About Quilts of Love:
Quilts tell stories of love and loss, hope and faith, tradition and new beginnings. TheQuilts of Love series focuses on the women who quilted all of these things into their family histories. A new book releases each month and features contemporary and historical romances as well as women's fiction and the occasional light mystery. You will be drawn into the endearing characters of this series and be touched by their stories.
About the book:
Her recently departed mother's quilt is made from scraps of material Maybelle traces back to her mother's childhood, her grandmother's childhood and her own childhood. She tries to add one of Holden's stripes to it but the sewing is not going well and neither is her life. After receiving some harsh news, Maybelle's faith falters and she puts the quilt away and stops trusting God. But God is faithful---no matter what. And it'll take a group of neighborhood women armed with quilting needles to help Maybelle believe that.
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About the Author:
Joyce Magnin is the author of the Bright's Pond novels, including the award-winning The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow. A member of the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Fellowship, Joyce is a frequent workshop leader and the organizer of the StoryCrafters fiction group. She lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Don’t miss the newest Quilts of Love book, Maybelle in Stitches, by Joyce Magnin. Maybelle can’t sew. But when she finds an unfinished quilt in the attic of her mother’s house, she gets the crazy idea to complete it.
Joyce is celebrating the release with a $200 Modcloth giveaway. Enter today for a chance to spruce up your spring wardrobe!
One winner will receive:
- A $200 ModCloth.com gift card
- Scraps of Evidence by Barbara Cameron
- A Sky Without Stars by Linda S. Clare
- Maybelle in Stitches by Joyce Magnin
Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on April 19th. Winner will be announced on April 21st on the Quilts of Love blog!
Spread the word—tell your friends about the giveaway via FACEBOOK or TWITTER.
Maybelle couldn't believe she was going to attempt to finish a quilt her mother had started. Her dear friend Doris said it was a memory crazy quilt since it had pieces of fabric from Maybelle's heritage. After great contemplation they decided to add more than her childhood scraps to the quilt she would add pieces of memory of her husband and others whom were enduring this Second World War. The fact that her husband was missing in action makes finishing the quilt more important than ever.
There is one big problem Maybelle can't sew and needed help. She had several women workers from the shipyard renting rooms in her home. She too worked at the shipyard as a welder building ships which was her contribution to the war. Some of the women staying in her home and a couple of other she worked with was interested in helping her with the quilt even adding some of their own memories to the quilt and at the same time they would teach Maybelle to sew.
I found the character Maybelle to be pessimistic in many ways. For instance her lack of faith in God to keep her husband safe or to get her through life's everyday trials and tribulations. She did not think she was capable of learning to cook or sew in other words most things women were expect to know by her age. She had no faith in herself or God. She came off at times as being self-centered. Especially when there others were worried about their husbands being missing or becoming casualties of war.
I loved the story line of the shipyard women workers, but the rest of the reading was slow. The reading seemed repetitive at times about the characters daily lives. But the story line kept me reading and waiting for something interesting to happen which it did occasionally through the story.
My own father was in the Navy during WWII. He died from Leukemia in 1955 when I was four years old. I have no memory of him. A memory quilt would have been nice.
I do recommend this book.
I rated this book a 4 out of 5.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from Litfuse Publicity Group/Abingdon Press for review. I was in no way compensated for this review. This review is my honest opinion.
I found your review when I posted my own review of Maybelle in Stitches at the LitFuse site. By looking around your site, I can tell that you and I have a lot in common. I am a tad older than you (maybe a few months), have 6 grandchildren, and now that I am retired, I devote much time to reading, sewing (quilting mostly smaller projects), gardening, and when possible fishing at our cabin in Northern Wisconsin. I was a high school English teacher and also a school librarian. I've been married for almost 43 years and my husband is very supportive of how I spend my time. He sings in a Christian Men's Chorus and that takes much of his time. I will be checking back on your blog often now, and I hope that you stop by mine http://www.thoughtsfrommillstreet.blogspot.com Please leave me a comment when you do visit. I'd love to hear from you.
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