Babs has written several books on sewing and now is stitching together a cozy Christmas crime that will keep you trying to unravel the clues to solve the crime along with her characters, the Seadside Sewists.

Let it Sew, Let it Sew, Let it Sew                                  by Babs Emodi

Valerie Rankin and the Seaside Sewists just want to sew for Christmas, but until they find a killer, the buttonholes and zippers will have to wait. Who knew there were so many secrets in Gasper’s Cove Nova Scotia?

What quirky Christmas tradition does your character do every year?

Every year Valerie Rankin puts a carrot and a glass of ginger ale out on her coffee table for Santa and his reindeer. She used to do this with her dad when she was little, and later with her own children. This year was her first Christmas on her own. The dog ate the carrot, drank the ginger ale, and chewed a hole in the plastic cup.

What was your favourite or most memorable gift you got as a child?

My favourite gift was a treadle sewing machine I got when I was fourteen. My father had gone back to school that year. I am sure money was too tight for a real sewing machine. My mother had the man across the street paint it; he covered it with flowers. Beautiful machine. I still have it.

Can you share an enticing (50 words or less) snippet that isn’t in the blurb?

“If my hunch was right, that pair in there had made me, and the whole village, suffer for no good reason. I found the level of deception hard to take in, even if I only knew half the story, although the way it looked to me, as I lurched across the parking lot to the well of the basement door, half the story was bad enough.”

What’s your favourite Christmas movie?

My favorite Christmas movie is White Christmas. Of course. I so admire the skills of the costume designers who used the same fabrics to make two totally different outfits for Vera-Ellen and Rosemary Clooney. Vera-Ellen’s dresses have high necklines, covering her thin frame, and Clooney’s are cut low, and on the bias, to flatter her hourglass figure. Very clever.

How does this story connect with your other books or series? Since both Valerie Rankin and I have both only recently returned to Gasper’s Cove, this is the first in a series. Expect to hear more from the Seaside Sewists.