The Lost Quilter by Jennifer Chiaverini

This proves that one can find a very good book just by chance. I normally search for books on the library web site, put them on hold, wait for my notification e-mail, then go to the library and pick up my books. A while ago I was just wandering the stacks with nothing particular in mind and saw the word "quilter" and picked up what I concluded to be a very good book! It is about a slave woman named Joanna who is taught to sew by another slave woman, Ruth. The older slave woman teaches Joanna to sew so she can stay in the "big" house with her. Both have no family with them and grow attached to each other. Joanna becomes very proficient. Unfortunately, Joanna soon catches the eye of the master and her problems begin. She ends up pregnant, and in one very ugly scene fights the owner's unwanted advances, is nearly killed - and ends up running away. Some undergroud folks help her for a while and during this time she has her baby but then very suddenly is found out and dragged back to her plantation, with some stops along with way. Her capture was so sudden that her baby was left with the nice undergroud family (who end up raising it at their own - made possible by it's very light skin). She is then sold to the owner's brother and his family where she meets another slave, falls in love and marries - only to be given as a wedding present to a daughter - thus separated from her husband and new baby again! The backdrop to all of this is the Civil War and that lasts throughout the end of the book. All these years Joanna is dreaming of running away again with her new family to find her long lost son, the trouble is that they aren't actually together. It is with this dream in mind that she puts the directions to freedom - as she remembers them from her first escape - into a quilt for her husband who doesn't know the way to freedom. The story is told very well and I was enthralled by the second chapter.