Blame It on Scotland
Page 30
“Ye seem happy, really happy,” Maggie said.
“I am.”
Maggie laughed. “After we finish our Hello quilts, we better get started on a couple of baby quilts. One Modern and one traditional.”
“I’m not having twins.”
Maggie laughed. “Aye, but we don’t yet know which the bairn will prefer—modern or traditional.”
“You have a point.” Ryn organized the fabrics into their prospective blocks.
“So tell me, Ryn. Cousin Kathy told me about yere family and the long line of Kathryn Ionas. If you have a girl, and name her Kathryn Iona, what are you and Tuck going to call her?”
“We’re going to call her Ki, you know, using her initials.”
“Awww, that’s pretty. And if it’s a boy?” Maggie prodded.
Ryn smiled at her. “Tuck came up with the name. He’ll be John Andrew MacBride.”
“Oh, Ryn,” Maggie hugged her. “The name is lovely and John will be so pleased.”
“A boy would be nice, but I’d really like to have a girl,” Ryn said. “I’d love to see her and Irene playing dolls together. I’d like to teach her how to sew. There’s so much I want to share with a girl…besides my same name.” She wanted to teach her how to trust men. For her daddy had taught Ryn how to trust again.
Thinking of Tuck, reminded Ryn to pull out the wall-hanging he’d made, using the circle on a square blocks, he’d completed at the retreat. “It’s finally finished. I quilted it for him.”
Maggie examined the wall-hanging closely and then beamed at Ryn. “Who would’ve thought he would be so good at stitching.”
“Never in a million years,” Ryn said. “When I met him, I thought he was only good at being gorgeous.” She’d learned a lot since then. “He’s such a good man.”
“I know,” Maggie agreed.
Coira leaned her head in. “You two better quit nattering on, or ye’ll waste this time and space. Come Monday morning, I have a group of knitters coming to Whussendale, so ye’re going to be ousted out of here on Sunday afternoon, no matter what.”
“Hi, Mum,” Maggie said. “Come sit with us later. If ye can.”
“We’ll see,” Coira said. “I’ve a lot to do. Make sure you show Ryn yere Gandiegow Crossing Paths quilt.” And she left.
Maggie laughed. “I’m glad she said something.” She bent down and pulled a quilt from her bag. “I just took it off the frame.” She spread it out.
“It’s beautiful,” Ryn said, remembering how she’d pieced the top together for her cousin.
Maggie beamed at her. “This quilt is extra special to me, because you helped me with it. We better do as Mum says and get to work, before the weekend is gone.”
“Yes.” Ryn retrieved the quilt design she’d drawn and laid it on the table. “What do you think?”
“I love how you used the Goodbye Quilt as your inspiration.”
Instead of a tree sprouting up through the Sampler quilt, Ryn had decided on a swan. Tuck had traced one for her on a piece of paper. “Did I tell you that on my first day in Whussendale, I saw a swan on the loch?”
Maggie wrapped an arm around her waist and squeezed. “I’d forgotten about how much your mother loved swans. How about you add a cygnet—a baby swan to go with its mother?”
Ryn nodded. “I like it. It would fill the space better.”
“You know, lately, all kinds of memories have been coming back to me about yere mum. Kathy and I used to get up to all kinds of trouble. I went along with her because she was older…and because I loved her so much.” Maggie chuckled, as if remembering. “Would you like to hear some stories about me and her?”
“Yes.” Tears came to Ryn’s eyes.
Maggie dug in her pocket and pulled out a hankie. “Don’t cry.”
“It’s probably the hormones making me mist up.” But Ryn knew the truth. More than likely it was because all of her dreams had come true. A good man to love. A village to call home. And an honest-to-goodness family—Tuck’s family and her own. She never imagined she could be this happy, and the best part was, this was only the beginning.
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Kilts & Quilts™ Poppy Seed Bread
Copyright © 2018 by Louise Sitton
Thank you, Louise, for sharing your recipe with Deydie and all of Gandiegow. (And us, too!)
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3 cups flour
2 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 ½ cups milk
1 1/8 cups oil
1 ½ Tbsp poppy seed
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 ½ tsp butter flavoring
1 ½ tsp almond extract
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Preheat oven to 350°
Grease 2- 9X7 loaf pans.
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Beat for 2 minutes.
