Five Generations of Quilters

My third novel, And Know They Love You, follows the history of a quilt and the family that passes it from one generation to the next. It starts in 1854 with ten-year-old Martha Andrews. Martha’s family is deeply involved in the abolitionist movement; they host a “stop” on the Underground Railroad, sheltering runaway slaves en route to Canada and freedom.

Although her parents warn against making more than fleeting contact with their guests, Martha makes friends with Imani, a young slave girl about her age. When bounty hunters capture the slaves after they leave Martha’s home, she finds a bloodied piece of Imani’s dress and uses it to start a quilt. Its centerpiece is a square in the log-cabin style, which symbolizes a safe haven for slaves; bloodstains lie hidden beneath the seams.

The quilt follows Martha through childhood, marriage, and death. When her eldest daughter, Carrie, moves away, Martha passes the quilt and its history to her.

Carrie adds to the quilt—scraps from her father’s army uniform and bits of worn clothing from her family of six boys as they travel west to Wisconsin and back to New York State. Along the way, she and her husband adopt a young girl, Stella, whose parents died in a typhoid epidemic. Eventually, Stella marries Carrie’s youngest son, Andrew; the quilt is Carrie’s wedding gift to the young couple.

Stella and Andrew have one child, James. There is no daughter to pass the quilt to, so Stella keeps it and takes on the task of chronicling another generation. Although James, a soldier in World War II, marries a young British nurse, Margaret, she is not interested in continuing his family tradition, but occasionally, James sews in a piece or two, specifically on the births of his two children, James, Jr (Jamie), and Janis.

Janis is the fifth generation to take on the responsibility of the family quilt. She is of the “flower child” generation, involved in anti-war protests and marches for women’s rights. When her brother, Jamie, goes to war, she must face the reality that the war she hates could take the brother she loves.

Twenty years later, Janis revisits the now-empty homestead, searching for the quilt, and the memories it shares. Hidden away in an old fireplace baking oven, she finds an unexpected treasure, triggering a memory of the conflict that drove her and her parents apart.

Here’s a sneak peek at the cover!