It’s Friday again, which means it’s time for the next book review in our Fiber Arts Fiction series! This week we’re returning to Elm Creek Manor with The Sugar Camp Quilt. This quilting novel is the seventh book in Jennifer Chiaverini’s Elm Creek Quilt series.
Synopsis (Story Details Below, But No Major Spoilers)
Dorothea Granger has just come of age in the small town of Creek’s Crossing, Pennsylvania (the predecessor to the town of Elm Creek). She’s living on her Uncle Jacob’s farm with her parents, who lost their own farm a few years previously when Elm Creek flooded over its banks. While Dorothea and her family are grateful to Uncle Jacob for taking them in, he is a hard man to live with and an even harder man to love. He’s always focused solely on business, including his large grove of sugar maple trees, and has little time for the feelings and emotions of others.
When Uncle Jacob asks Dorothea to make a quilt for him, she’s quite surprised. Her surprise grows as Unble Jacob insists on being very involved in the design process, even providing sketches of exactly how he wants each quilt block to look. When Dorothea tries to change a few of the designs to make it easier to stitch together, he responds with anger and displeasure that seems out of proportion to the task at hand. Nonetheless, she respects his wishes as the patriarch of their family and redoes the blocks exactly as he requests. Dorothea presents Uncle Jacob with the final quilt for Christmas, and is disheartened when discovers a few weeks later that he’s relegated the quilt to the sugar maple production shed. Does Uncle Jacob not appreciate all of the hard work that Dorothea put into making the quilt exactly as he wanted?
One night, Uncle Jacob doesn’t return from an errand and is later discovered to be dead, with his wagon turned over in a section of Elm Creek that he doesn’t usually travel to. While the local doctor confirms that he likely died of a heart attack, no one has any explanation for what he was doing in that part of the woods. Dorothea’s younger brother Jonathan returns from the city where he is studying to become a doctor and the family discovers that Uncle Jacob left the farm to him.
Unbeknownst to Dorothea, Jonathan, and their parents, Uncle Jacob had played an important role in the Underground Railroad. The quilts that Dorothea made for him is actually a map showing the escaped slaves how to get to the next safe house on the Underground Railroad. Dorothea sets out to follow the “directions” from the sugar camp quilt to learn where the next safe house actually is and to discover how she and her family can continue Uncle Jacob’s work with helping guide slaves to their freedom.
Throughout all of this, Dorothea also gets involved with a local committee trying to raise money to build a library in Creek’s Crossing. The women of the committee decide to create an autograph quilt which will be raffled away at a ticketed fundraising dance. Each member is asked to reach out to various authors requesting their autograph on a piece of muslin that is then embroidered over and incorporated into the final quilt. Against the wishes of many of the committee members, Dorothea reaches out to several controversial authors. When their autographs are included in the final quilt, drama erupts at the fundraiser and Dorothea is kicked off the committee and given no credit for her work.
My Review
This was the first book in the Elm Creek series that was set entirely in a historical setting without any reference or relationship to Sylvia Compson and the current-day Elm Creek manor. While I missed the wonderful women who have worked so hard to make Elm Creek Manor and the Elm Creek Quilt Camp possible, it was fun to learn more about this tumultuous time in US history.
As I noted in my previous review of another book in this series that combined quilts and the Underground Railroad (The Runaway Quilt), the historical truth is a little bit murky. There is little documentation that quilts and quilt patterns played a role in the Underground Railroad, and the concept mostly lies within an oral tradition.
Final Thoughts
Despite my questions on the accuracy of books that combine quilts and the Underground Railroad, I enjoyed this book. It gave an extensive look into the lives of the people of Creek’s Crossing during a time in history that was fraught with change as the country (and its people) grappled with the idea of freedom and slavery. I also loved the storyline about the autograph quilt, and how Dorothea stuck true to her thoughts and beliefs in reaching out to more controversial authors, even though she knew it would likely cause a disagreement with the committee.
Ready to get your copy of The Sugar Camp Quilt? Grab your copy 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.
Leave a Reply