Sewing With Nancy

Thanksgiving inspires generosity once a year. But what happens to the spirit of giving on the other 364 days? Today's Nancy's Corner guest penned a novel that imagines what good could come from practicing the holiday spirit year round. Welcome back Jennifer Chiaverini the author of books in the Elm Creek Quilt series. Her new book is "The Giving Quilt." Jennifer, this is book number 20. That's right. Wow, that's an amazing journey of how Sarah was introduced to quilting for Sylvia way back in book number one. And now, things have changed. Well, they have. Now Sarah is an accomplished quilter herself. She and her friends run a celebrated quilter's retreat in central Pennsylvania in Elm Creek Manor a beautiful historic home. I remember reading the first book, then the second. Then it's kind of like oh, I want to see what happens next. I certainly hope my readers feel that way. I always wonder, too, what journeys are these characters are going to take next. It's always exciting to write the next book to find out. We talked earlier in the opening that 364 days of the year we don't always think about Thanksgiving or "Quilts Giving," as you penned it in this book. Tell us a little bit, not too much about the plot. Just a teaser, not to give anything away. Well, in this story,one of the Artful Quilters, Gretchen has tried to inspire her friends to give back to their communities in a more unified, tangible way. So she suggests that they create a special week of quilt camp called "Quilts Giving," which would take place in the winter right after Thanksgiving. Quilters can come from around the world for a lovely week at Elm Creek Quilt Camp sewing, spending time with friends learning new tricks and new techniques. In exchange for that free week at quilt camp all of the quilts that they make go to a worthy cause. In this case, the worthy cause is Project Linus which is a real live organization that provides quilts, afghans and blankets for children in need. We've had representatives from Project Linus on Sewing with Nancy many times so this ties right in, full circle. It's such a wonderful organization. If the Elm Creek Quilters were real people they would definitely be involved with Project Linus so it was a natural fit for the story. As with most of your Elm Creek novels you have a quilt that goes with the book. That's right. At quilt camp, at Quilts Giving they always have one quilt that they call the Giving Quilt. This is a different pattern every year but it's always intended to be a simple, easy pattern that's still very striking, very pretty. It's something that a quilt camper could reasonably put together in a week. It's meant as something special whenever you want to make a quilt expressly for giving whether it's a wonderful cause like Project Linus or anytime a gift-giving occasion comes up when you need to have a quilt project to turn out relatively quickly. I always encourage, when I give seminars that everyone makes something every year that they'll give away to someone they'll never know. That's a lovely idea. This great block is called the resolution square. That's right, it's called the resolution square. It's very simple. You can see it's a dark and light block, a rectangle and some larger squares. By putting the blocks on point as I've done in this quilt it gives it a whole different look. It makes it seem much more complicated than it really is. It's a smart looking block. But back to the Elm Creek Quilters. Are you going to give us any little juicy bit of change that's happened, what to look for or what character to watch? Well, there are five new characters in this story who come and attend quilt camp. And as Sylvia encourages them to do on the first day they each contemplate their reasons for giving. Why is it so important especially if you're facing difficult times yourself to use your time to give back to your community to give to other people? While they're all contemplating that idea and working on their projects, they become good friends. There is one character that will be familiar to readers. She was introduced in an earlier book "Circle of Quilters." She was the one character out of the five finalists for a job at Elm Creek Manor who didn't get the job. Everyone else of those five found a place at Elm Creek Manor. So the plot thickens. It does, and you get to see what Karen has been up to. Well, you've I'm sure tantalized everyone to open up the "Giving Quilt" and see and then possibly make a quilt for their own. Thank you, Jennifer, for being our guest. It was my pleasure. Also, thank you for being here with us for this two-part series on "Sew Big Quilt Blocks" with our special guest, Debbie Bowles. I'm sure that you will be equally excited to start a "Big Block Quilt" as I will be. At nancyzieman.com, you can find information about all the Nancy's Corner guests, with Jennifer and everyone we've had for the last three years at Nancy's Corner. Plus, you can re-watch this program or connect to me socially on the social media market. Nancyzieman.com has everything Sewing with Nancy. Thank you for joining us on this series. A special thanks to Jennifer, as well as Debbie Bowles. Thank you. Bye for now.