Crafty fiction

I originally compiled this list for the e-mail newsletter I published in 2005. When I switched to a web site in 2006, I posted it there, too. Now, here it is. If you see anything that needs updating, please tell me. Nicely!

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Most of the books on the list were part of other lists previously compiled by individuals, groups, and libraries. Your local library may already have a list like this, too, so don’t forget to ask. (NOTE: Not all of these books are necessarily in print.)
When I could find them, I’ve also added links to authors’ main web sites. Find out more about the writers you love — from what crafts they actually do, to when their next books will be released.

For yarn artists…
Joan Barfoot: Plain Jane
Anne Bartlett: Knitting: A Novel (April 2005)
A.S. Byatt: Art Work
Gillian Bradshaw: Imperial Purple
Jill Churchill: A Farewell to Yarns
Alisa Craig (Charlotte MacLeod): The Grub-and-Stakers Spin a Yarn
Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities
Robert Heinlein: Friday
Nancy Herndon: C.O.P. Out
Victoria Holt: The Silk Vendetta
Mary Kruger (http://www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=33&pid=330047): Died in the Wool (August 2005)
Debbie Macomber (http://www.debbiemacomber.com/): The Shop on Blossom Street (May 2004), A Good Yarn (May 2005)
E. Annie Proulx: The Shipping News
Ruth Rendell: The Fever Tree and other stories
Maggie Sefton (http://maggiesefton.com): Knit One, Kill Two (June 2005), Needled to Death (December 2005), A Deadly Yarn (June 2006)
Carol Shields: Small Ceremonies
Veronica Smallwood: Death and the Oxford Box
Virginia Woolf: Jacob’s Room

For young yarn artists:
Keith Balding: Daisy and Her Needles
Mary Blackwood: Derek the Knitting Dinosaur
Candace Christiansen: The Mitten Tree
Catherine Dexter: Safe Return
Tom Dunsmuir: The Queen’s New Clothes
Robin Hansen: Sunny’s Mittens
Trinka Hakes Noble: Apple Tree Christmas
Janice Schoop: Boys Don’t Knit
Dr. Seuss: The Lorax
Nicola Smee: The Tusk Fairy
William Taylor: Knitwits
Margaret Wild: Mr. Nick’s Knitting
Arnold Zimmerman: Tale of Alain

For scrapbookers….
Laura Childs (http://laurachilds.com/): Keepsake Crimes (May 2003), Photo Finished (January 2004), Bound for Murder (November 2004)

For needleworkers….
Mary Daheim: Holy Terrors
Monica Ferris (http://monica-ferris.com/Crewelpg.htm): Crewel World (March 1999), Framed in Lace (November 1999), A Stitch in Time (July 2000), Unraveled Sleeve (July 2001), A Murderous Yarn (March 2002), Hanging by a Thread (January 2003), Cutwork (January 2004), Crewel Yule (October 2004), Embroidered Truths (2005)
Mary Sheepshanks: Picking up the Pieces

