Quilts

Quilt Week 2024

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“In the quilt of life, friends are the stitches that hold it together.”

If you read any of my books, my blogs, or my posts, you know that next to creating sweet historical romance, quilting is near and dear to my heart. With that being said, I’m taking you on a virtual tour of Quilt Week 2024.

Since 2000, 6 or 8 or 10 friends get together to quilt, shop, eat, and share lots of laughs. It first started out as a long weekend, then a week, and now has morphed into a ten-day getaway from household chores, husbands, children, grandchildren (although we love them all, girl time is important, too!).

In recent years we’ve rented a 5-bedroom house in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Here is what my husband jokingly calls the “sweat shop”!

…and, of course, we require sustenance at home and at Lapp’s Creamery twice a week!

   

Then there was the fabric shopping…a real feast for the eyes! So many choices!

   

I can’t forget the Amish foods at Bird-in-Hand Bakery, Stolzfus meats, Dienner’s Restaurant, and Kitchen Kettle shops!

      

Now, you might be thinking all we did was eat and shop…but you’d be wrong. We worked very hard until 9:00 p.m. Here is a breakdown of the items created and the results of ten days of sewing.

  • 32 quilts
  • 3 table runners
  • 5 wall hangings
  • 1 Christmas tree skirt
  • 1 table topper
  • 3 Diamond Dot decorations
  • 3 pillowcases
  • 3 cosmetic bags

 

 

Every year, prior to quilt week, we have a “challenge” in which we utilize a different theme and donate to hospitals, veterans’ groups, homeless shelters, NICUs, etc. This year we made 17 quilts and a fleece blanket that are being donated to an organization called My Very Own Blanket that will be given to foster children.  https://www.myveryownblanket.org/ 

There you have it…10 days full of sunrises, sunsets, rainbows, ice cream, laughs with women whose friendships span fifty years…I’m one very blessed quilter!

      

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What is your favorite vacation spot to share with family or friends?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Thread of the Story

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If you’ve read any of my books or posts about my second-favorite passion (writing sweet historical romance is #1), you know I’m a quilter.

It is easy to sit at my machine and reach for a spool of thread that coordinates with the fabric I’m sewing into quilt squares. However, I usually use a medium grey thread when constructing the squares as it is easy to see when I make mistakes (lots of them!) and need to use my modification tool (a.k.a. seam ripper)! And when I run out of thread, a quick trip to my local quilt shop, Jo-Ann’s, or Michaels solves my dilemma.

While writing Noelle and Hope (Christmas Quilt Brides series), it got me thinking. How did my heroines get thread? Where did they get it? And when was it available to the average housewife, seamstress, or milliner?

And thus, the research began…

Forms of very early sewing thread were made of thin strips of animal hide. This was used to sew together larger pieces of hide and fur for clothing, blankets, and shelter. There is proof throughout history of some form of threading used even when cavemen oversaw the planet. As civilizations moved forward, the thread did also, and eventually, it evolved to include the spinning and dyeing of thread.

There are three basic types of thread, and they are based on their origin, Thread is animal, plant, or synthetic depending on its makeup. Silk thread is touted as the best because it is strong, very elastic, and fine in diameter. Silk is interwoven into a lot of regular threads for added strength. Pure silk thread use is used in finer clothing.

However, since the heroines in my story reside in a small Kansas town in 1870s, I imagined they’d only use cotton thread, the least expensive in her quilting.

Thread is made of a series of plies–or cords, twisted together. The plying and twisting create a stronger unit than the original strands alone. A ply is two or more strands of cotton twisted together. A cord is two or more plies twisted together. The earliest form of cotton thread was three-ply thread–three single strands of fiber twisted together.

Manufactured cotton thread was available to hand sewers in the U.S. and Europe in 1800. At first, they were sold in hanks as some yarns still are. The thread came on wooden spools beginning in 1820. Like the soda bottles of today, the spools could be returned for a deposit, to be refilled. Mass production put an end to the deposits since the spools could be produced so cheaply.

 

Historians credit James and Patrick Clark, mill owners in Paisley, Scotland, with developing the first cotton thread. When silk and flax became scarce during the Napoleonic wars, they were forced to find a suitable replacement with which to create their famous (and profitable) Paisley shawls.

Historians credit James and Patrick Clark, mill owners in Paisley, Scotland, with developing the first cotton thread. When silk and flax became scarce during the Napoleonic wars, they were forced to find a suitable replacement with which to create their famous (and profitable) Paisley shawls.

   

Eventually, some Clark family members moved to the U.S. and began their own thread companies, including George Clark and William Clark, grandsons of James who opened a cotton thread mill in New Jersey.

