Jennifer Chiaverini

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Michael Chiaverini

Jennifer Chiaverini

media release: PLEASE NOTE: While this is a free event, RSVPs are encouraged. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served.

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ABOUT THE BOOK:

Jennifer Chiaverini returns to the well-loved circle of Elm Creek Quilters to illuminate a nearly forgotten jubilant moment in women’s history during the trying years of the Great Depression. In chapters alternating between 2004 and 1933, THE WORLD’S FAIR QUILT: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel (William Morrow: On sale: April 1, 2025) stitches together a story of sisterhood and sibling rivalry, guilt and resentment, forgiveness and peace. 

In her eighth decade, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson is content to be back at Elm Creek Manor—the home she fled, in grief and despair, after her first husband and younger brother were killed in World War II, followed by an irreparable falling-out with her elder sister, Claudia. Her fifty years’ absence has made each day at her ancestral estate in rural Pennsylvania all the more precious, especially since she is surrounded by her new family—her husband, Andrew, and kindred quilters. Thanks to dedicated, gifted faculty and the business acumen of Sarah McClure, the Elm Creek Quilt Camp has blossomed into a perennially popular quilter’s retreat. Sylvia often marvels at how, in her golden years, she has forged cherished friendships, founded a thriving business, rediscovered the artist within herself, fallen in love with a long-lost childhood friend—and still feels as if the best is yet to come. All would be well—if not for new, unexpected financial worries. Restoring the woefully neglected estate she inherited after her spendthrift sister’s death was no easy feat, and now the roof needs replacing. Perhaps the launch of Elm Creek Orchards, a venture spearheaded by Sarah’s husband, will spare Sylvia from having to raise the price of sessions for campers—or worse, seeking a loan or a benefactor. A child of the Great Depression, Sylvia abhors the thought of both debt and bankruptcy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 Jennifer Chiaverini is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including critically acclaimed historical fiction and the beloved Elm Creeks Quilt series, which she began in 1999 to capture everything she loves about quilting—the artistry, tradition, folklore, and, above all, wonderful community. Her works of nonfiction include seven collections of quilt patterns and original designs featured in Country Woman, Quiltmaker, Quilt, and other magazines. In 2020, Jennifer received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association for her novel Resistance Women. In 2023, the WLA awarded her the honor of Notable Wisconsin Author

for her significant contributions to the state's literary heritage. Jennifer graduated from the University of Notre Dame and earned her MA from the University of Chicago. She, her husband, and their two sons call Madison, Wisconsin, home.

A timely celebration of quilting, family, community, and history in this latest novel in the perennially popular Elm Creek Quilts series from New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini.

As fall paints the Pennsylvania countryside in flaming colors, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson is contemplating the future of her beloved Elm Creek Quilts. The Elm Creek Quilt Camp remains the most popular quilter's retreat in the country, but unexpected financial difficulties have beset them and the Bergstrom family's stately nineteenth-century manor. Now in her eighth decade, Sylvia is determined to maintain her family's legacy, but she needs new resources--financial and emotional.

Summer Sullivan--a founding Elm Creek Quilter--arrives to discuss an antique quilt that she wants to display at the Waterford Historical Society's quilt exhibit. When Sylvia and her sister Claudia were teenagers, they had entered a quilt in the Sears National Quilt Contest for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair. The Bergstrom sisters' quilt would be perfect for the Historical Society's exhibit, Summer explains.

Sylvia is reluctant to lend out the quilt, which has been stored in the attic for decades, nearly forgotten. In keeping with the contest's "Century of Progress" theme, the girls illustrated progress of values--scenes of the Emancipation Proclamation, woman's suffrage, and labor unions. But although it won ribbons, the quilt also drove a wedge between the sisters.

As Sylvia reluctantly retraces her quilt's story for Summer, she makes an unexpected discovery--one that restores some of her faith in this unique work of art, and helps shine some light on a way forward for the Elm Creek Quilts community.