Way back in January I wrote about some books I borrowed from the library.
I read five out of the seven. The two I didn’t read were Dear Teacher, I started it but found it to be really twee, and the other book was Play Abandoned, I just didn’t open it before the books were due back at the library.
The Lost Quilter is the book I want to tell you about as I have only just finished it after doing a re-borrow from the library.
This was a delightful book and will fit into my Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.
The book is part of the Elm Creek Quilts series which is a series of different stories about women who quilt. The Jennifer Chiaverini website is comprehensive with many links to her books and her quilting.
The Lost Quilter is about Joanna. I guess if you have read others in the series you would know a bit more about the background of Joanna from whose point of view the story is told but I found I enjoyed the story without having read the previous books in the series.
This story is set in pre-Civil War years and the beginning of the Civil War. We are shown what life was like for a woman slave who ran away and was returned to her life as a slave after being recaptured. We learn of her abuse by her owners, her love for her husband and children, the work and beatings she had to endure and her constant hope that eventually she would find freedom. She is a talented seamstress and quilting plays an important role in her life and this is reflected in the title of the book.
This book seems to give an excellent depiction of how it really must have been for slaves in America before the Civil War. A great read, particularly if you know a little about quilting and the Underground Railroad. Did quilts hold codes to the underground railway? Check out what the National Geographic article has to say on the matter
Gippsland Granny 
This reading challenge is taking you in all sorts of intriguing directions, and this book in particular seems ideal for you with quilting at the heart of it. It sounds as if it could be a harrowing story at times, but your review gives an idea of how it kept your interest all the way along. Interesting National Geographic article, too, there’s so much interesting stuff I know virtually nothing about.
It was certainly interesting reading about slavery from a slaves point of view.
As a quilter I’ve been thinking about trying out this series–glad you reminded me of it. I love Civil War era fiction and I’ve heard conflicting reports about whether the connection of quilting to the Underground Railroad was real, so I look for the the NG article.
I would certainly advise you to try the series. I am going to borrow another in the series when I next visit the library. It may not be for a while as I have several books at home, waiting to be read.