George Clark perfected six-cord thread for use on sewing machines. He called it “O.N.T.” for “Our New Thread,” combining fineness with strength as well as being inexpensive.

In 1815, another prominent Scottish manufacturer, James Coats, began making thread. His sons, James and Peter formed J&P Coats, Co., introducing thread to the U.S. around 1820. By 1869, they began manufacturing sewing thread in Pawtucket Rhode Island. It was here where they developed a unique spool shape with smooth curves.

The emergence of the sewing machine in the 1840s further escalated the need for a better-quality thread. Three-ply was too uneven, and six-ply was too thick. Silk and linen threads were either too thick or too weak for use with the machine. Three-ply silk was too expensive.

Improved cotton seemed the only option.

At the beginning of the 20th century, mercerization was developed to make a stronger, smoother cotton thread. It is a process of immersing cotton thread in a solution of caustic soda, resulting in a stronger, more lustrous that also accepts dye more readily.

Polyester thread became available in 1942, and cotton-wrapped polyester in the late 1960s.

Other Thread Manufacturers

Belding & Corticelli, a silk thread manufacturing enterprise was started by the Belding brothers in Michigan. From their home, they produced spools of silk thread which traveling salesmen marketed door to door.  Sales of silk thread dwindled during the Great Depression, forcing the company to close its doors the next year.

Lucky for us quilters, sewers, seamstresses, and those whose talent with needle and thread, thread–cotton thread, in particular–has evolved over the last 250 years and has been supplanted by other fibers.

So, whenever Noelle Prentiss and Hope Brody (my heroines) threaded a needle and joined fabrics together to make a quilt, they continued the tradition of those who came before and after them by carrying on the thread of the story.

***A Giveaway***

I’m giving away an ebook edition of both Noelle Christmas Quilt Brides and Hope Christmas Quilt Brides. For a chance to win, leave a comment to the question below:

***Do you or does anyone in your family enjoy creating fabric art works? (Sewing, quilting, embroidery, crochet, crewel, macrame, etc.?)***

 

 

 

Quilting Superstitions

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Since my oldest son recently married, I intended to write a post on wedding traditions but as what happens, my plans went awry. The more I wrote, the more it sounded like a high school Home Ec report.

My son and I before his wedding

However, when researching wedding traditions, I discovered single women in the 1800s stressed over whether they would marry. To cope, they relied on parlor games or predictions such as tossing cats into new quilts. That sent me down a rabbit hole to discover how traumatizing poor cats in a quilt could predict a woman wouldn’t be an old maid or reveal her true love. That led me to an article on quilt superstitions and a topic change.

Here are some superstitions I discovered. My comment (because I couldn’t post these without saying something. 🙂 ) follow each superstition.

 

 

Luck:

  • Never make a quilt with 13 blocks
    • I assume it’s because 13 is unlucky. Okay, now I’m wondering how and why 13 was labeled as unlucky. But I’ll save that for another day.
  • If a thread breaks, it will bring misfortune.
    • There should be a warning label on thread because who hasn’t broken a thread while sewing a quilt? And does it bring major misfortune such as a car accident or a minor one like losing a shoe? Come on, be specific about how bad this will be.
  • Stitching a spider web design into a quilt will bring good luck. Because a spider web is so easy to work into every quilt design.
    • First, a four-leaf clover or horseshoe, for luck I could see. But a spider web? Second, I never remember seeing one in anything but Halloween quilts. The solution to that is to sew a small one in somewhere, but I’m not that talented. ? I guess whoever I give future quilts will have to add one or do without the extra good luck until I figure out how to sew one. Either that or I have apologies to make.
  • It’s bad luck to give away your first quilt.
    • This would’ve been nice to know before I gave my first quilt to my son. However, since that quilt stayed in my stayed in my house, maybe I didn’t get too much bad luck for that.
The first quilt I made which I gave to my oldest son.

Marriage:

  • When a new quilt is finished, the first woman it is thrown over will marry first. Wrapping her in it will ensure she marries within a year.
    • I’m wondering if throwing the quilt over is different than wrapping her up in it, or if one superstition is simply more specific.
  • Wedding quilts should have borders of continuous vines or ribbon patterns because a broken border means the marriage will be broken too.
    • I must be an awful person because my first thought here was, if someone didn’t like who their child was marrying, they could give the couple a quilt with a broken border.
  • If a single female puts the last stitch in a quilt, she will become an old maid.
    • This superstition was easy to avoid when quilting bees or circles were prevalent, but what’s a gal to do now, call a married friend or relative to put in the last stitch?
  • After taking a quilt off the frame, wrapping it around an unmarried woman will give her luck to find a husband. Throwing it at the first single man she sees, will “charmed” him into a relationship. If a young lady shakes a new quilt out the door, the first man who comes through the door will be her future husband.
    • From the little research I did, I discovered there was a lot of quilt shaking and throwing them at folks in the past, making me wonder if there are other superstitions to uncover. But apparently they had to be newly completed quilts. Which spurns me to wonder why they had to be new…

 

My bff made this beautiful quilt for me.

