The Lost Quilter

The Lost Quilter
by Jennifer Chiaverini
Simon and Schuster Books 2009
Author's website

This novel (The Lost Quilter) is actually a sequel to an earlier novel - called The Runaway Quilt (which I have not yet read) - in which the slave seamstress Joanna escaped from the plantation in Virginia, and managed to get as far as Elm Creek Farm in Pennsylvania. There she was taught how to read, how to quilt and gave birth to her son (Douglass Frederick a quadroon - Joanna herself is a mulatto - born of a slave mother and a white master - Douglas was also born of a white master so he is 1/4 African American)


The beginning of the Lost Quilter briefly tells the story of Joanna's journey from Virginia to Pennsylvania and of how she was betrayed by Anneke to the Slave catchers and dragged back to Virginia. The year is 1859 and the rest of the novel tells Joanna's story in detail of her life as a slave in Virginia and later in South Carolina (after she was sold) in the months before the Civil war began.

While Joanna is enslaved in South Carolina, she begins making a quilt that tells of her journey from Virginia to Pennsylvania so that she can remember how to get back to freedom.

Joanna marries Titus, another slave on the South Carolina Plantation, and gives birth to a daughter Ruthie. The family is split up when Joanna is taken to Charleston by her masters newly-married daughter. Titus and Ruthie are left behind on the plantation.

Some months later Ruthie is brought to Charleston to be with her mother. The reason given, is that her job will be as a personal playmate and child minder to the mistress's baby - if the child is a daughter. The mistress gives birth to a son Thomas so Ruthie is not put to work yet. She is barely 2 years old.

This was an excellent story to read - especially for its minute detail about the daily life of a slave. I must find the earlier novel The Runaway Quilt to read.

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Fantastic Fiction review

Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson treasures an antique quilt called by three names -- Birds in the Air, after its pattern; the Runaway Quilt, after the woman who sewed it; and the Elm Creek Quilt, after the place to which its maker longed to return. That quilter was Joanna, a fugitive slave who traveled by the Underground Railroad to reach safe haven in 1859 at Elm Creek Farm in Pennsylvania.

Though Joanna's freedom proved short-lived -- she was forcibly returned by slave catchers to Josiah Chester's plantation in Virginia -- she left the Bergstrom family a most precious gift, her son. Hans and Anneke Bergstrom, along with maiden aunt Gerda, raised the boy as their own, and the secret of his identity died with their generation. Now it falls to Sylvia -- drawing upon Gerda's diary and Joanna's quilt -- to connect Joanna's past to present-day Elm Creek Manor.

Just as Joanna could not have foreseen that, generations later, her quilt would become the subject of so much speculation and wonder, Sylvia and her friends never could have imagined the events Joanna witnessed in her lifetime. Punished for her escape by being sold off to her master's brother in Edisto Island, South Carolina, Joanna grieves over the loss of her son and resolves to run again, to reunite with him someday in the free North. Farther south than she has ever been, she nevertheless finds allies, friends, and even love in the slave quarter of Oak Grove, a cotton plantation where her skill with needle and thread soon becomes highly prized.

Through hardship and deprivation, Joanna dreams of freedom and returning to Elm Creek Farm. Determined to remember each landmark on the route north, Joanna pieces a quilt of scraps left over from the household sewing, concealing clues within the meticulous stitches. Later, in service as a seamstress to the new bride of a Confederate officer, Joanna moves on to Charleston, where secrets she keeps will affect the fate of a nation, and her abilities and courage enable her to aid the country and the people she loves most.

The knowledge that scraps can be pieced and sewn into simple lines -- beautiful both in and of themselves and also for what they represent and what they can accomplish -- carries Joanna through dark days. Sustaining herself and her family through ingenuity and art during the Civil War and into Reconstruction, Joanna leaves behind a remarkable artistic legacy that, at last, allows Sylvia to discover the fate of the long-lost quilter.

