Part of Elm Creek Quilts, book 23
First published 2025
Autumn arrives at Elm Creek Manor as Sylvia Bergstrom Compson confronts mounting financial troubles threatening her family's quilting retreat. Now in her eighties, she struggles to preserve the legacy of Elm Creek Quilts, once the nation's premier quilter's destination. Summer Sullivan visits with a request that forces Sylvia to confront her past. The Waterford Historical Society wants to display a quilt Sylvia and her sister Claudia created as teenagers for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair contest. Their entry depicted American progress through scenes of emancipation, women's voting rights, and labor organizing. The quilt won recognition but shattered the sisters' relationship. Sylvia hesitates to retrieve the forgotten piece from decades of attic storage. As she recounts the quilt's history to Summer, she uncovers something that changes her understanding of the work and points toward hope for her struggling community.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Elm Creek Manor, Waterford Historical Society
Period: 1933, 1980s
304 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow