, these characters, and this little Texas town. I believe that BETWEEN HEAVEN AND TEXAS is my best work to date. And, though I’ve never been able to say so until now, I think I’ve finally found my favorite novel.
I do hope you’ll read BETWEEN HEAVEN AND TEXAS. I know you’re going to love it as much as I do. And, if you live near one of the cities I’ll be visiting on my tour, I hope you’ll come see me and get your book signed. It’s always such a joy for me to meet readers face to face. The dates and locations are all listed on the Appearances section of my web site, www.mariebostwick.com or follow along on Facebook.
And, of course, in celebration of Mary Dell Templeton and the Lone Star State, I hope you’ll have fun collecting these twelve star blocks in the BETWEEN HEAVEN AND TEXAS blog hop. Many thanks to Michele and my quilting blogger friends for hosting this tour. And many thanks to you for stopping by!
Sew Happy!
Marie Bostwick
Mirror-Mirror Star
Here’s Marie’s free block: Mirror-Mirror Star.
Download the free block tutorial here!
If you make the block, please share it in the Flickr group and consider making an extra one for The Linus Connection.
Give-Away: Win a copy of Marie’s book by entering the give-away here and come back tomorrow for my own block and enter for another chance too.
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