Jennifer Chiaverini (the author) is pictured on the cover of the latest issue of Country Women magazine - August/September 2010 issue. The article has an interview, some photos and a new quilt pattern.

The Winding Ways Quilt - Book Review

The Winding Ways Quilt
By Jennifer Chiaverini
Simon & Schuster 2008
Website
The Winding Ways Quilt

This is the 14th books in the series. I have read about half of this series, and enjoyed them all. And I enjoyed this on as well. In fact I stayed up to 1 am to finish it.

Quilters have flocked to Elm Creek Manor to learn from Master Quilter Sylvia Compson and her expert colleagues. There's Sarah, Sylvia's onetime apprentice who's paired her quilting accomplishments with a mind for running the business of Elm Creek Quilts; Agnes, who has a gift for appliqué; Gwen, who stitches innovative art quilts; Diane, a whiz at the technicalities of quick-piecing; and Bonnie, with her encyclopedic knowledge of folk art patterns. And lastly there are Judy and Summer.

One of the reason I enjoyed this book, because a lot of back stories are told.

Agnes is Sylvia's sister in law. Agnes and Sylvia were married to the Bergstrom brothers. Both of their husbands died as young men in World War 1.

Summer is Gwen's daughter born during the Vietnam war era. She and her boyfriend Jeremy are having to decide if they want to attend university together or apart.

Diane had been battling with Mary Anne, her next door neighbour, who was the president of the Waterford Quilting Club. The Guild and the Elm Creek Quilters were at war with each other because Mary Ann wanted to be better than the old ladies. But when her son destroyed Bonnie's quilting shop, the boy was sentenced to paying off by working at Elm Creek manor all during the summer. Mary Anne was humiliated.

Sylvia and her husband Matthew, were trying to start a family and finally Sarah becomes pregnant. The unexpected news is exciting for all the Elm Creek Quilters.

Judy is a Vietnamese Quilter. She and her mother were refugees from Vietnam. Her mother later married a wonderful man who adopted Judy as his own. But when Judy was first taken to her new grandparents home for Xmas, Judy discovered the joys of quilting, but was also told that she would never inherit one of grandma's quilts because she is "not a real grandchild".

Bonnie had run a Quilting shop in Waterford for many years. At the time of the earlier books (the ones I read last year) Bonnie's marriage was breaking down, and she discovered that her husband had an online affair with another woman. This efectively ended the marriage. Shortly after this, three teenage boys broke into and destroyed Bonnie's shop. One of the boys accused was Dianw's son Michael. But it turned out that he was framed because he lived next door to Maryann whose son was the real culprit. Bonnie went to pieces. In this book, Bonnie is slowly recovering and searching for a new direction in her life.

It is NOT a depressing book by any means. In fact, I had tears in my eyes right at the end when all good things came to an end. Two of the Elm Creek quilters left the Manor and moved on with their lives. Mary Ann also came to an understanding of how her own attitudes had been the cause of her sons's criminal actions, and she finally made apologised to Diane. The books ended with healing for everyone concerned.

Elm Creek Quilting Series

Elm Creek Quilt series
By Jennifer Chiaverini
Published from 1999 to present
Elm Creek Books


I know I said I was reading the Historian, but I got diverted by all the Quilting books coming in from the library. So far this week, I have read 7 of them, (there are 12 books in the series) and loved them all. I have just one more to read, and then I can get back into "proper reading". This entire series is fantastic. In each book we meet all the same characters, at Quilt camp in Waterford, Pennsylvania. We find out some of the history of the town, including the Underground Railroad, and why the town name was changed from Creeks Crossing to Waterford.

Even my mother likes them. And someone mentioned Earlene Fowler's Quilting mysteries. I've read through her website and they look good. So I plan on looking for her books soon.

OK - Enough said about Quilting. Time to move on.

