The Lost Quilter

Jennifer Chiaverini’s bestselling Elm Creek Quilts series continues as Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson’s exploration of her ancestry reveals unexpected connections between herself and long-lost visitor to Elm Creek Manor. Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson treasures a remarkable heirloom known as Birds in the Air, the Runaway Quilt, and the Elm Creek Quilt—each name honoring the woman who created it. That quilter was Joanna, a fugitive slave who traveled by the Underground Railroad to reach safe haven in 1859 at Elm Creek Farm. Though Joanna was captured and forcibly returned to a plantation in Virginia, she left the Bergstrom family a most precious gift: her son. The Bergstrom family raised the boy as their own, and the secret of his identity died with their generation. Now it falls to Sylvia—drawing upon an old family diary and Joanna’s quilt—to connect Joanna’s past to present-day Elm Creek Manor. Deftly weaving together Joanna’s harrowing story and acts of bravery with Sylvia’s present-day determination to uncover the truth, The Lost Quilter is a moving testament to resilience, love, and the power of art to carry freedom’s promise across time.