THE QUILTS OF LOVE SERIES

Question:  What do the Amish, Native Americans, Quakers, Colonial, Civil War, WWII era, as well as contemporary women have in common?  They all have an interest in quilting.  The Quilts of Love (Abingdon Press) series of novels are being published with the common theme of quilting, believing that each quilt has a story to tell.  The series will encompass many different genres including light mystery, historical and contemporary romance, and Quaker and Amish themes. 

The Quilts of Love series eventually will encompass 25 beautifully written books by 25 unique and established authors.  The last book in the series will be released in January, 2015.  The books can be read in any order and contain their own characters and distinctive story.  The striking book covers for this series were created by Faceout Studio, a well-known firm in Christian publishing, and depict exquisite, colorful quilts.  Each cover is truly a work of art.

Quilts come in all different patterns and styles as do The Quilts of Love novels.  For example, in A Sky Without Stars by Linda S. Clare, a Native American woman is quilting a Lakota Star for her son.  While in Maybelle in Stitches by Joyce Magnin, a group of World War II era women are quilting a patchwork quilt while they nervously wait for their men to come home from the war.

Vannetta Chapman, author of The Christmas Quilt, stated that the theme of quilting did not get in the way of telling her story as she wrote about a nine patch quilt and focused on the nine fruits of the spirit found in Galatians in the bible.  Each square of the nine patch quilt is represented by a comforting story told to an at-risk pregnant woman illustrating love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Vannetta is a beginning quilter and depends on experienced quilters to read her manuscripts and point out any problems in the quilting area.  Authors were not required to be quilters but needed to be familiar with the art of quilting.  An emphasis is put on the story behind the quilt.

The main character in Barbara Cameron’s novel, Scraps of Evidence, is a detective who quilts as a hobby and uses quilting as a way to help her solve a crime through her aunt’s old story quilt. Scraps of Evidence combines the twists and turns of a cozy thriller with quilting and sparks of a new romance for an irresistible book.  Barbara has sewn a quilt herself many years ago as well as sewing clothes for her two children, before she started writing books.  These days Barbara settles for reading quilting magazines to satisfy that creative urge since her time is filled writing best-selling Amish novels.

Quilts and quilting, besides being an art and craft, are used in a variety of ways in these novels to convey love, family ties, hope for the future, remembrance of the past, and God’s message of love for us.  For more information, the publisher sponsors a website at www.quiltsoflovebooks.com with material on all previous published books in addition to the upcoming novels in the series.