The Quilter's Legacy

by Jennifer Chiaverini

Book Overview

Resolving to locate her mother's heirloom quilts after so many years, Sylvia Compson embarks on a cross-country investigation of antique shops, quilt museums, and other, more unexpected places, where offers of assistance are not always what they seem. And as Sylvia recovers some of the missing quilts and accepts others as lost forever, she reflects on the woman her mother was and mourns the woman she never knew. With heartfelt honesty, The Quilter's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452284678
• ISBN13: 9780452284678
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Loved it

Loved finding out more about Silvia's family!

I did not hate it because I never received it

I NEVER RECEIVED THIS BOOK, STILL WAITING FOR IT, WOULD LOVE TO HAVE IT Mary K Warburton

i've read better

Too much description. i, personally, found it boring. I need to be captured by the second or third page for sure. I'm sure many women will like it(even some male quilters) just not me. I put it down.

Sugar Camp Quilt

This is another Chiaverini book you can't put down. I read it in one day, and felt lost when I finished. I need another Chiaverini quilting novel, and I'm not even a quilter. I have really become inerested in quilting and even went to a quilting show today. I could identify some of the quilts and see the beauty of them first-hand...it was an Amish Quilt art exhibit. I just say that Jenifer has got to keep those books coming as I am now addicted.

Return to Elm Creek Quilts

Like a beautiful old quilt, this books builds bit by bit into a fascinating tapestry of family history. There are actually two stories, told in parallel fashion about Sylvia Bergstrom Compson and her mother Eleanor. Sylvia is about to be married to her beau Andrew and before this momentous event, she has some unfinished business. She decides to look for five quilts which her mother Eleanor made when she was a young child. Her mother died when she was young, so she had never had time to get to know her well, but she wanted the quilts as her mother's legacy. Eleanor's story revolves around her delicate health and the difficult relationship she had with her critical, overbearing mother. Eleanor and her sister both defied their mother's wishes when choosing husbands, and her mother never forgave them for what she viewed as rebellion. These stories weave in and out as Sylvia pursues her mother's quilts and the end product is a very satisfying read. This book can stand alone, but it will probably make more sense, particularly with regard to the minor characters, if you read the other 4 books in the series first.

Jennifer just keeps getting better with age!

I finally got the book and couldnt put it down!I was saving it for vacation; read it in two days! two days before vacation and had to go on vacation without a book!I love to quilt and I love to read and this book series has filled both things I Love!! Cant wait for the next book in the series!!!awesome book!!

Quilters and Non-Quilters Alike Will Love This Tale

Jennifer Chiaverini's storytelling gift is surpassed only by her knowledge of the art of quilting. She ably entwines the craft with the lore in the sixth of a series beloved by fans of the Elm Creek Quilts series.Sylvia Bergstrom Compton, director of the Elm Creek Manor, is preparing for her late-in-life wedding to her longtime friend, Andrew. She decides that, instead of making a new wedding quilt, she will use the beautiful masterpiece quilt pieced by her mother, Eleanor. Sylvia's mother died at age 30 and Sylvia barely remembers her, but she does remember the beautiful quilts that adorned the beds of her childhood home. She climbs to the attic of the Manor to rummage through crates and trunks and discovers to her dismay that not a single quilt remains. Sylvia left home at an early age and her sister had sold the valuable quilts decades earlier when the family fell on hard times.Sylvia's younger Manor employees help her launch an Internet search. Through emails and phone calls, Sylvia learns of quilts in homes, museums and shops that match the descriptions of those she most vividly remembers from her childhood. Sylvia and Andrew set out on a nationwide tour in Andrew's motor home to follow the scraps of information.THE QUILTER'S LEGACY chronicles the search for her mother's masterpiece quilts and, thus, the history of Eleanor's life in Manhattan and Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th century. Sylvia learns that her mother defied her parent's Victorian dictum to marry to enhance the family fortune by eloping with the man she loves. The hardships and glories of the early years, from the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic to the sinking of the Titanic weigh upon Eleanor's family. Sylvia and Andrew ramble through museums, antiques and crafts stores from California to Iowa to Pennsylvania in search, not only of the quilts, but of her mother's past.As Sylvia recovers some of the lost quilts and resigns herself to the loss of those that can never be found, she rejoices in discovering her own legacy. Women who quilt will revel in the detail and history of famous patterns and the stories they tell. For non-quilters, a door may be opened to tempt one to delve into this intriguing craft. --- Reviewed by Roz Shea

fascinating family saga

In 1899, New York Eleanor Lockwood knew she had a bad heart from the Scarlet Fever she contracted as an infant and her parents did not expect her to live much longer. They both kept their distance and her only adult loving came from her nanny Amelia Langley who genuinely adored her charge. The Lockwoods hoped their family fortunes would be reversed when their elder daughter married a rich man's son who would pump money into the family business. Abigail had plans of her own and eloped with her father's rival leaving Eleanor to marry the jilted groom. Eleanor couldn't go through with it and eloped with Fred Bergstrom and went to live with him in his home at Elm Creek Manor in Pennsylvania.Years later, Eleanor's daughter Sylvia is dismayed that her sister sold her mother's five beautiful quilts. One of the Elm Creek Quilters locates a website whose purpose is to reunite quilter and quilt. From the replies she gets on the Internet, Sylvia accompanied by her fiancée Andrew set off on an odyssey to find out the history of each of the quilts once they left the family.Past and present are played out in alternating chapters so that readers get a feel for what Eleanor's life was like and how Sylvia reconnects with her mother who has been gone for more than half a century. Jennifer Chiaverini's fascinating family saga, rich in period detail and showcasing characters who though elderly continue to live life to the utmost. This is a superb novel in a heartwarming series.Harriet Klausner