Kristina Knight: Taking a Break to Sew

The Bears Project

By Kristina Knight

This winter instead of frigid temperatures and a lot of snow on the ground, we've had a lot of gloom and rain and cloud cover. Now, don't get me wrong, I like a good rainy day. Rainy days are great for reading or bingeing on a favorite TV show. They're great for movies, and they're also great for writing.

But 67 of these days in a row? Can get a little daunting...to the point you need to head to Home Depot or Lowe's for one of those 'happy lights' to chase the winter blahs away. Which is why, on day 54 - when bebe had a day off from school - I decided to brighten the day with fabric.

bebe is always up for a little craft project - three years ago she helped me pick out fabric for a book quilt for our new nephew and a couple of summers ago, we made a raggedy jelly roll quilt .

What I like about sewing is that it frees my subconscious to think about other things. I'd just received a revision note on my next SuperRomance from Harlequin, and I've been trying to figure out the basics for a new series I want to start, and I'm waiting on edits for another of my SuperRomances, and I need to figure out the conflict elements for the book I have in draft...so there are a lot of characters vying for attention. They don't all talk at once, but invariably when I start thinking about one project the next wants more attention.

Quilting gets me out of the cacophony of characters talking in my head - because I need to concentrate on how cutting the right dimensions, and where I want the seams to go, and which thread is going to add dimension to which fabrics. The characters have to settle down, and invariably while they're settled, my subconscious goes to work.

By the time I had all the squares for this project cut out and put together, I knew what I wanted to do with those conflict elements, and I had a better grasp on the new series...and I still didn't have edits for that other book, but I thought I had a better handle on the revision note, too. Which led to another a-ha moment for the book in draft. And I got all of that when I wasn't actively thinking about any of them - I was focused on seaming and thread and how to arrange each square...and on and on.

I also had a great conversation with bebe, and I won't hear from my editor for a little while yet, but I'm eager to hear her thoughts...all because of a super simple quilt pattern, some fabric and thread.

Do you sew or quilt? When you're not writing, what kinds of creativity inspire you?

Kristina Knight's latest release, Protecting the Quarterback, is available now from Harlequin Superromance: 

This is more than just a game … to her.

Sports broadcaster Brooks Smith has always been more involved with the game than the players. But after she shares the spotlight at an awards ceremony with tabloid sensation Jonas Nash, one night of letting her guard down around the infamous quarterback spirals into many heated days and nights together when she gets assigned to the story of the year…

The hottest player in professional football is hiding a secret that could end his career for good. Now Brooks is caught on the sidelines between the job she loves and the man she is falling in love with.

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You can find out more the book and Kristina on her website, and feel free to stalk follow her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. 

Celebrating old friends : : Anne McAllister

When I was four I met a girl who lived in the next street.  I could see her house from my bedroom window because there was plenty of empty space between her house and mine.  We became friends and used to run across the lots to play together regularly.  We walked to grade school together, rode bikes to school when we got to junior high, and rode the bus together when we reached high school.

She wasn't my only friend, but she was a good friend.  And then she moved away.

At the end of our freshman year, she and her family moved to Washington state.  We wrote letters sporadically.  We kept in touch when we got out of high school.  We sent Christmas cards.

I saw her once the year after I got married. I saw her again in 2009 when we went to Washington ourselves to meet our sixth grandson.

And last year when we planned to meet after she had a meeting in Chicago, the weather exploded in our faces.  Howling winds, piles of snow.  Piles of snow?  In early December? Ye gods.  Well, yes, that was last winter.

But we are nothing if not determined.  So this year, she tried again. The weather cooperated.  And on Friday evening she turned up on my doorstep!

What a treat.  We spent a lot of time catching up, reminiscing, recalling bits and pieces of our childhood that one -- or the other -- of us hadn't thought of in years. She reminded me of how we used to walk in the puddles in the alleys during rainstorms.  I had forgotten about alleys all together.

We tried to piece together our shared past and put it into the context of what our families were doing at the time, of what our parents were thinking.  Always a challenge, trying to discover what your parents were thinking!

One thing I hadn't forgotten was how creative she was.  What I didn't remember -- and still don't -- is if it had anything to do with fabric.  But it certainly does now!

Her name is Melody Crust and she is a nationally celebrated fabric artist.  She designs, she quilts, she gilds, she embellishes.  As she says, she "loves all things shiny."  And she translates that love into spectacular works of art.

She also teaches other people how to do it.  She has written books about it, has a slew of Power Point presentations she has created to help others understand how to begin to do things that boggle my mind.  She's an inspiration not only to them, but also to me.

Several years ago, I wrote a book called Antonides Forbidden Wife.  Ally, the heroine, was a fabric artist.  She owed a lot of her career to Melody.  I have another heroine waiting in the wings who also works with fabric and with wool.  She began as a  weaver, but she's become a storyteller with her art. She will undoubtedly owe a lot to Melody, too.

People often ask, "Where do you get your ideas?"

Sometimes when you're four years old, they're right outside your window.  You just have to hang onto them until the time is right.



images from www.melodycrust.com, copyright: Melody Crust, used with permission.