The New Year's Quilt [Kindle Edition]

Jennifer Chiaverini (Author)

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.)
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Product Description

As each holiday season approaches, some revel in welcoming the New Year ahead; others quietly mourn the passing of time gone by. "We can't hold on to the past," says Master Quilter Sylvia Compson, "but we can keep the best part of 'Auld Lang Syne' in our hearts and in our memories, and we can look forward to the future with hope and resolve." As Sylvia, a late-in-life newlywed, has discovered, love can enter our lives at any age. Yet before she can truly delight in her present happiness, she must face the sorrow hidden in her past -- her own role in the tragic circumstances that left her estranged from her sister, Claudia, until it was too late to make amends. Vowing not to repeat the mistake with her new daughter-in-law, Amy, who opposed Sylvia's marriage to her father, Andrew, Sylvia must convince Amy that family is more precious than pride. As Sylvia takes up a quilt for the season, begun and abandoned over six years, she recalls the New Year's Eve festivities of her youth at Elm Creek Manor as a member of the Bergstrom family. She titles the quilt "New Year's Reflections," after her belief that year-end reflections precede resolutions. The quilt blocks she chooses commemorate the wisdom that no one can ever be truly alone if she keeps the memory of those she loved and those who loved her alive in her heart. The New Year's Quilt is a novel to enjoy today and to treasure anew each holiday season.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 321 KB
• Print Length: 250 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 141654755X
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (November 13, 2007)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000S1M4Z0
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,356 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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

Amazon Verified Purchase

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.