Pentapod reviewed The lost quilter by Jennifer Chiaverini
Review of 'The lost quilter' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I've read a number of the Elm Creek quilt books although it's been a while since I came across any. They're generally stand alone stories that don't really require having read the entire series to date and this one was no different, although it might help to have read the Runaway Quilter book that immediately precedes this one just for a bit of extra background. In the previous book one of the main characters discovers some family history that suggests that her ancestors helping the underground railroad might have used quilts as a signal to help runaway slaves - quilts could safely be hung up to dry outside a house without attracting attention, and different patterns could signal different things to runaways. This is a theory that's never actually been confirmed by historical evidence and it's kept somewhat theoretical in the books too, but it's an interesting topic to the …
I've read a number of the Elm Creek quilt books although it's been a while since I came across any. They're generally stand alone stories that don't really require having read the entire series to date and this one was no different, although it might help to have read the Runaway Quilter book that immediately precedes this one just for a bit of extra background. In the previous book one of the main characters discovers some family history that suggests that her ancestors helping the underground railroad might have used quilts as a signal to help runaway slaves - quilts could safely be hung up to dry outside a house without attracting attention, and different patterns could signal different things to runaways. This is a theory that's never actually been confirmed by historical evidence and it's kept somewhat theoretical in the books too, but it's an interesting topic to the main characters and when they find some old letters about a runaway slave that their ancestors helped but who was later recaptured, they try to trace down more information and learn what might have happened to her.
With this opening frame set up, the main part of the book switches to the past and directly tells the story of Joanna the runaway slave who was recaptured and sold to the south, put to work as a laundress and seamstress in south Carolina, and how she keeps a record of the way she had learned back to freedom by sewing it into the pattern of a quilt so that she could try to escape again. At the end of the book as the story returns to the modern time, the main characters in the present day uncover parts of Joanna's tale via some of the quilts she had made and are able to piece together bits of her life story.
The author writes well and always manages to make quilting sound so interesting that I always end up wanting to try quilting after reading her books. This book was a little les about quilting than most, being also an interesting account of the life of a slave in the south during the civil war, but the story as always revolves around the art of quilting.