Books to Keep You in Stitches

If you like Jennifer Chiaverini and her Elm Creek Quilt series try these titles about quilts and quilt makers.

Don’t forget to check out Chiaverini’s full series starting with #1 The Quilter's Apprentice.

	Fields of Gold By Marie Bostwick Eva is an innocent and handicapped young woman who is a talented quilter, and throughout the novel, her quilting helps her deal emotionally and financially with the events of her life, and assists in her maturity as she struggles with her parents to survive the hardships on her parents’ Oklahoma farm.
	The Quilt By T. Davis Bunn The truly beautiful story of an elderly grandmother whose life and words transcend time and place.
	The Alpine Quilt By Mary Daheim Resourceful journalist Emma Lord is back with a new mystery to solve–and an even tougher deadline to meet. Members of the Burl Creek Thimble Club, a quilting circle in small-town Alpine, Washington, are planning a fete to welcome back Genevieve Bayard, who left Alpine decades ago. But Gen’s homecoming is cut decidedly short when she dies at a dinner party.
	Alice's Tulips By Sandra Dallas Alice Bullock is a young newlywed whose husband, Charlie, has just joined the Union Army, leaving her with only his formidable mother for company. Equally talented at sewing and gossip, Alice writes lively letters to her sister filled with accounts of local quilting bees, the rigors of farm life, and the customs of small-town America. But no town is too small for intrigue, and when Alice finds herself accused of murder, she must rely on support from unlikely sources.
	The Christmas Quilt: A Novel by Thomas J. Davis A book of love, hope, and warmth, The Christmas Quilt is an intimate portrayal of mountain life in an earlier day in the Deep South. It will endear you not only to its storyline, but to the pictures it paints of Sunday dinners, of picking blackberries, of revival meetings and of Granny creating a quilt for her long-absent son.
	Fool’s Puzzle By Earlene Fowler Leaving behind memories of her late husband, Benni Harper is making a fresh start...Moving to the trendy California town of San Celina, she takes an exciting new job as director of a folk-art museum. While setting up an exhibit of handmade quilts, she stumbles upon the body of a brutally stabbed artist. Soon Benni uncovers an alarming pattern of family secrets, small-town lies--and the shocking truth about the night her husband died... Don’t miss the rest of her quilting-themed mysteries!
	Buried in Quilts By SaraHoskinsonFrommer As manager of the Civic Symphony, Joan Spencer has her hands overflowing. The orchestra is rehearsing to play at a prestigious quilt show when elderly Edna Ellett dies. Meanwhile, members of Edna Ellett's family search like vultures for the will. On the eve of the quilt show one of them is murdered, and Joan discovers the body underneath a quilt. With the small town in a tizzy, Joan joins the police to investigate a mystery with roots - and stitches - deep in history.
	Murder of Taste: A Queen Bees Quilt Mystery by Sally Goldenbaum Po Paltrow and her happy band of sleuthing quilters begin a delightful journey of rich recipes, beautiful quilts - and multiple murders! A real thriller ... with a French twist!
	Death on the Drunkard's Path By Jean Hager The annual Victoria Springs Quilt Show and Sale attracts quilters and quilt-lovers from far and wide, and Tess Darcy and her guests at Iris House are caught up in a flurry of pre-show activity. The stakes are high, with winning quilts commanding top dollar and deadly competition turning quiet quilters into vicious backstabbers.
	Clay’s Quilt By Silas House On New Year's Day, when the mountain roads are slick with ice, Clay's mother insists on leaving her husband. That journey ends in the death of Clay's mother. It's a day that comes to haunt her only son, who's left without a family and a history until he meets Aunt Easter, always filled with a sense of foreboding; Uncle Paul, quietly producing quilt after quilt; Dreama, beautiful and flighty; Evangeline, the untamable daughter of a famous gospel singer; and Alma, the fiddler whose song wends its way into Clay's heart. Together, they all help Clay to fashion a quilt of a life from what treasured pieces are around him.
	An Ominous Death By Annette Mahon Maggie and members of the St. Rose Quilting Bee decide to visit Bee member Candy Breckner who is recovering from an auto accident. Taking her a lap quilt, they've made especially for her they found Candy convinced of an "angel of death" at work in the facility. Dismissing her story as a side effect of medication, the women begin to have second thoughts when she dies suddenly.
	The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter By Sharyn McCrumb Everyone in Dark Hollow, Tennessee, knew that old Nora Bonesteel had "the Sight." These visions set her to sewing a funeral quilt with six graves on it. So naturally, she was the first to know about the murder-suicide. Four members of the Underhill family lay dead on a run-down farm, and the two children who survived had no one left. The grisly case was supposed to be "open and shut," but it bothered Sheriff Arrowood. He had a worried feeling that the bad things were far from over at the Underhill's farm. And he would feel a lot worse if he knew what else old Nora saw.
	Cion: A Novel By Zakes Mda The hero of Zakes Mda's beloved Ways of Dying, Toloki, endears himself to a local quilting group and his quilting provides a portal to the past, a story of two escaped slaves seeking freedom in Ohio. Making their way north from Virginia with nothing but their mother's quilts for a map, the boys hope to find a promised land where blacks can live as free men. Their story alternates with Toloki's, as the two narratives cast a new light on America in the twenty-first century and on an undiscovered legacy of the Underground Railroad.
