'Nora Roberts is een superster.' The New York Times Grafisch ontwerper Sonya MacTavish is sprakeloos als ze een landhuis erft van haar oom van wie ze het bestaan niet kende. En wat ze ook niet weet, is dat ze niet de enige bewoner van het landhuis is: de geest van een vermoorde bruid is nog altijd aanwezig. Volgens het testament moet Sonya minstens drie jaar in het huis, aan de kust van Maine, blijven wonen. Ze besluit op onderzoek uit te gaan in de hoop erachter te komen hoe haar vader en oom na hun geboorte gescheiden zijn geraakt en waarom dit al die jaren geheim is gebleven. Trey, de jonge advocaat die haar op het schitterende landgoed ontvangt, merkt Sonya's ongemak meteen op. Hij geeft het toe: het spookt hier inderdaad, maar slechts een beetje. Het duurt niet lang voordat Sonya merkt dat de meubels zich vanzelf verplaatsen en dat muziek schijnbaar uit het niets begint te spelen. In het kantoor van haar oom vindt ze het portret van een vrouw met de naam Astrid. Trey noemt haar 'de eerste verloren bruid'. Het begint duidelijk te worden dat Sonya veel meer heeft geërfd dan alleen een huis. Haar oom liet haar een eeuwenoude vloek na – en een puzzel om op te lossen.
I recently purchased some gorgeous linen fabrics from the Doggie Bag sale on Fabric-Store.com. It's an ongoing, ever-changing source, and you never know what you might find there. 1/2 yard remnants in interesting colors will make nice scarves; 1 yard cuts for a top; 1 1/2 to 2 yard cuts in textured linens for throws or lightweight blankets. I'm not even half way through my order, and I've already made the two coverlets/throws and one top. The throws were easy-peasy. I kept the selvedge edges as-is. Here is a lovely reversible linen in a gorgeous indigo/cobalt blue on one side and natural linen on the other. The sewn edge is a simple hem ~ iron 1/4", fold over and iron again, then stitch. This is heavy weight, and perfect for so many things, like cozying up in a chair outside on a chilly evening, or cuddled into while watching TV, or placing at the end of a bed. The second throw is textured linen/cotton, medium weight in bleached white, ISO10Bleached. The cotton makes it extra soft. When you receive this fabric, it's flat and easy to sew. Once it's washed and dried it magically changes to this fluffy, pillowy texture. Again, I left the selvedges as-is. I cut the raw edges perfectly straight, zig-zag stitched about 1/2" away from the edge, and fringed it to match the selvage edge. I'll put this at the bottom of my bed just in case I need an extra layer as the weather begins to cool. For the top I modified 100 Acts of Sewing Shirt No. 1 pattern by Sonya Philip and used just one yard of Fabric-Store IL019 softened linen in Elephant. The color is absolute perfection for me, a gorgeous deep slate gray/blue. It'll go really well with my new pandemic silver hair! I decided to have a go at creating a portrait/funnel/cowl type neck on this pattern. There was a lot of guesstimating involved as I've never made nor do I have a top like this. Since I was working with linen with no ease or stretch, I knew the neck had to be wider than my head or I'd never get it on. I measured my head and figured out what the smallest opening should be, added seam allowance, and an extra inch to be on the safe side. I thought 7-8" tall would be ample. I made it 9" for seam allowance, figuring I could easily cut it down if I needed to. The tricky part was just where to start the curve on the shoulder up to the top of the funnel. I approximated at about the halfway point, and used a French curve ruler to make a nice transition curve from top to bottom. You can see my chicken scratch notes on the neck pattern. I used French seams for the sides; and a simple hem for the bottom, arms, and neck. I liked the shirt on, but the neck opening at the shoulders seemed a tad too large, so I tacked the top edge of the neck at the seam onto the shoulder seam. I also made a small tack in the front top of the neck onto the front of the shirt. Now it sits just about right, laying with a soft, blossomy drape. Next time I will begin the neck about 1" further up the shoulder, making the bottom portion of the neck a little narrower. There is ample room in this top for a long-sleeved under layer when the weather starts getting chilly. It will be a great transition piece, and goes with just about everything I own. Next, I'll get to fringing up those scarves; and I still need to figure out just what to do with that houndstoothe-like fabric. Any suggestions are most welcomed!
A traditional archery nut examines the bows, arrows and quivers used as props in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. Because pointy things are awesome.
