After accepting her boyfriend’s proposal, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson, co-owner of Elm Creek Quilts, attempts to persuade her friends that a large wedding really isn’t what she has in mind, not at her age.  Quiet and simple is what she wants, despite their good intentions on making it a wedding she’ll never forget.

Talk of marriage does have Sylvia thinking of her mother’s handmade quilts.  Sylvia sets off into the attic only to find her sister sold them years ago.  Sylvia is heartbroken, but thanks to the advice of a friend, she finds herself tackling the internet in a search to locate them.  Using her journal entries, memories and various other tidbits of information, Sylvia pieces together descriptions of the quilts and also learns a little about her mother at the same time. 

THE QUILTER’S LEGACY travels from past to present repeatedly throughout the book as Eleanor Lockwood’s life story is told.  Each quilt’s history is told in loving detail as readers learn how Eleanor grew up to defy her parent’s wishes that she marry for status rather than love.

Meanwhile, events leading to Andrew and Sylvia’s marriage also play a momentous part in the story as Andrew discover his grown children refuse to accept his engagement to a woman who has already suffered a stroke.  As the wedding date looms, Andrew struggles between wanting his children’s blessing and the fact that he may never receive it.

Now I will readily admit, I am not familiar with the world of quilting, so many of the details were lost on me.  I also happened to find Sylvia to be a crotchety old woman, one that I would avoid.  Nothing seemed to please her.  When Summer, Sylvia’s co-director, offers to teach her how to launch a search on the internet, she never says thank you.  Instead she complains about everything.  Summer uses the words contrary and pessimistic, she couldn’t be more correct in describing Sylvia.  The other characters, Andrew’s children, drove me crazy.  They are rude and just downright unforgivable.

The fact that the characters annoyed me proves that Jennifer Chiaverini is a master at creating her characters.  Instead of being flat, they spring to live on the pages.  For this reason alone, I found her book to be hard to put down.