Author Archives: Carol Dean Jones, Author, Quilting Cozy series

We have our 5 winners!

Congratulations to the five followers who were randomly chosen on Friday. Everyone has been notified and has responded with their addresses. Their signed books will be mailed tomorrow. It was fun to see the spread – we had a winner from each of five states: Illinois, Tennessee, Florida, New York, and Virginia! Congratulations to all five winners.

I appreciate everyone’s interest in my series and your comments. Above, along with the picture of the entire series and Frayed Edges, you will see the quilt made by Olivia Guthrie from West Virginia using the pattern that appeared in Frayed Edges. She did a fabulous job of both piecing and color selection. I saw this quilt at a retreat when Olivia was working on it and wish I had thought to take a picture of her totally surrounded by hundreds of little squares!

There is a pattern at the end of every book and I hope anyone who has made any of these quilts will send me pictures to feature in a blog (QuiltingCozy@gmail.com). I also learned that there is a quilt club that decided to make one block a month from each book. I would love to see some of those. What a great activity for a club. Several book clubs have told me they are reading the series together. These books are available from the publisher C&T Publishing, from Amazon in print and ebook format, and from major book stores. You might also find them in your local library.

It’s autumn here in West Virginia, although the trees have been slow to change color here in the eastern panhandle. Now is the perfect time to begin making those holiday gifts! Throws, wallhangings, table runners, placemats…all fun to make and there are lots of patterns online. Enjoy!

I just finished a quilt (below) for my daughter and it’s now waiting for binding (not my favorite part of quilting).

Thank you for entering the drawing…we’ll do lots more. I want to do another drawing of the first two books in the series. The set would make an excellent holiday gift for your quilting friends and older relatives who will enjoy the older characters. I’ll do that drawing in plenty of time for the holidays.

Best wishes to everyone!

Carol

Frayed Edges: A Quilting Cozy by Carol Dean Jones

In this twelfth installment of a Quilting Cozy series, excitement grows as the Tuesday Night Quilters plan an antique quilt show. But things go terribly wrong. Sarah and Sophie again throw themselves into the middle of the investigation, but this time Sarah finds herself in real danger. As always, Sarah and her retirement village cohorts offer fun, mystery, and lots of quilting.

This is the final book in the Quilting Cozy series by Carol Dean Jones. It has been a fun series to write, and I’ve been told it is fun to read. As a cozy, it offers a light mystery but with no visible violence or objectionable language. The focus is on the relationships among the characters who are residents of an active retirement community. The characters are in their seventies and eighties, a real treat for those of us who sometimes feel left out of the fictional character world.

For the quilters, this series includes the pattern for the quilt on the cover of each book. In most books, the characters are also making the quilt as part of the storyline.

This past spring, I attended a local quilt retreat and was surprised to see that the quilter at the next table was piecing something very familiar. It turned out she was making the cover quilt from Frayed Edges! I regret that I didn’t take pictures of all the pieces as she cut and organized them, but I did receive a picture of the finished quilt (below).

This quilt looks very complicated, but once you catch on to the pattern, it’s primarily a matter of correctly arranging two blocks: a four-patch and a solid block with two snowball corners. The challenge is in the placement!

The quilter sent me a picture of her finished quilt top, which is awaiting quilting, and I wanted to share it with you.

My quilting friend did a beautiful job of making this quilt. I love her choice of fabrics, color arrangement, and her attention to detail. This will be a family heirloom one day! It also gives me great pleasure to see my quilt being made by one of my readers.

One of my quilting friends made the Rescue Quilt wall hanging and displays the Rescue Quilt book on a table by the wallhanging. She gets many comments!

I wonder how many others have followed the patterns in the back of each book in the series? I would love to hear from you (QuiltingCozy@gmail.com) and send pictures if possible. I’ll do a blog featuring all of them!

Here are a few examples of cover quilts, and each includes the patterns at the end of the book.

And to encourage others to consider making this quilt, I am offering a free signed copy of Frayed Edges, a Quilting Cozy, to five followers of the blog who leave a comment below. Names will be randomly chosen using the Random Number Generator, and the drawing will be in two weeks: Friday, September 23rd. If you received this blog automatically, you are already a follower, but if you saw it on Facebook or other social media, be sure to sign up as a follower, as only followers are eligible for the drawing.

