Rating: 
Summary: A great debut novel.
Review: Being interested in quilting myself, I like the way the author made quilting a major part of the storyline and not just a sideline item. However, it doesn't detract from the actual story which was also a pleasant read. After moving to a new town in Pennsylvania so her husband can start his new job, Sarah finds herself in a new place without a job or friends. While hunting for a new job, Sarah befriends Mrs. Compson, the widow at Elm Creek Manor where her Sarah's husband's landscaping firm has been hired to landscape the grounds to their former beauty in order to ready the manor for sale. While looking for work, Sarah agrees to help Mrs. Compson clean out the inside of the manor in exchange for Mrs. Compson teaching Sarah how to quilt. In this manner, the two women form a bond that aids them both in putting aside their differences and also putting to rest some issues from the past. I am looking forward to continuing with this series.
Rating: 
Summary: A WELL TAILORED PIECE OF WRITING
Review: Pieced together like a patterened quilt, this story interwines the lives of Sarah, Mike and Mrs. Compson in the small town of Waterford, PA. As their friendships emerges, so do family secrets and woes. All come from tattered families, but as they open up, they are patched into one strong family that rides out unforseen storms. Eccentric, likeable town folk intersperse to add color and quality. This book is not profound, but it is personable. It is a light, cozy read that leaves you humming and feeling good. Many tips of quilting are added as a lovely bonus. For a gentle read, pick up this treasure and lose yourself for the day. Nothing ominous will happen; contary; you will close the book uplifted and a little more educated about the art of quilting.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: This book is a great read, a short one, but still worth the time. If you are not a quilter, you just don't get it. THose of us who are quilters LOVE this book. It's not only about the quilting, it's about our group of friends who are quilters. We have a very special relationship tied to our love of quilting. I have a friend who started quilting with our quilt group and her husband is so excited, because she is so happy. The friendship and artistic outlet is what it's all about. This story brings all that together and we (quilters) feel that the characters are part of "our" quilting group. We talk about them, and their quilts as if they are real. For those of you who said the book was shallow, I disagree, I am not a fan of romance or sappy fiction, this book says so much about a young women who is looking for more in her life. Creativeness is something that we, as women need, and quilting is a great expression of that need. Listen to what Oprah says about creative outlets. This book lets you see the tranformation of an insecure, unhappy person who grows while learning to quilt. I recommend to anyone, and if you get the quilting disease....I hope you never get over it!!
Rating:
Summary: A Quilt of Small-Town Life
Review: I really would like to rate this 3.5. A 3 is a bit harsh for such a well-meaning book.Chiaverini relates a story of small-town life, a quilter's guild, and a romance stretching back to the 1940s. It is a story of family and of the need to sometimes mend fences. The characters are sweet, on the whole, but with little emotional complexity or passion. I forgot most of them the minute I finished the book. I loved this line "quilting as a metaphor for how we stitched our lives together". I look forward to meeting the characters again in the two sequels, but hopefully the author will "design" them with more fire and emotion.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring and engaging
Review: Yes, as other reviewers have mentioned, this book is an easy read, but it is well written and completely engaging. Yes, perhaps the story is a bit schmaltzy, but for me, it brought to mind family and friendships and unresolved issues. I enjoyed learning some quilting lore, which is so easily woven into the story, and as a machine quilter, I am inspired to be more patient with my fumbling attempts at hand quilting. I have already started reading the follow-up book, "Round Robin" and I'm looking forward to more in this series.
Rating:
Summary: Charming!
Review: Chiaverini's book, The Quilter's Apprentice, is a delightful tale of the lives of several small-town women. The main character is Sarah, a newlywed and recent college graduate who moves to Waterford, Pennsylvania with her husband. Unable to find work in her field, she becomes a personal assistant to an elderly woman, Sylvia Compson, who is preparing her family's estate for sale. In exchange for her work, Sarah asks Mrs. Compson to teach her to quilt. As they work through Sarah's sampler, each of the patterns she has selected bring back memories for Mrs. Compson, and she reveals the history of her family and the manor through the squares of the quilt. Friendship grows between the two women, and Sarah also begins to feel like less of an outsider in town as she pursues her hobby with a group of other quilters. The book is a very quick read, and will be especially enjoyable to women who have an interest in folk arts.
Rating:
Summary: The beginnings of the Elm Creek Quilters
Review: Matt and Sarah McClure travel to the small college town of Waterford to get a fresh start. Both have graduated and are looking for work. When Matt goes to work at Elm Creek Manor, Sarah goes to the once grand house to look around. She has a very abrupt meeting with the owner, Sylvia Compson. After the first meeting, Sylvia asks Sarah to come back and help her clean out and prepare the estate for sale. Sarah is intrigued by the histoory of the old house and as she works side by side by Mrs. Compson, she begins to learn about the family who built it, and the heartbreak that threatened to destroy what remained. Sarah also is introduced to the art of quilting by Sarah. Brefriended by a group of local women who share the same love of quilting, Sarah is able to help Sylvia devise a plan to save the manor from developers and reunite sisters long seperated by anger. This is the first book built around the Elm Creek Quilters, and a tale of forgiveness and understanding.
Rating: 
Summary: Pedestrian writing teeming with caricatures
Review: This book was a selection of a local church-based women's book group, but I hope that "Quilter's Apprentice" doesn't represent the apex of emotional complexity for most women. The writing style is best characterized as "Nancy Drew"--Ms. Chiaverini just doesn't have any real art in her. Beyond writing style, though, the characters usually conform to pop-psychology archetypes. Perhaps the book group thought that "Quilter's Apprentice" covered meaningful situations like growing up without a parent, being put in a new location without friends, and working through old family quarrels. Well, those situations are there, but they aren't covered in any depth at all. Everyone is emotionally childish, and there are no great enlightenments for anyone; if they seem to improve in interpersonal relations, it is only because they are being manipulated toward that goal by the author. Good authors let their characters develop naturally, because, those authors will say, as the novel is written the characters take on lives of their own. Not these! Heaven forbid I should ever be plunked in the middle a town like this, where speech is wooden, everyone is emotionally adolescent, and the only worthwhile occupation for women is quilting! At least it was a relatively quick read, and it did make me decide that I had better things to do than continue with that book group.
Rating:
Summary: Sarah's Quilt
Review: I really enjoyed The Quilters Apprentice. I am recomending it to my Quilter friends. My only complaint is that I wanted to see the finished block and Quilt. I've ordered Round Robin and I'm sure I'll want to see that quilt too.
Rating:
Summary: Leaves you with a warm feeling!
Review: The Quilter's Apprentice takes you on a trip through Waterford, Pennsylvania and through the lives of a delightful group of ladies. Sarah McClure starts out feeling like an outsider but soon becomes an integral part of the town and it's people. As the book progresses, we learn a bit of the history of the dowager, Mrs. Compson. The author takes each of the ladies and stitches them into the story just like the ladies take the brightly colored scraps of material and sticth them into lovely quilts. Although I don't know how to quilt, as I read, I could almost feel the soft material benath my fingertips and see the small neat stitches that joined each square. I could hear the laughter of the Tangled Web quilters and smell Sarah's brownies baking. This is a book that brought a smile -- and a tear. I'll keep it on my shelf to read again when winter comes and I need a bit of added warmth in my life.
|
