Community Quilts -- The Book

Several of you have asked about my previous gig as co-author of quilt books. I mentioned it back in my November 1 post and I've mentioned in my bio on my website but, what the heck, here I go again. (Not that it'll do me any monetary good as the book is out of print and the only copies available are remainders and used copies on Amazon.)

The book was written under my married name, as you can see on the cover. (The suggestion to use my maiden name for the mysteries was my editor's. ("Middle of the shelf. middle of the bookstore," said she.)

But how'd I come to write a quilting book?

Well, when we moved to the mountains and began to make friends with other newly arrived back-to-the-landers, sooner or later we found that we had become a community. When the first wedding was announced, several of us decided to make a quilt for the couple and have a quilting bee because that fit in with our idea of life in the country. We made a gorgeous quilt and from then on we were hooked. There were lots of baby quilts, more wedding quilts, some friendship quilts, and a few going away quilts. The blue and purple beauty below (the pattern is Sister's Choice) was given to John and me for our anniversary.

Years passed-- around twenty of them. Suddenly we had a body of work -- about fifty quilts, ranging from very simple to very ambitious. We were given a show at the Folk Art Center in Asheville and more than one person at that show suggested that a book should be done to document our work.

And so, knowing nothing about writing a book but thinking this might be worth a try, my friend Karol and I gave it a shot. We decided to showcase each quilt and give a brief history of how it came to be made, along with quotes from the recipients and the makers.

We also decided to have a section detailing the process of planning and organizing a community quilt -- something we'd each had a lot of practice in over the years. (It's not easy, working with all levels of skill and dedication.) And there would be a section of the basics of quilt-making, along with some patterns.

Our book proposal was accepted by Lark Press -- a well-known publisher of crafts books --and we had the guidance of an editor as we worked to flesh out our bare-bones synopsis.

I'm very proud of this book -- The quilts are the stars and pretty much speak for themselves but I think we did a good job explaining the process. The layout and the photography (Lark's professional -- not mine) is outstanding. (Many of the 'beauty shots' were done at our farm -- another reason I really like the photos.) The book was distributed through a crafts book club, as well as book stores.

Karol and I went on to do another book for Lark on weekend quilting projects and after that I turned to a life of crime and craziness in (fictional ) Appalachia.

But I probably wouldn't have learned to use a computer had I not been forced to for the quilting books. And I wouldn't have signed up for the "Writing Fiction That Sells" class, out of which came Elizabeth Goodweather, had I not already gotten a taste of the intangible joys of being an author.

It's all connected.


Maybe this would be a good time to do a drawing for a copy of this book. If you'd like in, leave a comment saying so (only one per reader this time). I'll close the contest on April 30 at 9 PM e.s.t. and announce the winner May 1.