Miscellaneous:

  • If you sew on a Sunday, you will have to pull out those stitches with your nose when you get to heaven.
    • First, with the way heaven is described in the Bible, I find it hard to believe God would punish a quilter this way upon arrival. Second, how would I pull out stitches with my nose?! Guess I’ll learn that should I be blessed enough to get to the Pearly Gates.
  • Quilts started on Friday will never be finished.
    • Again, why would this be worse than starting on any other day, except Sunday of course. ?

And finally, Cats and quilts and the answer to the question that started this.

  • If women stand in a circle and “shake up a cat” in new quilt, the one the feline runs toward will be the first to marry.

Giveaway:

To be entered in my random drawing for an ebook version of my Pink Pistol Sisterhood novel, Aiming for His Heart, leave a comment about quilting, superstitions, or whatever’s on your mind.

 

A Western Holiday Feast and a Bit of Friendly Competition ~ by Nancy Fraser

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Any western historical romance storyteller worth her salt (pun intended) knows that a wholesome and entertaining story will contain a number of things to which their reader can relate. Most often in my own books, it’s food. I grew up in a family where holidays and other celebrations, e.g., birthdays, all revolved around togetherness, and togetherness meant food.

I can recite verbatim what filled my Tennessee-born mother’s dinner table on Christmas, from my childhood years back in the stone age, up until my two sons’ last holiday with their grandmother. I’m thankful every day for the time they had with her, and for the fact that they’ve both developed her cooking talents and, in some cases, tastes.

Given mine (and my family’s) love of food, I knew I wanted to write about researching food in the time period and western location of my upcoming holiday book. The story takes place in 1895, in what was then the real town of Castlerock, Oregon. So, being a stickler for research I went looking for what might have been included on the average family’s holiday table. Lo and behold, my search took me back to the book archives at my own alma mater, Michigan State University, and to the Boston Cooking School Cook Book, written by none other than Fannie Farmer. Even though the book wasn’t published until 1896, it covered recipes from pre-Civil War through that year. I imagine all the foods listed in their holiday meal would have been readily available in a western town for the time period.

The recommended menu for an 1895 Christmas Dinner includes: Consommé, bread sticks, celery, olives, and salted pecans for starters. Followed by roast goose, potato stuffing, applesauce, Duchess potatoes, cream of lima beans, chicken croquettes with green peas, and dressed lettuce with cheese straws. Desserts included plum pudding with brandy sauce, frozen pudding, assorted cakes, bonbons, crackers, cheese and Café Noir.

Satisfied with my chosen Christmas meal, I moved on to the next phase of my research. An integral part of this upcoming book is quilting. Just so you know, my sewing talent lends more to button replacement and very limited hemming. Thankfully, I have friends who quilt.

Kindle Unlimited

In Audrey (Christmas Quilt Brides) my hero, who also happens to be the new doctor in town, is asked to judge the holiday quilt competition. One of my first questions was:  What should he be looking in an award-winning quilt? Most of what I could find related to modern day machine quilting, rather than the hand quilting that would have taken place in the 1890s. Time to ‘phone a friend,’ a lady of a certain age who began quilting before the fancy machines took over. I believe we settled on a fair judge’s sheet for my heroine’s first attempt at joining the quilting circle.A Christmas Baby for Beatrice: Mail-Order Brides' First Christmas - Book 17

I’ll give away an autographed copy of my previous year’s western holiday romance, “A Christmas Baby for Beatrice” along with some swag to winners in the U.S. or Canada. International winners will get an ebook copy.

In line with my research, I thought I’d put two questions to your readers. They’re welcome to answer one, or both, or neither as it suits them.

Question #1 pertains to food: What’s the most sought-after staple on your holiday table? For my family, it’s Heart Attack Potatoes for the adults and Banana Pudding for the grandchildren.

Question #2 pertains to quilting: Have you ever made a quilt by hand? And, if so, what did you find to be the most challenging part?

Thank you so much for hosting my visit today. I look forward to returning throughout the day to interact with readers. And, hopefully, visiting again sometime in the future. May you all have a blessed and joyous holiday, no matter which you celebrate!

