The New Year's Quilt (Elm Creek Quilts Series #11) [Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Jennifer Chiaverini (Author), Christina Moore (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2007

At the close of THE QUILTER'S LEGACY, the Elm Creek Quilters were all in attendance on Christmas Eve, where they were surprised yet overjoyed to witness the wedding of Sylvia Bergstrom Compson, the Master Quilter, to her beloved Andrew Cooper.

THE NEW YEAR S QUILT tells the story of how the newlyweds celebrate their first holiday season as husband and wife. Not content to rest at home by the fire, they set out on a journey across the snow-covered fields of Pennsylvania.

Their destination is Connecticut, and the home of Andrew's daughter Amy. Unlike the Elm Creek Quilters, Amy has not offered her blessing to the union. Though her father has reminded her that marriage endures in sickness and in health, Amy fears that Andrew and Sylvia have passed the age where marriage remains a prudent choice.

Sylvia hopes to win over her new daughter-in-law through the lessons that quilting reveals about the bonds of love and family. As a gift for Amy, she undertakes a quilt titled New Year s Reflections, whose blocks represent the holiday traditions of Elm Creek Manor. As she stitches the blocks, memories of a lifetime come flooding back, along with words of wisdom meant to celebrate the achievements of generations past and create hope for the future.

Just as Christmas and New Year's Day bookend the joys of the season, THE NEW YEAR S QUILT is the perfect holiday companion volume to THE CHRISTMAS QUILT.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest in the author's Elm Creek Quilts series finds septuagenarian Sylvia Compson determined not to repeat past mistakes. Having married on Christmas Eve at Elm Creek Manor, the family homestead turned quilter's haven, Sylvia and longtime family friend Andrew Cooper have to face the music and tell Andrew's children, especially his bitter daughter, Amy. On the way, master quilter Sylvia plies at a long unfinished quilt she calls New Year's Reflections, which she plans to give Amy in the hope of reconciliation. Elaborate memories of Sylvia's German-American childhood include a long rift with elder sister Claudia. Chiaverini's stitching is sound. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Jennifer Chiaverini is the author of the New York Times bestselling Elm Creek Quilts series, as well as five collections of quilt projects inspired by the novels. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she lives with her husband and sons in Madison, Wisconsin. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Recorded Books (November 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1428170022
• ISBN-13: 978-1428170025
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #467,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jennifer Chiaverini lives with her husband and two sons in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to the sixteen volumes in the Elm Creek Quilts series and four books of quilt patterns inspired by the novels, she designs the Elm Creek Quilts fabric line from Red Rooster Fabrics. For more information about Jennifer, please visit her website at www.elmcreek.net .

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reflection before Resolution, November 10, 2007

By 

Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The New Year's Quilt (Elm Creek Quilts Series #11) (Hardcover)

Sylvia Compson, master quilter and senior owner of Elm Creek manor, has married beau Andrew Cooper at their Christmas Eve party, to the gleeful surprise of their friends and associates. But the occasion is a bittersweet one because Andrew's two grown children, Amy and Bob, chose not to make the trip to Pennsylvania and so were not in attendance. Sylvia is fairly certain that Bob and his family, out in California, will welcome her new role in the Cooper clan. She is less sure about Amy's reaction, for Andrew's daughter was adamantly against the engagement from the beginning. The newlyweds plan to drive from central Pennsylvania to Hartford, Connecticut, to share their news with Amy and Daniel and the three grands and to celebrate the start of the new year. Will Amy accept Sylvia as her father's wife? And will she even want the New Year's Resolution quilt that Sylvia is bringing her?

A long drive is the perfect time for reflective thinking; and as the miles pass, Sylvia remembers notable New Year's Eves of the past, while she diligently works to finish the quilt on time. Her memories are woven into the blocks themselves: the year her cousin Elizabeth announced she was marrying Henry and moving to California; the anticipation leading up to her brother Richard's birth; the first Christmas and New Year's after her mother's death; the events that led up to Sylvia's final argument with her sister Claudia and her abandonment of the Bergstrom farm; and the day she got the news that Claudia had died and the estate was hers. Throughout the decades, quilts were always a part of her life. Now Sylvia is ready to share her personal history, in fabric, with her new step-daughter.

Ms. Chiaverini has given us a heart-warming and thought-provoking read that's much more than mere holiday fluff. To Elm Creek fans, Sylvia's memories fill in some of gaps of backstory that heretofore have gone unexplored. To newcomers to the series, these colorful threads of history will surely lead them to seek out some of the earlier books. And we can all benefit from the advice given by one of the characters here: "Anyone can make promises. The challenge is in following through." A Happy New Year, indeed.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit of a disappointment, November 26, 2007

By 

egreetham (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The New Year's Quilt (Elm Creek Quilts Series #11) (Hardcover)

There were many nice things about "The New Year's Quilt": beautifully realized settings, wonderful connection with life in the past, expertise in quilting with a gift for describing this wonderful art, a gentle and charming heroine. But there were frustrations too: a recapitulation of the plot events (though told now in the first person) of the first novel in the series, and an absence of believable story line in the present one. Sylvia Compson is remarrying after many years of widowhood. Her new husband, a widower, has a daughter who cannot accept her father's decision to marry. That in itself isn't unusual, but the reasons for Amy's opposition are not convincing, and the eventual resolution of this situation is too easy and sudden to be compelling. There are several loose ends as well, though they may be resolved in a later book.

I was disappointed that this book wasn't more satisfying--with all its good points, I had hoped for more.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just re-hashed material yet again, December 8, 2007

By 

J. Elliott (Slough, Berkshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New Year's Quilt (Elm Creek Quilts Series #11) (Hardcover)

The thing I really loved about the early Elm Creek Quilt novels was the wealth of different quilting characters, the way their lives interacted and how their quilting brought solace and inspiration. But it has now been a while since these books covered anything but the re-hashed story of the Bergstrom family. Jennifer - we have heard it all before. I for one am fed up with reading about it. There should be such a wealth of material in those women who help build the quilt camp with Sylia - why must these books constantly look backwards and then just into the history of one family?
This was a disappointment - I had hoped that we would be reading about Sylvia forming a new relationship with her step daughter through teaching her to quilt and winning her trust and friendship. Instead it was once again an indulgence by the author who seems fixated by this family she has invented and can't let go.