Download The Lost Quilter: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel AudioBook Free
Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson treasures an antique quilt called by three brands -- Birds in the Air, following its structure; the Runaway Quilt, after the girl who sewed it; and the Elm Creek Quilt, after the spot to which its maker longed to come back. That quilter was Joanna, a fugitive slave who journeyed by the Underground Railroad to reach safe haven in 1859 at Elm Creek Farm.
Though Joanna's liberty demonstrated short-lived -- she was forcibly returned by slave catchers to Josiah Chester's plantation in Virginia -- she remaining the Bergstrom family a most valuable gift, her boy. Hans and Anneke Bergstrom, along with maiden aunt Gerda, brought up the youngster as their own, and the secret of his personality died with the era. Now it comes to Sylvia -- drawing upon Gerda's diary and Joanna's quilt -- to connect Joanna's past to present-day Elm Creek Manor.
Just like Joanna could not have foreseen that, generations later, her quilt would end up being the subject of very much speculation and speculate, Sylvia and her friends never might well have imagined the incidents Joanna observed in her life time. Punished on her behalf escape when you are sold off to her master's sibling in Edisto Island, South Carolina, Joanna grieves over the increased loss of her boy and resolves to run again, to reunite with him someday in the free North. Farther south than she has have you ever been, she nevertheless locates allies, friends, and even love in the slave quarter of Oak Grove, a cotton plantation where her skill with needle and thread soon becomes highly valued.
Through hardship and deprivation, Joanna dreams of liberty and returning to Elm Creek Farm. Determined to keep in mind each landmark on the path north, Joanna parts a quilt of scraps left from family members sewing, concealing clues within the careful stitches. Later, operating as a seamstress to the new bride of a Confederate official, Joanna progresses to Charleston, where secrets she will keep will impact the fate of a nation, and her abilities and courage enable her to aid the united states and people she enjoys most.
The knowledge that scraps can be pieced and sewn into simple lines -- beautiful both in and of themselves and also for what they symbolize and what they can accomplish -- provides Joanna through dark days and nights. Sustaining herself and her family through ingenuity and art work during the Civil War and into Reconstruction, Joanna results in a remarkable creative legacy that, at last, allows Sylvia to discover the fate of the long-lost quilter.