My very best wishes to all my readers and followers. I hope you had a terrific (and healthy) summer.

Carol

We Have Our Winners!

The Quilting Cozy series by Carol Dean Jones

Three lucky followers have been randomly chosen to receive the first two books in this series, Tie Died and Running Stitches (and I just noticed the books are not in order in this picture. Oops!)

These winners have been notified by email (check your inbox!) and will receive their books as soon as I receive their mailing addresses. CONGRATULATIONS to the winners and if you were not a winner, I promise many more drawings.

In the meantime, as I told you last month, Amazon has included the Quilting Cozy series in their Kindle Unlimited collection which means if you have Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited membership, any books in the series (except for #12) can be read free. This is a great opportunity if you enjoy ebooks. I own over 500 books which are stored in my little 4″x6″ box and am currently rereading a series I purchased in 2015 (and it’s not dusty!)

Again, I encourage you to read them in order. Each book has a mystery that is resolved in that book, however, relationships are developing throughout the series, and reading them in order allows you to enjoy the books at a deeper level. Cozies are about relationships as much as the mystery. Perhaps more. The characters in this series are senior citizens facing problems we will all face at some point and they are dealing with these challenges in unique and interesting ways.

And there is lots of quilting. If you haven’t read any of the series, please give it a try.

I will give you an update on the baby quilt project next week. I have 7 baby quilts all made and quilted sitting in a neat pile waiting to have bindings added. Not my favorite job. That’s why they have piled seven high! But tomorrow I start on them and won’t start another quilt until they are all bound, photographed for you to see, and turned in to the YoungLives program.

My best wishes to everyone. Here in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia spring is here and life is looking up after the past several unpredictable years. I hope everyone is well. I would love to hear from you. Please comment below or drop me a line at QuiltingCozy@gmail.com.

And again, congratulations to our three winners!

Carol Dean

FREE BOOKS – Books #1-2 of A Quilting Cozy by Carol Dean Jones

FREE TO THREE WINNERS

Books #1 (Tie Died) and #2 (Running Stitches) of the 12-book Quilting Cozy series will be signed by the author and sent to the three winners. The drawing will be held on May 18, 2022 using a random number generator.

To enter the drawing, you must be a follower of the blog and leave a comment below. (If you are not already a follower of this blog, be sure you sign up.) Your comment need only state that you want to be included in the drawing, but I love to hear from you and what you’ve been doing.

I want to welcome all our new followers. If you are new to A Quilting Cozy series, this is a 12-book series that takes place in an active retirement community in the mid-West. Sarah and her retired cohorts enjoy quilting, friendship, and the occasional murder!

Amazon is now offering the first 11 books in the series on Kindle Unlimited where they are free to members but they are also offered by Amazon for purchase in ebook or print formats. These books are published by C&T Publishing.

Please don’t forget there is a 12th book, Frayed Edges, released last summer. (You will find places on Amazon where this is referred to as an 11-book series and that is not correct. Hopefully, they will correct that mistake soon.)

For those of you who have read the series, you might like to enter the drawing anyway. These signed books make great gifts for your friends.

I hope everyone is doing well. I’m leaving for a quilt retreat tomorrow, so am making this brief.

My very best to everyone. I look forward to reading your comments.

Carol

A Quilting Cozy Series – Now Available on Kindle Unlimited

The first eleven books of this series are now available on Kindle Unlimited which means if you sign up for Kindle Unlimited on Amazon, you will get the ebooks at no cost beyond the membership fee! This has not yet been extended to the last book in the series (Frayed Edges, A Quilting Cozy, Book 12) but the publisher is working on that.

Also, Amazon is erroneously listing the first eleven books as part of an “11-book series” and this is not correct. There are 12 books in the series and Book #12, Frayed Edges, is on Amazon just not included in the count. I have heard from many readers saying they have just read Book 11 and they hope I’m writing more so I’m hoping to reach those people so they will know there is a Book 12, Frayed Edges.

