The Blog

The Christmas Quilt – and Quilts of Love My newest release, The Christmas Quilt, is a part of the Quilts of Love series. The books in this series began releasing in October of last year. My book is #11 in the series. The interesting thing about this group of books is that they are from different genres and by different... read more

Mid-week Inspiration and Amish Hymns The more I learn about the Amish, the more I find we have in common. When I was in Wisconsin doing research, I came across this small song book for Amish services. Now, I doubt that many of those folks need to look at the song book! But... read more

Weddings in Amish Communities I first visited Cashton, Wisconsin two summers ago. Being from Texas, I was stunned to see so much green! The countryside is truly spectacular. We stayed at Amil’s Inn Bed & Breakfast. The owner, Anita, had lived in the area for quite some time and knew a lot of the Amish families. She was happy to take... read more

All Things Amish – Cashton Wisconsin I have a confession to make. I’ve been holding out on you! While I was searching through my storage room (aka, bedroom closet), I found an entire tub full of items from Cashton, Wisconsin. Cashton is the setting for my Pebble Creek series. When I visited there 2 summers ago, I bought lots of... read more

All Things Amish, and Amish Weddings I had so much fun researching for my current release, A Wedding for Julia. If you’ve read the story, you know the opening scene is actually a funeral. I haven’t attended an Amish funeral, so that took a lot of research on my part. I also haven’t attended an Amish wedding! So how does... read more

Differences Between Amish and Mennonite While I was signing books at the Brownfield Quilt Show, a Mennonite family walked in. They were very interested in the scrap fabrics and the patterns. In fact, this mom and 2 daughters came to the quilt show both days. As far as I know, there are no longer any Amish communities in Texas. We’ve... read more

Amish Life and Gardening, part 2 Pick up one of my books, and you’re bound to find a gardening scene. Why? Because every time I’ve been to Amish country, I’ve seen folks gardening. Doesn’t matter whether it’s spring, summer or fall, families are out working in their gardens. Last week I shared with you gardening tips from some of my... read more

The Amish Way, Ministering to Others I’ve been in a crochet mood – and quilting, knitting, and sewing mood. Fall does this to me! As you can see, I’ve been crocheting hats like a crazy person. (This pattern can be found here.) I can easily do one a night. Everyone in my family is groaning, “Hats for Christmas. Great.” They’re... read more

Blogging and Everything Amish So how do you like the new look of my blog? The blue reminds me of  kitchen curtains, and the brown and orange remind me of fall. : ) I hope this will be a nice, comforting place that you enjoy visiting. So I gave the blog a facelift, and you’ll notice a few other changes... read more

School Days and Material Witness   Material Witness is the story of a little boy who sees something terrible–he sees a man attack a woman. He doesn’t know it at the time, but he sees a man kill a woman. Why would I write such a thing? We would all protect our children from seeing this horrible event, from being... read more