I received another ARC from Harper Collins yesterday, which also has to be read & reviewed by the end of the month. Busy me, two challenges and an ARC all by Sept 31st. I better stop blogging and get busy reading. LOL

Oh yes and Yesterday was Blogging Day. I have only just now read this on Sassymonkey's Blog. Click any of the Blogs or links in my sidebar. There's lots of variety.

The Quilting Bee - SUGAR CAMP QUILT - Review

The Sugar Camp Quilt
By Jennifer Chiaverini
Published by Simon & Schuster 2005
Website Elm Creek Quilts Series

One thing I have never mentioned is that I grew up with Quilting. I don't do any quilting myself. Heavens no, my sewing is very bad. My mother has been Quilting for as long as I can remember. I can remember seeing her with piles of small squares and triangles of fabric stuffed in a Quilting bag. Even now she still makes Quilts for her teenage granddaughters.

I'm sure one of these days she will make a Quilt for my son - if she has not done so already. The only trouble is that it would cost a fortune to send it from New Zealand to Canada. And so while I dont take part in any Quilting groups, I am interested in reading about them. Every now and then I hear stories of samplers from 150 years earlier, being discovered and women interested in finding out who made the sampler and what happened to her.

Quilting is one of those hobbies that women can do anywhere, and even do in groups apparently. I was at the library yesterday and I came across a book called THE SUGAR CAMP QUILT, so I had a quick glance through it. This particular book is the 7th in a series of 10 novels about a Quilting group in Creek's Crossing, Pennsylvania. Most of the books do take place in the Present time, but there are 2 books written in the past. The Sugar Camp Quilt is one of those.

Dorothea Granger is 19 years old and the temporary school teacher at Creek's Crossing. She is also an excellent Quilter. She lives with her parents on her Uncle Jacob's farm, where they grow oats, wheat and maple trees. Every thaw (when the snow starts melting) the family must catch the maple sap running from the trees to make sugar. Sap runs dont last very long (maybe 2-3 weeks in Pennsylvania) although up here in Ontario the sap run can be from 4 to 8 weeks long, depending on the weather.

Uncle Jacob is a grumpy man. After his wife & 2 young sons died of scarlet fever, he vowed to never marry again. When his sisters family (Dorothea's mother) lost their farm to a flood, he allowed them to move in with him, but then promptly put them to work on the farm.

But Jacob kept one secret from his sister & brother-in-law. Every evening he disappeared and went for a walk. One day he demanded that Dorothea make a quilt for him. A special quilt, "one like my mother used to make". The pattern was like no other Dorothea had ever seen, and even Lorena (Dorothea's mother) had never seen such a pattern amongst her mother's quilts.

When the Quilt is finally finished, Dorothea expects the quilt to be on his bed. But instead she finds Jacob using it to clean the dirt off his boots. "This Quilt can be cleaned in the wash," says Jacob. But Dorothea is horrified and very upset.

Shortly after, Jacob dies of apoplexy (possibly a heart attack) while crossing the stream one evening. His wagon is found in the Elm Creek, and the horse is missing. One of the neighbours comes to see the Grangers to pay his respects. He says he has something important to tell them.


"Questions? What Questions?" Dorothea asked. "Why could he not be seen?"
"He didn't want any of you folks to know". he directed his gaze at Dorothea. "Except you. He was very proud of you. He thought maybe you could be told. The older he [Jacob] got, the more he wished he could ask for your help. But he knew it was too dangerous."
Robert's voice was slow and direct. "Too dangerous for what?"
"Helping runaways"
The room was silent.
"My brother-" Lorena paused and started again. "my brother was no abolitionist."

Thats right. This book is partly about how the Sugar Camp was a station on the Underground Railroad to Canada for runaway slaves before the Civil War broke out. The Quilt is the map to the next station. Chapter one takes place in 1849.

I started reading this book at 9pm last night. I could not put it down, and ended up staying up until 12 midnight just because I just HAD to know what happened next.

For those of you who do quilt, I know you will love this series. I really want to read more books in this series.