Okay, with that out of the way – It’s finally springtime at least here in the United States. I’m in West Virginia and the leaves are beginning to come out and my Red Bud is in full bloom. The blossoms took a beating in a surprise snowstorm a couple of days ago. Red Buds are very common in West Virginia and can be seen in the early spring along every winding country road. Story goes that early settlers used the presence of Red Buds as an indication that the area had excellent soil.

And it’s time to begin spring cleanup in the yard and the house. I’m planning to do Spring House Cleaning next week. Yes, I know that’s out of date, but I’m in my 80s and we older (and more traditional) folks still do things like that. I believe, at least in my family, it was necessary during the thirties and forties because of the coal-burning furnaces. Spring was spent clearing away the soot that had accumulated in hidden corners and particular on the wallpaper (yes, wallpaper! remember, I’m old). My grandmother and I would clean the walls with this rubbery stuff which was like silly putty. I was responsible for the bottom two feet! (I was young then!).

I have been making baby quilts for an outreach program in our county. It’s called YoungLives and is directed toward pregnant teenagers and young mothers. One focus is for trained mentors to encourage and help them stay in school and also to provide training in parenting skills and help these ‘children’ transition into parenthood. So far, I’ve made a couple dozen baby quilts and will include more pictures in my next blog.

I want to welcome all our new followers! Pat Sloan has very kindly shared my books with her followers and I have heard from many of you that they are enjoying the series. Thank you, Pat! And welcome newcomers.

I also want to encourage my new followers (and everyone else) to continue leaving a message under ‘Comments’ below or writing to me at QuiltingCozy@gmail.com. I’d love to see pictures of your quilts or other crafts, or simply hear what you’ve been doing. I hope the addition of my series to Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited makes it possible for more people to read the books.

My very best wishes to everyone,

Carol Dean

We have winners!

Today three names were randomly* chosen from the followers who entered the drawings for Books 1&2 of the Quilting Cozy series. These three winners have been notified by email (check your email) and signed copies of Tie Died and Running Stitches will be in the mail to these lucky winners as soon as they respond with their mailing addresses.

Now, if you were not a winner, I want to remind you that I run these giveaways often and will be doing another one in less than two months, probably in late February 2022.

I hope everyone has had a great start to 2022. I’m still staying in most of the time due to the increase in covid cases in my area; however, that’s just more opportunity to write and quilt! We had our first snow this week so winter is officially here.

My very best wishes to all my readers and followers. Please continue to let me hear from you (QuiltingCozy@gmail.com or leave comments below). I enjoy your emails and hearing about your activities and projects. Send pictures!

Blessings,

Carol

*Using the the random number generator available on Random.org

Baby Quilt with Nautical Theme…

A few months ago, a friend asked me to make a quilt for a baby shower she would be attending. The parents, she explained, were water enthusiasts and she knew they would like a baby quilt with a nautical theme. She left the design up to me but gave me a few parameters. She wanted it to be blue, red, and white and she wanted whales included. At one point she said ‘I’m picturing red and white strips somewhere in it.’

What I decided to do was design sailboats for the front and put flannel whales on the back. I found this great piece of flannel which I cleared with her before ordering it and she loved it:

Soft flannel…found it on Etsy

Then for the quilt. I decided to have 12 sailboats, 6 blue boats with red sails and 6 red boats with blue sails. After sketching my simple layout (4 rows of sailboats, 3 in each row, with sashing and a border), I went through my stash and to my favorite online fabric stores and settled on these fabrics:

I searched the web for a free sailboat pattern and ended up designing one using parts of several patterns and making up the rest! I then began cutting fabric and assembled 12 small and 12 large sails, backgrounds (white), 6 boats, and 6 masts.

Once I attached the boats and completed 12 blocks, I laid them out and tried out borders for the blocks. Fortunately, I had a piece of blue that gave the impression of water. I obviously needed something between the blocks so I added a narrow navy blue sashing.

I tried out a red outer border but it demanded too much attention so I changed to a navy fabric with lighter blue dots to compliment the ‘water.’

And here is the finished quilt (approx 38″x48″) with flannel whales on the back:

I had forgotten about the ‘red and white stripe’ my friend had mentioned so you can see where it ended up! She loved the quilt and the new parents were delighted!

