Welcome to Fiber Arts Fiction Friday! Today we’re returning to Elm Creek Manor for another quilting fiction book from Jennifer Chiaverini. The Runaway Quilt is the author’s fourth book in the Elm Creek Quilts series.
Synopsis (Story Details Below, But No Major Spoilers)
Sylvia Compson and her beau Andrew have enjoyed traveling the country in their RV, which has allowed Sylvia more opportunities to speak about her quilts at various guilds and shows. It’s after one of these presentations that she’s approached by a woman with a family heirloom quilt that appears to depict Elm Creek Manor and the surrounding countryside in the quilting itself.
When Sylvia and Andrew return to Elm Creek Manor, Sylvia wastes no time heading straight up to the attic where many of her family’s possessions are still stored. She’s searching for any quilts that might explain the mysterious quilt she was shown, and help her better understand stories that she recalled from her childhood about the manor being a stop on the underground railroad. In addition to several quilts, Sylvia discovers a secret journal written by the spinster sister of Hans Bergstrom, the original patriarch of Elm Creek Manor. .
As Sylvia reads Gerda’s memoir she grows troubled by the story that unfolds; her family put themselves at great personal risk to help protect escaping slaves as a stop on the underground railroad. The quilts that accompanied the memoir were used as a secret signal to indicate that the house was safe. One of the arrivals, Joanna, is quite ill and also pregnant with her former master’s child. While the Bergstrom’s keep her safe through the birth of the child, they can’t escape betrayal and heartbreak that a trusted member of their family brings to their home and to the slaves they were protecting.
As with many of the memories of Sylvia’s past, she struggles to understand the decisions her ancestors made. Gerda’s questions raises more questions than it answers about Sylvia’s own heritage, and eventually she must decide how to cope with the doubt about her past. She perseveres, discovering that understands her own moral center better than she thought and that sometimes we don’t get to know all of the answers.
My Review
I enjoyed reading this book, especially the excerpts from Gerda’s memoir. While I always enjoy reading about life in the present-day Elm Creek Manor, I’m also fascinated by its history and enjoy learning more and more about this in each of the Elm Creek Quilts quilting novels. Sylvia’s long absence from the familial home makes it all the sweeter as she discovers the good, the bad, and the ugly about her family history.
One thing that was a challenge to me is the concept that quilts were actually used as a signal in the underground railroad. While there is no doubt that the underground railroad did exist and helped many slaves escape to freedom, the use of quilts as a signal is a controversial and uncertain part of this history. While oral history does have many accounts of quilts as the signal, there has been limited documented evidence that this was the case.
To read more about the controversy surrounding the use of quilts as a signal on the underground railroad, this Wikipedia article is a good starting point. While one should always read Wikipedia articles with a skeptical eye since anyone can edit them, this page appears to give a good summary AND includes links to many resources and references.
Final Thoughts
The Runaway Quilt was another fun read in the Elm Creek Quilt series. I really enjoy looking into the history that we get with many of the books in this series, and liked that part of this story was told through Gerda’s memoir. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series: The Quilter’s Legacy.
Want to grab your own copy of The Runaway Quilt? 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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