Elizabeth Nelson leaves Pennsylvania with her new husband Henry for the 120-acre ranch they hold the deed to in California. Upon arriving, they discover that they've been bilked out of everything and are now penniless. While Henry takes a job as a farm hand for the owners of the ranch they thought was theirs, Elizabeth makes over a dilapidated cabin. It's only after she discovers quilts belonging to the property owners' mother that she begins to understand...

“Why do you give?” asks Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson Cooper in The Giving Quilt , the New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini’s artful, inspiring novel that imagines what good would come from practicing the holiday spirit each and every day of the year.

Bonnie Markham, her divorce pending and her quilt shop out of business, accepts an offer from her friend Claire to help run a quilting retreat at a bed and breakfast in Hawaii where she learns the quilting traditions of the islands, but her idyll is threatened by her estranged husband's demand for her share in the Elm Creek Quilts cooperative.

"Summer Sullivan, the youngest founding member of Elm Creek Quilts, has spent the last two years pursuing a master's degree in history at the University of Chicago. Her unexpected return home to the celebrated quilter's retreat is met with delight but also concern from her mother, Gwen; her best friend, Sarah; master quilter Sylvia; and her other colleagues--and rightly so. Stymied by writer's block, Summer hasn't finished her thesis, and she can't...

When Christmas Eve comes to Elm Creek Manor, the tenor of the holiday is far from certain. Sylvia Bergstrom Compson, the Master Quilter, has her own reasons for preferring a quiet, even subdued, Christmas. Her young friend Sarah McClure, however, takes the opposite view and decides to deck the halls brightly. As she explores the trunks packed with Bergstrom family decorations that haven't been touched in more than fifty years, Sarah discovers a curious...

As her only child readies for college, fabric shop owner Linda Davis is torn between excitement for Molly and heartache for herself. Mother and daughter decide to share one last adventure -- a cross-country road trip to move Molly into her dorm. As they make their way through the heart of the nation, Linda pieces together the scraps that make up Molly's young life. And in stitching each bit of fabric, she discovers that the memories can come together...

When Amish widow Emma Yoder offers quilting lessons, she acquires a diverse collection of six non-Amish students who form bonds with her and each other as they work through their problems and learn to create beautiful quilts.

In 1862 Water's Ford, Pennsylvania, abolitionism is prevalent, even passionate, so the local men rally to answer Mr. Lincoln's call to arms. Thus the women of Elm Creek Valley's quilting bee are propelled into the unknown. Constance Wright, married to Abel, a skilled sharpshooter courageous enough to have ventured south to buy his wife's freedom from a Virginia plantation, knows well her husband's certainty that all people, enslaved and free, North...

Meditating on the weddings she has attended in Elm Creek Manor throughout the years on the morning of her daughter's wedding day, Sarah McClure evaluates the symbolic features on a wedding quilt designed to display the signatures of beloved guests.