Chiaverini is back to quilts with this one, and though it is a good story it is not so much about making quilts as it is about the history associated with quilts. I am aware of the general history of quit making, but had not connected the idea of specific quilts to the history of a specific town. It is also about a young women finding her true calling for a profession. Recommended for quilt lovers. I received this as an arc from NetGalley and am under no pressure for a positive review.

A great addition to the Elm Creek Quilts series. All the characters are back, and the plot is interesting. I’m glad to see the author has decided to continue this series.

The Museum of Lost Quilts is number 22 in this well-developed series--Elm Creek Quilts. It is also the first book that I have read in this series, by Jennifer Chiaverini. I am wondering how I missed such a compelling series. The story is wonderful, and the characters are interesting and capture the readers' attention. The Museum of Lost Quilts focuses on how handmade quilts can reveal history, and in this case of Chiaverini's novel, quilts reveal the racism of the past and how war impacted the women left behind.

Although book 22 in this series, The Museum of Lost Quilts stands alone and can be read that way. Although the characters were all new to me, it was easy to catch up on the past. The descriptions were lovely and brought the atmosphere into focus. what stands out are the women's lives and how friendship and family are rivaled in the quilts that women create. Crafts and art can heal a community and bring people together, which makes for a compelling and interesting story. I do recommend The Museum of Lost Quilts.

Thank you to the author, publisher William Morrow, and NetGalley for making this ARC available for me to read and review. The comments above reflect my honest opinion.

The Museum of Lost Quilts
Jennifer Chiverini
Pub Date: April 30, 2024
William Morrow
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
The plot focuses on fundraising for a historical building restoration.
Great book!
5 stars

Summer returns home to Elm Creek Quilts to spend the summer finishing her masters thesis and prepare for a doctorate program in history. Life interferes when she is ask to curate a quilt show as a fundraiser and gets sucked into a rabbit hole researching quilts both lost and found. A wonderful addition to this series with more in the future I hope. It has also inspired me to dust off my sewing machine and dig into my stash!

I tend to think of Chiaverini’s “Quilt Books” as generic uplifting women’s fiction, but coming to this latest installment after reading her fantastic WWI historical fiction — Switchboard Soldiers and Canary Girls — I now recognize all of the deeply interesting history embedding in the Quilt books. Specifically history focusing on the often hidden contributions made by women. The plot of this book focuses on the fundraising for an historical building restoration to save it from a (somewhat two dimensional) greedy developer by collecting and curating a set of beautiful old quilts with strong ties to local history. It is the story of the individual quilts and the research process for tracking down and understanding their history that made it so interesting to me. Plenty of individual stories and the unearthing of historical context that made those stories possible. While the plot was fairly predictable, it was pleasant and entertaining, and the historical bits really kept my interest.

Another wonderful historical novel of the Elm Creek Quilters through the years. Thank you Jennifer Chiaverini for the detailed descriptions of the quilts and the characters that feel like my next door neighbors. Thank you Netgalley for the early preview and William Morrow ,publisher.. What a great idea to use a Museum showing of quilts for a town to realize they too had community disagreements but could work together making their town for all. Looking forward to reading about Summer in her new Archives position. A very heartwarming read!

This novel is a celebration of the art of quilting and its ability to weave together the fabric of lives. . It’s a testament to the enduring nature of craft and creativity, showing how something as simple as a quilt can transcend time and touch the hearts of generations revealing rich, complicated histories.

I read several books in this series but it has been a while. It was fun to catch up with the characters. Summer Sullivan returns to Elm Creek to finish her thesis for her Master's Degree. She is wrangled into setting up a gallery of historical quilts. I enjoyed the explanation of the quilt blocks and coloring. I looked up several of the blocks to refresh my memory. The history behind the blocks, although controversial to some of the town, was engaging and Summer was true to the history.

I received an advanced reader’s copy via net galley in exchange for an honest review.
When I was a very new mom- I kinda sorta lost the ability to read for a bit. It’s not that I couldn’t read the words, it’s just that I didn’t really know what to read, or how to fit time for reading. And it made for a weird time for me. But two things happened and I started to find my groove. First, I took up a craft- second I realized that I really loved reading about people crafting and enjoying their craft. Enter the Elm creek quilters. It was a kind and lovely group of friends who quilt. I grew up with quilters so this was all a language I understood. I devoured the series to catch up and stay caught up! And from that I discovered a love of historical fiction I didn’t know existed.
My favorites from the series tended to be the historical ones looking back over Sylvia’s family /family adjacent. I loved sugar camp quilt, runaway , and union quilters… (I also prefer to strike the Wedding quilt from the record ).
The Museum of Lost Quilts- was the perfect sort of reunion. It was exactly what I craved in seeing all my old friends back together, and catching up. In addition to old friends- it was the actual connection of those quilts and how they fit together historically and why they are significant. And it was perfect, exactly what I wanted!
And as someone who now works at a library- there was quilters and delving into history and a library and all those things were lovely

The Museum of Lost Quilts allows quilters a haven into quilters heaven. I absolutely loved the novel even though it is the first of the quilting books of Jennifer Chiaverini that I have read. I have recently retired and become more interested in quilting, and all the references to various quilt patterns and the historical significance of the quilts long ago to the present is outstanding. Thanks so much for the advanced reader copy that led me to a new favorite author.

Although I missed a few of the later books in this series I found it didn't matter much--this newest book was wonderful! I could so relate to Summer (my undergraduate major was History/American studies and a major research paper had to be postponed and submitted late, my master's degree is a MLIS (like many of us), and my my mom was an avid and accomplished quilter so all these things made this book especially meaningful to me. Even if I didn't have so much in common with the primary character I would still have loved this book. Bravo for successfully combining fiber arts, activism, community building and friendship into a fun, gentle read.