The Master Quilter : An Elm Creek Quilts Novel

Rating:
Summary: It's fun to catch up with this group again!
Review: The Elm Creek Quilters have decided to secretly craft a special quilt to honor their hostess and leader. They've asked each one of Sylvia's friends and former campers to stitch a patchwork block that somehow celebrates her inspiration to others. The contributions will be pieced together and presented as a belated wedding present to Sylvia and her new husband, Andrew. This book would be interesting enough if it merely reproduced all of the resulting letters with their stories and creative choices. But no: the local women have lives too, and they can be just as complex and frustrating as our own. Their own dramas wrap around the central theme in the same way that the incoming squares reveal portions of Sylvia's life. And they're told in block fashion as well, with each chapter focusing on one individual until the finale is devoted to the Master Quilter herself. While newbies to this series might be overwhelmed by the number of characters involved, they shouldn't let that bog down their reading. They've got plenty of time to catch up on the previous installments later, and then "the whole story" will be understood.

Rating:
Summary: It's fun to catch up with this group again!
Review: The Elm Creek Quilters have decided to secretly craft a special quilt to honor their hostess and leader. They've asked each one of Sylvia's friends and former campers to stitch a patchwork block that somehow celebrates her inspiration to others. The contributions will be pieced together and presented as a belated wedding present to Sylvia and her new husband, Andrew. This book would be interesting enough if it merely reproduced all of the resulting letters with their stories and creative choices. But no: the local women have lives too, and they can be just as complex and frustrating as our own. Their own dramas wrap around the central theme in the same way that the incoming squares reveal portions of Sylvia's life. And they're told in block fashion as well, with each chapter focusing on one individual until the finale is devoted to the Master Quilter herself. While newbies to this series might be overwhelmed by the number of characters involved, they shouldn't let that bog down their reading. They've got plenty of time to catch up on the previous installments later, and then "the whole story" will be understood.

Rating:
Summary: A wedding quilt for Sylvia and Andrew
Review: The Elm Street Quilters decide that they must celebrate the marriage of their friend Sylvia with a special wedding quilt. They send out invitations to scores of women who have attended their quilting camp to contribute a square which signifies the influence that Sylvia has had upon their lives. Complications arise with the gathering of the quilting squares as well as the lives of the individual women in the group. One of them has a failing marriage and business, one has a troubled son, another has the promise of a new job in another town, and yet another is living with her boyfriend against the wishes of her mother. For the first time, the Elm Street Quilters begin to keep secrets from each other and these secrets threaten to undermine the friendship which has bound them as tightly as the squares of the proposed quilt. This book will delight old and new fans of the series and it serves to bring readers up to date on the activities of the Elm Street Quilters. Some changes are in store for the series and author Chiaverini has left the way open for new characters in future books.

Rating:
Summary: A wedding quilt for Sylvia and Andrew
Review: The Elm Street Quilters decide that they must celebrate the marriage of their friend Sylvia with a special wedding quilt. They send out invitations to scores of women who have attended their quilting camp to contribute a square which signifies the influence that Sylvia has had upon their lives. Complications arise with the gathering of the quilting squares as well as the lives of the individual women in the group. One of them has a failing marriage and business, one has a troubled son, another has the promise of a new job in another town, and yet another is living with her boyfriend against the wishes of her mother. For the first time, the Elm Street Quilters begin to keep secrets from each other and these secrets threaten to undermine the friendship which has bound them as tightly as the squares of the proposed quilt. This book will delight old and new fans of the series and it serves to bring readers up to date on the activities of the Elm Street Quilters. Some changes are in store for the series and author Chiaverini has left the way open for new characters in future books.

Rating:
Summary: Great addition to the series!
Review: The Master Quilter is another well written novel by Jennifer Chiaverini. I especially enjoyed reading about some of characters who appeared in the earlier books of the series. It was like catching up on the news of old friends.