Jennifer Chiaverini - ELM Creek Quilts: Quilt Projects Inspired by the ELM Creek Quilts Novels

Editor: Cyndy Lyle Rymer

Technical Editors: Carolyn Aune and Gael Betts

Copyeditor/Proofreader: Susan Nelson

Cover Designer: Kristen Yenche

Design Director/Book Designer: Kristen Yenche

Illustrator: Nancy Odom and Jeffery Carillo

Production Assistant: Tim Manibusan

Photography: Sharon Risedorph unless otherwise noted

Published by C&T Publishing, Inc., P.O Box 1456, Lafayette, California 94549

Front cover: Elm Creek Medallion by Jennifer Chiaverini

Back cover: Sarahs Sampler and The Runaway Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

DEDICATION

To the Mad City Quilters, the quilters of RCTQ, and all loyal fans of the Elm Creek Quilts novels.

Jennifer Chiaverini

Thank you...

to my husband, Jim, for his constant encouragement, friendship, and support..

Hes a true eternal companion (and a pretty fun business partner, too!).

to my children (and now grandchildren) for sharing their lives and space with fabric, scissors, rotary cutters, rulers, batting, sewing machines, and all the other things that go along with this addiction. They always have been and continue to be an integral part of all my lifes adventures.

to all my friends in the quilting industry. You inspire me and motivate me day and night with your support and creativity. Its such fun and truly an honor to be included in such a wonderful circle.

to all the quilters around the world who enjoy my designs. Thank you for the constant kind words, uplifting stories, and the occasional photographs. Its thrilling to know that the joy I find in what I do has found its way into your hearts as well.

Nancy Odom

FOREWORD

As fans of Jennifers Elm Creek Quilts novels, we have spent many hours vicariously enjoying the comings and goings of the many wonderful characters. Its fun to look back on the circumstances that led to the birth of this book, since the idea for the book came from a brainstorming session while at a quilt camp. Joyce Lytle, C&Ts senior technical editor, suggested one morning that C&T needed to do a book based on Jennifers novels. We jumped all over the idea. We decided to contact Jennifer, and as soon as we returned from quilt camp we contacted Jennifer to see if she would be interested. Jennifer called the next morning, and we were off and quilting.

A few more brainstorming sessions later, and a list of potential quilts inspired by the four novels Jennifer has shared with her readers had grown to enough for a couple of books. Amazingly enough, despite Jennifers busy (!) life as a mother, writer, quilter, etc., she was able to make seven of the quilts featured. These include Sarahs Sampler from The Quilters Apprentice, the Elm Creek Medallion that graces the cover of this book from Round Robin, Cross-Country Challenge from The Cross-Country Quilters, and Birds in the Air, The Runaway Quilt, and The Underground Railroad Quilt from The Runaway Quilt. Gerdas Log Cabin Quilt is a special case: Jennifer invited her fans to make Log Cabin blocks, and received a tremendous response. Contributors are listed on .

Nancy Odom, owner of Timid Thimble Creations, designer of the Quilters Gloves, and creative genius, was called in to help us design and make Sylvias Broken Star, Andrews Star in the Window, When He Makes Dinner, Vinnies Double Pinwheel, and Joannas Pumpkins and Pomegranates.

It has been a pleasure working with Jennifer and Nancy to create a book we all hope you enjoy. In the meantime, maybe well see you at quilt camp! Quilting friends truly are the best friends anyone could ask for.

Cyndy Lyle Rymer and Joyce Lytle
Editors

INTRODUCTION

Ever since I learned to read, I have longed to create stories and share them with readers as my favorite authors had shared their stories with me. For nearly that long, I have also admired and appreciated quilts, but I never imagined that my love for quilting would one day allow me to fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a novelist.

In June of 1994, I married Martin Chiaverini, whom I had met three years before in an under-graduate creative writing course at the University of Notre Dame. We lived in State College, Pennsylvania, where he worked toward his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Penn State and I taught part-time for the English departmentand struggled to launch my writing career. Although my new teaching position allowed me time to write, I could not get beyond the first page of any story I attempted. The resulting frustration made it difficult to persevere, and every time I sat down at the computer and tried to start something new, I had to ignore the voices of doubt and fear that whispered this was one dream I would not fulfill.

Fortunately, I was able to forget my writers block in the excitement surrounding our wedding. In the midst of the plans and preparations, I found myself longing for a beautiful heirloom wedding quilt to commemorate the occasion and brighten up the apartment we would soon share. Unfortunately, I had no friends or relatives who quilted and could be counted on to make us a quilt for a wedding gift, nor did our tight budget allow us to purchase one. Before long it became obvious that if I wanted a beautiful heirloom wedding quilt, I would have to make it myself.

At that time, State College did not have a quilt shop, so I bought an instruction book and fabric from a discount store and taught myself to quilt. My first project was a simple nine-block sampler wall-hanging, not the elaborate king-size bed quilt I had envisioned, but I was so pleased with it that I wanted to begin a new project immediately. I purchased more books, browsed through quilting magazines at the library, and met other quilters on the Internet.

My passion for quilting grew, and as soon as I saved up enough money for a sewing machine, I taught myself machine piecing and rotary-cutting techniques. My second quilt was a Lone Star wallhanging for Martys parents, and after that, I made a Jacobs Ladder quilt for my mothers Christmas present. In the years that followed, I made many more quilts, some large, some small, some for decoration, and some to cuddle my cousins newborns.

I still have not made that beautiful heirloom wedding quilt, but I can picture it clearly. To celebrate my tenth quilting anniversaryas well as our tenth wedding anniversary, since they fall within a month of each otherI plan to make a Dear Jennifer quilt, taking my inspiration from the well-known Dear Jane quilts. I would like to make a sampler of six-inch blocks including all of the blocks I have made in my first ten years as a quilter. This is quite an ambitious project, so I have already warned Marty that our Dear Jennifer quilt might not be on the bed until our twentieth anniversary!

The summer of 1994 passed. Autumn found me enjoying my life as a newlywed, teaching at Penn State, quiltingand still stumbling through the first pages of my novel. I knew what I wanted to write; I knew the mood, the theme, and I even had a vague idea about two of the characters, a young woman and her older and wiser friend. Yet I struggled to get beyond the first few paragraphs of any story I started.

I wanted to write about women and their work, and about valuing the work we as women choose to do. Too many women I knew disparaged their work. Many working mothers thought they ought to be home with their children instead, and so they carried around too much guilt to enjoy their jobs. Mothers who chose to stay home to care for their children thought they ought to be working outside the home, too. Many of my single friends, pursuing exciting careers they had studied and worked for years to obtain, thought they should be doing something more lucrative, something more important, or just something else. This saddened me. I believe that if our work is worth the time, energy, and talent we commit to it, we ought to value it, especially if we expect other people to do the same. If we dont value this work to which we turn over so much of our lives, then we ought to do something else.