	Stitches in Time By Barbara Michaels When an antique bridal quilt appears under mysterious circumstances at the vintage clothing shop where Rachel Grant works, she is fascinated. She believes that through the ages, women wove protective magic into their fabrics in order to mark the important events of their lives: birth, marriage, and death. Day by day Rachel sees and feels the power of the quilt growing, as she senses it influencing her thoughts and actions. Much as Rachel's logical mind longs to deny the supernatural, the aura of evil is terrifyingly real, and seems to carry a sinister legacy into the lives of the people Rachel loves.
	The Lover's Knot: A Someday Quilts Mystery By Clare O'Donohue Nell Fitzgerald is thrilled when she receives a gorgeous handmade quilt from her grandmother as an engagement gift. Her joy is short-lived, however, when her fiancé calls off the wedding. Heartbroken, Nell flees New York for her grandmother’s home in quaint Archers Rest. In this small town, Eleanor’s life revolves around her quilt shop, Someday Quilts, and the members of the shop’s quilting circle. When the body of a local handyman is found in the quilt shop, murdered with a pair of quilting scissors, Nell finds herself drawn into the case. The ladies of the quilting circle continue to piece together their quilts as Nell unravels the mystery.
	How to Make an American Quilt By Whitney Otto This book is an exploration of women of yesterday and today, who join together in a uniquely female experience. As they gather year after year, their stories, their wisdom, their lives, form the pattern from which all of us draw warmth and comfort for ourselves.
	The Pattern By Jane Peart Johanna Shelby could never have anticipated where that "fateful encounter" would lead her. She could not have known then how love for the young, rough-hewn, mountain doctor would cause her to turn her back on her privileged lifestyle. It was part of a larger pattern -like the pattern of one of the family quilts her aunts and cousins met weekly to stitch. Into those quilts went not just fabric, but meanings and memories; and when they were finished, they were more than just quilts- they were life stories. Don’t miss the rest of her American Quilt series!
	Bachelor's Puzzle: A Novel By Judith Pella The Patchwork Circle series of novels develops the varied lives and interests of characters in a church sewing circle. The women in Maintown, Oregon, eagerly await the arrival of the new circuit-riding preacher--a man who turns out to be a handsome opportunist--in this tale that’s a gentle reminder that God accomplishes His purposes, sometimes in spite of believers.
	The Fortune Quilt By Lani Diane Rich Carly McKay's life is going just fine until she produces a television piece on a psychic quilt maker and receives a quilt with an enigmatic reading telling her that everything is about to change. And it does. She loses her job and her best friend. And her mother, who deserted the family seventeen years ago, returns, sending Carly into a serious tilt. Convinced it's the quilt's fault, Carly races down to the small artists' community of Bilby, Arizona, to confront its maker.
	Wedding Ring By Emilie Richards Tessa MacCrae feels as if she's facing prison when she reluctantly agrees to spend the summer helping her mother and grandmother clean out the old family home in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. But through days of hard work, simple living and determination to repair the torn fabric of their lives, Tessa, Nancy, and Helen will discover that what was lost can be found again - if they look deeply into their own hearts.
	The Scarlet Thread By Francine Rivers When Sierra discovers her young ancestor's handcrafted quilt and reads her journal, she finds that their lives are very similar. By following her ancestor's example, she learns to surrender to God's sovereignty and unconditional love.
	The Healing Quilt: A Novel By Lauraine Snelling After her Aunt Teza’s test results turn out to be inconclusive, Dot Cooper resolves to raise money for a new mammogram machine, through the creation and auction of a magnificent, king-sized quilt to be sewn by the women of Jefferson City. As generations work the squares of the quilt, they are also confronted with ragged pieces of their own lives. Yet their struggles will bring them closer together, and their lives will be dramatically changed, as together, they experience the curative powers of The Healing Quilt.
	Wild Goose Chase: A Quilting Mystery By Terri Thayer A computer techie by trade, Dewey Pellicano would rather swallow needles than be pinned down to a life of quilting. But when her mother passes away, Dewey becomes the new proprietress of Quilter Paradiso. Between learning the business and dealing with a conniving sister-in-law, Dewey is ready to snap. During a national quilt show, quilting celebrity Claire Armstrong offers to buy the shop. But before Dewey can accept, she finds the famous quilter lying dead on the floor—a bloody rotary cutter at her side. Don’t miss this new series!
	Twelve Golden Threads By Aliske Webb Four women are on a journey - a passing of values and wisdom from one generation to the next. For sisters Jennifer and Susan, Grama's simple lessons in the art of quilting become a profound metaphor for stitching together the fabric of their lives. As these women learn twelve crucial lessons in quilt making, they discover how to create their own destiny by combining quality work, perseverance, and the right amount of vibrant color.