Bake for 45-60 minutes until center is done.
Pour glaze over loaves, while still hot.
Turn loaves out of pans while still warm.
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Glaze:
¾ c sugar
¼ c orange juice
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond extract
½ tsp butter flavoring
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Mix all ingredients together until smooth, and then pour over bread.
If you enjoyed reading this book, please recommend it to your friends or your book club. And please write a review. Readers love them and authors depend on them. If you write a review for Blame It on Scotland, please let me know. I would like to thank you personally.
Email: patience@patiencegriffin.com
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For Signed copies, visit:
www.PatienceGriffin.com
…to find out about events, contests, and more!
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www.PatienceGriffin.com
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Books by Patience Griffin
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Kilts and Quilts series:
Romantic Women’s Fiction
#1 To Scotland with Love
#2 Meet Me in Scotland
#2.5 The Laird and I
#3 Some Like It Scottish
#4 The Accidental Scot
#5 The Trouble with Scotland
#6 It Happened in Scotland
#7 Blame It on Scotland
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A Escocia con Amor (To Scotland with Love in Spanish)
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Have you been to Whussendale yet?
Last summer, Sophie Munro met Hugh McGillivray for the first time and she liked him instantly. But the dashing young Laird behaved as if she didn’t exist…even though she was Summer Sophie—sunny and cheerful. Now in the dead of winter, Winter Sophie has arrived, and she’s one despondent lass without her therapy light!
When Sophie receives a cryptic email from Hugh—Can you housesit for me while I’m away?—she’s surprised, but agrees on one condition. While she’s there, she wants to learn the ancient art of kiltmaking at his woolen mill. But mischief is afoot. The quilters of Gandiegow and Whussendale have plotted to bring the pair together, thinking they would make the perfect match. Hugh isn’t so sure.
Sophie has become indispensable as the kiltmaker's apprentice. And even the dogs like her best!
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The Laird starts to realize Sophie’s presence is healing his grieving heart, and he’s doing his best to bring sunshine into her dark winter days. Will the Laird allow Sophie to leave when her time at Kilheath Castle is up? Or will he take a risk and keep her there forever?
To Scotland with Love
Book 1, Kilts and Quilts
Publishers Weekly starred review*
New England Readers' Choice Best First Book
Golden Quill Best First Book
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Wellcome to the charming Scottish seaside town of Gandiegow—where two people have returned home for different reasons, but to find the same thing.…
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Caitriona Macleod gave up her career as an investigative reporter for the role of perfect wife. But after her husband is found dead in his mistress’s bed, a devastated Cait leaves Chicago for the birthplace she hasn’t seen since she was a child. She’s hoping to heal and to reconnect with her gran. The last thing she expects to find in Gandiegow is the Sexiest Man Alive! She just may have stumbled on the ticket to reigniting her career—if her heart doesn’t get in the way.
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Graham Buchanan is a movie star with many secrets. A Gandiegow native, he frequently hides out in his hometown between films. He also has a son he’ll do anything to protect. But Cait Macleod is too damn appealing—even if she is a journalist.
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Quilting with her gran and the other women of the village brings Cait a peace she hasn’t known in years. But if she turns in the story about Graham, Gandiegow will never forgive her for betraying one of its own. Should she suffer the consequences to resurrect her career? Or listen to her battered and bruised heart and give love another chance?
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“Griffin’s lyrical and moving debut marks her as a most talented new-comer to the romance genre.”
-Publishers Weekly starred review
About the Author
Award-winning author Patience Griffin has been writing and sewing her whole life but didn’t discover her love of quilting until her late thirties. She decided the best way to acquire her first quilt was to make one for herself. At nearly the same time, she started commuting three and half hours a day for her dream engineering job. To pass the time on the long drive, she got hooked on audiobooks—especially books with love stories.
Within a couple of years, she was writing stories of her own. It was no surprise to her family and friends when she combined her love of quilting, her small town roots, and her obsession with Scottish romances into novels.She has gained some recognition with her September 11th Story Quilt which has toured the country as the property of the Pentagon.
She has a master's degree in nuclear engineering but spends her days writing stories about hearth and home, and dreaming about the fictional small town of Gandiegow, Scotland.
All Kilts and Quilts novels
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All materials herewith are protected under U.S. copyright laws.
Copyright © 2018 by Patience Griffin