Welcome New Year, Welcome to Grandma's Wedding Quilts - The Series

Today marks the start of a special time. Besides being the recognized New Year’s Day holiday which many employees have off work, it is marks the start of a busy week for me as the authors of the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog officially launch the Grandma’sWedding Quilts series.

Eleven authors who write for the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog banded together to put together a romance series. We tossed around several scenarios on which we could build our series. Being both a family historian and a quilter myself, I was thrilled when the group decided on adopting many of my ideas that led to the series, Grandma’s Wedding Quilts.

We (well, I started it; I’m the chart queen, much to the chagrin of some of the other authors.) helped put together a descendant chart for a fictional family. It was built around Grandma Mary Alice Godwin Benton Palmer born in Ohio in 1810. She was married first to Ezra Benton in 1828, by whom she had three children: Jemima “Mima,” Franklin and Viola Grace. Like many farmers of their day, intrigued by reports of prime farmland in Oregon Territory, the family traveled south to join a wagon train traveling west. Unfortunately, Ezra sickened along the way and in 1843, he died, leaving his little family stranded in Boonville, Missouri. There Mary met Edward Palmer, a widower with a young son. She was hired to cook and keep house for him as well as help raise Stephen Palmer. Mary married Edward two years later in 1845.

They later moved to Salina, Kansas after the Kansas Territory opened up to white settlement. By then, some of the children were older and went their own way. One of our authors wrote out this scenario which, in addition to the descendant chart, we used as a guide for the development of our stories.

 

Kansas Territory -  formed in 1854 and opened to settlement, admitted as a state in 1861.

 As a family historian, besides Mary Alice, I suggested a few names I knew to be old-fashioned and the group adopted them. Godwin is a surname from my husband’s family tree. Also, there was a Jemima Godwin, who was occasionally listed as Mima on some of the records.

Those four children married and had children. About the time her grandchildren started to marry, Grandma Mary decided to make a wedding quilt for each grandchild. Each quilt was unique. Something Grandma Mary did that was different from many quilters is that she saved a remembrance of each grandchild for herself. The individual wedding quilts were made with blocks all of the same color and design. However, Mary made an additional block of each quilt design for herself. In the corner of each, she embroidered the names of the couple and the year of their marriage. In honor of little Georgie, the grandson who died when he was two, she made a LeMoyne Star. She stitched these twelve blocks together to make a sampler quilt for herself. Here is an example of a modern sampler quilt:

The book series is about the romances of the individual grandchildren. The marriages started in 1865 and continued until 1890. Each author selected a grandchild and developed their own story using the foundation of the descendant chart and early history for Grandma Mary’s family to guide them. The stories are now written and scheduled for publication. It is time to introduce the romances of the Grandma’s Wedding Quilts series to the world.

You can get a sense of how these quilts traveled down through time by reading Grandma’s Wedding Quilts – The Prequel written by Kate Cambridge. This book is already published and you may purchase it from Amazon by CLICKING HERE.

To find all the books in the Grandma’s Wedding Quilts series, please visit and follow the series page on Amazon by CLICKING HERE.

To keep track of any games, parties, contests and special information about this series, please "like" and follow the Grandma’s Wedding Quilts page on Facebook by CLICKING HERE.

To launch this series, we are having a Facebook Party between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time on Tuesday, January 3rd. You may join in the fun, learn more about each of the books and win prizes by CLICKING HERE.

We are also sponsoring a Quilt Contest game starting on Tuesday, January 3rd and running through January 8th. By playing that game, you will have a chance to win prizes including free ebooks, signed copies of print books, Amazon gift cards and a new 7" Kindle Fire. More on that in tomorrow’s blog post.

The Sweet Americana Sweethearts authors plan to keep writing together to create more book series. You can keep track of our progress two ways. First, please visit and follow the SweetAmericana Sweethearts blog by CLICKING HERE.

Second, join the SweetAmericana Book Club group on Facebook by CLICKING HERE.

All of the books about the grandchildren are on pre-order. They will be published at the rate of one per day starting with my book, Kizzie’s Kisses, on Monday, January 9th. You can purchase this book on pre-order by CLICKING HERE.

More about my journey writing Kizzie’s Kisses in future blog posts.

Enjoy the journey. 

Enjoy the Grandma's Wedding Quilts series. 

Enjoy learning about lives and loves of Grandma Mary's grandchildren.