Quilting idea for book?

All three of these books have something to do with quilting. I think I have been quilting since the mid 1980’s.

I’m not sure if there was a quilt shop in Neenah, WI when I grew up there. My Grandma Lloyd taught me to embroider when I visited in Melrose MN when I was in middle and high school. It was dish towels then-Days of the Week and dancing forks and knives. And I didn’t do much embroidering after that for many years.

Though when I got married almost 44 years ago, all I asked my MOM for was a set of Day of the Week towels and a melon baller. Not sure about why I wanted the melon baller-wish I had one now. Where’s a Tupperware party when you need one. I digress….

But when I was working finally at Oshkosh B’Gosh, starting in 1981, I decided to learn to quilt. By that time there was a small quilt shop in Neenah and I took hand quilting classes. My first quilt was a sampler quilt of 12 blocks to learn different techniques. I pieced it by hand and quilted it by hand. Still one of my favorite quilts even though some of those stitches are pretty bad. It’s nice to have the first quilt I ever made. Good memories and lots of good sleeps.

I chose to include quilting in these books because I love it and it brings women together. Yes, some men certainly quilt, but in my experience it is women. Women who share ideas about the fabric, thread and patterns just as willingly as they share recipes, advice on everything and even a little gossip.

I still have a treasured group of women-I’m looking at you Amy, Bonnie and Sheila-that I try to quilt with at least once a year when I’m in Wisconsin. We’ve been through marriages, divorces, births, and deaths of loved ones. We can easily just pick up the last conversation we had, no matter how many months are between times. I am truly blessed.

And I have made good quilting friends here is Clearwater, FL too.

So quilting had to be in my first book and also in my second. Now, as I am about to start Chapter 4 in the third book, it’s back to quilting and Sophie Martin’s quilt shop. She inherited it and her grandmother’s friends. But she has made it her own and continued its place in the small community.

But the question is, what type of quilting should I focus on this time? I’ve been asking a lot of my quilting buddies here in FL and think I have made up my mind.

Now to see if Chapter 4 will make it seem real.