Nancy

NANCY FRASER is a bestselling and award-winning author who can’t seem to decide which romance genre suits her best. So, she writes them all.

Nancy was named Canadian writer of the year for 2021 by N.N. Lights’ Book Heaven, and her western historical romance, An Honorable Man for Katarina, won the National Excellent in Story Telling (NEST) award for sweet romance. She was also named a “bright new voice in sweet/inspirational romance” by Independently Reviewed.

When not writing (which is almost never), Nancy dotes on her five wonderful grandchildren and looks forward to traveling and reading when time permits. Nancy lives in Atlantic Canada where she enjoys the relaxed pace and colorful people.

Website: https://tinyurl.com/3acnynze

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B09FTH655Z?tag=pettpist-20

Bookbub: http://bookbub.com/profile/nancy-fraser

 

Guest Blogger Jo-Ann Roberts – Quilts and Christmas

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Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

Earlier this year, the lovely Zina Abbott asked if I would be interested in being part of a historical MAPs that would feature quilts and Christmas. Gosh! As an avid quilter what could be better? Maybe a rugged cowboy? I answered with a very enthusiastic “Yes!”

While history books, almanacs, and memoirs chronicled the West as a man’s world full of adventure and clashes with nature and man, it should be noted women also played a vital role in the migration and taming of the frontier.

Prior to leaving for the journey, female friends in the East came together to stitch a quilt for the departing woman. These “quiltings” became farewell gatherings, united in purpose as well as in friendship. Thus the “friendship quilts”, squares inscribed with names, dates, and heartfelt sentiments became popular.

As preparations continued, the women gathered all the quilts, blankets and tied comforters they could make or acquire. While special quilts were packed in a trunk, or used to wrap fragile keepsakes, everyday quilts were left out for bedding or padding on the wagon seat. When the winds rose up and blew across the dusty plains, quilts were used to cover the cracks that let the dust inside the wagon.

Since most of the women walked alongside the wagon, little quilting was done on the trail. More often the women knitted or mended clothing during the short breaks or occasional layovers. Besides, the poor light of a campfire would not have been conducive to stitching blocks together.

Quilts often reflected the adventures the of the family. “Road to California”, “Crossing the Plains” and “Log Cabin” (my personal favorite!) often indicated memories of home and hearth, the trail looming up before them, or the movement of the wind across the plains.

As the journey continued, quilts were needed for far more serious purposes than simple comfort and dust control. They were hung on the exposed side of the wagons for protection against Indian attacks. Loss of life from sickness and injury was inevitable, and wood for building a coffin was scarce along the trail as well as time-consuming. Wrapping a beloved mother, child or husband in a quilt for burial gave the family comfort knowing that something symbolizing family love enfolded their dear one in that lonely grave along the trail.

Once a pioneer family reached their destination, quilts and blankets were needed to keep the elements out of their windows and doors of log cabins or dugouts. Quilts also gave emotional sustenance as well. Putting a favorite quilt on the bed gave a woman a sense of connection with her former way of life, and something of beauty in her desolate home.

A Swedish woman settled in Kansas in the early 1850s, and recalled an invitation to a sewing circle. Being new to the country and the territory, she took this as an offer of friendship. Pioneer quilting had become an opportunity to express creativity and cultivate friendships in the new land.

Here’s the buy link for Noelle:    Noelle – Christmas Quilt Brides

 

 

On to the fun stuff….

Today is release day for Noelle – Christmas Quilt Brides, Book 8. If you’d like to read an excerpt, PLEASE CLICK HERE

 ***** Giveaway *****

Jo-Ann will be giving away two ebook copies of Noelle. For a chance to win one, leave a comment about the type of crafting you enjoy most ( quilting, knitting, sewing, cake decorating, wreathing-making, etc.). If you’re not a crafter, what crafty skill to admire most in others?

Many thanks to the P&P authors for extending an invitation to their blog. I love sharing my love of the West and sweet historical romance!

 

Quilts, Both Fictional and Real

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Hi, everyone, Winnie Griggs here. I hope you all are having a great start to 2022.

Today I want to talk about my first foray into the world of Amish Romance, Her Amish Wedding Quilt and then segue into recounting a few personal tidbits.
The book opens on the morning of Jan 1, the first day of a new year, and Greta Eicher is filled with thoughts of the bright and hopeful future she pictures for herself. She’s positive it will all come about in this new year. Of course, since this is a romance novel, things don’t work out quite as Greta imagined—in fact the whole New Years day ends in disaster for her.

