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Read The Quilter's Legacy (2004)

The Quilter's Legacy (2004)

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Rating
4.08 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0452284678 (ISBN13: 9780452284678)
Language
English
Publisher
plume

The Quilter's Legacy (2004) - Plot & Excerpts

Many years ago, I inherited an old quilt. I am not sure who made it, but after reading this book, I would love to learn its history.Sylvia Bergstrom Compson is getting married! She is a world renowned quilter and when a friend asks her which pattern she is going to use for her wedding quilt, she is ashamed to admit that she hasn't even thought about it. Then she has a brilliant idea to use one of her mother's beautiful quilts. To her deep disappointment, she learns that her estranged, deceased sister had sold them all years earlier. Sylvia feels very guilty that she wasn't around to stop this from happening and so she sets out to find the five missing quilts.This book jumps between Sylvia and her search for the quilts to an earlier time when her mother was young and making them. We learn what was going on in the world and in her personal life as she makes them. One of the stories I found most interesting was the influenza epidemic of 1918. Perhaps because we are facing a similar threat with the H1N1 virus, it was interesting to see how they dealt with this health crisis--quarantines, face masks, and feelings of helplessness.This is the fifth book in the Elm Creek Quilts series and it was one of my favorites. I recommend this book to anyone interested in family history, quilting, or a feel good story.

Elm Creek Quilts founder Sylvia Bergstrom Compson begins a search for five quilts made by her mother, Eleanor, who died when Sylvia was 10. Sylvia and Eleanor's stories alternate. Sylvia, an elderly widow, prepares to marry her long time friend Andrew despite his children's oppositions. Her mother's story begins at the turn of the century when Eleanor, daughter of an affluent New York family, defies her mother by quilting with her nanny, Amelia Langley. When Eleanor's sister, Abigail, elopes with her father's business rival, her parents arrange for her to take her sister's place. Eleanor runs away rather than be forced to marry Abigail's jilted fiance. On her way out of the house, a car pulls up and Eleanor's young friend, Fred Bergstrom, is at the wheel. He asks Eleanor to marry him and so begins their life together on his Pennsylvania horse farm at Elm Creek. As Sylvia begins her search through various quilt shops and museums searching for her mother's quilts she begins to realize how much she doesn't know about her own family history. She soon realizes the need to piece together as much of her mother's life story as she can and sets about this task much the same way as she would begin to piece together a new quilt.

What do You think about The Quilter's Legacy (2004)?

If I could give it 3 1/2 stars I would. This book consists of 2 stories. One of Sylvia and her search for her mother's missing quilts and the conflict that her soon-to-be step-children and her pending marriage. The second follows the story of her mother specifically around the time of each of her quilts. I thoroughly enjoyed the Eleanor story line. I just loved the characters the timeline, the connection with history, etc. The more modern story of Sylvia, I didn't enjoy as much. I thought the conversation more forced the conflict over the marriage silly, and Sylvia's lack of desire to plan a wedding (even at her age) somewhat unbelievable. (I have never known a woman, even one on her third wedding, to think it silliness to plan for it and talk about it and be excited.)Overall it was an enjoyable book. The Eleanor storyline, especially, kept drawing me back to the book and I was sorry to see it end.
—Stacia

Sylvia, a woman in her mid to late fifties, is out to find all of the quilts her mother made as a young woman that Sylvia's younger sister sold off. With her aged fiancé Andrew in tow, she goes around the US tracking each one down. As she searches, her mother (and father's) tale is told in flashbacks. Their part of the story is the only reason I continued to listen to the CD (although just barely as the reader was horrible). I listened to this mostly while driving back and forth to my parent's house (checking up on it while they were in FL for the winter). I probably wouldn't have finished it if I had been reading it. But , if you are interested in quilting, you might find it more enjoyable than I did.I had no idea this was a series of books, either. I definitely am not interested in reading any more of them!
—Empress5150

The tenth entry in the Elm Creek Quilts series is a good "beach read". If you are already a fan of the Elm Creek Quilts books, then you will like this one.There is an interesting duo storyline that eventually intersects. If you are looking for the quilt-making details from the other books, you won't find that here. The quilt motif is mainly used as a thread that binds the two stories together.There is a "soap opera" feel to the story with the characters more or less predictable in action and word but with enough unexpected twists that keep the reader engaged.I have read the other Elm Creek books with my favorites being the first in the series, The Quilter's Apprentice and The Cross-Country Quilters. The first mainly because as a part-time crafter, the quilting details intrigued me and the other because the characters were a bit more engaging.I guess I must like the series as I keep reading them! Not the deepest read ever but an entertaining, light easy read.
—Dianne

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Read books by author Jennifer Chiaverini

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