The Elm Creek Quilters are as surprised as anyone when their beloved matriarch, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson, marries her sweetheart, Andrew, at a festive holiday gathering at her ancestral home on Christmas Eve. Eager to celebrate the union, her friends decide to create a beautiful wedding quilt to warm the newlyweds' home and hearts. A secret with such good intentions, they reason, couldn't possibly do anyone harm. But although the quilting retreat...

As each holiday season approaches, some revel in welcoming the New Year ahead; others quietly mourn the passing of time gone by. "We can't hold on to the past," says Master Quilter Sylvia Compson, "but we can keep the best part of 'Auld Lang Syne' in our hearts and in our memories, and we can look forward to the future with hope and resolve." As Sylvia, a late-in-life newlywed, has discovered, love can enter our lives at any age. Yet before she can...

When the departure of two Elm Creek Quilts founding members prompts an influx of new applicants, the artists' retreat considers several candidates, including a history lover, a chef, and a gifted teacher.

The ladies of the Maintown, Oregon church are all abuzz when they learn of the new and single circuit-riding preacher that will be coming through town. They all decide to inspire their daughters to make a quilt to welcome him, which soon results in a competition between the girls as each tries to out-sew the other. But Zach Hartley is unlike any preacher they've ever seen - he's clumsy in the pulpit and does women's work rather than praying over the...

When she stumbles over the body of baseball coach Dax Martin, middle-age divorcee Martha Ross and her fellow quilters must piece together the clues to figure out who in their neighborhood wanted the coach benched permanently.

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 amid the vibrant colors and balmy breezes of the Hawaiian Islands.

When precious heirloom quilts hand-stitched by her mother turn up missing, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson recovers some while accepting others as lost forever. She is then able to reflect on the woman her mother was and mourn the woman she never knew.

Rick Mahoney hates the holidays and doesn't like the decorations that his new tenant insists on draping throughout the building. But he's taken with her spirit and her love for her family and soon enough, he finds himself attending to more than "routine" maintenance at her apartment