Friday, December 6, 2013

Quilters' Book Club Selection for December and Winners!

 
Do you love to quilt AND love to read?  I invite you to join the free, online Quilters' Book Club.  Each month, we read a book, discuss it through comments on my blog posts, and then make a quilt block to represent that book.  I research several potential blocks to go with the book's themes, setting, main characters, and events.  And I find the patterns free on the internet, making it easy for everyone to access.  Each member can choose the block or blocks they'd like to make.

To join, become a follower of my blog so you won't miss any blog post.  To make it super convenient, you can also sign up for my posts to be delivered right to you via email.  It is never too late to join and begin reading and sewing along with us.     

Our book to read and discuss during December 2013 is The Christmas Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini.  Get the book from your local library or bookstore and join us!  
 
"It is the morning of Christmas Eve at Elm Creek, and Sylvia is resisting the efforts of Sarah, her young partner in the Elm Creek Quilt Camp enterprise, to infuse the Manor with a bit of Christmas cheer. Sylvia, opinionated to the last, thinks that Sarah and her husband Matt should spend the holiday with Sarah's intractable mother, but Sarah insists that Sylvia should not be on her own. Reluctantly, Sylvia agrees to Sarah decorating a few of the rooms, but when the women retrieve the boxes of Christmas ornaments from the attic, it opens an unexpected floodgate of memories and emotions for the aging matriarch.

"Among the decades-old Christmas decorations, they find a long-forgotten, unfinished Christmas quilt. With bittersweet nostalgia, Sylvia admires the work her Great-aunt Lucinda and her mother, Eleanor, did on the project -- including intricate Feathered Star blocks and graceful appliqued clusters of holly leaves and berries -- but derides her sister Claudia's second-rate contribution. Only two years apart in age, the sisters always had a fractious childhood relationship, which becomes a focal point of Sylvia's memories of Christmases past.
 
"As the years pass, Sylvia and Claudia remain locked in battle, until a final family tragedy separates them forever. Now, as the only surviving Bergstrom, Sylvia begins to come to terms with her emotional ambivalence, brought to the fore by the Christmas quilt that inextricably ties her and Claudia together." from the author's website
 
*****And we have our winners for November*****
Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting and Nancy in IN
Congratulations to you both! 
Send me your mailing address at starwoodquilter@gmail.com ,
and Plume Books will get your prize right out to you!
 
Do you have a favorite Jennifer Chiaverini book?  Inquiring minds want to know!  Answer in the comment section below for a chance to win a great give-away.  Plume Books has generously offered a December give-away of two more copies of Jennifer Chiaverini's just-released book, An Elm Creek Quilts Companion.  If you are reading this via email, you must click on the title of my blog post to be able to comment and read the comments of others. 
 
You might also enjoy reading my previous blog post Girl's Joy Quilt Block and Walking Wednesdays. 

10 comments:

  1. I've only read "The Quilter's Apprentice" and made a few blocks from "Sylvia's Bridal Sampler" for a mini-quilt swap. I enjoyed both books and look forward to checking out more of her work.

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  2. Congratulations to the wonderful winners. I'm sure they will enjoy that book ... after all, we are all readers. I rarely have a favorite book but probably the very first one which snared me into the series was a winner. I have read a few I liked a bit less but I am still going back to get the next one.

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  3. I've read several of Jennifer's books, but it was quite a while ago. I like the ones best that focus on the lives of the characters who work at Elm Creek Quilt Camp. The historical books are interesting, too, but in a different way.

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  4. I love the series about the Elm Creek Quilt camp. I listening to, after reading, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker and have suggested to my granddaughter. I'm enjoyed all but one on her books. I don't remember its name--something about cooking and a new cook at camp.

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  5. Yes the quilters kitchen kitchen was less reading and more of a Cook book with lots of their recipes. The Aloha quilt was good and interesting for me as I have not done this technique quilt before. I have read quite a few of this series and have enjoyed following their lives.
    I got a bit stuck on the union quilters. I am not too much into that sort of history.

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  6. Congratulations to the two winners. Lucky you

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  7. I liked the one that took place in Hawaii, I can't remember the name exactly. Nice to think of quilting happening in a different setting. Merrily

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  8. I really enjoyed The Quilter's Apprentice. The first in the Elm Creek Series it tells the story of how Sarah came to Elm Creek Manor.

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  9. I replied to your email about this, but, I've never received it. Oh well.

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    1. I did receive a copy from a friend, so, it doesn't matter that I didn't receive this one.

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