Greta has an avocation to fall back on, though, while she licks her wounds—she’s not only the co-owner of a quilt shop but she is also an artist who creates breathtaking quilting designs. And it is in focusing in on her craft that she is able to heal, move forward and eventually open herself up to real love. I got so into her story that I actually created Greta’s heart & dove stitch design that plays a part in the big resolution of the story.

While I’m not nearly as talented as Greta, I did actually make a quilt once myself. It was over 40 years ago, back before I had the happy distractions of kids and a writing career. I don’t even remember what triggered the urge but I decided I would teach myself how to make a quilt and that, once I completed my first one, I would gift the masterpiece to my mother for her birthday.

So I bought a bunch of how to books (this was before the internet and YouTube videos) and carefully selected a pattern and methodology. Back then I was making most of my clothes and had a large pile of fabric scraps. So one of the things that went into my selection of a pattern was to find something that would allow me to use those and not require that I go out and purchase a lot of new material. When I came across the Grandmother’s Flower Garden pattern I knew I’d found just the thing. And a bonus was finding a version that allowed me to tackle it in a ‘quilt as you go’ method.

I did go on to make that quilt and give it to my mother who still uses it in one of her guest rooms to this day. But I’d waaaaayyy underestimated the amount of time it would take me to finish it.  Instead of giving it to her for her birthday (October) that year it became a Mother’s Day gift the following year. I’ve included a photo of the finished product. I folded it over so you can see the actual Grandmother’s Flower Garden pattern on the front, and the mixed hexagon pattern on the back.

As it turns out, that was the one and only quilt I ever made (remember those ‘happy distractions’ I mentioned? Well they came along soon after).

My mom, who was a very talented seamstress (she made ALL of our clothes when I was growing up), was not a quilter at the time. But in a funny happenstance she made friends with some ladies who were part of a quilting group a few years later. She joined them and started quilting herself. She became both talented and proficient in the art. In addition to quilts the group made for charity auctions, she made quilts as gifts for many friends and family members, including her 5 kids and 13 grandchildren. Each of us cherish them for the treasures they are. Here are a few shots of some of her creations, including a quilted tree skirt she made for me that I use every year.

Unfortunately, like me, Mom has put up her quilting supplies. But the body of work she created is marvelous and treasured by those who received pieces of it.

Have you ever challenged yourself to learn a new skill that was outside your wheelhouse? What was it and how did it turn out? Leave a comment concerning that or on what you thought of my post to be entered in a drawing for a copy of any book from my backlist.

 

Jodi Thomas: Quilter of Words & Book Giveaway

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My new novel, MORNINGS ON MAIN, is about a quilt shop in a small town called Laurel Springs, Texas.  Since I don’t quilt some people might think the setting strange for me, but they don’t know my family.

 My grandmother was born in a covered wagon and I’m sure there were quilts surrounding her.  My mother quilted all her life, even after she’d lost the names of her children to Alzheimer’s, she quilted.  Both of my sisters quilt. (See picture of mother’s quilt with books on top.)

 In a very real way the history of our family is woven into the squares of a hundred years of quilts.  So, setting a story in a quilt shop made sense.

 I also wanted to weave into this small town story the fact that it’s not so important where you live your life sometimes, but how you live it.  I think sometimes people think if they live in some exciting place like Paris that they somehow live a richer, bigger life.  Sometimes when I’m traveling people ask me, ‘You live in Amarillo.  Why?’  

If they only knew…

When I first started writing, my husband knew how much I loved this Lone Star Quilt my mother made.  So he went to an artist in town and said simply, “I’ve got two questions for you.  One, can you put this quilt and my wife’s books in a painting?  And, two, can I afford it?”

Arvis Stewart must have laughed, but he said,  “We’ll make it work.”That Christmas when Tom gave me the painting, I cried. (See picture of painting Tom gave me. My student intern Nicole McGee is holding it.)

 Early settlers made quilts from scraps and flour sacks so they could keep their family warm.  Pictures of early picnics, wagon beds and clotheslines often show quilts, but we can’t see the colors.  Yet I know that those quilts must have added a great deal of color to their lives.  Now, those quilts, some worn and over a hundred years old still add not only color to my life, but also a source of ideas for books.

 Step into MORNINGS ON MAIN and fall in love with the people of Laurel Springs lives and see their beautiful quilts in your mind.  When my mother read my first book, she said, “Jodi, you quilt with words.”

 I hope you will stop by and visit with me about your quilts, and I would love to see a picture. One lucky winner will be drawn to receive a copy of MORNINGS ON MAIN. (Giveaway guidelines apply).

 

Here’s where you can purchase Mornings on Main

Amazon

B&N