The Beginner's Quilt is a prequel to Wanda Brunstetters's popular Half-Stitched Amish Quilters Club series. Fans of this series will enjoy meeting Emma as a young woman who funbled to find any talents suitable for any young woman preparing for her future. She'd much rather pursue fishing or hiking to sewing or cooking. To help Emma along, her mother sent her to Arthur, Illinois to spend the summer with her granparents. Hopefully, in addition to building her skills for homemaking, she could also overcome the painful shyness that prevented her from making friends or enjoying the singings the Amish young people in her community enjoyed attending.
While choosing fabric for a new dress to begin sewing lessons with her grandmother, she fell in love with the lovely quilts adorning the walls of the fabric store. Lucky for her, her grandmother's friend Ida Mae Yoder, was working at the store that day and invited Emma to take quilting lessons from her. Emma's love for the quilting process was a turning point for this young woman and gave her the lifelong gift of making beautiful quilts.
Ivan Yoder, a friendly young man took no time to notice Emma and learn how much they had in common. Spending time with Ivan brought Emma out of her shell and allow her to spend time enjoying so many things she avoided doing at home. It was by chance that Ivan, Ida Mae's son, came to be such a part of that summer visit to her grandparents. Were they who God destined for them to be together as husband and wife?
Time and nature seem to give us tests in life, and this young couple was not exception. A lost memory of a misadventure threatens to drive a wedge between Ivan and Emma. What we take for granted will happen doesn't always occur even under the best circumstances. Love, forgiveness and faith provide the answers to most situations in life.
This is a sweet love story and written especially for fans of Wanda Brustetter and the wholesome Amish fiction so many of us enjoy.
