One of the first decisions I made regarding the first book in my quilting cozy series was to design a quilt for the cover and have my characters create the same quilt in the story.
Sarah, a widow and the main character of my book, having recently moved to a retirement village, decided she wanted to learn to quilt in order to preserve her husband’s ties. No problem for the story quilt, but what about the cover? I didn’t own any ties.
Okay, so I started with the family, and they agreed to share what they could. Then I hit the consignment shops and Goodwill. (I was surprised at the prices for used ties. New ties must have increased dramatically in price since I last bought new ones some twenty-five years ago!)
While shopping at Goodwill, I was noticing the many food stains on the ties and muttered to myself, “Are men using these things as bibs?” A male shopper nearby frowned and walked away. I guess he felt personally insulted. My mistake.
I ultimately collected enough ties to make my first cover quilt.
When one of my relatives, a retired policeman, saw the quilt he exclaimed, “My Department Ties! How did they get in your quilt?” I guess he wasn’t consulted. To make up for it, he is now the proud owner of that quilt. (He got his ties back!)
I had no idea that TIE DIED would be the beginning of a series, but within a few months of finishing it and getting it up on Amazon (I was self-publishing at that point), I found Sarah and Sophie nudging me to write one more – and then another. We now have ten books and ten cover quilts.
Will they keep nudging?
NOTE: The series is now being published by C&T Publishing and are due for re-release (Second Edition) on September 5, 2018 beginning with Tie Died. The new edition will include the pattern for the cover quilt in each book.
I’ve ordered Kaffe Fassett’s Lotus Leaf Purple for the border and am considering a plain inner border of turquoise.
Each book explores another aspect of quilting through the eyes of Sarah and her friends. In the first book, Tie Died, Sarah (hoping to preserve her husband’s ties) learns to quilt at the local fabric shop. In later books, she explores the historical aspect of quilts during the civil war, particularly those quilts designed to identify safe houses along the underground trail. At a quilt show, she learns how batiks are made, and on a quilting cruise, she explores paper piecing. Her fun-loving, boisterous friend Sophie resists quilting until she stumbles upon the art of piecing hexagons and then she’s hooked!