Since there are so many of us on the forum who enjoy quilting fiction books, I thought I'd start collecting author names and book titles. Then I'll post a permanent list on the home page that we can refer to.

My county's public library system has an online card catalog and when I typed in "quilting fiction" I came up with quite a few titles. I checked out books today by two authors I've never read...Jane Peart and Judith Pella. Almost all the other books turned up by my search I'd read in the past.

I did notice that they had quite a few children's and easy reader books listed under the "quilting fiction" topic so I'll start a children's list too.

Thanks for letting me know your favorites so I don't overlook anyone!

Hi. I read your post. Do you mean you are looking for ANY 'fiction book' ???
Or do you mean you are looking for any fiction books about quilting?
Curious.
Interesting thought!
I would never have thought to look up fiction books about quilting.
Good idea.

Badman

Great idea!!!!

I thought about the same thing several years ago. Glad to see a like-minded person here. (Let's not be put off by the unimaginative!)

I think I was first inspired by the children's books I found. I'm a teacher and the school librarian was always introducing new books to my class. The Quiltmaker's Gift is a beautiful children's book! The 5th Grade math curriculum had lots of geometry, so children's books about quilting came in handy.

I don't know how I first started reading adult fiction that related to quilting. The RCTQ (rec.crafts.textiles.quilting) newsgroup talked about booklists. Authors I've read are jennifer Chiaverini, Earlene Fowler, Emilie Richards.

Then of course there is the book and movie How to Make an American Quilt.

Kay Ahr in NV

I haven't seen the movie, but the book: I'm half-way through and it's not about quilting, or rather it is, but it uses quilting as a literary device to move the stories along and weave them together. This is soooo good, everyone should read it! Here's a quilting excerpt:

"Study the colors of the blocks. Do not be hasty when deciding on a border as you will have to live with this choice the rest of your quilt's life. Some sashes and borders will be more complementary to the blocks than others. All sashing will divide, but some will enhance, bring out the best in the blocks, while others will dull the blocks, hide their original beauty. Marriage, too, can heighten the wife's colors or consign her to listless hues and shades. Often there is no way to know until you are joined. All you really have to go on is the faith of the kiss. As you stitch the top cloth to the batting to the back work, baste all three layers together - for security and accuracy. Do not skim on these steps. A little effort now will save you a geat deal of effort later. You know that marriage and friendship require effort."

Such a lovely powerful way to make quilting to show a life's story.

Here's an interesting website: http://www.stopyourekillingme.com Mystery books in all forms, but the indexing here is so great. You can look for mystery tles by the job description of the protagonist. A quick look for quilting yielded these:

"Annette Mahon
•Maggie Browne: widow, and the St. Rose Quilting Bee, in Scottsdale, Arizona
Lizbie Brown
•Elizabeth Blair: American widow quilt shop owner in Bath, England

Barbara Workinger
•Hannah Miller (Granny Hanny): mystery reader and quilt-making enthusiast, in Pennsylvania, in the Amish Country mysteries"

Willow <who hides out as a librarian when not quilting>

Thank you for the list of authors! I didn't have any of those.

I'm in the middle of Jennifer Chiaverini's new book The Winding Ways Quilt. She's back to the Elm Creek Quilts characters at the retreats. I wish she would write some new stories rather than just expanding on the characters we already know. This one seems to be about the early lives of the quilters and what brought them to Elm Creek Manor. It just seems to be more in-depth information about characters we already know and without any plot. Of course, I read the book before I fall asleep at night -- maybe there's a plot my brain hasn't found that late at night!

Kay Ahr in NV

Jennifer Chiaverini was at a local book bookstore earlier this week and announced that her book in the fall would be a cookbook of some of the recipes mentioned in the books and a fiction book kindof mixed together and the book in April 2009 would be about Joann (from The Runaway Quilt). She said that she wanted to give a history of how the other Elm Creek Quilters came to quilt and thats what hapens in the Winding Ways book.

Willow, Thank you so much for the website link! I am a huge fan of many types of mystery writers, and have read only a few of the authors listed here. This is like Christmas! Most of the quilting authors I have read are the same as everyone else, so I'm afraid I can't add to the list.
Anne

Yup, The Winding Ways Quilt is pure character analysis. Finally finished it. I enjoyed her earlier books much more. Maybe I'll go back to the beginning of the series and read those books again.

Kay Ahr in NV

I enjoyed Winding Ways...but I think I have enjoyed the others much more...I like it when she describes the characters' lives and how quilting fits into it...althought she did do that a little in this book...I have heard that she is planning two more books...one a cookbook and the other almost a sequel to Runaway Quilt...
I have not read Runaway Quilt...but it is next on my list. My mom and her reading group read it and they all enjoyed it. Most of the ladies are my mom's age and they actually do not quilt... and so my mom wants me to come down and visit the group and tell them about the blocks, etc. I'll probably do that this summer...of course I have to read the book first!!haha