Local quilter publishes book about two dogs that had an adventure
Local quilter Debra Shaw recently published her first book, “Riley and Ginger’s Big Adventure” based off of two real Golden Retrievers who ran away and had adventures. Before even considering writing a book, Shaw created this quilt that tells their story, and based her book off the quilt. A signed copy of Shaw’s book, “Riley & Ginger’s Big Adventure” can be purchased at Commonwealth Americana, Mercantile on Main, or Triplett’s Pharmacy.
COSHOCTON – Riley and Ginger are two beautiful Golden Retrievers who ran away from home recently and inspired a local quilter to not only make a story quilt about their big adventures around Coshocton County, but write a book about them as well.
Debra Shaw recently self-published her first book entitled, “Riley & Ginger’s Big Adventure”. It tells the story of one of her friend’s two Golden Retrievers who ran away from home and had quite an adventure that lasted 11 days. People around the community would spot the two dogs and call the worried family, but by the time they got there, the dogs had moved on. Eventually, they were found at a nearby community church and both dogs were taken home, safe and sound.
After hearing about the story, Shaw first decided to create a quilt that told of Riley and Ginger’s adventure.
“I had the idea in my head for a long time to do the quilt, but I didn’t think I could do it,” said Shaw. “I didn’t think I had the talent, but one day, I just decided to do it.”
She started planning out ideas and made a graph of how she wanted her quilt to look. The quilt took a while to finish, but the finished product is a beautiful rendition of the dogs’ time away from home. After entering the quilt in a quilt show, she began thinking about writing a story on the subject when someone at the show asked her if she had gotten the idea from a book.
The outline for her story had already been completed. Shaw took key components from her quilt to create her story. Not only that, but she used sections of her quilt as the illustrations in the book.
A signed copy of Shaw’s book, “Riley & Ginger’s Big Adventure” can be purchased at Commonwealth Americana, Mercantile on Main, or Triplett’s Pharmacy. She will also be showcasing her quilt at Mercantile on Main’s open house in May.
“My husband has always encouraged me to do the things I want to do,” said Shaw. “He backed me up (on the book) and I would like to thank him for that.”
beth@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
Category: People & Places