For quilters….
Clara Alcyon: Hearts and Gizzards: Motherhood in Motion
Alice Allen: The Starfire Quilt
Margaret Atwood: Alias Grace (1996)
Carolyn Banks: Patchwork: A Novel of Suspense
Lois Battle: The Florabama Ladies Auxiliary and Sewing Circle
Cuesta Benberry: A Patchwork of Pieces: an Anthology of Early Quilt Stories
Jane Bierce: Cold Night Beauty
Rose Boucheron: The Patchwork Quilt
Lizbie Brown: Elizabeth Blair quilt shop series — Broken Star (1993), Turkey Tracks, Jacob’s Ladder, Shoo-fly, Double Wedding Ring
T. Davis Bunn: The Quilt
Jennifer Chiaverini (http://www.elmcreek.net/): The Quilter’s Apprentice (April 2000), Round Robin (April 2001), The Cross-Country Quilters (March 2002), The Runaway Quilt (March 2003), The Quilter’s Legacy (March 2004), The Master Quilter (March 2005), The Sugar Camp Quilt (March 2005), The Christmas Quilt (November 1, 2005), Circle of Quilters (March 2006); also Elm Creek Quilts: Quilt Projects Inspired by the Elm Creek Quilts Novels (October 2002), Return to Elm Creek: More Quilt Projects Inspired by the Elm Creek Quilts Novels (October 2004)
Sandra Cisneros: Caramelo
Margaret Coel: Ghostwalker
Alisa Craig (Charlotte MacLeod): The Grub-and-Stakers Quilt a Bee
Sandra Dallas: The Persian Pickle Club (1995), Alice’s Tulips
Thomas Davis: The Christmas Quilt
Earlene Fowler (http://www.earlenefowler.com): Fool’s Puzzle (January 1995), Irish Chain (February 1996), Kansas Troubles (March 1997), Goose in the Pond (March 1998), Dove in the Window (April 2000), Mariner’s Compass (April 2000), Seven Sisters (April 2001), Arkansas Traveler (April 2002), Steps to the Altar (April 2003), Sunshine and Shadow (April 2004), Broken Dishes (May 2004), Delectable Mountains (May 2005); also Benni Harper’s Quilt Album: A Scrapbook of Quilt Projects, Photos & Never-Before-Told Stories, with Margrit Hall (November 2004)
Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman: The People of our Neighborhood (short story collection, 1898)
Sara Hoskinson Frommer: Buried in Quilts (1994). Many years ago she also wrote an adult new reader book, Dear Mary Ellen, which was her first quilt mystery!
Susan Glaspell: A Jury of Her Peers
Sally Goldenbaum: Murders on Elderberry Road (July 2003), A Murder of Taste (November 2004)
Paula Gosling: The Body in Blackwater Bay, The Dead of Winter
Jean Hager: Sew Deadly, Dead and Buried, Death on the Drunkard’s Path (1996)
Karen Harper: Dark Road Home
Christine Holden: Patterns of Love: A Quilting Romance
Silas House: Clay’s Quilt
Linda K. Hubalek: Trail of Thread series
Robert R. Irvine: Called Home
Suzanne Judson: Harper’s Moon
Jean Ray Laury: The Adventures of Sunbonnet Sue series
Margaret Lawrence: Hearts and Bones, Blood-Red Roses, The Burning Bride
Lois Gladys Leppard: Mandie and the Quilt Mystery (YA, July 2002). If your daughter or granddaughter likes this book, know that there are 40 wholesome mystery books in the original Mandie series, plus a Young Mandie series and a new Mandie: Her College Years series.
Annette Mahon: Above the Rainbow, Maui Rose
Sharon McCrumb: The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, The Rosewood Casket
Barbara Michaels: House of Many Shadows, Shattered Silk, Stitches in Time (1995)
Carol Card Otten: Pieces of Yesterday: A Quilting Romance
Karen Osborn: Patchwork
Whitney Otto: How to Make an American Quilt (1991)
Katherine Hall Page: The Body in the Cast, The Body in the Kelp, The Body in the Basement (1994)
Catherine Palmer: A Victorian Christmas Quilt (editor, Victorian romance anthology)
Jane Peart: American Quilt series — The Pattern, The Pledge, The Promise
Phyllis A. Perry: Stigmata
Francine Rivers: The Scarlet Thread
Lauraine Snelling: The Healing Quilt
Hal and Mary Toliver: the Bea Ellis series — Obituary Quilt (October 1998), Bitterroot (January 2000), and Done in Blood-Red Ochre (August 2000).
Ann Rinaldi: a young adult quilt trilogy — A Stitch in Time, Broken Days, and The Blue Door; also The Coffin Quilt: The Feud Between the Hatfields and the McCoys (2001)
Tina Runge: Treasures of the Heart
H. W. Sandberg: Crazy Quilt Murders
Carol Shields: A Fairly Conventional Woman, Happenstance: a Novel
Donne Smyth: Quilt
Cynthia Sterling: Patchwork Hearts
Alice Walker: Everyday Use
Jill Paton Walsh: Imogen Quy series — A Piece of Justice (1995)
Pat Warren: Bright Hopes
Aliske Webb: The Fragile Thread, Twelve Golden Threads (1996), Murder at the Quilt Show, Scrap Quilt Memories, The Phoenix Quilt
Patricia Wendorf: Double Wedding Ring
Stephanie Grace Whitson: Sarah’s Patchwork (1947)
Neill Compton Wilson: The Nine Brides of Granny Hite
Lenora Worth: The Wedding Quilt

For young quilters….
Paulette Bourgeois: Oma’s Quilt (2001)
Jeff Brumbeau: The Quiltmaker’s Gift (2000)
Gail Gibbons: The Quilting Bee (nonfiction, 2004)
Deborah Hopkinson: Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (1993)
Ann Jonas: The Quilt (1984)
Natalie Kinsey-Warnock: The Canada Geese Quilt (1989)
Gary Paulsen: Quilt
Faith Ringgold: Tar Beach (1991, originally created as a story quilt in 1982), Cassie’s Word Quilt (2002)
Nancy Willard and Tomie dePaola: The Mountains of Quilt (1987)

For rubber stampers….
Nick Bantock (http://www.nickbantock.com): Griffin & Sabine trilogy — Griffin & Sabine (1991), Sabine’s Notebook (1992), The Golden Mean (1993); The Egyptian Jukebox (1993), Averse to Beasts (1994), The Venetian’s Wife (1996), Paris Out of Hand (1996), The Forgetting Room (1997), The Museum at Purgatory (1999), The Artful Dodger (2000), The Gryphon (2001), Alexandria (2002), The Morning Star (2003); also Urgent 2nd Class (2004), a handbook for making art from books and ephemera.

And fans of food and Pennsylvania Dutch country:
Tamar Myers (http://tamarmyers.com): Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth (August 1995), No Use Dying Over Spilled Milk (March 1997), Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Crime (August 1997), Just Plain Pickled to Death (October 1997), Between a Wok and a Hard Place (March 1998), Eat, Drink, and Be Wary (September 1998), Play It Again Spam (August 1999), The Hand That Rocked the Ladle (March 2000), The Crepes of Wrath (January 2002), Gruel and Unusual Punishment (January 2003), Custard’s Last Stand (January 2004), Thou Shalt Not Grill (January 2005), Assault And Pepper (February 2005)
Beverly Lewis (http://www.beverlylewis.com/ME2/Sites/Default.asp): The Heritage of Lancaster County series — The Shunning, The Confession, The Reckoning; Abram’s Daughters series — The Covenant, The Betrayal, The Sacrifice, The Prodigal, The Revelation; two-book series The Postcard and The Crossing; Annie’s People series (new) — The Preacher’s Daughter; standalone books October Song, The Redemption of Sarah Cain, The Sanctuary, and The Sunroom. Also, The Beverly Lewis Amish Heritage Cookbook.

For beaders…
The field seems to be open — I couldn’t find a one! Perhaps all of the would-be bead mystery writers and novelists are too busy peyote-stitching bracelets for next year’s Bead & Button Show.

For young beaders…
Margarette Reid: A String of Beads (1996)