The Quilting Cozy series

Book sales have continued to be good despite my long absence from blogging and otherwise spreading the word. But C&T Publishing has continued to plug away with marketing and keeping the word out there for all of its authors.

Do you have all the books in The Quilting Cozy series?

It looks like this will remain a 12-book series. I stopped writing during the pandemic and just haven’t been inspired to write more. For those who have read the whole series including the most recent book, Frayed Edges, you know that all our characters (who have become friends to most of us) were left in good places.

For those of you who have not read the series, I encourage you to start with #1 (Tie Died) so you will be able to follow the relationships as they develop. The mystery is always there but sometimes what goes on between these delightful characters is even better. The series offers great winter reading if you live where the snow falls and my friends in Australia will be enjoying them as relaxing summer reading.

Purchase books from Amazon here

My very best wishes to all my followers. I would love to hear from you. Please leave a message under COMMENTS below or go to my CONTACT ME page and leave me a note. You can also email me directly at QuiltingCozy@gmail.com. Please excuse my long absence from blogging. I’m sure you understand. It’s been an unusual year. Prayers for 2022.

I value all my followers, readers, and friends.

Blessings,

Carol

Deana’s Comfy Quilts

Since I was staying home during the pandemic and since I had all the quilts I could use in my house or give away to my kids, I decided to make baby quilts to pass the time. I did a blog somewhere along the way and shared some of those quilts with you and asked if you had any suggestions as to what I could do with this rapidly growing pile of quilts.

You gave me some great idea. I have given some to friends as gifts, donated some to groups serving children, and passed some to organizations such as the local Volunteer Fire Department to be used as fund raisers. Then I began looking into outlets for selling some of them (considering I’m still making them and the pile is still growing).

I tried having a table at several craft shows, but I found at my age (83) it was difficult physically. I will continue to attend a few local ones, but I needed a different venue.

I looked into putting them on Etsy but there were already hundreds of baby quilts listed. A friend who sells concrete animal statues (ItsConcrete) told me about Bonanza. Bonanza is similar in concept to Etsy but is newer and certainly not as well known. But their concept is simple: Just open a shop and don’t pay anything until you sell and then you pay them a percentage. I decided to give it a try.

So here I am: Deana’s Comfy Quilts.

Please take a look. Now, I know that many of my readers and followers are quilters themselves but I’m asking you to please help me spread the word. If you know any one planning to attend a baby shower or who is about to become a grandmother or just needs a little quilt please send them this link.

https://www.bonanza.com/booths/Deana2424

I have broadened the category from just baby quilts because I discovered that these little quilts (approx. 38″x48″) are great as lap robes as well. I use one on my recliner watching television and a friend’s husband is using one over his knees in his wheelchair. Once I realized this broader use, I have added patterns and fabrics more appropriate for adults.

When I was selling at a craft fair last year, a shopper bought one to be used as a wall hanging and I added that category as well.

I only have eight of my quilts posted on Bonanza at this time, but I have more to add within the next few weeks. Thank you for taking a look and please let me know if you have any suggestions.

I would love to know what folks have been working on and if you’ve had a chance to read #12 (Frayed Edges) of the Quilting Cozy series, I’d love to hear from you. I’ve had lots of requests that I continue the series. You aren’t getting tired of them? Maybe I should start a new series instead? Let me know what you think. Leave a message below or drop me an email at QuiltingCozy@gmail.com. I love hearing from you.

Don’t forget to stop by my shop on Bonanza: Deana’s Comfy Quilts

Thank you for spending time with me today.

Carol Dean (And “Deana” was the nickname my grandfather gave me 80-some years ago).

We have five winners!

At today’s drawing, five lucky followers were chosen to be the recipients of the first two books in the Quilting Cozy series signed by the author.

The winners have been notified by email, so check your email inboxes and see if you are one of the winners.

For those of you who did not win, there will be more drawing in the next few months so stay tuned.

I hope everyone has a joyful July 4th. It is nice being able to be with friends and family again, although we are still doing so cautiously.

My very best wishes to all and thank you for staying in touch.

Carol