Welcome to another Fiber Arts Fiction Friday post! This week we’re returning to Elm Creek Manor with more adventures of the Elm Creek Quilters. The Master Quilter is the sixth book in the Elm Creek Quilts series from Jennifer Chiaverini.
Synopsis (Story Details Below, But No Major Spoilers)
Sylvia Compson, owner of Elm Creek Manor and the associated Elm Creek Quilt Camp, surprised all of her friends by marrying her beau Andrew during a holiday gathering. While the women of the Elm Creek Quilters are thrilled by their nuptials, they are disappointed that they didn’t get the chance to make the couple a traditional bridal quilt.
They decide that there’s an opportunity to create a beautiful quilt and surprise Sylvia with it. They reach out to previous campers, as well as the members of the local Waterford Quilt Guild, to submit individual blocks that will be sewn together into the final quilt. Each person is asked to choose a block that represents their relationship with Sylvia and to write a letter explaining their choice.
Although their plan is made with the best of intentions, unexpected challenges appear along the way. Each member of the Elm Creek Quilters has their own personal battle throughout the book.
- Judy and Gwen, both professors at Waterford College, are struggling with their roles in academia.
- Summer isn’t sure about the future of her relationship with her boyfriend Jeremy, and is hiding her recent decision to move in with him from her friends and family.
- Bonnie’s relationship with her husband Craig has come to a breaking point and she begins the painful process of filing for divorce. She also is fighting the new landlord of her quilt shop, Grandma’s Attic, and questioning whether or not it’s time to give up that dream.
- Diane is facing challenges with her two sons, one now a freshman at Waterford College and another still in high school. She also continues her battle with her next-door neighbor and president of the Waterford Quilt Guild.
While each of these women fights their own individual battles, they seem to forget the most important part of being an Elm Creek Quilter: togetherness and teamwork. They keep their secrets close to their chest and don’t reach out to their friends for support. How will they ever finish the collaborative wedding quilt for Sylvia if they don’t trust each other?
My Review
The Master Quilter has quite a few negative reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and I’m not quite sure why. I really enjoyed this book; it’s definitely one of my favorite novels in the Elm Creek series! The way each character kept her problems hidden from the others and tried to fix everything on her own made them feel very real to me. We all tend to hide our challenges both to preserve the sense that we have it all together and to avoid being an emotional burden on the other women in our lives.
If you hadn’t read the previous five novels in this series, this would be a challenging place to start. The chapters are written from multiple different points of view meaning that it’s vital the reader already knows who each character is. Parts of the storyline are even retold in the different chapters as each woman shares her own perspective and engagement with the different events.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed this sixth book in the Elm Creek Quilt series; the telling of the stories through multiple lenses helped me get a better appreciation for the way each woman tackled her own challenges and how their perspective may be different from someone else’s even when they’re both engaged in the same conversation! My guess is that the negative reviews are from readers who read this novel out of order, which would indeed be a challenge. If you’ve read the first five books in the Elm Creek Quilt series then I recommend book six, The Master Quilter.
Ready to read The Master Quilter? Find it on Amazon here.
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
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