Another season of Elm Creek Quilt Camp has come to a close, and Bonnie Markham faces a bleak and lonely winter ahead with her quilt shop out-of-business and her divorce looming. A welcome escape comes when Claire, a beloved college friend, unexpectedly invites her to Maui to help launch an exciting new business: a quilter’s retreat set at a bed and breakfast amidst the vibrant colors and balmy breezes of the Hawaiian islands.

Soon Bonnie finds herself looking out on sparkling waters and banyan trees, helping to run Claire’s inn, planning quilting courses, and learning the history and intricacies of Hawaiian quilting. As her adventure unfolds, it quickly becomes clear that Claire’s new business isn’t the only excitement in store for her. Her cheating, soon-to-be ex decides he wants her stake in Elm Creek Quilts, which threatens not only her financial well-being but her dearest friendships as well. Luckily she has the distraction of the artistic challenge of creating her own unique Hawaiian quilt pattern—and new friends like Hinano Paoa, owner of the Nä Mele Hawai’i Music Shop, who introduces her to the fascinating traditions of Hawaiian culture and reminds her that love can be found when and where you least expect it. 

To read Chapter One, click HERE. 

Jennifer Chiaverini (born 1969) is an American quilter and author. She is best known for writing the Elm Creek Quilts novels. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she is also a former writing instructor at Penn State and Edgewood College. She lives with her husband and two sons in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to the fourteen volumes of the Elm Creek Quilts series, she is the author of three volumes of quilt patterns inspired by her novels, as well as the designer of the Elm Creek Quilts fabric lines from Red Rooster Fabrics.